Neil Gaiman's, The Sandman

The Sandman is a comic book series written by Neil Gaimen(of Coraline and Stardust fame) and published by DC comics under the imprint Vertigo. The series chronicles a fraction of the life of Dream(the personification or anthropomorphic form of Dreams, ideas and imagination) of The Endless, a set of beings that together represent all of the 7 key aspects of existence. The Sandman is the recipient of countless awards including the honor of being the only comic ever to win the World Fantasy Award along with being one of the three comics to ever be on The New York Times Bestseller List (along with Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns) and it deserves every single one twice over.
There are so many things to say about this wonderfully intelligent and deep comic series, I don't even know where to begin, but I'll do my best to try. Every panel is deep and full of detail and color, every character is unique, colorful, and important, and each story arc has greater depth of discovery and importance than the last. I think all I can really do is do one of my Pros and Cons(if I can find any) list because I can go on for pages about this comic so lets begin shall we....

Pros:
You've gotta have Smarts probably one of the aspects of this comic I like the most is that you have to be educated to even get what's going on.As a small example you have to understand the countless metaphors and philosophical statements strewn throughout, have at LEAST a basic knowledge of mythology and literature-mostly Shakespearian and other main stream DC comics but there is a long list of book references and I'm sure there were a few I missed as well -.
All-Star Cameos: I won't really go in-depth here as it would ruin the little surprises this series has to offer, but I can tell you that the list is GARGANTUAN spanning from Bast to John Constantine(yes THE John Constantine)
Great Moments There definitely a small buildings worth of moments that either made you go "oooo", "aahhh" or "wow" and "damn". Let me tell you from the first time this happens to the last time you'll be hooked like its heroin.
The Art: When I say the art I don't just mean the Panel by Panel art I mean EVERYTHING. Every little detail in every character, in the backdrops,every emotion was felt and not just seen because each artist that came thru and contributed to the series(Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, Todd Klein, Robbie Busch, and Dave McKean) loved what they were doing and it really shows almost all the way throughout. The other thing I really enjoyed was the obscure cover art here are some of the ones I could find on the net. 

 Story and Genre Evolution Yet another part of the series to applaud. Starting as a tale of horrors and revenge The Sandman grows into a story of worlds and people then into a tale pure fantasy and personal conflict and inevitably into a tale of redemption. That seems like a lot of jumping but it all moved in a way that made perfect sense, props to you Neil Gaimen.
One of a Kind There is and will probably never be anything like this series, it is truly one of a kind and top of whatever class its in

Cons:
Dumb-proof As I said before, if you aren't educated or smart you will not get this
If you wanted Bayhem Look elsewhere this is definitely not an Action title in ANY way. As action is unnecessary , the Series is more Kubrick than anything else anyway
Conclusion Art This kind of goes against what I said before but its not all that big of an issue. In the second to last story arc, the art (still god like in detail and depth) kinda turns cartoony but this is more than made up for in the last arc with which is the best art in the series

Being my first comic/graphic novel review this was a rather daunting task for me but I hope it was informative for you and I really truly do hope that you set aside any stereotypes or qualms you might have against comics and read this. Not only as a great comic work but a great work of fiction

Regretfully Yours*,
Rex






*I wrote this when it was dated, obviously some maturing commenced between now and then, but still point out grammatical errors and shit like that will yah internet? I'll tune it.