Before we get into the pages, let's do another title-of-the-post ditty. I would not be upset if you misread that as Reading Comics 101, like I'm teaching a class. Because that's what this whole blog be about, yo!
Ego deflated once again, of course the real topic is The Sandman #10 as presented in Leslie S. Klinger's The Annotated Sandman Volume 1. This issue marks the start of "The Doll's House," the eponymous arc from the original second collection from Neil Gaiman's fantasy classic.
On the very first page, Klinger explains a little of the background for the title of the arc for anyone particularly interested, which eventually concludes with a rumination on the origins of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Hey, Sandman may not be a traditional superhero comic, but it's still a comic book, and what else is prominently known about comics than all things Superman?
Technically the page also introduces Desire, another of the Endless, Dream's family, each member of which has a name starting with the letter "d."
Anyway, the issue calls to mind some of those pesky details from the earliest issues of the series, before Gaiman felt he had a good handle on what he was doing, returning to one of the victims of the sleeping sickness as depicted in the very first issue, when Dream's kidnapping led to all sorts of irregularities.
Unity Kinkaid gave birth while she slept for decades. Kind of creepy, yeah (especially when you know she wasn't pregnant before she fell asleep). Well, that's just life. A lot of this issue is a way of humanizing the story, which until this point tends to have sensationalized, well, everything.
Of course, before you get any funny ideas, much of the issue also sets about establishing some of the more mundane aspects of Dream's reality, revealing the talismans of the entire Endless. Klinger explains all of them in his notes for the third page. More of the mythology is explained on the fifth page.
By the sixth page, we catch up with the humans who will occupy most of the issue, Rose Walker (already seen briefly previously) and her mother Miranda. Gaiman's script apparently went to great lengths in describing Rose's intended appearance to the artist. Klinger also notes that another bit of intrigue about Rose, other than her grandmother Unity, is her brother Jed, who was actually introduced by the late great Jack Kirby in a previous incarnation of Sandman.
The seventh page is pretty amusing, because it features the very much American Rose and Miranda attempting to understand the differences in the English culture they'll be experiencing as they visit Unity. Gaiman, of course, is English, but he tends to write American characters, so if you for some reason had no idea (he was in fact part of a vast British exporting of comic book talent in the 1980s that included Alan Moore and Grant Morrison) there you go.
I like layers like that!
The art turns sideways for a few pages, possibly because Rose has fallen asleep and in fact Dream appears in a dream (she's lying across the backseat of a car at the time) as we catch up with some of his housekeeping.
The eleventh and twelfth pages feature a spread that is more or less Gaiman's gift to his emerging Sandman fanatics. Yes, only ten issues in and they not only exist but he's able to write for them in a script.
Anyway, a bunch of monsters, including the pivotal Corinthian, are introduced on the thirteenth page. The Corinthian is notable for having tiny mouths where his eyes are supposed to be. These monsters slipped away while Dream was gone, and so like the first arc this second one will feature cleanup duties.
Gaiman by way of Klinger explains Unity's curious appearance on the sixteenth page, how she's very old but doesn't look very old because for most of her life she didn't exercise any facial muscles, and her fashion sense is affected by what she remembers from her youth. Although most old people I know are similarly in a perpetual fashion time warp.
It's fun that Klinger gets to explain the '45 Rebellion Unity references on the seventeenth page, since it's not 1945 but rather 1745. A country like English would have people talk like that, while Americans tend to only think about wars in its past, or patterns of settlement and migration. This is a fine instance of Klinger helping readers to do some migrating of their own, from what's probably an American mindset to another entirely, which is basically what Gaiman does with Sandman as a whole.
The Hecate, the trilogy of women seen in previous issues, speak with Rose, guiding her and the reader into the dawning awareness that her story is far from over.
By the end of the issue, it's the Corinthian who drives the story forward, however, and Klinger guides the reader again to something particularly clever in the comic. Well, first, he also has to explain something that's lost in a black-and-white reproduction, an effect involving the Corinthian's shades. Then he points out how a couple of word bubbles in the last panel in fact come from the separate mouths from the eye sockets, which is a fine way to remind readers that this dude has at least a visual gag working for him...
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Reading Comics #100 "The Annotated Sandman Volume 1 #9"
Just a note before we get on with the festivities:
As the title of this post indicates, this is the 100th edition of this particular regular feature here at Comics Reader. As the label suggests, it started out as an eponymous tag for the blog itself, and the material that's been covered (which is archived here) has been at times very scattershot. This latest series under what was finally settled as Reading Comics under consistent numbering months ago has been fun to do and has helped streamline and refine my approach to the entire blog, which will become more and more evident.
