About to dive into Neil Gaiman's Sandman - SEND HELP!
The reason why I have stayed away from comic series for so long is the damn "how-to-read" guides you have to find online before you start reading. It drives me nuts. I am someone who wants EVERYTHING, from start to finish, IN ORDER and with nothing left out. So googling The Sandman series has been a goddamn nightmare...eehh nightmare...dreams...:) ...pun?
First off, how in the good fuck is the original series not in one big trade paper back yet? But moving on, I know I should start with the original series, volume 1. I traditionally like to go to the library and check this stuff out, if I really love it, I will buy it. But as my local library doesn't carry these, does anyone know good (and preferably cheap, bc there are a lot of volumes) book seller to find them? Maybe they sell them as a group, so i dont have to worry about buying all this indiviual stuff.
Comments
First off - this is a fantastic series, you're going to love it!
The series is available in trade paper back:
Preludes and Nocturnes collecting The Sandman #1–8
The Doll's House collecting The Sandman #9–16
Dream Country collecting The Sandman #17–20
Season of Mists collecting The Sandman #21–28
A Game of You collecting The Sandman #32–37
Fables and Reflections collecting The Sandman #29–31, 38–40, 50; Sandman Special #1
Brief Lives collecting The Sandman #41–49
Worlds' End collecting The Sandman #51–56
The Kindly Ones collecting The Sandman #57–69 and Vertigo Jam No. 1
The Wake collecting The Sandman #70–75
That covers the whole series. You can probably find used copies on eBay or Amazon for cheap?
As to reading, I'd suggest just going through the series proper. Then the Endless Nights and Dream Hunters. And finish off with Overture.
I hope you like it, @aberry89 . It's one of my favorite stories in any medium. I will say it takes some time for it to really take shape as I think Gaiman himself wasn't sure exactly what he was doing with it in the early days.
The first story arc is 8 issues, and those are collected in "Preludes and Nocturnes". Trust me, you're not going to want to stop reading there!
The Watchman was a 'limited series' -it's 12 issue run was 1 complete story. With the Sandman, it's complete story is 75 issues long...the break down of the series into the trade paper backs that I listed above collects the story arcs within the series, but none of them are really self-contained stories unto themselves (they sort of are and aren't). You might want to look at each of those trade paper backs as a 'season' of a show. The episodes of each 'season' are probably related to each other, but they don't tell the whole story - you need to watch the whole series, not just a season to get what its about.
I've got them all
I haven't looked at the prices, but #1 and #8 were always pretty pricy, and I know when the "Lucifer" show aired (is it still on?) #4 shot up in value too.
The stuff about the immortal guy was good.
And I know it's blasphemy, but the artwork is ugly to me. They've reworked some of it, and that's what got me reading it again (attempt #2). I guess I should make attempt #3 soon...
My current comic book knowledge is limited - it's been quite awhile since I've bought anything new - but the I know a lot about the era that you seem to be interested in (Sandman, From Hell, Watchmen etc).
In the 90's the publisher DC separated some of it's titles from their 'mainstream' (ie 'superhero') continuity and made a 'mature readers' line called Vertigo - that's where guys like Gaiman, Moore and Grant Morrison ended up putting out a lot of their best work.
So, if you're looking for some titles to read check out series that were put out by DC under their Vertigo imprint. Off the top of my head, I'd recommend:
Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing - theses are available as graphic novels (I think 6 or 7 of them?) it's one of the all-time great comic book story arcs.
Garth Ennis's Preacher - I hope these are in graphic novel format because the TV show caused the original comics to shoot up in value
Hellblazer - this is a huge series, I doubt the whole thing is available in GN but one to look out for is arc by Garth Ennis called "Dangerous Habits"
Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man
Grant Morrison's Invisibles
Grant Morrison's Animal Man
---
I realize that you're not interested in superhero stuff, but sometimes when the above writers get a hold of a 'superhero' the results transcend the genre and appeal to a broader audience...I'd recommend these, all of them are graphic novels:
Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns - an old, long retired Batman is forced out of retirement by a new wave of crime in Gotham (this along with 'The Watchmen' are considered the books that caused a sea change in the industry at the time and re-focused comics on a more mature audience).
Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke - The Joker sets out to prove that the difference between himself and any other person is 'one bad bay', that in an instant your whole life can change.
Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum - Batman is called to the Arkham Asylum where the inmates have taken over and taken hostages..it forces Batman to face many of his past foes and also solve a mystery of sorts about the Asylum itself. This one might sound too 'superhero-y' from my description, but it reads much more like a horror comic (maybe similar to 'From Hell') and is meant to be a complete deconstruction of the superhero genre.
Grant Morrison is one of my all-time favourites. He wrote issues 1-26 of Animal Man (pretty sure these are available in GN format too) and it's an incredible arc that gets really weird! It starts off kinda normal, then slowly a few odd things pop up and by the time Morrison is getting ready to leave the comic (someone else took over writing in issue 27+) it becomes downright surreal in the best possible way!
I only read the first series of The Invisibles and I loved it! He wrote it, it went away for awhile by the time he brought it back I wasn't buying comics any more - I should probably check it out though.
In many ways, the 90's were the best and worst time. IMO a lot of the mainstream stuff was garbage and gimmicky, but it sold incredibly well and gave the publishers money to experiment on more unique titles (like the ones mentioned above).
A few that I would recommend that are a little different are "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" by Hayao Miyazaki (The manga version has a lot more depth than the film.), "Seconds" by Bryan Lee O'Malley, and The Complete "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi.
I've also just started an interesting series called "Monstress" by Majorie Liu and Sana Takeda.
The only Grant Morrison I've read is "Joe The Barbarian", but I really want to read "The Invisibles."
Another one on my list to catch up on is "Bone". I've heard that's excellent.
If you like Moore, you'll love Morrison. I know he ended up doing a bunch of mainstream superhero comics (I'm assuming for the pay check - I don't blame him!) but when he first started doing American comics (he's Scottish) his work was really, really ground breaking. I read an interview with him were he basically said that he assumed that he'd get fired, so when he was first hired he just went nuts getting all of his crazy stories out before they fired him haha!
Animal Man is a great place to start. The early issues are similar to Moore's Swamp Thing where they sort of walk the line between a 'regular' comic book and what would become known as a 'mature readers/Vertigo' book. He wrote issues 1-26, and while it's all good the last 8 or 9 issues are absolutely incredible.
Invisibles is great too!
Bone is good, but it's not exactly similar to the types of comics that we're talking about. It's more of a kids/funny comic BUT has a layered story that's full of references for adults. It's really good, has lots of classic movie and literary references etc but tonally, is completely different from the type of comics that Gaiman, Moore, Morrison etc do.
I have about 15 long boxes, I didn't bother sorting through them - just grabbed two off the top. One wouldn't appeal to you at all (probably not anyway!) it's a box of just Fantastic Four. The other box is a mixed lot that I'm sorting through. One thing popped up that hasn't been mentioned here yet - Kingdom Come. It's superhero-y, but it's really good. It was a 4 issue limited series that was more or less meant to be a critical/satirical comment on the state of the comic book industry at the time - when all the 'heroes' were dark and violent (Wolverine, Punisher etc) writers at the time wanted push 'hereos' into darker, more morally questionable areas. Kingdom Come was commentary about that - serving a reminder to the industry that heroes are meant to be 'heroic'.