Endless Nights
|
|
The Sandman: Endless Nights is a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman as a follow-up (but not a sequel) to his ground-breaking Sandman series. The book is divided into seven chapters, each devoted to one of the members of the Endless, a family of brothers and sisters, anthropomorphic representations of aspects of life. It was published by DC Comics in 2003.
Each tale is stylistically different, and illustrated by a different artist. Most of the tales are independent of each other; however Destruction's tale relates to and immediately follows Delirium's.
In line with all the other Sandman comics, the cover, logo and book designs were created by Dave McKean.
| Contents |
Chapter 1: Death - Death and Venice
Art by P. Craig Russell
This story is about the ruler of an island off the coast of Venice who changes things so that his island and his people keep living the same day over and over again, never dying.
Chapter 2: Desire - What I've tasted of Desire
Art by Milo Manara
This story is about a woman who bargains with Desire to win the hand of her tribe's favorite boy, and then loses him to war.
Chapter 3:Dream - The Heart of a Star
Art by Miguelanxo Prado
In the far distant past, Dream and his new romantic interest Killalla of the Glow travel to a meeting of astronomical phenomena. The mortal Killalla is astonished to learn that the beings with which she is mingling and chit-chatting with rather comfortably are, in fact, the very stars, galaxies, and dimensions which comprise her universe. After an encounter with her world's own sun, Sto-Oa, Killalla and the star fall into each other's arms, possibly thanks to Desire's powers, as the distraught and heartbroken Dream watches on.
This story showcases a number of things mentioned in The Sandman series but never before illustrated. Here, Death is a cold unmerciful character and Delight has not yet become Delirium. The roots of Dream's conflicts with Desire are illustrated for the first time, as are the roots of the rules forbidding The Endless from becoming romantically involved with mortals. The first aspect of Despair also appears in the story, looking quite different from her replacement.
In addition, other DC comics characters and beings are suggested in the story. The character Killalla is from the planet of Oa future homeworld of the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps. Her power to manipulate green energy can be seen as an evolution towards the creation of the Green Lantern's power. Despair has a conversation with a red giant star named Rao about the creation of life on an unstable world and the possibility of a lone surviving being existing to continually mourn the destruction of that world. This is an allusion to the history of Superman and, as such, Rao is implied to be the red giant sun around which Superman's homeworld of Krypton once orbitted.
Chapter 4: Despair - Fifteen Portraits of Despair
Art by Barron Storey, designed by Dave McKean
This collection of very short stories illustrate fifteen different people experiencing despair in fifteen different ways. One is about an unemployed man who's feeding cats, only to have them all die on him when he goes on an extended leave for work. Another is about a priest who's being forcibly defrocked due to a molestation scandal that he knows he can prove false. A third is about a woman who, after committing suicide to escape her pain, sits on the side of the road waiting for the happiness to begin.
Chapter 5: Delirium - Going Inside
Art by Bill Sienkiewicz
This story is about several mentally unbalanced people who are brought together on a quest to save Delirium from herself. It's possible at the end of this story that Delirium is somewhat healed in some fundamental way.
Chapter 6: Destruction - On the Peninsula
Art by Glenn Fabry
This is a story about some archeologists who uncover and explore a peninsula from many years in the future.
Chapter 7: Destiny - Endless Nights
Art by Frank Quitely
This short story is simply a wander through Destiny's garden of forking paths.