The Sandman (series) by Neil Gaiman: Some Thoughts
If books were drugs, and if I had to get high on any particular one, then I would gladly chose Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics as my chosen hallucinogen. I don't know what is it about this 'comic book' (as Mr. Gaiman prefers to call his work) but the entire time I read it, I felt that I was in some kind of psychedelic acid trip. A mixture of non-linear narratives, the avant-garde art, some eccentric and moody personalities, all tied up in an absorbing story as told by the resident troll under the bed, Mr. Neil Gaiman. This series is indeed epic. It is a generous love-letter to all all us dreamers who have often wished to attach an imaginative flair to our monotonous reality.
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| The entire Sandman series (1) |
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| The beginning (2) |
My first tryst with a proper graphic novel was Alison Bechdel's
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic which I had picked out almost innocently without any understanding of the book's background (OK, I admit that I picked it out because it looked very much like a comic book and seemed easy enough to read despite the very somber title!!). By the time I was done reading the book, I knew I was hooked. It was appealing not because it had a very convenient visual format but rather I was able to understand how beautifully the author had brought both pictures and words together in this book. The pictures were never a distraction, instead they were accompaniments to the author's thoughts and narrative. I was therefore able to visualize and therefore empathize with Bechdel's struggle with her identity and sexuality in a way that might not have been that engaging if the novel had simply just been written out in words. It really is one of the most outstanding memoirs that I have read till now because Bechdel is not only a talented writer but also a talented thinker who understands how to give form to her experiences and interactions.
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| Highly overrated !!(3) |
In contrast, Craig Thompson's
Blankets (which I read during my train journey to Delhi after finishing my month long research work at Pune) was a tad bit disappointing. Personally, I have always thought that Thompson's book is quite overrated (and overpriced too!!). It severely lacked the charm that Bechdel's book encompassed. For me,
Blankets was a very self-absorbed exploration of the author's childhood and teenage years that tended to paint all other characters, besides the author, in a largely negative one-sided roles. Still
Blankets got me curious enough to look into other graphic novel titles and even open up a little more towards traditional comic book titles too.
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| Say cheese! (4) |
I am not sure when I started to read Alan Moore's work but his works were a great entry point into a genre of the superhero. I am not huge fan of
The Killing Joke but I did get the 'joke' and the irony of the relationship between Batman and The Joker. Anyhow, the book suffers from massive Women in Refrigerator Syndrome and that for me was a huge put-off. Still, Alan Moore's other works such as
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, (yet to finish the series),
From Hell, The Watchmen (not finished reading that one yet) and
V for Vendetta (My favorite among the bunch) have been quite intriguing to read. There is a lot to be said about Moore's treatment of female characters in all his books but that is a discussion that I will reserve for a later time.
Arguably, the best graphic novel that I have read till now besides
Fun Home, was Art Spiegelman's
Maus. This book is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is an oral history record and a personal memoir wrapped up in the form of a visual novel. And even more amazing is how Spiegelman gave his own retrospective peculiarity to this piece of history/biography of his father's experience as a Jew in Nazi Germany. By showing the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, Art Spiegelman gave a very surreal and disturbing twist to the cat and mouse struggle often humorously portrayed in cartoons. But this was no Tom and Jerry who were eternal friends and eternal enemies. Instead this book by converting these real life characters into caricaturist anthropomorphic figures highlighted even more prominently the sufferings, the struggles and the will to survive against all odds within an extremely hostile environment.
Maus is a classic and a must read for everyone because it is so much more than a bunch of goofy pictures and more than just the painful recollections of an eccentric old man.
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| My father bleeds History (5) |
So when I started on Neil Gaiman's
Sandman series, I was naturally apprehensive. Because of its cult status and the constant hype surrounding it, I was sincerely hoping that it would live up to my expectations. Thankfully, it did more than that and gave me a greater appreciation of the art of storytelling. The way Gaiman has envisioned his characters and allowed the artists to bring life to his stories, is quite praiseworthy. Dream and Death were easily my favorite characters and their interaction with each other were often one of the most poignant sections in the series. Delirium seemed a bit off but then, she is Delirium, she has to be OFF!!
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| Sweet dangerous Delirium (5) |
Starting with
Preludes and Nocturnes and finally finishing of with
Overture, the entire series felt like one engrossing saga of different point of views and realities. Mixing Biblical elements, mythological figures from ancient cultures, anthropomorphic galaxies and stars, historical personalities like Harun al Rashid and Shakespeare, DC superheroes, fairies and ghosts; it was a melting pot of of ideas and concepts ranging from religion, politics, and even dreams and nightmares. I am sorry to say this but Bill Willingham's
Fables series has absolutely nothing on Neil Gaiman's
Sandman collection both in terms of the plot as well as the intense art work. The art in these books deserve a very special mention because they are especially out of this world. Most of the panels in these books are arranged in a very peculiar manner giving an interesting quirkiness and strength to the stories being told. The various artists include Sam Keith, author of
The Maxx to erotic comic book illustrator, Milo Manara to Jill Thompson, who has also worked on
The Invisibles. The art is fantastic and like I mentioned before, perfectly accompanies and supplements the dialogues.
If you love graphic novels or comic books, this book is an essential read. I would not recommend reading this series to first timers who just started looking into the graphic style of writing as it is too abrupt and can be quite confusing. Also the initial books in the series are extremely violent and contain some disturbing images.. This series is not the same thing as
Tintin or
Asterix comics so it would be pointless to look into
Sandman series with the same expectations. It is more of an adult comic book and definitely something that needs to be read with an imaginative point of view. Only then, one can truly attempt to encapsulate its dark beauty and its timeless love of storytelling.
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| Dream of the Endless (7) |
References
- Image from thebookwars.wordpress.com via Google Images
- Image from wikipedia.org via Google Images
- Image from amazon.com via Google Images
- Image from wikipedia.org via Google Images
- Image from amazon.com via Google Images
- Image from satelliteforentropy.wordpress.com via Google Images
- Image from www.mcsdepaul.com via Google Images
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