The Sandman: Fables & Reflections by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(pb; 1991-3, 2011: graphic novel, collects issues 29-31, 38-40, 50, Special #1 and Vertigo Preview #1 of the comic book The Sandman. “Introduction” by Gene Wolfe. Seventh book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.

 

From the back cover

“[Fables]. . . follows the Lord of Dreams through nine remarkable tales as he touches lives from the mists of the past to the nightmares of the present. In these episodes, kings and spies, emperors and actors, ravens and werewolves all share their stories and their dreams─dreams of life and love, and of power and darkness.”

 

Overall review:

Fables is a solid collection of mostly side-stories revolving around the Sandman. A few issues, like “Soft Places” and “Parliament of Rooks,” are direct offshoot tales that fill in certain backstories of previously published stories and characters.

Again, the artists, letterers and colorists who bring Gaiman’s transcend-the-genre writing to vivid, distinctive representation are top-notch and genre-defining. Worth owning, this. Followed by The Sandman: Brief Lives.

 

Review, issue by issue

Caveat: possible─if you prefer not to know anything about what you’re about to read─minor spoilers for those who have not read these Sandman comics.

“Fear of Falling” (Vertigo Preview #1): Todd Faber, an insecure playwright, faces certain terrors.

 

“Three Septembers and a January” (#29): September 1889, Northern California. Despair, Morpheus’s sibling, challenges the Dream King to try and save a seriously depressed man (Joshua Norton), later the self-proclaimed “Emperor of the United States.” A young man named Samuel Clemens, as does Delirium, Desire and Death, makes an appearance in this issue.

 

“Thermidor” (#30): June 28, 1794, Wych Cross, England. Johanna Constantine, an adventurer who crossed paths with Morpheus five years prior, aids the Dream King during the Reign of Terror. Orpheus, the Dream King’s son, makes an appearance.

 

“The Hunt” (#31): An old man tells his snarky granddaughter an Old-World fable about a young man, his encounters with a gypsy as well as supernatural beings (including Lucien and his boss, the Dream King).

 

“August” (#38): In ancient Rome, the emperor Augustus pretends to be a beggar, with a dwarf actor by his side. This is an especially sad issue.

 

“Soft Places” (#39): 1273 AD. Marco Polo, crossing a desert, dreams and encounters friendly, odd people, including the recently freed Sandman (check out The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes).

 

“Orpheus” (Sandman Special #1): The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is told.

 

“Parliament of Rooks” (#40): A baby (Daniel) dreams of meeting Matthew (Morpheus’s blackbird), Abel and Cain (from the House of Mystery) and Eve (from a certain Garden). Daniel is told how the two Biblical brothers met Morpheus and Death. This is one of my favorite issues in this collection.

 

“Ramadan” (#50): In Baghdad, a merchant tells a story of how a long-ago Baghdad caliph (Haroun Al Rashid) tries to preserve the beauty of his city. This is one of my favorite issues in this collection.