The Sandman, and stuff I love about it.

The Sandman has had a big influence in me for the past month.

The Sandman is a series of comics about the stories and the journies of this character, The Sandman, who also goes by Morhpeus, Dream, Dream Lord, Dream King, Orhpeus, and many many many more throughout the era's of humanity.

Something I've been really really wanting to talk about is the artstyle of the comics. Here's some examples:

ID: Morpheus waving to a man cinging onto the cliff he is standing on

ID: Morpheus wearing a loose robe stretching and holding an hour glass

ID: Morpheus wearing a shirt and jeans floating through space

ID: Morpheus' side profile wearing a shirt and jeans, with his raven asking "What shall we do, Lord?"

I guess we could call it a comic book style, but there is another aspect about it thats not just comic book style. It's the expressionism, the sketchy, messily drawn style. I don't know if there is a proper term for these combined art-styles, so I've taken the liberty to call it "Fever Dream style".

I absolutely adore this style. The art is expressionistic, messily drawn like they didn't bother with sketches and just went straight in with pen. It's flat colored, with no special shading, all the shadows are filled in or scribbled with straight black. It's strange, it looks very messy but the use of flat colors also gives it a clean look. Very confusing. The reason I call it "Fever Dream Style" is because, well, it's how I'd imagine the blurry memory of dreams would look like if you turned it into comics, and of course, it fits the theme.

Another thing I noticed is the constant change and distortion of facial features. Throughout reading the novels you will find that their faces always look slightly different, you can still tell who is who, but their faces distort and reshape throughout the series. I find it very pleasing, since faces also distort in dreams, and since these are all in the perspective of the Dream lord, and since the Dream lord himself is a walking dream, it makes total and utter sense for everything to be nonsense. I like that.

Unfortunately however, the series doesn't capture that feeling of expressionism the same way drawings do. Do not get me wrong, I love the series, It's how I got into The Sandman in the first place. I love Tom Sturridge's presentation and acting of Morpheus, and he was very believable, making you feel he was really Dream in disguise. He's also very attractive, if I do say so myself. However, imagine my revalation when I started reading the comics that Dream looks so much cooler, elegant but crazier in the comics. Here's what he looked like in the series:

ID: Morpheus looking like he's about to burst into tears

ID: Morpheus wearing some sexy leather

ID: Morpheus again looking like he's about to burst into tears

ID: Confused Morpheus

Now believe me its close. Unbelievably so. However, if you asked me which one shows the "emo, walking diety, a walking dream, a king of light and hope and fear", I would say the comic. If you asked me which one looks more like a tumblr blorbo, a loser boy personality, a sexyman on the brink of crying, I would say the series. Although, the loser boy personality and the tumblr blorbo is in both I would say aswell.

Now if you asked me which one is my favorite, well then thats a hard question. I love both dearly, ever so much. I love that in the series, you could hear him. Tom Sturridge's voice is amplified, and its deep, smooth, velvety. Like the finest black silk from the edges of the east. I love how he portrays the Dream King's personality. Strong, but also has many fears, smart, but not wise, beautiful and elegant, but also somewhat messy and casual deep down. The comic however, I think shows these aspects in a similar, but more expressionistic way. The series only has 1 season so far, showing volumes 1 and 2, so I guess you could say my judgement may be biased when I choose the comic version as my favorite, since I have read until volume 6, but believe me, if you engross yourself in the comics, you will fall in love with The Sandman in an entirely different way. Although live action shows you things you may never understand in the comics, the comics gives you the feel of actually being in a dream, the artstyle, the writing, the characters, the plotlines, they are all so deep and meaningful that I'd have to recommend you the comics before the series. However, I would still suggest both highly, and my difference in love for them is merely at an atomic scale, if you didn't ask me hard enough, you probably wouldn't have known that I prefer the comics just that slightest bit more.

Let's talk a little more on Dream as a character. If you've read at least until volume 6, or even just watched the series, you'd know as I've mentioned, that he's a loser boy. There's no fighting it for me. He is always on the brink of a mental breakdown to me, he's frightingly arrogant, scarily powerful, but somehow an extreme trainwreck when it comes to relationships. Which I find kind of funny, that a man who has seen every memory, every conscious and unconscious wish, has no idea how to handle emotions, even though a memory is nothing but made of emotions. He wouldn't have a job if it weren't for emotions. He is made of memories, as the poets would say.

One of his first relationships ever, or at least first relationship mentioned in the book, is a human woman named Nada. They fell in love and all of that, but when she rejected him to becoming his queen, he literally banished her to hell. It took him 10,000 years to realize that that was a dick move, and released her. I mean, what an absolutely crazy and frightneing punishment for rejecting someone. Dream is hateful, some would even consider villanous, at least, in the beginning. It's important to keep reading if you really want to study Dream as a character, because as you keep reading, you find he changes drastically. For example in this panel:

ID: Panel where Dream tells Nuala that she did the right thing

Nuala is new to the Dream realm and her new job as a dream, and she took it upon herself to warn a certain dreamer about what's coming to them. Although of course, this was not the Dream Lord's orders, so she also took it upon herself to tell him herself, even with the great fear that she would be punished. At first, Dream is cold once again, and Nuala worries if she caused problems, and if this had been long ago, where Dream has not yet learned, or before he was captured by Rodrick Burgees, he'd probably punish her to eternal darkness or something, or give her an earful about how he decideds how things go, but now, today, after he had learned so much, today that is now the new era of the dreaming, the Dream Lord turns around, and tells Nuala she did the right thing, and it could've still been in that cold voice of his, but it's better, and nicer than he has ever been before, and Nuala smiles with satisfaction.

I get it, compared to his literal millenia of life, it was only now that he had been kind? Well, yes. Although, to me, change is change, and this was a good one. Compared to his lifetime, the feat is small, but compared to him, this change is an achievement bigger than the universe.

Dream is a king, but deep down he's just a regular guy. Thats what I love about him.