"Wouldn't want yer audience gettin' bored." So says someone about halfway in this. But it was too late – that audience, me, was already bored. I plodded on, regardless, but all I found was a well-drawn head comic. So if that was what they wanted – to recreate the days of 70s spliffed-up bollux, with stories that make no sense and only appeal to junkies' inner minds like wow man – then they succeeded. If they wanted a cogent, coherent narrative, then they failed miserably.

The Dreaming Vol. 1: Pathways and Emanations is a graphic novel collection of "The Sandman Universe 1" and the first 6 issues of "The Dreaming" . Due out 11th June 2019 from Vertigo, it's 195 pages and available in paperback and ebook (comiXology) formats.

The pencils by Bilquis Evely and coloring by Mat Lopes are sublime and fit the narrative perfectly. It's always a little bit nerve-wracking when other people are writing storylines in worlds which are dear to me, but in this case, Simon Spurrier shows once again that he is a masterful storyteller. These issues felt very seamless and I loved the tie-in cameos. I don't know how much direct input Neil Gaiman had on the story arc, but they fit so well in the Sandman universe. I continue to be very impressed.

As most (all?) of the Vertigo titles are for more mature readers, there is a large amount of violence, supernatural themes, demonic possession, etc etc.

The graphic novel includes extra content such as alternate cover art and tantalizing sketchbook glimpses.

I literally grew up in a comic/fandom family and Sandman was the comic 'soundtrack' of my early adulthood. I've loved it deeply for decades and this series is a worthy bearer of the franchise name.

Four and a half stars.

The Sandman, la serie anni '90 creata da Neil Gaiman, è una delle mie preferite di sempre.

Sono venticinque anni che la leggo e la rileggo, scoprendo sempre nuove sfumature, nuovi significati, nuovi incantevoli dettagli nelle tavole.

Il problema è che, nella stragrande maggioranza dei casi, ho trovato tutti i derivati scadenti - problema relativo, si dirà: basta evitarli. Eppure ne sento il richiamo, che mi ha portato a infrangere la mia regola aurea (niente derivati, appunto) e a richiedere il primo volume di questa nuova serie, ambientata nello stesso universo con personaggi sia vecchi che nuovi, che si muovono sotto l'egida del nuovo Sogno.

Metto le mani avanti: non sono scappata via urlando dopo le prime tavole, ma nemmeno ho trovato niente che stuzzicasse il mio interesse; un fumetto blando, di vago interesse per i lettori per la presenza di personaggi secondari molto amati (a partire da Lucien passando per Caino e Abele arrivando a Eva), ma che davvero mi ha dato poco.

Potrei dire: "Un'occasione sprecata", se in un certo senso non me lo fossi aspettato.

The Dreaming Vol.1 shares the first 50 pages or so with the other stories in "The Sandman Universe" before the true story of the dreaming really becomes the focus of the story. Lord of Dreams is gone and in his absence the Dreaming is falling apart, cracking and breaking. A battle breaks out between the creatures of the Dreaming and monsters to rule all of the Dreaming. Strange and unexpected, the story is all over the place with the paranormal and myths. The art is perfect for the story and expresses the mood expertly. Creepy and weird for an enjoyably paranormal graphic novel. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
***
I enjoyed jumping back into the Sandman universe, it’s been a long while since I’ve read Sandman so I’d forgotten how utterly bizarre and magical the world of the dreaming and the characters there in are. If was fun seeing some old faces and the introduction of Dora I think was a great addition to the world. Her mystery was probably the best part of the book.

The Dreaming Vol. 1 has you seeing the world falling apart, Lord Daniel has fled and it is having repercussions on the world. Merv makes questionable choices in light of the knowledge he gains, Lucien is having a rough time of it, Matthew the all knowing raven has some information to share, and Dora has decided she doesn’t care about what anyone thinks of her. A bit like a honey badger.

A lot happens and is being set up for future storylines. There is another, god?!?, awakening in place of Daniels absence and another runs amok forcing control and order on the inhabitants that doesn’t fit the world at all. Judge Gallows was a bit over the top and not my favorite part of the book but I’m curious to see where this is going to all go.

