The Story of The Dream
“If Shakespeare and Michelangelo were alive today, and if they decided to collaborate on a comic, Shakespeare would write the script and Michelangelo would draw it. How could anybody say that this wouldn’t be as worthwhile an art form as anything on earth?” – Stan Lee
What is a comic book? For Scott McCloud, the definition is “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/ or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (McCloud 9). That’s heavy stuff, right? Well I should agree that this is not something you can hear in a casual conservation. I will cut this textbook definition into small pieces and try to define it with simple words. Comic Book is a form which allows readers to visualize the fiction they discover with the support of artistic drawings. Some can disagree with me by suggesting “what literature is to visualize the world we enter with the help of the words. Comic Books are breaking this concept”. Quite the opposite, words are sometimes limited to describe the surroundings of the worlds. No one can image a rich sense of reality without seeing some examples. The main idea of Literature is to deliver a personal idea or belief throughout pages. Then comics books are some sort of literature and art form, right? Definitely, but experts of the literature still obsess with a prejudice that comics are based on superheroes and other fairy tale characters. The reason why they have this nonsense notion is that comics books are made for children to spend time. Superhero genre is only one side of comics. There are comics which are inspired on dramas in real life and transform them into a fictional reality such as “Trees”, “From Hell”, “Preacher” and others. Our case in this review has similarities like those comics I have mentioned, but “The Sandman” graphic novel has the uniqueness in whole story forms which are written for years.
Every story has plots, literally every each one of them. Comics books or graphic novels use the same particular structures to tell their stories. Spiderman is about a teenager who fights with his spider powers and meanwhile, deals with his personal problems. The Walking Death surrounds its plot with zombies and survivors who are lab subjects to understand human nature. The Preacher is a fantasy-horror story that questions the reality of God and stories in sacred books. And the Sandman… Sandman is a…. Sandman is a story which…Wait, what is the plot or theme of Sandman? Is it a story that a protagonist evolves from zero to hero? No, it is not a basic story. Is it a story of dream and how dreams circulate in our reality? Nope, not that one either. Is it about people who dream…No, no, no! The Sandman is not a story which fits into one genre, theme and plot line. When you are holding the novel of The Sandman, you feel like bearing whole stories in the world. Actually, Sandman is also named as “The king of stories”. Thus, it does make sense. Now, I will explain why I think that way.
I should define what Sandman is. One of my friends told me that Sandman is a local tale in Eastern Europe. Parents tell the tale of Sandman to make their children sleep. If they stay awake, Sandman will arrive in their room and steal their eyes from them. Neil Gaiman is also inspired by this spooky story and adds some references such as the eye necklace of Dr. Destiny (John Dee) and Demon whose eyes are actually his teeth. Moreover, Neil Gaiman is interested in mythologies and various cultures. So, he is basically inspired by Morpheus in Greek Mythology who is in charge of dreams of the Gods. Combining irrelevant materials and elements can be considered as irrational and amateur writing. However, Neil Gaiman breaks this consensus smoothly and masterfully. In introduction of the Sandman Volume 1, Patrick Rothfus asks that “ Can you do this? Can you have Odin and angels and faeries and witches…and…just everything? All at once? In the same story? Is this allowed?” Besides all fantasy creatures, Neil uses some characters and events which have originated from England. Shakespeare, Alice in The Wonderland, Mat Hattie, John Constantine… This is a harmony of cultures or battle against multiple societies and their tales.
The other issue is about the word of “dream.” If you are a fan of Neil Gaiman like me, you should be familiar with the style of his. He loves giving meaning to words beyond their usage. In this squeal, there are two meanings of dream. The first meaning is the name of dream king: Morpheus. He has an ability to shift his shape and transform realities into whatever he likes. He is one of the Endless (Dream, Death, Desire, Destiny, Destruction, Delirium) and his job will be finished with the end of the existence. The second meaning is also divided into two different function. Former one is the place when we visit in our sleep. It is a portal that opens the doors of any kind of realm in DC Universe. One can use dreaming as a bridge to hell and heaven. Or fairy tale realm…Sandman or Dream creates this realm from the matter of non-existence. Latter meaning of “dream” is related to dream something. For instance, I dream to be a writer like Neil Gaiman. It is about our wishes and expectations…sometimes it links with our goals. However, people can forget the costs of dreams like Morpheus has stated…
The reason why I am not writing down what the first volume tells us is because I humbly believe that Sandman is a personal experience to address with. Every time you read the series from the beginning, you learn a new knowledge or secret on Sandman. This was my third time and I still discover incredible facts. But for the sake of the reader, I have decided to add a short summary of the first volume. A cult organization attempts to capture Death who is the sister of Dream. By capturing her, they think that they will achieve immortality. Their plan goes wrong. Rather kidnapping Death, they manage to prison Dream for 70 years. Sandman patiently waits for right time to escape. While he is a prison in a sphere, people forget to sleep or never wake up. Finally, he escapes and punishes the responsible who causes him to lose his items: His crown, ruby and pouch. Then, story becomes a seeking mission and Dream King travels across the realms to collects his items and introduce us some important figures such as John Constantine, Lucifer and The Justice League.
In conclusion, Sandman is a masterpiece of graphic novels even some comic book fans criticize brutally this series. Females like this series more than males do…Maybe, we should respect the taste of female comic book fans. Anyway, Sandman is an ambiguous story structure that leads the reader to be scared by romance and loved by horror itself. Furthermore, the artists who draw this absurd story with their own sense about our realm and their identities reflect their character designs. At least, I didn’t forget to mention and thank them as well 🙂 My advice to you is to start The Sandman right after finishing this sentence, but your judgements on The Sandman become coherent more and more. It does not need to be the same with my judgements too…
Farewell,
Y.O.K
Note: I am aware of the order of my reviews. After comic book review, I should sketch a book review. Unfortunately, I want to make an exception because a tv show I have recently watched, forcing me to write my own thoughts on it. Its theme are chess and victory…I know someone play chess and expert on its rules. I hope that he will guide me too…
Bibliography:
Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes 30th Anniversary Edition. DC Comics, 2018.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. HarperCollins, 1993.