Now to have some fun!
Finally past material previously collected in Preludes & Nocturnes, the only Sandman I've had any prior working experience with, the ninth issue begins what might also be found in The Doll's House. It's also a standalone issue, but resonates with what came before and what will follow, story time in a very Sandman fashion and also familiar to what might be found in a typical Neil Gaiman story regardless of where it's found.
We begin in Africa, deep in the tribal tradition, and in fact a rite of passage that can be found in many cultures, not in this specific form but as a general focus for entering adult life. Leslie S. Klinger is pretty chatty in the notes, at least early on, before the story simply takes on its own fascination.
On the second page Klinger talks about Nelson Mandela's experiences with such a rite, although not so much the story aspect, which to Gaiman's version is key, and the only way Dream himself appears in the issue. Perhaps it's entirely fitting that Morpheus is a supporting character after all. Most of the time when you're dreaming you're not really aware of that fact. The act of dreaming is always a guide.
The tale the young man hears from his own guide is about an African city of the past, whose queen falls in love with a mysterious visitor who turns out to be Dream. She goes on a quest to discover who it was, and it's the queen herself, Nada (Klinger explains all about this name and its various cultural interpretations), who rejects Dream as a mate, convinced that the match could never work.
At this point I'm going to be learning quite a bit about what happens next, so the end of this story really is a mystery. Gaiman ends the issue with the suggestion that Nada's story may not be finished, that Dream's potential love match may not be lost. Or perhaps it is and this ends up defining him a great deal. A writer like Gaiman can fold a lot of story into a single narrative, and Sandman is his masterpiece in this regard, and in fact a lot of my writing is done in the method I gleamed from everything I'd come to know about Sandman (in particular a currently unpublished novel entitled Modern Ark).
To my mind, an issue like this one is brilliant in and of itself. It speaks as much to my memories of American Gods and Anansi Boys as what I've already read of Sandman and what I expect in the future. I can see why some people would say Preludes & Nocturnes might be skippable, although it really isn't, that The Doll's House may be the true beginning of the story, because this prelude is undeniably what you'd expect from the series if you'd never read any of it before (the first issue itself is like that, too) and only read about it.
As the title of this post indicates, this is the 100th edition of this particular regular feature here at Comics Reader. As the label suggests, it started out as an eponymous tag for the blog itself, and the material that's been covered (which is archived here) has been at times very scattershot. This latest series under what was finally settled as Reading Comics under consistent numbering months ago has been fun to do and has helped streamline and refine my approach to the entire blog, which will become more and more evident.
Now to have some fun!
Finally past material previously collected in Preludes & Nocturnes, the only Sandman I've had any prior working experience with, the ninth issue begins what might also be found in The Doll's House. It's also a standalone issue, but resonates with what came before and what will follow, story time in a very Sandman fashion and also familiar to what might be found in a typical Neil Gaiman story regardless of where it's found.
We begin in Africa, deep in the tribal tradition, and in fact a rite of passage that can be found in many cultures, not in this specific form but as a general focus for entering adult life. Leslie S. Klinger is pretty chatty in the notes, at least early on, before the story simply takes on its own fascination.
On the second page Klinger talks about Nelson Mandela's experiences with such a rite, although not so much the story aspect, which to Gaiman's version is key, and the only way Dream himself appears in the issue. Perhaps it's entirely fitting that Morpheus is a supporting character after all. Most of the time when you're dreaming you're not really aware of that fact. The act of dreaming is always a guide.
The tale the young man hears from his own guide is about an African city of the past, whose queen falls in love with a mysterious visitor who turns out to be Dream. She goes on a quest to discover who it was, and it's the queen herself, Nada (Klinger explains all about this name and its various cultural interpretations), who rejects Dream as a mate, convinced that the match could never work.
At this point I'm going to be learning quite a bit about what happens next, so the end of this story really is a mystery. Gaiman ends the issue with the suggestion that Nada's story may not be finished, that Dream's potential love match may not be lost. Or perhaps it is and this ends up defining him a great deal. A writer like Gaiman can fold a lot of story into a single narrative, and Sandman is his masterpiece in this regard, and in fact a lot of my writing is done in the method I gleamed from everything I'd come to know about Sandman (in particular a currently unpublished novel entitled Modern Ark).
