SPAM POST: In love with The Sandman
Paul-sempai and I have been bonding with Neil Gaiman's graphic novel The Sandman. It's a brisk and exciting eleven volumes of 75-chaptered magnificent stories on different mythologies and folklores, focusing on The Endless siblings who do not die like gods and will be around until the universe and every creature in it is gone. There's Destiny, the cloaked figure in gray who carries the book of prophecy around with him as he walks his labyrinth garden; the twins Desire and Despair, the former is androgynous and seductive, the latter is one's reflection in the mirror during a dark moment; there's also Destruction, someone who actually loves life itself so much that he decided to call it quits as soon as humanity found a way to invent atomic bombs; Delirium the youngest who used to be Delight; and then, of course, there's always Dream (ah, the conundrum) who keeps falling in love with humans (who end up dumping him one way or another) because, in the patronizing words of one of his servants, Mervyn Pumpkinhead: "He's gotta be the tragic figure standing out in the rain, mournin' the loss of his beloved. So down comes the rain, right on cue. In the meantime everybody gets dreams fulla existential angst and wakes up feeling like hell. And we all get wet." And then there's Death, the protective and cheery big sister.
Here is The Sandman. He goes by many, many names.
The first volume Preludes & Nocturnes features a cult performing some sort of binding rite because the leader wants to capture Death but instead ends up enslaving the Dream Lord, Morpheus, prince of stories. Here he is in all his glory, work clothes, ruby necklace, sand pouch and helmet included.
He was imprisoned for 70 years. But what is seventy years for an immortal and who had already lived for ten billion years, ne? Well, humanity, in return, had suffered insomnia or "sleeping wakefulness". Everyone cannot differentiate between reality and sleep anymore with Dream gone. In other words, they're all screwed. Still, Morpheus managed to escape at last by the third chapter, condemning his captor to "eternal waking" where he would wake up from one nightmare after another for the rest of his life.
Dream then comes back to his realm, The Dreaming, and this is what he finds:
It was in ruins.
And so begins his quest to find back his missing tools.
First, he just moped around a bit and then had very profound contemplations, knowing there's still work to be done and not everything is lost yet. He still has hope.
After asking The Three Witches (the maiden, the mother and the crone), he finds out where his missing items were. First on the list to track is his sand pouch. That was easy enough. He finds that in the waking world, with a young woman using it like drugs to get herself some good dreams. Now next is the helmet. And so he visits Lucifer Morningstar, ruler of Hell, Heaven's dark counterpart.
One of the demons have his helmet but challenged him to a game. It's sort of like a showdown where they will present one idea and the other will have to counter it with a stronger idea. At the end of it, Dream goes: "I am a world, space-floating, life-nurturing." And the demon counters, "I am Nova, all-exploding, planet-cremating." Then Dream again: "I am the universe, all things encompassing, all life embracing." Then the demon: "I am Anti-Life, the beast of judgment, I am the dark at the end of everything, the end of universes, Gods, worlds---of everything."
And Dream counters:
And Dream wins. He gets his helmet back. And I fangirled with this image:
Lucifer was all like, "The million Lords of Hell stand arrayed about you. Tell us why we should let you leave? What power have dreams in hell?"
And Dream goes:
And he OWNED! XD
This is my favorite part of volume one, the ending chapter called The Sound of her Wings. Big sister Death calls his bluff when he was just emo-ing about his ruined realm and all that:
Amen, sister.
After that invigorating meeting, Dream, being dream itself, acknowledges the inevitable and finally finds the courage and hope to re-create The Dreaming.
This panel is utterly magnificent:
I have to stop the spoilers now. These are just free tastes though. You guys have to read the first volume yourselves, if you're interested.
We jump to the second volume, The Doll's House, my favorite so far. The prologue was the most enchanting part for me. It was set in Africa, where a father was telling a myth to his son about why the Glass City (an African Atlantis, in a way) was destroyed. Long ago there was a beautiful sixteen-year old Queen named Nada. She couldn't find any suitable husband until one day a stranger came and stood below her balcony and, when she looked down and saw him, she realized she fell in love with him then. She had him searched around her kingdom but he was already gone. So she sought help in the forest and a weavingbird told her that she should ask the Lord of Dreams. She swallowed this burning fruit, went to sleep and arrived at The Dreaming.
The Lord of Dreams asked her who she is and what was she doing in his realm and:
Morpheus can change appearances depending on who is looking and in order for him to blend when he is in a certain place. He is an antromorphic personification after all.