Overall, I enjoyed The Dreaming, Vol 1...it revisited some of the old Sandman nostalgia, but is definitely taking it into a new direction. I enjoyed meeting new characters, and revisiting old ones. The first volume in this series definitely introduces a lot of new mysteries, which I am excited to uncover with future releases.
I feel like this comic borrowed a lot from the Preacher comics, in part, though, so some of the originality was lost on me. I am hoping that the overall, broad brushstrokes of mythology that is Gaiman's hallmark will be stamped into these comics via his association...but only time will tell. So far, pretty good.

I love the original Sandman series. The stories were layered with characters that I adored. It was nice to see Merv again, I will admit, but aside from him this volume lacked much of the spark of the originals. Dora was a welcome addition, but the rest of the characters fell a bit flat for me. 

The plot didn't feel high stakes enough for me - yes, the dreaming may be torn apart, but I didn't feel any urgency about the situation. Judge Gallows was over the top, and I found myself just rolling my eyes at him non-stop. I have no clue why they would dredge him up for this situation. I would have rather the focus been on where Daniel toodled off to and what was going on with Dora. We do get some surface info on Dora, but not enough for me. 

The pacing of the story was also incredibly slow. Normally, I'll devour graphic novels, but I found myself reading this in shorter sections before I would get a bit frustrated with the pacing and take a break from it. Overall, I'm a bit disappointed. I'm not sure how dedicated I am to finishing the series. There wasn't really enough to intrigue me in the first volume.

The much beloved Sandman Universe is being brought to life again in this new ongoing Vertigo series, and I was delighted to get my hands on a copy of the first volume, though admittedly also a little nervous that it would not live up to my hopes.
Having read it, I can honestly say it left me with mixed feelings. Firstly I have to say I absolutely loved the artwork throughout , it was perfectly in keeping with the original series but I felt the artists brought their own perspectives to the characters and the Dreaming itself. I also really liked the newly introduced character of Dora, and I enjoyed learning more of her story as the book went on. It is always a pleasure to see old favorites like Merv and Lucien.
While the artwork was stunning, I was not quite so impressed with the storytelling, I felt it took a long time for the real story to get underway , and even when it did, I was underwhelmed by both the villain and the resolution. . That being said, it is an introductory volume designed to launch the new Sandman Universe , and as such I realise that it managed to accomplish a lot. I would recommend that fans of the original series at least try it out, and I am intrigued enough that I will continue to Volume 2.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

It's a Sandman Universe graphic novel so I will be buying for our library collection. It was nice re-visiting favorite characters and who wouldn't kill to get their hands on the books from the Dreaming's library. However, it made me decide to go back and re-read the original Sandman instead of muddling through the reboot.

The Sandman Universe is where I cut my teeth on mythology and comics. Neil Gaiman's world introduced me to writers and artists that I never would have discovered otherwise. Vertigo has four books expanding the Sandman Universe, and The Dreaming Volume 1 is a magical return to the land where dreams are created. 

Lord Daniel, Morpheus' replacement, is absent from the Dreaming. This sparks a series of crimes and problems as other realms soon discover that the borders are no longer protected by anything but the inhabitants. Lucien, Cain, Abel, and Merv all desperately try to hold the kingdom together, but Dora is currently delighting in stealing dreams and causing chaos. However, minor troubles mask a more dangerous threat in the Dreaming.

Si Spurrier is a worthy choice for a series that needs an extraordinary writer to maintain its integrity. Artist Bilquis Evely continues the tradition of stunning artwork that the series is loved for.  Neil Gaiman is helping curate the series, but Spurrier and Evely have no problem carrying this. The Dreaming Volume 1: Pathways and Emanations collects issued 1-6 of The Dreaming and the Sandman Universe Special #1.

The First of Four New Sandman Universe Series

O.K., here's the deal as I understand it. There are four new series that are spinoffs of Neil Gaiman's Sandman Universe. Each shares and expands on the Sandman Universe and is set in the "evolving" world of the Dreaming. Don't know how much Gaiman is involved, (the books are claimed to be "from the mind of...", or "curated by"), but there seem to be more and more books out there that use Gaiman's name and stories but in which he otherwise does not seem that much involved.

