Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic series has long been touted in various places as one of the best comics/graphic novel series out there. I have meant to read it for a while and finally snagged the first one because I mention it in the novel I am writing. As with some of Gaiman’s other works I have read (including American Gods), it is not exactly my cup of tea even though I can appreciate the art for itself. It is dark and gritty, too much for me. But it is also an engaging story with innovative art. So far. I only read the first volume.

An occultist imprisoned the Sandman—Dream or Morpheus—for seventy years, during which the world was disturbed by sleepless nights, nightmares, and countless narcoleptics. When Dream escapes, he goes on a journey through dark, magical realms to find his missing objects and restore himself to power and health.

Preludes & Nocturnes is the first volume in the Sandman series. There are eight comics included in this volume with a stand-alone story at the end (on the character Death). Originally, the series was published as individual comics, artists changing throughout even as Gaiman continued to write. (We are not going to deal with Gaiman’s sexual assault charges here, which he denies as of March 2025. You can look that up if you are interested.)

The series, bound into volumes, is currently:

• Vol. 1, Preludes & Nocturnes
• The Doll’s House
• Dream Country
• Season of Mists
• A Game of You
• Fables & Reflections
• Brief Lives
• Worlds’ End
• The Kindly Ones
• Vol. 10, The Wake

There’s also Deluxe editions and Absolute editions, as well as other volumes that are outside the ten chronological volumes (Overture, The Dream Hunters (2), Endless Nights, Book of Dreams, and Midnight Days). The original series consisted of 75 issues published between January 1989 and March 1996 (as comics). There are number of ways to read your way around and through this series and its spin-offs, just like with many other comics series/worlds/universes.

The word on the street is that the early comics (and therefore what I read) are the worst, perhaps volumes three through six being the best. You could just skip to those, if you want, especially if you don’t see yourself reading the entire thing. I probably should have done that, though I found the premise interesting and maybe envisioned going all the way through the ten basic volumes. There are Gaiman books that are not too gritty and dark for me, like The Graveyard Book and Coraline (both notably for kids).

As far as visually, I found the first volume to be dirty and imprecise, not to mention gory and twisted and disturbing, but it is horror (or modern dark fantasy). And that’s just about all I have to say about this. If you like horror and especially dark things (it reminded me of The Crow but with more sexualization), then this might still be for you because apparently it’s very impressive as both a story and as art. My deciding not to continue was only partly because of the story’s darkness; it was also because visually things are dark, busy, and “sketchy” (by which I mean crowded with fine lines). This, too, is not my cup of tea. But it may be yours. With no page numbers and no table of contents, I didn’t always know where I was going. I also didn’t always know where I was going between panels, which is partly because I don’t read that many comics but also because this is the earlier Sandman work and the artists themselves were also figuring stuff out. The gritty art style often pulled me out of the page.

The Sandman is a celebrated comic series with lots of fans and awards to back it up. I found it too dark and gritty and the art both impressive and difficult to follow. But I only read volume one, and the series is said to improve later on, though ratings remain consistently high throughout. Not my thing. Many people’s thing. I can appreciate it some. I won’t be continuing.

There are at least two Sandman TV series, one running from 1989-1996 and one from 2022 until currently (2025). The recent one has pretty great reviews, as do several of his recent adaptations like Good Omens and American Gods. I think I’ll wait to approach these because I imagine they are too much for me even though they might be impressive (or are impressive) in this medium. Knock yourself out.