[ SECRET POST #2671 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2671 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Friending thread in GC!

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 077 secrets from Secret Submission Post #382.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[feotakahari]

I lasted up to the last story of the first collected volume--I think I'd just gotten past the defeat of that former joke villain who'd gotten a magical gemstone and was using it to do horrible things to people. I feel like it was trying to use blood and guts to create a tone and sensibility that Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing created more effectively with much less gore.

[cushlamochree]

That's a reasonably accurate characterization of the first volume, but I don't think it's accurate as regards the series as a whole.

It's always going to have a bit of darkness and even a bit of edginess, but it gets toned down a lot after the first volume - or at least, there's a lot more tonal variation, so that while that stuff is there, it's broken up by other stuff. Might be worth giving the next volume another try if the mood catches you (I think it's also just better than Preludes and Nocturnes). Actually, doesn't the first volume have the issue with Dream and Death hanging out in the park, or am I misremembering? What did you think of that one?

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, doesn't the first volume have the issue with Dream and Death hanging out in the park, or am I misremembering?

I think that's actually the Death one-shot, which I am too lazy to get from my bookshelf to get the actual name of. I could be wrong, but I thought so?

[vethica]

No, it's the very last chapter in the first volume.

[(Anonymous)]

No, it's issue #8, "The Sound of Her Wings," definitely in the first collection.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

I think it depends on which edition you pick up.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

The first story arc was pretty firmly still a DC Universe thing. The series didn't get its stride until well into the second arc.

[ginainthekingsroad]

I agree with cushlamochree, the first volume isn't particularly indicative of the rest of the series. It sets up a few of the major characters and overarching themes (change, revenge, hope) but later stories will have a considerably different tone and less horror. It's definitely a series that takes a little while to find its voice (indeed, most people cite "The Sound of Her Wings" as where Sandman starts to really be Sandman), so I can understand not wanting to stick with it after just that volume. Obviously you don't have to read on if you don't want to, but there's more to it than that.

The other thing is that when it ran in the '90s, aside from like Moore's Swamp Thing stuff (as you said), there wasn't a ton of material like it. So reading it today, it does come off as less fresh and innovative than it was at the time.

[cushlamochree]

The other thing is that when it ran in the '90s, aside from like Moore's Swamp Thing stuff (as you said), there wasn't a ton of material like it. So reading it today, it does come off as less fresh and innovative than it was at the time.

This is a good point! It was edgy at a time when edgy was still an edgy thing to be.

Of course, that's not in itself a sufficient reason for reading it now - if you don't enjoy it, it doesn't matter whether it was innovative or not. But I still really like it anyway.

[truxillogical]

The other thing is that when it ran in the '90s, aside from like Moore's Swamp Thing stuff (as you said), there wasn't a ton of material like it. So reading it today, it does come off as less fresh and innovative than it was at the time.

That's a big part of it. Of almost any classic of any medium, really. Something being an early example of a certain style or genre, it really is groundbreaking and new...until it isn't anymore.

I think it's also worth remembering that it was such an early work for him too, and that UK comics had a much different feel than US comics (they still do a bit, but at the time, it was way more pronounced, a certain style they all shared). But he really was barely more than a teenager writing early Sandman, IIRC.

[(Anonymous)]

He had just turned 28 (born November 1960) when Sandman #1 was published in December 1988. But it is definitely an early and career-defining work for him; it was just journalism, a few short stories, and Black Orchid before it.

[truxillogical]

Oh lord. ... I turn 29 in a month.

...scuze me, I have a something-life-crisis to go through. Some wall-staring and sobbing may be in order.

[(Anonymous)]

'The other thing is that when it ran in the '90s, aside from like Moore's Swamp Thing stuff (as you said), there wasn't a ton of material like it. So reading it today, it does come off as less fresh and innovative than it was at the time.'

I know everyone is quoting this but it just such an apt description of so many of these old works. I mean, I really don't like Preacher but, if you ask someone who read it when it was new, they rave about because it was soooo different.

[(Anonymous)]

The last story of the first volume is the worst thing in the entire series. I'm glad I persisted past it but I hate it so much.