Terror seized her heart. Nada knew it was impossible for a mortal to be with one of The Endless for there are great consequences. We get this heartbreaking sequence:
Nada tried to escape Dream and (in desperation) she thrusts a sharp rock into her maidenhead (LOL, I know, it made me squirm a bit), believing that if she deflowers herself, he will leave her alone. But:
This is gonna make me sound like a total girl but I "awww"ed. The prose got to me. Especially when the father adds "And every creature who can dream dreamed of love." Again: Awwww....
But then:
Don't you hate it when that happens? You were cuddling with your sweetie and the sun doesn't approve of it and, the next thing you know, it just vanquishes your residence. Don't you just hate that?
So, understandably, Nada, seeing her kingdom in ruins, offs herself by jumping off a cliff. Dream is not pleased with that. He follows her even in death, asking her to be his Queen in The Dreaming. Nada refused him. It was because of what they did that the Glass City is no more. She rejects him not once but twice (when he asked again). Poor Dream. With all his power, the woman he wanted would rather choose death than to be with him.
As she walks away. Dream, persistent lover he is, grabs her arm and asks again. And then the father stops his story because he doesn't know what happened next. We never found out what Nada said. But it was soon revealed in volume four, Season of Mists.
This happened ten million years ago in Africa. It's not the last time our Oneiros, Morpheus the Dream Lord will get his heart broken. In the beginning of the seventh volume, Brief Lives, we get this overpowering cliche and emo that Neil Gaiman purposedly manipulated to get the desired comedic effect:
Yep, when his current girlfriend at that time dumped him, it started to rain in The Dreaming.
His servants, meanwhile, gossiped about. Mervyn Pumpkinhead is not happy about the damp weather.
Lucien the librarian shares more stories on how Dream had coped with his broken heart in previous events. I love how Dream just stands there in his balcony, the rain being his metaphorical tears.
Dream has a knack of taking powerful women as lovers. There was Queen Nada, the Greek muse Calliope (whom he had a son with), ancient witch Thessally (the one he is currently emo-ing about) and the mysterious (Ele)Alianora (whom Gaiman didn't even bother telling about their deeply tragic love story).
His sweet manic (and definitely still delightful) sister Delirium visits him though, and they have dinner together. Unknowing of his situation, she starts teasing him:
I love how subtle that panel was. Here is the annoying brat of a sister doing something that actually affects her brother in a way she had no way of knowing. And yes, it is also my journal header because it was so goddamn cute! I love Dream and Delirium sibling moments which aren't that plenty but they're still so cute together! Anyway, Delirium wants to look for their brother Destruction who went AWOL during the invention of the atomic bombs. Dream needs something badly to distract him from his heartache so he agrees (but actually, he just wants to travel back to the waking world to see his dear Thessally again. What a sap).
As he leaves with his sister, we get this nice image of The Dreaming after the rain :
I couldn't resist! So more Dream & Delirium Sibling Moments!!
Unaware of her brother's heartache (or maybe she's just feigning ignorance), she queries:
Another cute moment again when Dream is talking to a secretary and Delirium keeps on babbling:
And need I mention how much I adore Jill Thompson's artwork? The way she draws expressive body gestures is on-the-spot. I love the colors too, especially Delirium's wacky rainbow bubbles.
Another favorite panel. Look how stiff Dream is and how carefree Delirium projects herself:
Believe it or not, these two never have other fantastic moments anymore after this volume. I think their dynamic is superb. They are Dream and Delirium after all :)
I also like this panel where Delirium goes crazy behind the wheel and Dream just lets her drive anyway. And then she gets stopped by a traffic marshall and she did her magic on him:
Just another driving lesson with big brother and his servant-bird, Mathew:
Now Matthew knows that he is a reincarnated raven and The Endless don't die and Death is just another sibling but Delirium's driving definitely made him feel like he's dying anyway XD
And by the way, Delirium is slightly based on Tori Amos, long-time friend of Gaiman himself.
I wasn't happy with this moment though:
I forget how Dream can be such an asshole. I didn't like the way he said that they were family not friends, like he was being dismissive and so he said "I'm not your friend. We're family and I have an obligation to you." So after he was tired of their expedition to find Destruction, he just leaves Delirium. Poor Del. Destruction was the only one in her family who was there when she was no longer Delight. That's why she wants to find him. She's just lonely and Dream wasn't a very nice brother to her in the end. Dream is dream, so he is basically wrapped around himself and his heartaches and shit. Douche.
