Our favorite Sandman cover

One of the more sublime techniques of retrofuturology is the ability to inspire past events.

Endless Gallery Highights

Here are some highlights from Vertigo's The Endless Gallery (published 1995).

Delirium by Sherilyn van Valkenburgh

Destiny by George Pratt

Finally, a Vertigo Jams worth of the name by Shary Flenniken

Endless snail by Alison Seiffer

Despair by Kent Williams

Death Gallery Highlights

Here are some highlights from 1993's Death Gallery

The issue's cover

by Geoff Darrow

by Arthur Adams

by Jill Karla Schwarz

And here's Gaiman's intro to the gallery:

She arrived in my head, about a week after her brother.

He had arrived brooding, quiet, pale, and gaunt: and while there was indeed a definite family resemblance, she was in many ways his opposite: sensible, delightful, nice.

Mike Dringenberg was at that time the inker of SANDMAN (Sam Kieth was pencilling). He read my description of Death in the original Sandman outline and decided that she should look less like a young Nico or Louise Brooks (as I’d suggested) and more like his friend Cinnamon. Mike did a drawing of her—the same drawing that appeared as a pinup in SANDMAN, and later as a T-shirt and a watch face.

The day the drawing arrived in England, I had met Dave McKean at a London pancake house: he was to show me transparencies of the first few SANDMAN covers. Our waitress was Death: skinny and pale and elfin and sweet, with long dark hair and black clothes and a silver ankh. I nearly showed her Mike’s drawing, but then decided not to.

There’s a tale in the Caballa that suggests that the Angel of Death is so beautiful that on finally seeing it (or him, or her) you fall in love so hard, so fast that your soul is pulled out through your eyes.

I like that story.

There’s an Islamic story that declares that the Angel of Death has huge wings covered in eyes and that as each mortal dies one of its eyes closes, just for a moment.

I like that story too and take pleasure in imagining huge wings, and a ripple of ever opening ever closing beautiful eyes.

And there’s a touch of wish fulfillment in there too. I didn’t want a Death who agonized over her role, or who took a grim delight in her job, or who didn’t care. I wanted a Death that I’d like to meet, in the end. Someone who would care.

Like her.

-NG

The first drawing of Death that Gaiman was referring to

Civilization as a function of the number of librarians

Lucien the Librarian from the short Neil Gaiman Sandman story "The Castle" published in Vertigo Jam #1 (Aug. 1993)

Meatballs of Endless Destruction

Cooking up some change with Destruction.

Today’s recipe comes indirectly from the “Brief Lives” story arc in The Sandman comic series. In it Destruction makes a feast of Greek dishes. In the original, crowdsourced, Sandman Annotations, Michael Chary, posted recipes for some of the dishes (specifically: stuffed grape leaves [dolmades, dolmadaia, or sarma], meatballs [kuftete], & red caviar dip [taramosalata]). We're currently only culinarily competent enough to attempt the meatballs. If we can swing it, so can you.

Note that these aren't your basil-oregano-genre meatballs. The mint and cinnamon make them excellent companions for dolmades or squash.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground lamb (or beef if it makes you feel less guilty)
• 3 beaten eggs
• 1 clove garlic minced (pulverized) 
• 3 cups crushed bread crumbs (this might be too much actually)
• 1/4 cup mint 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon 
• 2 teaspoons flour
• dash of salt

Instructions:

1. Combine everything and cover for an hour and a half
2. Make into 1 inch balls 
3. Fry in a skillet with oil
4. As with all meatballs, they are served best out of a Volkswagen bus with cinder blocks for wheels.

Musical Pairing:
The Velvet Underground's "I'm Set Free". Neil Gaiman has said that the entire plot of The Sandman is encapsulated in the song. "What in the world has happened to me, The Prince of Stories who walks right by me".....

Etain of the Second Look is Jill Thompson

Jill Thompson in 2011 (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Thompson)

The debut of Etain of the Second Look in The Sandman Issue 43 (part of the Brief Lives arc illustrated by Jill Thompson)

Neil Gaiman and the Pre-Joycean Fellowship

If you look at the credits of Sandman #31, "Three Septembers and a January", you'll notice "P.J.F" after Neil Gaiman's name:

According to the original Sandman annotations, this refers to Gaiman's membership in the Pre-Joycean Fellowship. a group of writers (mostly in scifi/fantasty) who created the organization "to poke fun at the excesses of contemporary literature while simultaneously mining it for everything of value."

