Preludes and Nocturnes

Preludes and Nocturnes collects Sandman Issues 1-8:
“Sleep and the Just”
“Imperfect Hosts”
“...Dream a Little Dream of Me”
“A Hope in Hell”
“Passengers”
“24 Hours”
“Sound and Fury”
“The Sound of Her Wings”

“Wake up, Sir”

The start of something beautiful. That phrase is the best way to describe Preludes and Nocturnes. The first book itself, isn't as nearly as elegantly written as the rest of the series, but that's okay. This is the beginning, the starting point. This is where the reader doesn't know what waits for them at the end of the road. At first glance, Preludes and Nocturnes could almost just be another Swamp Thing rip-off and in someways it kind of is. Neil Gaiman openly admits that Alan Moore's Swamp Thing was one of his main influences when starting the series and throughout the earlier issues, you see little hints of Swamp Thing here and there. But the thing is, Neil Gaiman isn't Alan Moore. Slowly his writing in the series started to improve and by the time you get to the very last issue “The Sound of Her Wings”, you realize what possibilities may lay ahead.

While though the first book may be rough around the edges, there is still some great stuff here. And even though many claim to say the first great issue of the series is “The Sound of Her Wings”, I tend to disagree. To me, the first time the series really grabbed me would have been two issues before that. “24 Hours” is probably one of the most terrifying issue of any comic I have ever read period. Watching strangers being trapped in a dinner and manipulated by a mentally deranged man into revealing all their secrets and desires and then just letting them revert back to animal behavior is absolutely terrifying. To me, this is when the series changed. What really made the issue so much different than all the ones before it? I personally believe that it was the lack of Dream. Neil Gaiman would do fill in type stories like this one in later issues and every time it would just work. That is one of the most interesting things about the Sandman series. Dream isn't necessarily the main character at all times. Sure, you are reading the epic story of Morpheus, The Sandman but you always get a glimpse of how his presence effects the rest of the world.

Before “24 Hours”, there are still great moments here and there. The first issue of the series is still a great introduction to the series and all the guest stars in this book are pretty nice as well and don't take away from the storytelling too much. We get to see Etrigan and John Constantine, both who were is Moore's Swamp Thing. While I feel that Gaiman may write Constantine a little different than Moore did, I still enjoy this interpretation of him. He seems a little more sympathetic and not as much of a manipulator as he was in Swamp Thing. Dream's journey into Hell isn't as epic as it is later in the series, but there are still moments that make up for that.

As a Sandman fan, I have always been very critical of Preludes and Nocturnes. After reading it a second time, I feel that maybe I was a little too harsh on the book. Sure it's not a great book but it's not a bad one either. It's still better than most. People reading it for the first time will probably still get wrapped up into the story and have the urge to carry on in the series and for those of us that have already read it, there is still little things here and there that we can get a kick out of. The fact that it's the weaker of the other Sandman books really proves that the series just got better and better as it went on. It may not be a wonderful start but it is definitely the start of something beautiful.