The Sandman: Worlds’ End by Neil Gaiman and various artists

(pb; 1994, 2012: graphic novel, collects issues 51-6 of the comic book The Sandman. “Introduction” by Stephen King. Ninth book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

 

Overall review:

Worlds’ End is a good, fun collection of characters (some of them previously seen in earlier Sandman stories) and variable tales they tell while they wait out a strange storm.

Again, the artists, letterers and colorists who bring Gaiman’s transcend-the-genre writing to vivid, distinctive representation. Worth owning, this. Followed by The Sandman: The Kindly Ones.

 

Review, issue by issue

“Worlds’ End: Sequences at the Inn” (#51): After a car crash in a winter storm, two motorists (Brant Tucker, Charlene Mooney) find themselves at a pub with strange-looking mythological storytellers. Each issue that follows revolves around a tale told by one of the inn guests.

 

“Cluracan’s Tale” (#52): The fairy, last seen in The Sandman: Season of Mists, speaks of what brought him here. In Cluracan’s narration, Queen Mab (of the fairy city Aurelia) sends him as envoy to a near-ruin human city to prevent a treacherous politician (Innocent XI, “Psychopomp of the Universal Aurelian Church”) from assuming more power and upsetting the balance between fairies and humans.

“Hob’s Leviathan” (#53): A young sailor (Jim) recounts his sailing adventures with Hob Gadling (The Sandman: Dream Country), rough men and wild-sized sea creatures.

 

“The Golden Boy” (#54): An older Asian man tells Brant a story about a fictional clock-fixing young man (Prez Rickard) who became a US President while being observed and possibly threatened by a creepy power broker of sorts (Boss Smiley).

 

“Cerements” (#55): A Necropolitan student of death rituals (Petrefax) tells a story about how he attended a ritual where others told curious stories about hangmen, a woman of mystical power (Mistress Veltis) as well as his own experiences within a necropolis while studying under his pale-pigment master (Kaproth), who’s also listening to Petrefax speak. Two family members of the Endless make an appearance in this issue.

 

“Worlds’ End” (#56):  The essence of the inn is revealed, as is the cause of the storm outside. Personal changes, pairings, and partings occur among some of guests.

The Sandman: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(1991-2, 2011: graphic novel, collects issues 32-7 of the comic book The Sandman. “Introduction” by Samuel R. Delaney. Sixth book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

 

From the back cover

“The imagined landscapes of childhood from set the stage for A GAME OF YOU, the [sixth] volume of the complete run of THE SANDMAN. In a long-forgotten corner of the Dreaming, cracks appear in the wall that shields the waking world, and through those gaps a group of young New Yorkers is drawn inexorably into a realm that is both eerily familiar and disturbingly malignant.”

 

Overall review:

Game centers around Barbie, a character last seen in The Sandman: The Doll’s House, two years after the events of that book─it seems that Barbie and her apartment complex neighbors are being stalked by a reality-bizarre “Cuckoo,” whose identity is shrouded in dream-mystery, and whose presence predicts malicious deaths.

Once 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: Fables & Reflections.

 

Review, issue by issue

Caveat: possible minor spoilers for those who have not read these Sandman comics.

“Slaughter on Fifth Avenue” (#32): Barbie (The Sandman: The Doll’s House, issue 16) has not had a dream in two years. She lives in New York City, walks around it with her roommate (Wanda, born Alvin Mann) and encounters a huge, doglike creature (Martin Tenbones), triggering long-forgotten memories and a dread of “Cuckoos,” something her creepy neighbor George might know about.

 

“Lullabies of Broadway” (#33): Barbie’s lesbian neighbor (Hazel, live-in girlfriend of Foxglove) reveals an embarrassing life-altering secret to Barbie.

Barbie dreams for the first time in two years, entering a fantasyland where she’s “Princess Barbara” to Luz the female monkey, Wilkinson (a beaked creature in an overcoat) and Prinado, a strange  bird.

Meanwhile, Barbie’s neighbors─except for George─have nightmares. Thessaly, a downstairs neighbor, shows that she knows how to protect herself.

 

“Bad Moon Rising” (#34): Thessaly, with help from her neighbors (Wanda, Foxglove and Hazel), draw down the moon (a witch-ritual) to try and help Barbie, who dreams.

 

“Beginning to See the Light” (#35): Barbie continues to dream. In it, she and her talking animal friends (Luz, Wilkinson and Prinado) hide from the tall, scary Black Guards and escape the spine-shivery, whispery Tweeners, with help from the Porpentine. Then hammers come down.

“Over the Sea to Sky” (#36): Barbie, still dreaming, meets the malicious Cuckoo. Thessaly, Hazel and Foxglove force their way into Barbie’s fantasyland-skerry, far older than she is. Morpheus shows up while Wanda, Maisie Hill (issue 32) and everyone else in New York City, batten down because of Hurricane Lisa, a strange event.

 

“I Woke Up and One of Us Was Crying” (#37): Morpheus tells Barbie about Alianora, the woman (seen in the previous issue) for whom Barbie’s fantasyland-skerry was created.

Rose Walker, (The Sandman: The Doll’s House, issue 16) and Judy (The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, issue 6) are mentioned in a conversation between the Dream King, Foxglove and Barbie, who knew them.

Barbie, Thessaly, Foxglove and Hazel return to their waking-world lives. Barbie attends two funerals.