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A review by fairymodmother
The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
4.0
People have been trying to get me to read this forever. It's the classic fantasy graphic novel. I'm glad I finally did. I think this is how Gaiman works best--I find his work surreal and visual, so I'm glad when he can just add the life to a visual world.
CONTENT WARNING: (no spoilers, just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-The mythology. Neil is always great at including this in his worlds, and I think this works amazingly well because it feels so approachable and yet there's tidbits for the extra aware plus some Neil-specific additions that were just spectacular. I'm counting the characters in the mythology. I am not sure I know enough about them in this context to love them on their own, but what they represent and how they're represented made me cheer.
-The surreality. This works way better for me in graphic form than in novel form. All the setting, time, and crossover jumps work so much better when we can just get a picture and a date/location and run with it, than, say, the ones in American Gods (for me!)
-The crossovers. I didn't expect to have so many familiar faces show up. It was weird, but it worked.
Things that grump-ified me:
-Trauma as shorthand. I'm extra sensitive to this lately, but it felt a lot like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting or something where it always seems to me the writers were like "what's the worst thing we can think of?" and then wrote it. Why? Does it add to the story? Was it necessary to explain a later poetic revenge? Was it commentary on the world? Nope. Just needed everyone to know real quick that things have gone to hell. (Well, not actual hell, sorry to the three kings for casual usage). It's edge-lord stuff, and as I know Neil to be an excellent, compassionate person per his social media posts, I'm not sure if he was going for edgy or someone else had the idea and he ran with it or it's just before he knew better, but yeah. Irks me. I'm not saying this had to be about sunshine and rainbows but
-The story. Again, I think this only worked for me because it was visual and allowed to be told in a sort of dream-space of its own. It's a pretty standard quest arc with no particularly arduous obstacles or moments of real doubt that the Sandman would prevail.
-The end. I loved meeting Death of course but I'm not sure I got closure for this story arc?
-The layout and art. The layout was one of the most complicated I've seen. Thank goodness I was reading on my ipad so that I could have it go frame by frame for the harder pages. Also a lot of the art felt rushed compared to the modern graphics I've seen. The filler pages were freaking fantastic, and all of it felt the same trippy, grotesque, overgrown beauty as the prose, but would I say I loved the art, like I did for Monstress or Rat Queens? I don't think so.
Grumpiness aside, as I so often must boot it, I did think this worked really, really well for this medium and I got totally absorbed into seeing the next psychedelic twist of this story. I'll certainly be continuing.
CONTENT WARNING: (no spoilers, just a list of topics)
Spoiler
body horror, rape, mental illness, torture, infidelity, child death, imprisonment/enslavement, gore, child abuse, domestic violence.Things to love:
-The mythology. Neil is always great at including this in his worlds, and I think this works amazingly well because it feels so approachable and yet there's tidbits for the extra aware plus some Neil-specific additions that were just spectacular. I'm counting the characters in the mythology. I am not sure I know enough about them in this context to love them on their own, but what they represent and how they're represented made me cheer.
-The surreality. This works way better for me in graphic form than in novel form. All the setting, time, and crossover jumps work so much better when we can just get a picture and a date/location and run with it, than, say, the ones in American Gods (for me!)
-The crossovers. I didn't expect to have so many familiar faces show up. It was weird, but it worked.
Things that grump-ified me:
-Trauma as shorthand. I'm extra sensitive to this lately, but it felt a lot like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting or something where it always seems to me the writers were like "what's the worst thing we can think of?" and then wrote it. Why? Does it add to the story? Was it necessary to explain a later poetic revenge? Was it commentary on the world? Nope. Just needed everyone to know real quick that things have gone to hell. (Well, not actual hell, sorry to the three kings for casual usage). It's edge-lord stuff, and as I know Neil to be an excellent, compassionate person per his social media posts, I'm not sure if he was going for edgy or someone else had the idea and he ran with it or it's just before he knew better, but yeah. Irks me. I'm not saying this had to be about sunshine and rainbows but
Spoiler
what did the comatose woman being raped and forced to carry then lose her baby have to do with anything?-The story. Again, I think this only worked for me because it was visual and allowed to be told in a sort of dream-space of its own. It's a pretty standard quest arc with no particularly arduous obstacles or moments of real doubt that the Sandman would prevail.
-The end. I loved meeting Death of course but I'm not sure I got closure for this story arc?
-The layout and art. The layout was one of the most complicated I've seen. Thank goodness I was reading on my ipad so that I could have it go frame by frame for the harder pages. Also a lot of the art felt rushed compared to the modern graphics I've seen. The filler pages were freaking fantastic, and all of it felt the same trippy, grotesque, overgrown beauty as the prose, but would I say I loved the art, like I did for Monstress or Rat Queens? I don't think so.
Grumpiness aside, as I so often must boot it, I did think this worked really, really well for this medium and I got totally absorbed into seeing the next psychedelic twist of this story. I'll certainly be continuing.