neil gaiman sandman preludes and nocturnes

Kieth's Dream is a sallow and aged figure, whereas Dringenberg softens his features a little and gives him a more casual modern-day outfit, igniting generations' worth of cosplay material in the process.ĭaniel Vozzo's coloring dates these issues the most, with a harsh and contrasting style that works best in the gloom of night but can be visually jarring in bright of day. Of course, Dringenberg's real contribution is the one he makes to Dream himself. This is most obvious for Death's debut in #8, which is paradoxically the lightest in tone of this first collection of stories. His cleaner and crisper illustration style immediately make itself known, replacing Kieth's funhouse mirrors with a fashion-conscious and almost seductive pseudo-reality. Mike Dringenberg inks Kieth throughout with a heavy hand, blotting out huge sections of black to lend both depth and a gothic sensibility to the page.įrom the sixth issue onwards, Mike Dringenberg swaps his pen for a pencil. It is this intricate and alienating style that carries the more horrifying elements of Gaiman's script. His characters are craggy and scowling, with furrowed brows and sunken eyes. Kieth often frames the scene with ornate borders to match the antiquity of the series' protagonist and shapes his panels into bubbles looking outwards into a distorted world. There's an independent, punky feel to these early issues a scrappy aesthetic not usually seen in a premium series.

1: PRELUDES & NOCTURNES New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series THE SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. And yet his scratchy work only enhances the mental agony that Gaiman describes. Neil Gaiman's seminal series, THE SANDMAN, celebrates its 30th anniversary with an all-new edition of THE SANDMAN VOL.

Sam Kieth's pencils are imperfect, wildly varying in model, and often with technically incorrect perspective or scale. That otherworldliness is brought home by the two pencillers at work on these eight issues. (Image credit: Sam Kieth/Mike Dringenberg/Daniel Vozzo (DC))

Neil gaiman sandman preludes and nocturnes