Fun and reflection – review of the comic “Sandman”, vol. 5 and 6

2022 is definitely the year of Sandman . Neil Gaiman’s award-winning work has finally hit the screens to mostly positive reviews. And after a relatively long wait, the second season was announced.

 

Will you be able to screen the whole thing? There’s a chance of that happening, but I think it’s small. Nevertheless, all those interested in how the plot unfolds should reach for the original, if they haven’t already done so. The more that the fifth and sixth volumes bring a lot of goodness in a specific Gaiman sauce. As if the story is already halfway through, and the British screenwriter continues to lead the reader by the nose and digress, expanding the threads of the third-plan characters.

Fun, fun

The fifth volume, Playing You , focuses on Barbie. The reader could have met her earlier, in A Doll’s House , although her role there was quite insignificant. Recently, Barbie managed to part with Ken and move to New York, where she is trying to reorganize her life. However, quite unexpectedly, she is drawn into the Land – a place where she was in her dreams as a little girl. Unfortunately, the once fairy-tale reality is now consumed by conflict and the former companions of Princess Barbara (as Barbie was called here) are the remnants of the resistance movement.

It’s all reminiscent of a dark version of Narnia, and it’s wonderfully grotesque. The presented world is still inhabited by characters invented by a child – a parrot, a rat, a monkey, but everything that is worst can happen to them. A return to childhood dreams for most authors would be a canvas for idyllic descriptions, and Gaiman distorts this idea completely. This is additionally intriguing, because it is another story in which there is very little of the title Ancient One and it is absolutely not a problem.

9 in 1

Volume Six, Reflections and Parables, stands on the other side of the spectrum of Gaiman’s stories. Instead of a single thread, the comic is an anthology – each of the nine issues tells a separate story. Gaiman thus shines with creativity again, because he can pull out a historical curiosity and weave his ideas and characters into it. That’s why I liked the story of Joshua Abraham Norton, the self-proclaimed first emperor of the United States – I had never heard of him before, and his life is fascinating. In addition, the screenwriter about the French Revolution (devouring its children, of course), about the habit of Octavian Augustus to dress up as a beggar once a year, or about Orpheus, Sandman’s son. Each of the notebooks brings something unique, although – as before – Morpheus is rarely the main character.

Kaleidoscope

The differences between the volumes are also visible in the graphic layer. Playing you because it is a unified story was drawn and colored mostly by Shawn McManus – only in one issue he was replaced by Colleen Doran. Reflections and Parables, on the other hand, is a kaleidoscope of artists and their individual styles. Each of the nine stories was illustrated by someone else, and only colorist Daniel Vozzo is their common denominator (though not in all cases). Paradoxically, with such a large number of artists, I still haven’t found any whose line would suit me completely. Nevertheless, I’ve already got used to Vertigo’s style and the areas where the artists working for him turned.

Good night

These are the two volumes. If one expects a linear story and a continuation of the story from previous volumes, then Gaiman does not deliver. Because it doesn’t have to. He has the courage and, moreover, the idea to tell the story in his own way. I can imagine how difficult this material is to film, although at the same time in the first season the side plots gave the greatest satisfaction. I hope we’ll all find out about it. If not, it’s always a great original.