I've now read the beginning of the "Dreaming" series, (Volume 1, "Pathways and Emanations"), and the beginning of the"Lucifer" series, (Volume 1, "The Infernal Comedy"). Don't be confused. While each Volume collects the first 6 issues of their respective series, each Volume also starts with the same "Sandman Universe Special #1". This Special lays the groundwork for all four of the spinoffs. At first I thought I had the same book twice over, until I realized that they were different books, but just started with the same 48 page one-shot. It appears the two other spinoff series, ("Books of Magic" and "House of Whispers"), will open the same way. The Special follows the raven Mathew as he confirms that the Dreamer has abandoned the Dreamland, and introduces and sets the stage for each of the four new series. For what it's worth, so far the Special one-shot has been my favorite part of this whole project.

Each of the series has a different writer; liking or disliking one won't tell you that much about the others. So, with that background, (hah! I'm doing the same opening for each series review), let's turn to "Dreaming", the first of the four new Volumes.

This series features Dora, a creature of indeterminate nature, and backstory, who harbors a grievance against the Dreamer and carries a massive chip on her shoulder. Her tale is set in and about the actual Dreamland and she interacts mostly with familiar characters, (like Lucien the Librarian and Merv Pumpkinhead). Dora can leave and re-enter the Dreamland at will, and so we follow her story while checking back in to the Dreamland at regular intervals, mainly to see how Lucien is coping with the absence of the Dreamer and the apparent collapse of the Dreamland.

Lots going on, of course, with everyone running around trying to protect the Dreamland. We take an extended detour into "chaos leads to fascism" territory. A recurring line, (it appears dozens of times), is some variation of "stability requires far more effort to restore than to disrupt". If you want you can go metaphor crazy, what with a Dreamland "Homeland", faceless "soggies" sneaking across the border, jobs at risk to said soggies, external terror threats multiplying, no one competent in charge, the shutting of the Gate and reinforcing the Wall around Dreamland, and so on. Ultimately the smarmy authoritarian Judge Gallows shows up to repel the "foreigners". It gets pretty heavy-handed, and not in any particularly illuminating way. Luckily, the political commentary ultimately circles back to the resurgence of Dora, and her butt kicking, and this gets us back to more familiar Sandman/Endless themes. But at points it's a real slog.

Despite the transparent soapboxing I thought there was a lot to like here. It almost goes without saying that the artwork is the star here. Lots to look at and admire, muscular and dreamy. Dora is strong enough to carry the brunt of the tale, and while the Judge Gallows part is too long, it has its moments. Merv Pumpkinhead, the aggrieved white middle class stand-in, gets old fast. The sly humor that usually marks Dreamland stories ebbs and flows, since it has to be worked in around the political lesson. Enough threads are tied up to make the end satisfying, while enough loose threads are left to keep the reader interested in where the next series story arc will go.

So, at least for me, while this isn't Sandman it generally felt close enough to be worth keeping an eye on. (Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

I'll admit, I didn't have any ideas about the set-up of the Sandman universe (besides knowing of its existence) before going into this book, but since these are new stories set in it, I thought to give it a chance to see how it fares for a person who is coming to this universe for the first time. The story opens on the librarian (and current warden) of Dreaming, Lucien, who is trying to keep things running in absence of their lord. The first chapter had introductions to the three other stories, and then continues with the plot in Dreaming, which is starting to show literal cracks and the rise of a new power. The instability brought about by the changes in their world prompts some to look for direction in new places, with disastrous results. A tyrant rises to claim the throne of Dreaming for himself, and to torment its people, while also being self-righteous about it. Meanwhile, Dora, a mysterious goddess of a being, is lost without her memories, and rebels against the rules of Dreaming, until the time comes for her to save it.

Does the series make sense for someone who is not acquainted with the universe? Yes and no. There are some things that take a while to sink in, but the book does try to keep you informed of the backstory relevant to the current plotline so it doesn't always feel like you are missing things. Sure, I am curious about certain other things, but I guess I can always go to the source and read them (maybe someday). As a new series in an established universe, it does a good job of not alienating new readers. As for the artwork in this book, it is vibrant and beautiful and does a great job of depicting the changing circumstances of Dreaming into the design and coloring itself. I must admit, though, that the couple of pages that were done by another artist and shoved in between felt a bit odd, especially because they made no narrative sense and the style was entirely different in design.