The credits are missing from at least some reprinted collections of the series:

The original publication.

Creditless reprint.

Imperfect Hosts

Some frames of Sandman characters before Neil Gaiman started working with them:

By the one and only Sergio Aragones.

When the letterer becomes an author

The final page of the Sandman Issue 17 includes a blank white frame on the bottom line. The letterer who penned the German translation doodled his own version of Dream into the box while working. Due to an editorial error, this doodle was published in the first German edition of the book. Photos below (taken from Alisa Kwitney's Sandman: The King of Dreams).

The English version.

The original German version.

Doom Patrol x Sandman Crossover

Neil Gaima's Sandman series had almost no interactions with the non-Gaiman-written DC Universe as it was being initially published (despite involving a great number of previously created DC characters like Destiny, Cain, Abel, & Lucien).

A rare exception is Doom Patrol #25, which came out the same month as Sandman #8. In it, Dream's struggles with Dr. Destiny are referred to:

It turns out they have a materioptikon in working order (despite the fact that Dr. Destiny's Ruby had already been destroyed; go figure).

Sandman's Midsummer Night's Dream Eviscerated

In the letter column of Sandman Issue 19, A Midsummer Night's Dream, they provide a brief summary of the plot of Shakespeare's play to help readers understand the issue. Now there's wikipedia, but their summary is a faster read:

Lucifer's first appearance (original and redrawn)

Lucifer makes his debut in Sandman Issue 4. In the original comic, he first appears in a two page spread with the panels going at an angle to the page. In the collected editions of the Sandman, this page had to be greatly redrawn because the ad pages were now missing, splitting up the spread. Below are the original and redrawn. Lucifer's appearance is based on that of a young David Bowie. According to Leslie Klinger's annotations, the resemblance is stronger in the original, but Google suggests the opposite. 

Original debut of Lucifer (pg 1)

Redrawn debut of Lucifer (pg 1)

Redrawn debut of Lucifer (pg 2)

Inspiration/Illustration

The Origin of the Comic You Are Now Holding

The last page of Issue 4 of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series is an essay by Gaiman entitled "The Origin of the Comic You Are Now Holding (What It is and How It Came to Be)" that reveals some of the genesis of the character and the series. Although it has been reproduced in some of the collected re-prints of the series, the original format best shows it for what it is: a letter to new readers from a new author starting a story together. We apologize for the poor formatting on the blog. Click on the image, download it, and it should read fine.

And below are some sketches of the title character, made by Gaiman around the time of that hurricane. They were published on the last page of 1994's Sandman: A Gallery of Dreams as the series was coming to a close.

Dr. Destiny's Who's Who entry (1985, pre-Sandman)

Before Neil Gaiman made Doctor Destiny into John Dee he was the inspiration for Skeletor.

Destiny's Who's Who entry (1985, pre-Sandman)

Destiny was the only member of the The Endless to exist before Neil Gaiman's Sandman series created The Endless. His entry in the 1985 Who's Who shows what he was like before he had siblings. Who knew he loved purple?

Who would win in a fight between Destiny and Detective Chimp?

Sandman digital coloring changes

Comic making technology has largely gone digital since Neil Gaiman's Sandman series was published (1989-1996).  The most recent collected reprints in the series have been digitally re-colored for reasons unclear. Although the differences are generally subtle, there are some puzzling ones. Here are some examples from Issue 8. Can anyone shed some light on this? Was some of this accidental?

Original Pg 5

Digital Pg. 5: Girl's dress is now pink.

Original Pgs 6-7

Original Pgs 6-7: Background is now white

Original Pg. 24

Digital Pg. 24: Last panel is quite different

Sandman Issue 8 Prologue: The Story So Far

Sandman #8 begins with a few quotes of praise from people who might help convince you to buy the book. Then you get the following five page recap featuring Destiny (his second appearance in the series) that we thought was worth sharing as it is not part of the collected reprints.

Morpheus Butt