Patrick's Reviews > The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes

So here's the thing...

I wrote the introduction to the 30th anniversary edition of The Sandman.

How absolutely *stupid* is that?

It's been half a year since I got the invitation, and months since I actually finished writing the introduction, but I still can't believe it.

To celebrate, I thought I'd write a review here. But rather than just my usual messy gush about how I love some story, I got permission from the publisher to re-print part of my introduction I wrote.

Share and enjoy...

**(What follows is an excerpt from the intro)**

I’ll admit, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do here.

If you’ve already read Sandman, what can I tell you that you don’t already know deep in the secret corners of your heart? You know this story is lovely and brilliant and sweet and strange. You know it is beautiful and deep and wry and wondrous. You know.

If you’ve already read this book, you know nothing I can say is as good as what waits for you ahead.

So go. Stop reading this and go.

If you haven’t read this book, and are, perhaps, standing in a bookstore or a comic shop, wondering if it’s worth your time, what I can say to convince you? Should I wax rhapsodic? Get lyrical and grandiose? Reference some of the story’s funnier jokes so I seem more clever than I really am?

No. I love this book too much. I don’t want to spoil its secrets or steal its thunder.

So let me tell you the simple truth. No hyperbole.

Sandman changed my life.

It’s not often you get to say that and mean it. But it’s true.

If that’s not enough to convince you… I guess all that’s left is for me to tell you a story or two. Because that’s what I do.

Stories are important, after all….

* * *

I came to comics late in life. I can’t tell you why. I was a voracious reader as a kid, going through pretty much every picture book in the local library until I finally started chapter books around age 9. Then I read a novel or two a day until I finished high school.

Even as I slouched through college, comics simply weren’t on my radar. Didn’t occur to me to read them. Didn’t occur to me they might be worth reading. I had a couple thousand fantasy and sci-fi novels under my belt, and my classes were exposing me to Shakespeare and Chaucer, Sanskrit theater and the Harlem Renaissance poets. I read Roethke and Frost and Brooks and Baldwin.

But comics? That was like… Garfield, right? And superheroes? I didn’t spare any thought for them, and when I did, I assumed they were (and I’m ashamed to write this now) silly bullshit for kids.

I was well into my 20’s when, at a weekend-long party, I sat down in a quiet corner and idly picked up a copy of Dark Night Returns. I read the whole thing straight through, completely lost in it, deaf to the riot and welter around me.

Hours later, I hunted down the person who had brought the book. I shook it at them, angry and incredulous, demanding: “Is it all as good as this?”

“Oh no,” he said sadly. “But some of it is close.”

First he gave we Watchmen, and it floored me despite the fact that I didn’t I didn’t know superheroes mythology from a hole in the ground.

Next came Sandman. And it was unlike any story I’d ever read. In any genre. In any medium. I remember thinking, “Can you do this? Can you have Odin and angels and faeries and witches and… just everything? All at once? In the same story? Is this allowed?”

It lit me up inside. I wouldn’t shut up about it. I’d give it to people and say, “You have to read this! It’s like Shakespeare!”

I blush a little now, remembering that. It’s not the best comparison. It’s just that back then, Shakespeare was the best thing I’d ever read.

The truth is, Shakespeare wishes he wrote something this good.

* * *

But let’s back up a bit. I’d prefer to be fully honest here. I didn’t feel that way about Sandman immediately. Not right out of the gate.

I read this first graphic novel and liked it well enough. Preludes and Nocturnes is lovely. It introduces the world, the characters, there’s a nice little plot. Tension. Mystery. Hero’s Journey. Mythic underpinning. Decent to the underworld. Vengeance. Recovery of self. Got my RDA of all manner of awesome here. Cool.

Then I kept reading, and the storytelling got looser. But I was still happy. Shakespeare shows up. I dig that. And there’s faerie tales. And… What? Are we in Africa now? Wait, is someone telling a story about a story inside a story? Okay. That’s cool. I guess this series is more like a bunch of different stories? But they’re all interesting, so who really cares if they don’t really have much to do with each other…

Then I kept reading and there was a little plotline. And a new character or two. And… and… hold on. Wait. Does all this fit together? Has it all fit together from the beginning?

Has everything been leading to an ending?

Oh. Oh lord. I never knew a story could be like this.

**(End excerpt)**

There's more, of course. I do tend to go on a bit when it comes to books I love. But I'm guessing you get the gist of it.

If you read The Sandman back in the day, trust me, it's as good as you remember.

If you've never read The Sandman, this is the place to start. And trust me, it's absolutely worth your time.