Verdict: it is a series that I'm excited to read more of.

"There is a place where Gods are born.
There is a place where a few ragged sounds can suggest a symphony.
A place where pandemonium presents patterns.
Where idle fancies turn to fornications and memories feign meaning.
A place where—for as long as a sleeper can sleep—stories are spun."

The Dreaming. I thought I'd seen the last of it when I recently read the final remaining volume (Endless Nights) on my shelf, but it turns out that the Sandman Universe has recently been expanded into a four-part line to celebrate The Sandman's 30th anniversary with Neil's blessing, who wanted to give other authors the opportunity to play in his world, which changed how comics are written and seen forever.

The Sandman Universe starts with a titular one-shot which kicks off four new story arcs, all overseen by Gaiman but written by new creative teams. Lord Daniel has abandoned the Dreaming, which is crumbling in his absence, while something new is slowly growing in the Endless' Gallery. Poor Lucien is losing his mind, Matthew the Raven tries to find the Lord of Dreams in vain, while the realm's other residents are desperately trying to keep it from decaying around them and fend off invaders coming through the widening cracks, and when that doesn't work, Merv Pumpkinhead takes the misguided initiative and finds someone new to put in charge of the place.

I have a rule I very seldomly break, and it's that I never start reading a series while it's still ongoing. When this was put up on NetGalley as an instant download though, I couldn't resist checking it out ahead of publication on June 11th—and it taught me that reading comics off a screen is the literal worst, and that there's good reason why I should stick to my self-imposed rule and wait until a story arc is completed, because overall, this was decidedly unsatisfying.

I was always quite fond of Matthew the Raven, but there's a reason that the Dreaming's residents were secondary characters in the original run, and putting them into the spotlight doesn't do them or the story any favors. I googled the villain when he showed up since I was a bit lost and wondering whether I was supposed to know who he was, and it turns out that he's a really obscure DC character who has appeared in a grand total of eighteen random issues since his first appearance in 1969. All this means that we have a cast of pretty one-dimensional characters driving the narrative, which never really takes off in these first six issues—Daniel is missing, but it's not the first time, and even though the Dreaming is falling apart, it doesn't seem to have any adverse effect on dreamers, so... what's the problem? I liked Dora's spunk, but the fact that after one whole volume we still don't know who or what she is was a bit annoying, and I felt like her character had... not few parallels to Delirium. This first collection builds up quite a few mysteries, but doesn't resolve any of them.

I don't know, I guess I felt that the story was a bit messy and all over the place, and I didn't really connect with it. Don't get me wrong—some parts are very good and there's instances when Simon Spurrier really nails Neil's voice and narrative tone, but as a whole, you can tell that this didn't spring from Neil's mind. The best thing about it was Bilquis Evely's truly outstanding art. I did miss Dave McKean's covers, but I guess that if the story keeps going on in this lackluster way, it's best to have something separating it from the originals. I know Jae Lee from his work on Stephen King's Dark Tower comics at Marvel, and I don't find his very distinctive style suited to the Sandman world at all.

A for effort, but I won't be in any rush to get my hands on the next volumes. This looked like the most promising of the four new arcs by far, so that's disappointing—but what do I know, this could be the slow-burning start of something wonderful yet.

High fantasy, beautiful art, and mythology weave together to create a tremendous reading experience in this book. The characters are the stuff of dreams -- Neil Gaiman's dreams, in fact. And those are very interesting and revelatory dreams to explore.

Si Spurrier leads this journey into the Sandman universe and I was glad to have the opportunity to see what this text had to offer. I would gladly visit for another volume.

That moody emo git Dream has buggered off on a jolly out of The Dreaming! And wouldn’t you Adam’n’Eve it, an ever-widening crack has suddenly appeared across the realm, the portal no longer keeps out danger and scores of strange blank people (“soggies”) are flooding the land. Coincidence – or just a clumsy Trump/wall metaphor? Anyhoo, Merv Pumpinhead’s taken it upon himself to find a new leader from a questionable source (though the name should’ve raised a red flag!): Judge Gallows. And who is the Dreaming’s latest denizen – the mysterious dream outlaw Dora?