To my mind, an issue like this one is brilliant in and of itself. It speaks as much to my memories of American Gods and Anansi Boys as what I've already read of Sandman and what I expect in the future. I can see why some people would say Preludes & Nocturnes might be skippable, although it really isn't, that The Doll's House may be the true beginning of the story, because this prelude is undeniably what you'd expect from the series if you'd never read any of it before (the first issue itself is like that, too) and only read about it.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Reading Comics #99 "The Annotated Sandman Volume 1 #8"
Sandman #8 is the last issue included in the original collection Preludes & Nocturnes, and as such is the last issue I've previously read of the series on any kind of relevant basis (there was another odd issue, but for all intents and purposes, Preludes is the only real experience I have with the series to this point).
By the way, it's also the introduction of Death, the original Goth Chick.
The first notes Leslie S. Klinger provides reference blurbs that ran in the original comic, which curiously he doesn't provide for new readers, which is something that might have been expected. He's provided lengthy extracts of similar material for previous issues.
Death, for the record, may look like a Goth Chick, but doesn't act like a Goth Chick. She's much more lively! The notes for the third page include a fairly spooky artistic coincidence concerning Neil Gaiman's encounter with a waitress who looked exactly like Death.
Keeping up the pattern established in other issues, Death is more prominent than Dream in the issue, though the star of the comic does end up doing some considerable reflecting based on this reunion with his sister.
If you want to know how lively Death really is, she apparently loves the movie Mary Poppins, which Klinger duly explains as different from the original book material, in such key points as the absence of "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from the text (although that shouldn't be much of a surprise).
Klinger also explains all about the Egyptian talisman Death sports, the ankh, which ironically is all about life.
For Dream, this is a completely reflective issue, actually, as he remembers everything that he's experienced since the start of the series. It's Death, however, who basically says what Gaiman's about to do with the rest of the series, starting a whole new story. In a way, it's more appropriate than anyone seems to have considered for Gaiman to have done his version of a traditional superhero story to start things off, because that's not what anything else will be like.
As the issue progresses, Gaiman revisits some of the stuff he's already done in a different way, the little vignettes of lives that have populated the series so far. This is turning out to be reliable material.
Klinger explains what you might to expect if you're intrigued by Death and want to know what else she does, by far at this point the most interesting example of this impulse in the notes, since Death is the most famous example so far. If you ever wondered what Gaiman does in Death: The High Cost of Living, for example, Klinger lets you know. It's a little surprising that Gaiman hasn't devoted more time to Death.
Though, of course, by the end of the issue it's Dream who's ready to move on, appropriate for any visit from Death...
By the way, it's also the introduction of Death, the original Goth Chick.
The first notes Leslie S. Klinger provides reference blurbs that ran in the original comic, which curiously he doesn't provide for new readers, which is something that might have been expected. He's provided lengthy extracts of similar material for previous issues.
Death, for the record, may look like a Goth Chick, but doesn't act like a Goth Chick. She's much more lively! The notes for the third page include a fairly spooky artistic coincidence concerning Neil Gaiman's encounter with a waitress who looked exactly like Death.
Keeping up the pattern established in other issues, Death is more prominent than Dream in the issue, though the star of the comic does end up doing some considerable reflecting based on this reunion with his sister.
If you want to know how lively Death really is, she apparently loves the movie Mary Poppins, which Klinger duly explains as different from the original book material, in such key points as the absence of "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from the text (although that shouldn't be much of a surprise).
Klinger also explains all about the Egyptian talisman Death sports, the ankh, which ironically is all about life.
For Dream, this is a completely reflective issue, actually, as he remembers everything that he's experienced since the start of the series. It's Death, however, who basically says what Gaiman's about to do with the rest of the series, starting a whole new story. In a way, it's more appropriate than anyone seems to have considered for Gaiman to have done his version of a traditional superhero story to start things off, because that's not what anything else will be like.
As the issue progresses, Gaiman revisits some of the stuff he's already done in a different way, the little vignettes of lives that have populated the series so far. This is turning out to be reliable material.
Klinger explains what you might to expect if you're intrigued by Death and want to know what else she does, by far at this point the most interesting example of this impulse in the notes, since Death is the most famous example so far. If you ever wondered what Gaiman does in Death: The High Cost of Living, for example, Klinger lets you know. It's a little surprising that Gaiman hasn't devoted more time to Death.
Though, of course, by the end of the issue it's Dream who's ready to move on, appropriate for any visit from Death...
