Sandman: Endless Nights - 09/18/03 12:30 PM
OK, so I'm sure I'm not the only person who rushed off to the comic shop yesterday to get a copy of this, but no-where does anyone seem to be discussing it. So....
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Well I have to admit I haven't finished reading all the stories yet (still got the Despair and Destruction ones to read) because I wanted to read each story at seperate times so as to really savour them. But I shall whitter about the ones I have read.
First off though the art. By gods, the art. Now when I saw the list of artists and the preview pages at the DC site I knew that we were in for some damn good stuff. Even that didn't prepare me for how good it is though. Obviously P Craig Russell stood out for me (but Russell is probably my favourite comic artist so that's no big surprise) but Glen Fabry amazed me with his Destruction story because all I've ever seen from him before were his Preacher covers and here his art is given so much more of a chance to shine. You get to see his subtlty and his detail and everything in a full length story.
Both the Dream and Desire stories look fabulous too. Perfectly suited to the stories they were telling and just beautiful to look at as pieces of art in their own right. The Despair and Delerium stories are very cool too, very different but again perfectly suited to the tales. The big shot of Del's face in her story is stunning.
And I have to admit it, even though I hate Frank Quitely normally his Destiny story is actually very good. i think possibly because he draws brilliant backgrounds and stuff and it's his people I don't like. the story plays to his strengths in a big way and so ends up being very good and a really nice way to round off the book.
OK, and then of course there's the stories themselves. I think (just from one reading) that the Desire one is probably my favourite. The Death story has my favourite art but I think desire just takes the prize for the story. Pretty simple but so damn clever and satisfying. You read the last line and just sort of go 'oooh'. It's a perfectly complete story told with a really great handle on when not to say something as well as when to say it.
I loved the Dream story in it's own right too but it has to be said that it was the one most obviously written for the fans. Getting to see the Endless when they were still young was great. We get to see the first Despair (who has only ever been mentioned before now) and Delerium when she was still Delight. Plus Death before she got happy and Dream and Desire being best friends. As with a lot of Sandman stories Delight/Delerium stole the story again. I loved the fact that she still had the wonky word baloons with the rainbow colours but slightly less extreme, and that her character was so close to when she's Delerium but just different enough for you to appreciate the change that she went through. I also loved the nods to the regular DCU, the whole Green Flame thing and Despair talking Rao into putting life on Krypton and the whole 'sole survivor of the race' thing. heh.
So tonight I'm going to go home and read the last few stories, and then probably re-read all the others as well. In fact I might have to have a bit of a Sandman weekend and read the collected editions too.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
P
A
C
E
Well I have to admit I haven't finished reading all the stories yet (still got the Despair and Destruction ones to read) because I wanted to read each story at seperate times so as to really savour them. But I shall whitter about the ones I have read.
First off though the art. By gods, the art. Now when I saw the list of artists and the preview pages at the DC site I knew that we were in for some damn good stuff. Even that didn't prepare me for how good it is though. Obviously P Craig Russell stood out for me (but Russell is probably my favourite comic artist so that's no big surprise) but Glen Fabry amazed me with his Destruction story because all I've ever seen from him before were his Preacher covers and here his art is given so much more of a chance to shine. You get to see his subtlty and his detail and everything in a full length story.
Both the Dream and Desire stories look fabulous too. Perfectly suited to the stories they were telling and just beautiful to look at as pieces of art in their own right. The Despair and Delerium stories are very cool too, very different but again perfectly suited to the tales. The big shot of Del's face in her story is stunning.
And I have to admit it, even though I hate Frank Quitely normally his Destiny story is actually very good. i think possibly because he draws brilliant backgrounds and stuff and it's his people I don't like. the story plays to his strengths in a big way and so ends up being very good and a really nice way to round off the book.
OK, and then of course there's the stories themselves. I think (just from one reading) that the Desire one is probably my favourite. The Death story has my favourite art but I think desire just takes the prize for the story. Pretty simple but so damn clever and satisfying. You read the last line and just sort of go 'oooh'. It's a perfectly complete story told with a really great handle on when not to say something as well as when to say it.
I loved the Dream story in it's own right too but it has to be said that it was the one most obviously written for the fans. Getting to see the Endless when they were still young was great. We get to see the first Despair (who has only ever been mentioned before now) and Delerium when she was still Delight. Plus Death before she got happy and Dream and Desire being best friends. As with a lot of Sandman stories Delight/Delerium stole the story again. I loved the fact that she still had the wonky word baloons with the rainbow colours but slightly less extreme, and that her character was so close to when she's Delerium but just different enough for you to appreciate the change that she went through. I also loved the nods to the regular DCU, the whole Green Flame thing and Despair talking Rao into putting life on Krypton and the whole 'sole survivor of the race' thing. heh.
So tonight I'm going to go home and read the last few stories, and then probably re-read all the others as well. In fact I might have to have a bit of a Sandman weekend and read the collected editions too.