A review by jelliefishr
The Absolute Sandman, Volume One by Malcolm Jones III, Mike Dringenberg, Charles Vess, Kelley Jones, Michael Zulli, Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Colleen Doran, Steve Parkhouse, Chris Bachalo

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Read this right before I watched the TV show adaptation, and was thoroughly blown away with the art, story, and characters. Morpheus is a fun, if a bit sullen, perspective character, whose relationships with the weird and colorful rest of the cast really serve to flesh him out. The back half of the book is definitely better paced than the front half, with a more developed and complex narrative, and less edgy raunchy 80s nonsense but I think as a full read-through it still feels coherent and a logical continuation of the first half. 4.5/5 would read again just for Morpheus's silly goth hairdo and glowing eyes