Friday, March 15, 2013
Reading Comics #98 "The Annotated Sandman Volume 1 #7"
The conclusion of the Doctor Destiny arc finally comes to pass in this latest issue from The Annotated Sandman Volume 1 from Neil Gaiman and Leslie S. Klinger.
Since the start of the series six issues ago, Dream has been attempting to reclaim his lost totems of power from a period where he was held captive for seventy years. The last totem is a gem that manipulated by classic Justice League villain Doctor Destiny, who escaped from Arkham Asylum by the time we caught up with him.
When Dream gets his hands on the gem, he discovers that Doctor Destiny's manipulation has completely warped it. Thus a confrontation in this issue that would be akin to a true superhero experience, if Gaiman were writing any other series.
Instead we get something very similar to what he's done previously, suggesting the lives being influenced by Dream's experiences, this time by way of Doctor Destiny's nightmares. Rather than some knock-down drag-out fight, Dream does a lot of talking, trying to figure out his foe verbally rather than physically.
One of Klinger's first notes is about matters that aren't particularly relevant to a black-and-white reprint, while there are some others that make it clear how the original presentation of the issue has been altered over the years in the various collected editions. (It may be worth noting that in addition to these Annotated volumes, DC is also releasing giant omnibus editions at present.)
The notes for page 10 are particularly relevant, as they explain Gaiman's references to Shakespeare, including the one particularly relevant to today's date, the Ides of March, 3/15. Just for the record!
The next page also talks about Bride of Frankenstein, which may still be one of the most fascinating developments of the early Hollywood horror era. Has anyone ever written a book with this character?
It should be noted that within the story itself Dream wears his helm, one of the totems that he's reclaimed, which makes him look like the original superhero Sandman, which probably won't happen too many more times in the series. Or I could be wrong. I've read very little of Sandman, so that's why I hope I can continue with the rest of the Annotated volumes. I don't know about you, but I enjoy this process.
Destiny, the non-Doctor Destiny version of Destiny, makes his first appearance in the series on the sixteenth page.
It's just interesting that so much of this issue, if it were illustrated differently, could just as easily be an event issue from a typical superhero comic, the way the pages are laid out and the big climax is reached.
By the end, Doctor Destiny is brought back to Arkham, where he is greeted by Scarecrow, Jonathan Crane, who saw him off, while Klinger notes how Gaiman cleverly guided the artist to reference The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the last panel.
Page 24 does make a strong case for an even weirder look at DC lore, Arkham as seen by the inmates as they live there, which Gaiman suggests probably is not very pretty.
I guess most people don't really consider the Doctor Destiny arc part of the true Sandman experience, but to me it certainly feels like an essential way to present what it will be all about, how it will be different from what you may have read before. The Vertigo line can sometimes be a little deliberate and singular in the way it's presented, almost embarrassed to be associated with the rest of DC. This is one example that this really doesn't have to be the case. You can be different yet strangely familiar at the same time.
Since the start of the series six issues ago, Dream has been attempting to reclaim his lost totems of power from a period where he was held captive for seventy years. The last totem is a gem that manipulated by classic Justice League villain Doctor Destiny, who escaped from Arkham Asylum by the time we caught up with him.
When Dream gets his hands on the gem, he discovers that Doctor Destiny's manipulation has completely warped it. Thus a confrontation in this issue that would be akin to a true superhero experience, if Gaiman were writing any other series.
Instead we get something very similar to what he's done previously, suggesting the lives being influenced by Dream's experiences, this time by way of Doctor Destiny's nightmares. Rather than some knock-down drag-out fight, Dream does a lot of talking, trying to figure out his foe verbally rather than physically.
One of Klinger's first notes is about matters that aren't particularly relevant to a black-and-white reprint, while there are some others that make it clear how the original presentation of the issue has been altered over the years in the various collected editions. (It may be worth noting that in addition to these Annotated volumes, DC is also releasing giant omnibus editions at present.)
The notes for page 10 are particularly relevant, as they explain Gaiman's references to Shakespeare, including the one particularly relevant to today's date, the Ides of March, 3/15. Just for the record!
The next page also talks about Bride of Frankenstein, which may still be one of the most fascinating developments of the early Hollywood horror era. Has anyone ever written a book with this character?
It should be noted that within the story itself Dream wears his helm, one of the totems that he's reclaimed, which makes him look like the original superhero Sandman, which probably won't happen too many more times in the series. Or I could be wrong. I've read very little of Sandman, so that's why I hope I can continue with the rest of the Annotated volumes. I don't know about you, but I enjoy this process.
