Reviews

Annotated Sandman Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman

babyfacedoldsoul's review against another edition

5.0

I absolutely adored this. I've been a fan of Sandman for years and this was very informative. It had been awhile since I read Dream Country and I fell in love with it all over again. I highly recommend this for all Sandman fans.

noranorasolosolo's review against another edition

informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

Folks who complain about this book clearly aren't taking into account Les Klinger’s unparalleled work annotating Sherlock Holmes and Dracula being at the top of its game. I think they simply wanted Gaiman’s scripts for Sandman which he won’t release (as indicated in this book). Gaiman does offer some insights (through the scripts which Klinger uses as ‘his’ commentary) but many of the facts reiterated are often simply from The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender & Neil Gaiman. I love the sheer depth of citation that comes with the annotations. All of the “the following page is an ad” complaints are met with Klinger’d inclusion of Gaiman’s conscious knowledge of where ads sat in the publications, the way television writers know where the commercial breaks are so they can control pacing and the shock(s) of being reminded capitalism exists. The pages and panels which have been chopped up and refined away from their pages (and ads) for volume productions are also noted, which makes the graphic novel edge-art more appealing in my opinion. I hope I can find adequately-priced editions of the other three volumes.

mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition

3.0

Heavy. A real challenge to read. And not nearly enough of the annotations. And too many of non-useful ones. My favorite annotations are actually the comic references. The Sandman references were also nice but when they were referencing would have been more useful if had been using volume numbers. This book was all in black and white, which actually worked pretty well, but in general I prefer color. It was kind of a fun Sandman re-read and I do expect to continue. But hard to read.

erichart's review against another edition

5.0

Leslie Klinger's notes give added depth and detail to Neil Gaiman's masterpiece. Klinger goes over every reference Gaiman has pulled from mythology, literature and pop culture to build a complex, multi-layered graphic novel. Warning: the art is printed in black & white. Sometimes this even works in making the contrast sharper, in a stark chiaroscuro. But some stories, such as Midsummer's Night Dream, lose their beautiful coloring.

bosermoki's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kjboldon's review against another edition

3.0

surprisingly not that illuminating or as comprehensive as I'd've thought. doesn't add much more than what's in Hy Benders book. many unannotated pages, and black paper shows fingerprints. BUT the black and white reproduction of the comic is lovely.

blurrybug's review against another edition

4.0

This was weird.
Confusing, touching and kinda gross at times, or gory rather.
The Annotations was kinda wasted on me, the write small writing was difficult for me to read so I only looked at it if I was confused by anything.
I might continue this but not with the annotations.

I'm just left wanting more to understand it and not wanting more cause I didnt understand so much of it...

rhiannatherad's review against another edition

4.0

Happy to finally read this...if only the library's copy wasn't missing a bunch of torn out pages.

rouver's review against another edition

4.0

Seeing Neil Gaiman's annotations, thoughts, & notes accompanying the stories from Sandman was pretty interesting. If you haven't read the comics, I would not recommend these volumes, as the annotations give spoilers. Disappointingly, these are also black & white....you'll want to read the comics in color. I can appreciate that printing these tomes would have rendered them exorbitantly expensive.

philipf's review against another edition

3.0

Interesting, but the annotations, especially the ones detailing trivia from comic books feel incomplete, and in a couple of places, are just plain wrong.