The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections Author: Visit Amazon's Neil Gaiman Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1401231233 | Format: EPUB
The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections Description
- Paperback: 168 pages
- Publisher: Vertigo; New edition edition (September 6, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1401231233
- ISBN-13: 978-1401231231
- Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
In my mind, "The Sandman" is the greatest comic book to come along in the past 15 years or so. Neil Gaiman is such a great writer and brings so much into the mix that is Sandman. Of course, it's easy to do this when Sandman is the King Of Dreams, but the way Neil did it was truly magical. "Fables and Reflections" is perhaps my favorite of the Sandman collections because they are all self-contained stories that are all interesing in their own right. All the Sandman issues are great, but you cannot read only one chapter of "Brief Lives" or "Doll's House" to get the whole meaning. Because this collection is so varied, it would be a good place for new readers tom start. The Sandman storylines often jump around in time anyway, after all Dream has been around since the beginning of time and that is a lot of ground to cover! I should start off perhaps by explaining who the Sandman is. The Sandman goes by many names, but his given name is Dream and he is the king of dreams. He is one of the Endless, who are all older than Gods. The rest of the Endless are Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Destruction, and Delirium. Each of their names gives you a glimpse of what they are and what they do. Death, Delirium, Despair, and Desire pop up in this volume, as do other familiar charactewrs like Matthew the Raven. What distinguishes "Fables & Reflections" from other Sandman collections is that not only does it not follow a choesive story, but Dream is not directly involved in all the tales told here. Some of the tales are stories being told that involve the Dream King.
HB: "How did you come to name this collection FABLES AND REFLECTIONS?"
NG: "Actually, I didn't. What I wanted to call it is ACCOUNTS AND REFLECTIONS, but nobody at DC would let me. My thinking was that the book contained a set of stories about different elements intersecting titled CONVERGENCE, and a set of historical tales titled DISTANT MIRRORS, and 'accounts' would represent both things being totalled up, or coming together; and ancient tales being recounted. But DC felt all that title would do is make readers think of chartered accountancy."
- interview with Neil Gaiman in THE SANDMAN COMPANION, by Hy Bender
All stories herein were written by Neil Gaiman (Wolfe only wrote the introduction which was added for their publication in book form). Each involves characters telling stories, from a phobic modern playwright to Orpheus himself. Often the entire story is part of a character's reminiscences, such as Lady Joanna's journals. Each (apart from possibly "Fear of Falling") also involves the spirit of a very distinct *place* (Fiddler's Green even makes an appearance).
As for the artists - SANDMAN's typical practice was to team up artists with Gaiman for short storylines like these to get used to working together before tackling major story arcs. McManus worked on most issues of A GAME OF YOU (which was published between the CONVERGENCE and DISTANT MIRRORS storylines). Later, Thompson and Locke drew BRIEF LIVES, while Talbot and Buckingham worked on WORLDS' END.
"Fear of Falling" (illustrator: Kent Williams) Rather than appearing in SANDMAN proper, this story appeared in VERTIGO PREVIEW #1, which launched DC's VERTIGO imprint in 1993.
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