Annotated Sandman Vol. 1 [Hardcover]

Leslie S. Klinger (Editor), Neil Gaiman (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: January 10, 2012 | Series: Sandman

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Meet the Endless, a family of immortals that govern all aspects of life and death throughout the universe. However, one of theirown lays captured--Dream, the Lord of Sleep. As Dream makes his escape and returns to his duties after 70 years of imprison-ment, he encounters countless characters from myth, legend and comics, from Lucifer himself to the tragic Greek hero Orpheusto the HELLBLAZER John Constantine.

New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo titleand one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyondlife and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Neil Gaiman is the NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author of AMERICAN GODS and CORALINE. His other books include the novels ANANSI BOYS, NEVERWHERE and STARDUST (winner of the American Library Association's Alex Awards as one of 2000's top ten adult novels for young adults) and the short fiction collections M IS FOR MAGIC, FRAGILE THINGS and SMOKE AND MIRRORS. With Roger Avary, he is the screenwriter of the motion picture BEOWULF (Paramount, November 2007), direct by Robert Zemeckis. His illustrated novel STARDUST was released as a major motion picture Summer 2007 starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro. With Terry Pratchett, he is the author of the novel GOOD OMENS. He is also the author of the children's books THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS and THE DAY I TRADED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH. Among his many awards are the Eisner, Hugo, the Nebula, the World Fantasy and the Bram Stoker. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo; Annotated edition (January 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401233325
• ISBN-13: 978-1401233327
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 1.5 x 12.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #429,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great idea, so-so execution. January 16, 2012

By W. Mudron

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a fan of annotated books (especially Les Klinger's "Annotated Dracula"), I was expecting a bit more from this volume - I understand why the comics in the collection were printed in black & white (aside from doubling the price of the book, color artwork would've demanded the book itself to've been printed on thicker paper resulting in a heavier, more unwieldy tome), but the lack of notes from Neil Gaiman himself is a weird oversight, especially considering that Gaiman wrote this book's introduction and edited/proofread Klinger's annotations.

Granted, some of Gaiman's editorials from the original print run of Sandman which document the creation of the comic are reproduced in the 'Annotated Sandman', and I respect Gaiman's decision to hand the writing of the annotations entirely over to Klinger, but the decisions to treat Gaiman as if he was dead and unavailable for comment (as mentioned in the book's introduction) was a strange decision that hamstrung the writing of this book, for if Gaiman HAD been dead, then Klinger would've been free to beef up the annotations with information about Gaiman's life and the creation of the Sandman series, but, seemingly out of respect for Gaiman, Klinger keeps his notes focused squarely on the text of the comics (which is rare for an annotated book like this) without any context about the who/what/how/why of the comics' creation, which can make for some pretty dry reading.

35 of 43 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed. January 14, 2012

By Crystina

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I share the opinion of the first poster and one star review. I had actually put off buying a copy of the Absolute Sandman for this book, as I wished it to be a be-all and end-all collection of the graphic novels for my library. Unfortunately, I found I'm going to have to spend the extra money on the other compilation. Amazon did not clearly communicate this book was in black and white and not full color, and as there were no peeks into the book I had no way of knowing from the description. The paper is somewhat rough and cheap feeling, definitely nowhere near the quality of a graphic novel or even the trade collections I own.

All in all, I'm not too terribly excited about this purchase. I expected there to be more discussions on the annotations as well. Perhaps I'll feel differently when I read the whole thing, but right now I'm definitely not intending to buy the other volumes, and I've not yet decided on whether I will send this back to Amazon for a refund.

EDIT: I've definitely decided to return this book. Going with my original choice and getting the Absolute volume instead. Yes, it's a little more money, but it's definitely worth the price, whereas this edition is not.

47 of 60 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Disappointed January 12, 2012

By Steve Jones

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not sure if my expectations were too high but this book was a big letdown.
Firstly the quality of the paper is akin to newsprint and it feels as if your fingers will turn black while reading.
Secondly the annotations are less than insightful. Was it necessary to note where the advert pages were in the original comic? What is the relevance of a character that was spotted in a scene that looks somewhat like a famous Princess from the Star Wars films?
Most pages have NOTHING on them and the rest of the notes seems like padding. I was looking more for references used by Mr Gaiman or his thought processes while writing as the author apparently interviewed Gaiman for an extended period.
If you're in need of a black and white (almost photocopy quality) version of Sandman 1-20 along with some asinine comments in the margins this book is for you.
Unfortunately this comes across as a further attempt by DC to milk the Sandman fans (and hence why Dave McKean has excluded himself from any further book redesign for this series). I will not be purchasing further volumes.

EDIT: I'd recommend reading Ralf Hildebrandt's annotations online over this.