And of course, Big sis Death has a say on it. She tells him to make up with their little sis and then gives him a peck on the cheek as Dream leaves to enter Delirium's realm.
Lots of people adore this sibling relationship and I can totally see the enticement!
But I love Dream & Delirium tandem too much! <3 Look how easily she cheered up when Dream says he "supposes" he likes her. Looking for big brother's approval, eh, Del?
Brief Lives is as great as The Doll's House and my second favorite indeed.
Okay. Sorry for spamming your journals, F-list. I just had to blog about The Sandman sooner or later. If you guys like what you saw, read the complete comic books HERE!
Here is The Sandman. He goes by many, many names.
The first volume Preludes & Nocturnes features a cult performing some sort of binding rite because the leader wants to capture Death but instead ends up enslaving the Dream Lord, Morpheus, prince of stories. Here he is in all his glory, work clothes, ruby necklace, sand pouch and helmet included.
He was imprisoned for 70 years. But what is seventy years for an immortal and who had already lived for ten billion years, ne? Well, humanity, in return, had suffered insomnia or "sleeping wakefulness". Everyone cannot differentiate between reality and sleep anymore with Dream gone. In other words, they're all screwed. Still, Morpheus managed to escape at last by the third chapter, condemning his captor to "eternal waking" where he would wake up from one nightmare after another for the rest of his life.
Dream then comes back to his realm, The Dreaming, and this is what he finds:
It was in ruins.
And so begins his quest to find back his missing tools.
First, he just moped around a bit and then had very profound contemplations, knowing there's still work to be done and not everything is lost yet. He still has hope.
After asking The Three Witches (the maiden, the mother and the crone), he finds out where his missing items were. First on the list to track is his sand pouch. That was easy enough. He finds that in the waking world, with a young woman using it like drugs to get herself some good dreams. Now next is the helmet. And so he visits Lucifer Morningstar, ruler of Hell, Heaven's dark counterpart.
One of the demons have his helmet but challenged him to a game. It's sort of like a showdown where they will present one idea and the other will have to counter it with a stronger idea. At the end of it, Dream goes: "I am a world, space-floating, life-nurturing." And the demon counters, "I am Nova, all-exploding, planet-cremating." Then Dream again: "I am the universe, all things encompassing, all life embracing." Then the demon: "I am Anti-Life, the beast of judgment, I am the dark at the end of everything, the end of universes, Gods, worlds---of everything."
And Dream counters:
And Dream wins. He gets his helmet back. And I fangirled with this image:
Lucifer was all like, "The million Lords of Hell stand arrayed about you. Tell us why we should let you leave? What power have dreams in hell?"
And Dream goes:
And he OWNED! XD
This is my favorite part of volume one, the ending chapter called The Sound of her Wings. Big sister Death calls his bluff when he was just emo-ing about his ruined realm and all that:
Amen, sister.
After that invigorating meeting, Dream, being dream itself, acknowledges the inevitable and finally finds the courage and hope to re-create The Dreaming.
This panel is utterly magnificent:
I have to stop the spoilers now. These are just free tastes though. You guys have to read the first volume yourselves, if you're interested.
We jump to the second volume, The Doll's House, my favorite so far. The prologue was the most enchanting part for me. It was set in Africa, where a father was telling a myth to his son about why the Glass City (an African Atlantis, in a way) was destroyed. Long ago there was a beautiful sixteen-year old Queen named Nada. She couldn't find any suitable husband until one day a stranger came and stood below her balcony and, when she looked down and saw him, she realized she fell in love with him then. She had him searched around her kingdom but he was already gone. So she sought help in the forest and a weavingbird told her that she should ask the Lord of Dreams. She swallowed this burning fruit, went to sleep and arrived at The Dreaming.
The Lord of Dreams asked her who she is and what was she doing in his realm and:
Morpheus can change appearances depending on who is looking and in order for him to blend when he is in a certain place. He is an antromorphic personification after all.
Terror seized her heart. Nada knew it was impossible for a mortal to be with one of The Endless for there are great consequences. We get this heartbreaking sequence:
Nada tried to escape Dream and (in desperation) she thrusts a sharp rock into her maidenhead (LOL, I know, it made me squirm a bit), believing that if she deflowers herself, he will leave her alone. But:
This is gonna make me sound like a total girl but I "awww"ed. The prose got to me. Especially when the father adds "And every creature who can dream dreamed of love." Again: Awwww....
