Customer Reviews

Sandman by Kirby and Simon

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The good news is DC is giving us access to another 1940's hero. Since I was a kid I have heard of the Simon and Kirby Sandman, but could not find (or afford) these comics. DC a couple of years ago did an archive edition of the Sandman (see Golden Age Sandman Archives, I recommend it too), but it did not get as far as the Simon and Kirby years. I am glad to see these stories. The stories are written OK for being 1940's material. If you're new to 1940 comics you will find the stories in this comic era are generally are not as well plotted or well written as the stories of today. Sometimes older comic stories are almost not readable. As I stated the readability of the Sandman stories here are OK.

The problem with this book is the art. It is neither a recreate or reprint scan of the original work. Recreated art has an artist interpret the original work. Depending on the artist doing this (or their contract, example Disney has strict guidelines for reconstruction of color with their old comics to capture the original visual impact) it may or may not be very accurate. Reprint scans do minor cleaning up of the art, but may not be very pretty to look at because of the primitive printing technology used and the deterioration the comics have suffered over time.

DC has used a hybrid scan approach with Sandman. Generally the yellow text boxes have been retouched (example page 19 and 20) in the book. Also the Sandman's yellow uniform in some places looks as its been retouched too, see page 19 and 20 again. The color where it has been retouched is smooth and continuous. The other art in the book is generally muddy and you can see the original printer dots.

What surprised me was how bad the art in the last story was. This story is from 1974. The colors are muddy and you see printer color dots galore. I compared this with the Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus volumes (which I recommend as great set of books). These comics were drawn around the same time as the last Sandman story. The color in the Omnibus books is crisp and the art has been fully reconstructed in these books. The Sandman's last story art is especially disappointing when you compare it to the Omnibuses.

Likely the art approach used in the Sandman was done to visually improve the art and also save money by only doing a partial recreation of the art. The bad thing is this hybrid art scan approach creates art that is now a 21st century interpretation of the 1940's work. You are not getting the impact of the original art work! Well at least the stories were not rewritten.

DC needs to clean up their act when publishing older comics (e.g. don't blame the book's restorer, Rick Keene, for the mess. He has done great jobs in the past, like the DC Archive series. He was likely contracted by DC to do the Sandman book this way). DC has brazenly published a string of badly restored comics in the last year; examples Starman Archives 2, Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore, and now the Sandman. DC - where has your focus on publishing quality gone?

DC you're lucky to get two stars here...

Sandman is undoubtedly a goofy strip. Though often compared to Batman & Robin, these Sandman and Sandy stories have more in common with Will Eisner's Spirit. Colorful villains and wacky supporting characters more often than not steal the show from our titular heroes.

And thank God that Dr. Frederick Wertham never sunk his teeth into them. Wes Dodds and Sandy Hawkins seem to fight less for the cause of justice than for the simple thrill of swinging around in tights. In their off hours, Sandy emulates Wes' style of dress and the two of them even share a bedroom. Eep!

But seriously, this is great stuff, full of verve and energy, created by two of the greatest masters of the medium just as they were coming into their own. Sure, the stories aren't complex, and some of the weird action - like Sandman, Sandy and a bunch of cops dressing up in animal skins to fool some crooks, who somehow fall for the gambit - makes no sense whatsoever.

But man, there is never a dull moment. These guys could pack more fun into 8 pages than most modern comics give you in 8 months.

Now the downside, and the reason I give the book 4 stars instead of 5: the restoration work done on the art is pretty awful.

I understand that the original art and film are long gone, thus forcing them to rely on scans of printed books. Perhaps not even the originals; these may be reprints of reprints for all I know.

But the production work is lackluster at best and bad at worst. The colors are all dark and muddy, not the bright, garish colors of American comics Golden Age. In a few places the printing is downright muddy.

And I'm surprised that even the 1970s story at the end is scanned from a printed book, as evidenced by blurbs like "continued on third page following" that appear throughout. Surely film should still exist for a book so recent?

The restoration is done by Digikore, a studio located in India, with whom I've worked in the past. It's a sure sign they were concerned more with cost than quality on this project. You have to really sit on them to get things done right, and clearly no one was doing that here.

The book is well worth a read, but it's a shame they didn't spend a few extra bucks on production and expend a little loving care to do it right. This isn't a book that's going to fly off the shelves in the hands of newbie fans. Those of us who care enough about Simon & Kirby's Sandman to buy the book are likely to care enough to pay a little more to see it done right.

Some minor quibbles about the reproduction here - the book is composed of scans from old comic books that could have been corrected a bit better, but overall if you are a fan of Simon & Kirby (and what super-hero enthusiast isn't?), this book is a "must have" for your bookshelf.

It contains all of the stories & covers S&K produced for DC Comics for their revamp of the Golden Age hero "Sandman." It includes all his appearances in Adventure Comics as well as two appearances in World's Finest and the last teaming of these two titans of the four-color world in the 1970's when they revived Sandman for a one-shot comic. The only appearances not included are two stories the duo produced for All-Star Comics - omitted because they were simply chapters in book-length Justice Society of America adventures.

I love the paper DC has selected for this edition. It's much closer to the look and feel of actual comic book paper - which also means it holds the colors better than most of the stock for these hardcover editions.

If you aren't a fan of Simon & Kirby, why not? Their slam-bang, in your face action style is what really laid the groundwork for the Marvel Comics revolution of the 1960's.

If you are a fan, then I only have one final question. What are you waiting for? Order this book today!

The 1930s and 1940s are often described as the 'Golden Age' of comics. But this was truer of the comic *strips* that appeared in newspapers rather than of the comic *books*.

