The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1

I am completely geeked out over this super-awesome tome. It's huge, heavy, thick, and has that great new-book smell. It's leather bound, features high-quality, glossy paper, and comes in a sturdy cardboard slip-cover. It's a beautiful book that's built to last, and it damn well better be with a cover price of $99.00. The Sandman is the respected, literary-minded, award-winning comic book series that ran 75 issues from the late 80's to mid 90's. Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1 collects the first twenty issues, the first eighteen of which have been completely re-colored. Three more volumes are to follow that will collect the rest of the series. Sandman is the first major project by Neil Gaiman, who has become well-known for his best-selling novels, including American Gods and Anansi Boys. The story follows Dream of the Endless, also known as Morpheus and the Sandman, a powerful entity who rules the Realm of Dreams. Gaiman blends history, classic legends and myth, religion, philosophy, fantasy, comedy, horror, and drama to weave his epic tale. The story takes us all over the world we know, in times both past and present. We also travel within the many realms of Dream, shifting places shaped both by Morpheus and our own subconcious minds. Briefly, we visit other realms as well, such as Faerie and even Hell itself. If you enjoy dark fantasy, horror, or just heart-felt human drama, you do yourself a disservice by not checking out Sandman. This book is beautiful but pricey (although it's a lot cheaper on Amazon.com). The story is available in smaller collections that are much more affordable. In short, read Sandman... you won't be sorry.

There are some differences between this and the trade (or paperback) version that I noticed right away: - The title pages for each "volume" don't have the text on them (which I miss). - Not all the spreads line up the way they do in the paperback versions, but all the spreads that were meant to be together are likely intact. - The absolute sandman contains the recolored art which I thought would be awesome but I'm weirdly loyal to the original coloring now that I see them together. In the original coloring, Dream's hair and clothes have blue shadows, but in the recolor his hair has gray shadows which just doesn't look the same. It's not an easy book to physically read because it's huge and heavy, but it's beautiful and appears to be well made. It's nice to have the extra page space for all the beautiful art. Until now I've been borrowing the paperbacks volume by volume from the library and got tired of waiting. This seemed like the best balance between the most economical and most high quality way to experience the full series.

I am not a writer, or journalist or professional book reviewer. I am a reader, an avid fan of comic books and a collector of Neil Gaiman's works. This Absolute Sandman is just that, a breathtakingly beautiful edition (in 4 volumes) of Gaiman's epic masterpiece. I highly recommend it for the true fan of Sandman, but if this is your first foray into Gaiman's Sandman then you may want to pick up the trade paperbacks before you dish out the $70-99 price tag for this edition. For me its a great value to have, but if you have not followed Sandman since the start it may not be the best value for you. That said, Vertigo created these beautiful tomes for the loyal fans who want to add all 75 issues to their book shelfs. The stories contained involve the Lord of Dreams, a being far older than the gods of myth. In this volume he has been imprisioned by sorcerers hungry for power (they thought they were capturing Death, Dream's older sister). He manages to escape after being imprisioned for many decades. When he does he has his revenge on his captors and then goes about finding the badges of his office, his ruby, his helmet and a small bag of sand. The artwork is gritty and fits the milieu perfectly. This is a perfect example of modern urban fantasy, at which Gaiman excells like no other writer.

Buy it! Buy it! A great story about the dichotomy of humanity and the world we imagine for ourselves. Look at how humans give life to the universe of the unknown.

The Sandman, possibly one of the greatest literary creations of all time, should be required reading. It’s hard to believe there was a point in time when Neil Gaiman‘s creation was scarfed at in literary circles. How times have changed! This gorgeous, 7 pound slip-cased volume, showcasing extraordinary artwork and storyline, will absolutely enthrall you to the last page. Be prepared to enter The Dreaming and the world of Lord Morpheus - like a dream you’ll never want to awaken from.

I received mine in the mail yesterday, and it blew me away. This is a large, girthy, edifice of a volume. The black leather cover comes complete with raised flourishes on the spine and a subtle embossed key and lock motif on the front and back. The letters are embossed in silver, all in a subtle yet glorious old-style script. There is a wide, heavy black silk bookmarker anchored to the center of the spine. The pages are sturdily bound and obviously built to last. This book would look at home in any of the ancient, eldritch libraries Gaiman's artists draw so well throughout the series. Much has been made of the recoloring job in this edition, and I can now fully endorse it. I do not own any other edition (and now I'm glad that I waited to buy it), but my roommate does, and comparing my copy to his is like comparing old and new photographs. Mine is crisp, clear, and beautiful. His looks muddy and decrepit by comparison. If you have never bought an edition of Sandman before, this is the one to get. Gaiman's masterpiece in a presentation that rivals anything I've seen. Fully worth all the money spent on it. I just wish more publishers would give their masterworks this luxurious treatment.

I don't know if you have ever read anything of Neil Gaiman... you'll like him for sure if you like comics like Alan Moore's ones, in my opinion. Anyway...Anything I have read of Neil Gaiman(a little of his production by now) shows how profound is his knowledge of mithology. In "Sandman" (but quite the same can be said about American Gods, one of his novels) he founds a new Pantheon that comprehends gods from various and distant cultures. "Sandman" is the tale of Dream (the Sandman, Morpheus, Oneiros...he has actually quite a few names!), one of the Endless. Dream is a principle, but he is also anthropomorphic, and for this reason he loves, hates and feels the passion of the humans. The other Endless are Destiny, Death, the twins Desire and Desperation, Delirium and Destruction. They are more than Gods, and they have always been and will be there till the end of time. As the story of Dream develops, he grows more conscious of his function and learns from his sister Death how indissolubly he and the other Endless are linked with the ones they rule, being both their kings and their servants. This is the main theme of the comic, but there are a lot of stories inside it, all linked magistrally by the author. We understand why cats are our pets and not vice versa, we are spectator of the Midsummer Night Dream with Oberon and Titania, and we understand how great is the power of dreams, them being able to change the world we live in. Sandman is really much more than this, but I have some difficulties with English (I am Italian, had to buy it in English 'cause in my country it is absolutely impossible to find), so I find it hard to explain all of the infinite implications this wonderful story has and I doubt I have understood them all, either! My apologies... Hope I've convinced you enough to read it and then let me know what you think about it. :)

Comprising Sandman numbers 1 to 20, the Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1 is the first of four oversized, slip-cased hardcover books that will reprint Neil Gaiman's Sandman completely (all 75 numbers, plus some extras). That alone would be highly recommended, but this book has also a new coloring, aproved my Neil himself, plus a new introduction by Paul Levitz, forewords by Gaiman, a copy of the script with sketches for Sandman #19 (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and also sketches from Gaiman and Michael Dringenberg on the Sandman proposal to DC back in the 80s. Ah, and also all 20 covers from Dave McKean. All of this would mean nothing if the book wasn't really good, and really good it is. Here you'll read the capture of the Lord of the Dreams and his comeback (early collected in "Preludes and Nocturnes"), his encounter with the deadly nightmare "The Corinthian" (previously collected in "The Doll's House), and four short stories from the past of Dream (as seen before in "Dream County" collection). Many great moments from the series are here: the confrontation in Hell with demons over his helmet, the serial killer convention, the encounter with his sister Death, and the already mentioned A Midsummer Night's Dream, the first and only comic book to win a World Fantasy Award. This book is a work of art, and high recommended. Can't wait to have the 4 of them on my bookshelf!