So DC are having another punt at a new slew of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman spinoffs, starting with Simon Spurrier and Bilquis Evely’s The Dreaming, Volume 1: Pathways and Emanations, aaaannnddd – easy pun time – the book’ll put you to sleep! It really isn’t very interesting unfortunately.

Lucien the Librarian, Matthew the Raven, Merv Pumpkinhead, Cain and Abel - the supporting cast of The Dreaming were the supporting cast for a reason and they haven’t suddenly become more interesting now they’re shoved into the spotlight. Judge Gallows (a really obscure DC character from a ‘60s horror anthology title) is a one-dimensional villain and his origin was so boring.

Dora on the other hand is at least somewhat compelling. I don’t know if she’s being put forward as a possible replacement for Dream but she’d be a good pick. She has unique dream powers, she’s very empathetic to dreamers and she can handle herself in a fight, hulking out when she needs to. Evely’s character design for Dora is imaginative. In fact his art throughout is the most laudable aspect of the book – the pages are full of extremely creative, fun and zany imagery. Jae Lee’s covers were outstanding too (I guess Dave McKean’s done with Sandman cover art?).

The story though is just so laborious and unengaging. The Dreaming starts to fall apart, though there don’t seem to be any real consequences to dreamers everywhere, and, really, so what anyway? Not the first time it’s happened and they’ve recovered just fine. It takes an age for Gallows to appear and when he does it turns into a predictable good vs evil fight, all the while overwritten in Spurrier’s unexciting prose. For a series basically trafficking in abstract concepts, he doesn’t have many interesting ideas to offer the reader.

It might be pretty but The Dreaming, Volume 1: Pathways and Emanations is an ominously tedious beginning for this latest wave of Sandman spinoffs. Good comics from Vertigo these days? Dream on.

I've been worried ever since I heard about the Sandman Universe-- it just didn't seem to me like other writers would be able to tackle Gaiman's insane, nonsensical, beautiful world in a way that felt authentic.
Thankfully, I was wrong. This book both nailed the aesthetic and the narrative tone of its predecessor while being fresh and new at the same time. I really liked this a lot and can't wait to dive into what else the Sandman Universe is offering.

This is the first of 4 volumes delving back into the world of Gaiman's Sandman. I am thrilled to see this continuation. There is the same attention to detail, story and artistry that is haunting and unforgettable.

This simply wasnt for me. Unfortunately I have to give it a star. I just couldnt get into the story.

A lot of people were excited when it was first announced DC were launching four Sandman spin-off titles. I was less so. Obviously the notion didn't reek like Doomsday Clock, because at least Gaiman was vaguely involved in setting it up, and the creative teams were all pretty promising, but it seemed further evidence that what was once my favourite comics publisher had entirely lost the ability to create new classics, and was instead reduced to revisiting the ones it already had, trying over and over to recapture a buzz that just wasn't coming back. Not to mention, had everyone forgotten the last attempt at a Dreaming spin-off? Ran for the latter half of the nineties, contained a few lovely Peter Hogan stories, but mainly a Caitlin Kiernan edge-fest which put me off her work for the best part of 20 years (and I'm only very grudgingly coming around now). Adding to that sense of desperation, the rest of the attempt to relaunch the once-groundbreaking Vertigo imprint, of which Sandman had been a founding pillar, turned into even more of a clusterfuck than I'd predicted. I just thought all the writers from outside comics would mean they'd have a lot of late books! I wasn't expecting one book to get cancelled in mid-story because the writer was accused of sex crimes, and the most promising title to end up getting bumped to another publisher before it even began after Batman's dong set off a cascade of corporate cowardice. And just to put the cherry on the top and confirm that they're on the back foot here...well, some books on Netgalley are Read Now, for any member to download on a whim. Others, you have to request, and depending on your record and profile, you may or may not get granted access. Above even that are books for which you can Wish, which is basically the same as a request but less likely to be granted (or at least that's the impression it gives, I don't know the stats). DC books used always to be for request, and they did not grant those requests very often, at least not to me and not compared to my overall experience of the site. On top of which, they'd then be embargoed until the day the collection came out, even though the contents were already available as single issues. And then they weren't even for request anymore, they were only wishable, and none of mine got granted. But this, and the new Lucifer book from the same range? Those were Read Now.

