I previously read these issues 1 - 16 that were collected in The Sandman Volumes "Preludes & Nocturnes" and "The Doll's House."

The first eight issues deal with Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, being imprisoned for the better part of the 20th Century by an occultist attempting to obtain immortality. The Dream Lord's objects of power were stolen while he was captive and he must recover them to rebuild his Dreamworld, which has fallen into ruin during his absence. Frankly, these issues are wildly uneven in tone as Gaiman tries to accommodate characters from DC comics. The issue "24 Hours" is one of the darkest, most horrific stories I've ever read, and Gaiman comes into his own by the last issue, where Dream follows his spunky sister, Death, as she goes about her tasks.

Issues 9 - 16 are more satisfying as they mostly contain a complete story arc about a young woman who unknowingly threatens to destroy the Dream Realm, as well as the connected story of how Dream must track down some wayward creations of his that escaped to reality during his captivity. A very scary convention of serial killers is featured in one issue, and there's also a charming standalone story of a man to whom Dream and Death grant immortality in order for Dream to visit every 100 years to see if he still craves life. We also meet Despair and the scheming Desire, two other siblings of Death and Dream.

New to me was the addition of a very long issue called "Sandman Midnight Theatre," a special issue of the comic book series "Sandman Mystery Theatre" that brought back Wesley Dodds, the original Sandman of the Golden-Age DC Comics. The rambling whodunnit ties into the tale of Morpheus when he was in captivity and works in a lot of pre-WWII European hypocrisy and depravity, romance and reunion with Dodd's partner Dian Belmont, and much self-reflection for the characters. ( )

The Audible dramatization of The Sandman was my gateway to the DC Comics originals. I got lost trying to follow the plot in the audiobook because I couldn’t see that it was a series of interconnected story arcs and standalone episodes. So I got a digital version of the graphic novel (book one) and suddenly everything fell into place. The comic book version added a visual structure that helped shape the stories and the audiobook gave them dramatic depth. The five stars I’m rating this says it all as far as how good it is; my review is just to suggest trying both versions of Neil Gaiman’s wildly imaginative horror/fantasy classic. ( )

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