The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes
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Preludes and Nocturnes is the first graphic novel collection of the comic book series The Sandman, published by DC Comics. It collects issues #1-8. It is written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III, colored by Robbie Busch, and lettered by Todd Klein.
It was first issued in paperback in 1991, and later in hardback in 1995.
In 2004 it got the award for the best scenario at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
The series is still finding its feet in this volume. It has a simple quest plot with individual episodes written in different styles. In the early issues the creators are often pulling in different directions: Gaiman tends to write his horror and fantasy with a straight face, while Kieth's drawings play up the creepy and fantastic in a somewhat camp manner, much in the style of DC's 70s "mystery" titles; and Kieth's more delicate lines (as seen in his inking on Matt Wagner's Mage) are overwhelmed by Dringenberg's less than subtle inking. The combination works quite well on the chapter in which Dream visits Hell, but ultimately Kieth left the series after five issues, commenting that he felt like "Jimi Hendrix in the Beatles". Dringenberg switched to pencilling (with Malcolm Jones III inking), and his deadpan realism suits Gaiman's early scripts much better. Gaiman has commented that he found his own voice as a writer with the final chapter of this volume, "The Sound of her Wings", which introduced Dream's sister Death, one of the most popular characters in the series.
The next volume in the series is The Doll's House.
Issues collected
- Sandman #1: "Sleep of the Just" ... art by Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg
- Sandman #2: "Imperfect Hosts" ... art by Keith and Dringenberg
- Sandman #3: "Dream a Little Dream of Me" ... art by Keith and Dringenberg
- Sandman #4: "A Hope in Hell" ... art by Keith and Dringenberg
- Sandman #5: "Passengers" ... art by Keith and Dringenberg
- Sandman #6: "24 Hours" ... art by Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III
- Sandman #7: "Sound and Fury" ... art by Dringenberg and M. Jones III
- Sandman #8: "The Sound of Her Wings" ... art by Dringenberg and M. Jones III
Synopsis
In 1916, Morpheus is captured and encased in a glass globe in a failed attempt by a fictional Edwardian magician (very much in the vein of Aleister Crowley) named Roderick Burgess to bind Death. Refusing to answer Burgess' entreaties, Morpheus bides his time until Burgess dies, his son Alex taking over his father's prisoner. In 1988, when Alex's guards grow careless, Morpheus is finally able to escape and curse Alex to forever sleep with an unending series of nightmares.
The rest of the story concerns Morpheus' quest to recover his totems of power: a pouch of sand, a helm and a ruby, dispersed by Burgess following his capture. The pouch is being kept by a former girlfriend of John Constantine's (Constantine is a character from Alan Moore's series Swamp Thing). Once that is recovered, Morpheus travels to hell to regain the helm from a demon, where he incurs the wrath of Lucifer (which would play out later in the series). The ruby is in the possession of John Dee a.k.a. Doctor Destiny, a supervillain from the Justice League of America series. He has corrupted the ruby, so that using it hurts Morpheus. Dee destroys the ruby, thinking that it will kill Morpheus, but it in fact releases the power that Morpheus had put into the ruby, making him as powerful as he ever was.
The collection ends with the popular epilogue, "The Sound of Her Wings", which was the first story to feature Morpheus' elder sister, Death. Death is a prominent character in the series and is much beloved by many Sandman fans.