graphic novels

Gaiman goes for diversity here, made especially clear by his choice in artists. And as with any mixed bag, you'll like some more than others. I prefer the clear lines of Milo Manara, P. Craig Russell, and Frank Quitely, and found Gaiman's storytelling more to my liking there than the abstract episodes (art by Bill Sienkiewicz and Barron Storey). The Delerium story is told in a delerious style, yes, I get it, but I'm not blown away. Glenn Fabry does the art for a tale that reminds me of those old EC science fiction stories - no real explanation, just an anomaly and human reactions fused in. I liked it. Miguelanxo Prado provides some Sandman backstory and depicts the Endless back in the day.

Would I recommend this book if you haven't read other Sandman books? No. But if you have, want more, want to see some beautiful art, and don't want to miss one of Gaiman's best stories ("What I've Known of Desire"), definitely take the time for this collection.

with high expectations, it was inevitable that i would be disappointed, i think. it's not that the stories are, in themselves, bad, because they're not. but they reminded me of the single issues in the sandman series, where the endless were a theme, a concept that held the story together, rather than the focus of the story. at times this works well. the best example of this is the barron storey illustrated 'fifteen portraits of despair'. with fifteen vignettes linked together through the notion of despair, it's easily the most successful and emotional story within the book. dave mckean also designed the page layouts.

but mostly, the stories feel like single issues taken from the larger run. the exception of this is the miguelanxo prado illustrated story 'the heart of a star' in which we are offered visions of delight, a dark death, and dream and desire being friends. it's easily the most interesting of the stories in the book, and i felt that these visions could have been expanded and linked outwards, to create a more cohesive whole. endless nights isn't a cohesive whole, in the way that graphic novels like mr punch or even the sandman: brief lives are. ultimately, this proves to be a weakness within the book as a whole.

what is more, is that when gaiman should have focused upon the endless characters more, as in delirium and destruction's linked stories, he doesn't. he walks around the edges of the story, focusing on the secondary characters, allowing the thematic nature of delirium, or destruction, to be the focus of the pieces. which is a shame, as none of the characters that gaiman presents outside the endless are as interesting as the endless themselves--and what is more, often the new characters presented by gaiman are related so closely to the thematic concerns of the endless, that they are one note characters, focused on death, or desire, or destruction, and so on and so forth.

this is not to say that the book isn't worth buying. the stories are all good--gaiman has reached a stage now where it's a rare day when he presents a dud story. and the art for each is, really, quite suited. it's had to image anyone by glenn fabry illustration 'on the peninsula', and in addition to that, it is easily the finest sequential work i've seen from fabry in years. even frank quitely, more suited to superheroes, finds his place in the final piece of the book, 'endless nights'.

endless nights is, i think, not that accessible to people who haven't read the previous works. there are two dreams, a destruction that isn't part of the endless, an early despair, an unhappy death, and a delight instead of a delirium. they all appear, outside a brief introduction from gaiman, without much explanation as to their place in the huge tapestry of the work--and indeed, perhaps that is its success and failure, because endless nights, ultimately, is a continuation of the sandman: seven new issues that follow upon the first seventy five or so.

For those of you ready to take the plunge in making purchase of this excellent graphic novel, do yourself a favor and spend the few extra bucks on the hardcover version. For starters the hardback is slightly oversized and the thick, glossy paperstock wonderfully frames every panel of this diverse and beautifully illutrated book.

Fans of Neil Gaiman will find much to be delighted about in this return to his beloved, 'Sandman,' series. Made up of 7 chapters, each chronicles one of the Endless (Death, Desire, Dream, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny) in a self-contained story superbly illustrated by a different artist. Particular standouts are Milo Manara's contributions in 'Desire,' the subdued tones of Miguelanxo Prado in 'Dream,' and Barron Storey and Dave McKean's gritty work in 'Despair.' As a volume of bonus material post-Sandman, this book is a wonderful treat for fans and certainly lives up to the quality we've come to expect from Gaiman and company.