Destiny, the non-Doctor Destiny version of Destiny, makes his first appearance in the series on the sixteenth page.
It's just interesting that so much of this issue, if it were illustrated differently, could just as easily be an event issue from a typical superhero comic, the way the pages are laid out and the big climax is reached.
By the end, Doctor Destiny is brought back to Arkham, where he is greeted by Scarecrow, Jonathan Crane, who saw him off, while Klinger notes how Gaiman cleverly guided the artist to reference The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the last panel.
Page 24 does make a strong case for an even weirder look at DC lore, Arkham as seen by the inmates as they live there, which Gaiman suggests probably is not very pretty.
I guess most people don't really consider the Doctor Destiny arc part of the true Sandman experience, but to me it certainly feels like an essential way to present what it will be all about, how it will be different from what you may have read before. The Vertigo line can sometimes be a little deliberate and singular in the way it's presented, almost embarrassed to be associated with the rest of DC. This is one example that this really doesn't have to be the case. You can be different yet strangely familiar at the same time.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Quick Hits: Young Avengers #1 (Marvel)
I think it's just struck me, what this new iteration of Young Avengers is like. It's Runaways, the series that was launched by Brian K. Vaughan that was also about a bunch of misfit superhero kids. I have never read Runaways. Half of what I loved about Young Avengers was its clever extension of existing Marvel lore, which The Children's Crusade absolutely continued. It's not just the characters, but how they're used and finally advance the musty Marvel landscape. I don't think this new version is doing that. It's like someone saw only the soap opera elements and decided that was the best thing about the original comics. It was a good thing, but it wasn't the best. Without the best part, it's not really Young Avengers...
Quick Hits: All-New X-Men #4, 5 (Marvel)
Another of my favorite launches from 2012, this is Brian Michael Bendis finally doing the X-Men book he all but promised in House of M.
The fourth issue pushes the strange arc of the current and conflicted mutants meeting their own past selves. That's all well and good. It advances thing enough so we can reach:
The fifth issue, in which Bendis really gets to write for both Jean Grey and Beast, the two biggest beneficiaries of this series not named Cyclops. Jean is the most fascinating character ever to be sacrificed to the needs of a death in comics that somehow stayed pretty permanent. This is her second chance and Bendis knows it, and that's reason enough to look at this whole story as something other than a gimmick. She's here mostly to help Beast try to figure out a way to not die, which is odd because if I were writing it I'd be trying to find the loophole that would help Jean survive.
Both issues are illustrated by Stuart Immonen, who is a favorite and whose absence from some of the following issues is excuse enough for me to lose track of the series for a while. Still, as worth checking out as anything else I endorse wholeheartedly.
The fourth issue pushes the strange arc of the current and conflicted mutants meeting their own past selves. That's all well and good. It advances thing enough so we can reach:
The fifth issue, in which Bendis really gets to write for both Jean Grey and Beast, the two biggest beneficiaries of this series not named Cyclops. Jean is the most fascinating character ever to be sacrificed to the needs of a death in comics that somehow stayed pretty permanent. This is her second chance and Bendis knows it, and that's reason enough to look at this whole story as something other than a gimmick. She's here mostly to help Beast try to figure out a way to not die, which is odd because if I were writing it I'd be trying to find the loophole that would help Jean survive.
Both issues are illustrated by Stuart Immonen, who is a favorite and whose absence from some of the following issues is excuse enough for me to lose track of the series for a while. Still, as worth checking out as anything else I endorse wholeheartedly.
Quick Hits: Wonder Woman #15 (DC)
Like anyone else I'm always hoping that Wonder Woman will somehow become one of the most popular series DC publishes, thereby finally expanding our favorite Amazon into the role she holds by default in the company as the most prominent/important female character in comics. I thought it had another shot when it was announced Brian Azzarello would be writing the New 52 relaunch...and gradually I lost the hope. While he's definitely been doing distinctive work, I've begun to view as less and less essentially and therefore essential work with Wonder Woman herself. He's basically turned her into Percy Jackson. Yet I vowed to have another look when Orion popped up. Orion is one of Jack Kirby's New Gods, one of the few who really stands out, and has been sorely missed since Final Crisis. Yet I'm not sure he works here any better than Wonder Woman, though conceptually they appear to be headed in a much more interesting direction in the months to come, soon to be entangled in the Superman affair currently being featured in Justice League and therefore key to the upcoming Trinity War. All of which is to say this is a series that still bears monitors, works for what it is (basically an indy book starring one of the most famous superheroes of any company), and could still be more.
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