But then:
Don't you hate it when that happens? You were cuddling with your sweetie and the sun doesn't approve of it and, the next thing you know, it just vanquishes your residence. Don't you just hate that?
So, understandably, Nada, seeing her kingdom in ruins, offs herself by jumping off a cliff. Dream is not pleased with that. He follows her even in death, asking her to be his Queen in The Dreaming. Nada refused him. It was because of what they did that the Glass City is no more. She rejects him not once but twice (when he asked again). Poor Dream. With all his power, the woman he wanted would rather choose death than to be with him.
As she walks away. Dream, persistent lover he is, grabs her arm and asks again. And then the father stops his story because he doesn't know what happened next. We never found out what Nada said. But it was soon revealed in volume four, Season of Mists.
This happened ten million years ago in Africa. It's not the last time our Oneiros, Morpheus the Dream Lord will get his heart broken. In the beginning of the seventh volume, Brief Lives, we get this overpowering cliche and emo that Neil Gaiman purposedly manipulated to get the desired comedic effect:
Yep, when his current girlfriend at that time dumped him, it started to rain in The Dreaming.
His servants, meanwhile, gossiped about. Mervyn Pumpkinhead is not happy about the damp weather.
Lucien the librarian shares more stories on how Dream had coped with his broken heart in previous events. I love how Dream just stands there in his balcony, the rain being his metaphorical tears.
Dream has a knack of taking powerful women as lovers. There was Queen Nada, the Greek muse Calliope (whom he had a son with), ancient witch Thessally (the one he is currently emo-ing about) and the mysterious (Ele)Alianora (whom Gaiman didn't even bother telling about their deeply tragic love story).
His sweet manic (and definitely still delightful) sister Delirium visits him though, and they have dinner together. Unknowing of his situation, she starts teasing him:
I love how subtle that panel was. Here is the annoying brat of a sister doing something that actually affects her brother in a way she had no way of knowing. And yes, it is also my journal header because it was so goddamn cute! I love Dream and Delirium sibling moments which aren't that plenty but they're still so cute together! Anyway, Delirium wants to look for their brother Destruction who went AWOL during the invention of the atomic bombs. Dream needs something badly to distract him from his heartache so he agrees (but actually, he just wants to travel back to the waking world to see his dear Thessally again. What a sap).
As he leaves with his sister, we get this nice image of The Dreaming after the rain :
I couldn't resist! So more Dream & Delirium Sibling Moments!!
Unaware of her brother's heartache (or maybe she's just feigning ignorance), she queries:
Another cute moment again when Dream is talking to a secretary and Delirium keeps on babbling:
And need I mention how much I adore Jill Thompson's artwork? The way she draws expressive body gestures is on-the-spot. I love the colors too, especially Delirium's wacky rainbow bubbles.
Another favorite panel. Look how stiff Dream is and how carefree Delirium projects herself:
Believe it or not, these two never have other fantastic moments anymore after this volume. I think their dynamic is superb. They are Dream and Delirium after all :)
I also like this panel where Delirium goes crazy behind the wheel and Dream just lets her drive anyway. And then she gets stopped by a traffic marshall and she did her magic on him:
Just another driving lesson with big brother and his servant-bird, Mathew:
Now Matthew knows that he is a reincarnated raven and The Endless don't die and Death is just another sibling but Delirium's driving definitely made him feel like he's dying anyway XD
And by the way, Delirium is slightly based on Tori Amos, long-time friend of Gaiman himself.
I wasn't happy with this moment though:
I forget how Dream can be such an asshole. I didn't like the way he said that they were family not friends, like he was being dismissive and so he said "I'm not your friend. We're family and I have an obligation to you." So after he was tired of their expedition to find Destruction, he just leaves Delirium. Poor Del. Destruction was the only one in her family who was there when she was no longer Delight. That's why she wants to find him. She's just lonely and Dream wasn't a very nice brother to her in the end. Dream is dream, so he is basically wrapped around himself and his heartaches and shit. Douche.
And of course, Big sis Death has a say on it. She tells him to make up with their little sis and then gives him a peck on the cheek as Dream leaves to enter Delirium's realm.
Lots of people adore this sibling relationship and I can totally see the enticement!
But I love Dream & Delirium tandem too much! <3 Look how easily she cheered up when Dream says he "supposes" he likes her. Looking for big brother's approval, eh, Del?
Brief Lives is as great as The Doll's House and my second favorite indeed.
Okay. Sorry for spamming your journals, F-list. I just had to blog about The Sandman sooner or later. If you guys like what you saw, read the complete comic books HERE!