The weight and emotional draw of the Brief Lives narrative arc is massive, serving perhaps as the long awaited catharsis for Dream’s inner anguish. Yet it also offers something new, albeit profound: Dream has changed,… [more]

Sandman’s Brief Lives follows closely with its former, titular predecessor penned by John Aubrey. His work, which compiles the veritable who’s who of the Western Enlightenment from 17th century Europe, succeeds at creating a window… [more]

Investigating the corpus of Gaiman’s literary contributions draws fruitful results when contemplating his creative process. Earlier works often foreshadow later ones, the latter being throwbacks to ideas at their genesis, now fully developed theses. American… [more]

Through the Sandman, one recurring theme endures that tempers the fantasy offered by Gaiman and his titular protagonist. This is deconstructing the fantastic and popularizing ancient tales into pedestrian  tongues. He is contextualizing tales culturally… [more]

“How does the story end?” is a legitimate, but not often enough asked, inquiry of our narratives. Imagine any fairy tale. The Tortoise and the Hare embodies the weathered adage, “slow and steady wins the… [more]

Corporeality is overrated in the comic book multiverse. Grant Morrison’s theoretical conceptualizations of the infinite reality have interwoven themselves through the vein of modern storytelling, but Gaiman’s play on this concept is also well documented… [more]

Worthy expressions of folk myth are few and far between in the mainstream media, but persist as the most iconic means of contemporary storytelling. At the conclusion of A Game Of You, Gaiman introduces a… [more]

Mirrors show us a reflection and repose in stasis. We can reflect upon it, perhaps adjust our appearance to fit our whim, but ultimately the mirror captures more than just personal imagery—it captures our essence.… [more]

Obligation to duty is an odd way of exacting revenge for a condemned archangel. Thus far in Season of Mists, Gaiman’s philosophy of duty and right work ethic encircles the conundrum of Lucifer’s Miltonian Hell,… [more]

In the forward to The Absolute Sandman, Volume One Paul Levitz quipped that Sandman was an unfolding dialectic that narrowed the lines between folk tale and myth. Since the beginning of this  narrative, Levitz speculated… [more]

Conventions exist to bring people together, even serial killers. At least that is the spin put on them in Sandman #14: “Collectors.” Those familiar with Gaiman’s catalog can attest to the diversity of his corpus,… [more]

The words of John Donne’s Death be not Proud are Neil Gaiman’s badge of honor. “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful for thou art not so,” the emboldened meter… [more]

Paul Levitz once said Sandman is about storytelling, and the point by which it vacillates between mere tales and pithy sayings to the grand myth it is today. DC is full of heroes, truth be… [more]