Set against the mastery of Hal Foster (Prince Valiant, Vol. 1: 1937-1938), Alex Raymond (Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Vol. 1 (Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon)), Milton Caniff (The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1: 1934-1936), Chester Gould (Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Volume 8 (v. 8)), or Harold Gray (Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume 1 (Complete Little Orphan Annie)) the script and the art of the comic books seem, frankly, second-rate.

Even Jack, "the King", Kirby's work, at this stage of his career, offers few clues to the greatness that would follow in the 1960s and 1970s.

D.C. Comics seems bent on ensuring that the Golden Age comic books still play second fiddle to the Golden Age newspaper strips. Comic strip fans enjoy luxuriously designed books from IDW, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, and Hermes Press. Thoughtful essays that place the strips in a historical context, indexes, even ribbon markers speak of the care that went into producing those tomes.

This book, following on the heels of the Golden Age Starman Archives Vol. 2 (DC Archive Editions), speaks only of D.C.'s new-found contempt for its own roots. It is simply not comparable even to the Golden Age Sandman Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Archive Editions). (That earlier volume ended with Adventure Comics #57; since this one picks up with Adventure Comics #72, should we assume that the stories from issues 58 through 71 will never be published? Leave alone in a proper Archives edition?)

While the production quality demands a single star rating I am giving a second only for the rarity of the work that has been reprinted. Simon and Kirby deserve better than this shoddy treatment.

D.C., if you care little or nothing for decent reprints why not permit IDW or Fantagraphics to reprint these too?!

The reproduction is nowhere near as good as it should be, but the material is second to none.

It was not long after Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had teamed up that they achieved comic book fame with their big hit, Captain America. But as great as Captain America was it was only when they had left to join DC that the Simon and Kirby collaboration really took root. One of the things Joe and Jack did at DC was to take over Sandman, a second rate backup feature in Adventure Comics, and make it the title's star attraction. Their changes to Sandman and his sidekick Sandy where minor, what really made the difference were Simon and Kirby's great art and exciting stories. 67 years later, the Sandman stories are still great reads. This book brings together all the independent Sandman stories by Simon and Kirby, including the 1974 remake of the Sandman, the last story that Simon and Kirby collaborated on. Not included are the Sandman's appearances in All Star Comics (as part of the Justice Society of America) nor the Sandman stories done by other artists while Simon and Kirby were doing their military service during the war.

There are two basic philosophies about how to reprint old comic book art. One approach is to recreate, or as Marvel calls terms it reconstruct, the art. The other approach is to use cleaned up scans. Recreated reprints can look superficially attractive but the reader is actually getting a modern artist interpretation of the original work. Depending on the artist doing the recreation this may or may not be very accurate. Reprints using scans are accurate but not always pretty because of the primitive printing of the original comics and the deteriorations that they have suffered with age. I prefer reprints that use scans and I am happy to say that is the approach that DC has adopted for this volume.

There are, however, some problems with this book. The art had to be reduced in size to fit the book's dimensions. I would have preferred the original size but the art really is not that much smaller and the reading is not really impaired. I am sure DC was trying to limit the amount of reduction and so the margins and gutters are rather narrow. I think it would have been better if a little more of the margins was sacrificed and added to the gutter. These are the main reason I did not give the book five stars but I do not feel that they should deter anyone from buying this book.

Honestly, I doubt that anyone will pick up this volume for anything other then the Simon and Kirby stories. However there is also a nice introduction by John Morrow, publisher of The Jack Kirby Collector that provides some historical perspective. Also included is an afterword by Mark Evanier, noted Jack Kirby historian and a marvelous writer. His presence in The Sandman, or any other Kirby reprint volume, is always much appreciated.

This is a great book chock full of that slam bang Simon and Kirby action. Well worth the price, this book has been carefully reprinted and wonderfully executed. This brings back so much memories of those marvelous reprints in the back of Jack Kirby's "Forever People". With an interesting foreword by John Morrow and afterword by Mark Evanier, how can you miss? Buy this book if you are a Simon and Kirby fan. You won't be disappointed!!

Simon and kirby were incredible artists creating lasting art in a true artform that crosses over into film and yho name it. They changed the art of comics and freed the form in many regards. Others did too but d.c. has decided to show them NO respect in this reprint , in which the pages are cheap paper. The artwork is still better here than in the comics though because the paper is better than those old issues,but for this great series we get a half hearted reprint to save money. They didn't respect this material enough to even print it on much better paper. to be fair the older sandman reprint looks better and less faded than the newer version in this volume. (from 1974). But overall this is a faded looking book. (like the old comics that they reprinted here?) Oh well, the stories are fun and explosive as you'd expect. I was glad to get to read these long ago stories from Adventure Comics but seriously
dc is owned by some other company who just doesn't respect this great fun modern art work. the first volume of the Samdman looks great and is worth owning for sure. It looks like this one should have. Sadly I can't even imagine they will ever do the stories that were inbetween these volume and the first one.

Read my review of the Golden Age Starman volume 2 for some background regarding my disappointment and dissatisfaction with the way DC (and the guy they outsource their reprint projects to: Rick Keene) have decided to completely screw the fan and consumer who desires quality golden age reprints by using subpar scans as their source material as well as only retouching the...and this is the worst part....the word balloons! So each page, you get extremely drab and faded colors for most of the page except the white spaces which are bright white. The fill tool seems to be the only tool DC's reproduction "specialist" knows how or is being paid to use. I understand DC is trying to save money, but that shouldn't come at the expense of the quality of their products. I was hoping to see the Newsboy Legion reprint coming out next year but I fear the color quality will be just as horrible as this one.

So please don't buy this book, send DC a message on their forums. It's very telling that there is no direct way to make a complaint about their products on the website.

I was very unhappy with the poor reproduction quality.
DC can and should do better.