The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano, "Sandman: The Dream Hunters"

Started February 9 � Finished February 9, 2002; 132 pages. Posted 9 February 2002

Have you ever avoided something just because you see the other people who like it? I have.(Strange that this should come up so soon after admitting I bought Philip K. Dick for the same reason.)

That�s how it was for me and The Sandman series. Seeing so many people talk about how much they loved the comic with the same vehemence that they talked about Morrissey � usually in the same breath � well, I just figured no thanks.

Finally, one girl I was dating traded comics with me. I gave her Daredevil, she gave me the Sandman series. I will admit when I�m wrong, which fortunately doesn�t happen very often. These were really good. To bad she wasn�t.

But they�re also really expensive, so I still don�t have all the issues. I patiently wait for the trade paperbacks to come through the store, but I�m still missing at least three issues. In the meantime, I pick up occasional related stuff. "Dream Hunters" came out after the series ended. It�s not a Graphic Novel per se, as Gaiman explains in his postscript. Really, it�s more of an illustrated novella.

Actually, it�s not really much of a Sandman novella, as the King of the Dreaming only makes a slight appearance in the middle, and then again near the end. The rest is just a retelling of an old Japanese folk tale. Amano�s illustrations are lush but at the same time strangely flat, and as happens all too often with illustrations, the art doesn�t match the present point of the novel.

But it�s a fairly good story, though there�s a lot of sex for people who are supposed to be Buddhist monks who, to my understanding, are supposed to abstain to achieve the higher points on the Wheel of Suffering. It certainly makes me suffer when I abstain.

Bottom line: good, but they issued this in hardcover for 35 bucks, which is WAY too much. So...


Rating: Work in a used bookstore and get it cheap(er).

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