So, having explained the context, what about the content? Well, the first impressio is that it's beautiful. Jae Lee's covers and Bilquis Evely's interiors are both among the prettiest in comics. The story...well. The collection opens, as will all four in the range, with the one-shot that launches them all, and as tends to happen with one-shots doing that sort of job, it can't help feeling somewhat diffuse and disjointed. Worse, the basic set-up is that Dream has gone missing and his realm is fracturing. Which...is this not slightly familiar? In that it was where The Sandman began, and where its somewhat frustrating prequel ended? We're doing a series about the realm stories come from, and yet every story about it has to either begin or end with the same bloody incident? This is up there with the way US networks have to make every damn show about a cop, a medic and/or a lawyer.

But wait! It gets worse.

So, the well-meaning but wet white-collar liberal (Lucien the librarian) is trying his best to keep on top of the crisis, but he lacks conviction in his own ability to do the job, and his decisions anger the blue-collar working stiff (Merv Pumpkinhead – just to hammer it in, he's literally going mouldy), particularly once refugees start arriving and apparently getting preferential treatment (and given the whole point of the Dreaming is that the inhabitants work to provide a rollercoaster ride for a huge nightly influx of immigrants anyway, this bit requires some profoundly unconvincing contortions). So instead Merv turns to an old and imprisoned nightmare, Judge Gallows, for the smack of firm government, and soon the Dreaming has barbed wire on its walls, and border posts, and is losing everything which made it great.

Yep, it's a metaphor for the rise of populism/the alt-right/those dickheads. And a really contorted one at that. Most glaringly, if the problem has arisen in the absence of the rightful king, then who or what is the rightful king meant to signify in our world? There's a bit of a 'no lords, no masters' vibe which creeps in later on, but it never really coalesces into a coherent point given the Endless aren't rulers in any traditional sense so much as fundamental universal forces. I mean, nobody asks the electromagnetic force or gravity to democratise, do they? Not that I'm against political allegory in my comics, you understand; there are plenty of books which have done Trump riffs that more-or-less land, including another sequel run to a Vertigo classic, Ming Doyle and James Tynion's The Hellblazer. But of all the endless things you could do with a story about the font of stories, you just used it to do that one again? And like this? Just off the top of my head, I can see some potential in a notion where the greater polarisation and bitterness of the waking world is impoverishing the stuff of maybe from which the Dreaming arises, and yeah, it could go cheesy, but dear heavens, it would be hard-pressed to clunk worse than this set-up. Not to mention, there's a recurring issue where characters use fancy vocabulary and get it ever-so-slightly wrong, and if it were just the various stand-ins then sure, that's a nice little metafictional riff about trying to fill Neil Gaiman's shoes, but flashbacks show Dream doing it too, so that's not it. And all these problems are odd, because Spurrier is normally a much better writer than this, so naturally I'm wondering how much of the blame should instead be laid at the feet of editorial, because – although you might not have picked up on this, and I do like to keep it quiet – I have a serious lack of faith in the current regime at DC.

Oh, and at the fulcrum of the plot – and later at the literal Fulcrum – is a mysterious character called Dora, who has a hinted-at history with the previous iteration of Dream, Morpheus. A malcontent under the old regime, she inevitably ends up in an uneasy alliance with resistance elements once Gallows turns up. Except she isn't nearly as interesting as the story seems to think she is, tending instead just to come across as a bit of a mard-arse.

This isn't a total disaster; when it occasionally finds space to give us glimpses of the regular dreamers, there are some scenes whose oddball inventiveness makes them worthy to stand alongside similar vignettes in The Sandman proper (I particularly liked the snail dance). The ending, and I mean the ending proper because most of what leads up to it is deeply tedious, suggests the second volume could well be better. And I really must reiterate that the art is a joy. But overall it does nothing to allay my fears regarding the wisdom of this project.

One of the most appealing parts of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series was that it was one of those rare long-running comic books that had a definitive end. It ran for a total of 75 issues and, for a while, that was it. Over the years, Gaiman had returned a few times to the universe in order to pen a short spin-off here or a short prequel comic there, but there had never really been anything major that expanded on the world of The Sandman – aside from Mike Carey’s equally long-running Lucifer series, spun off from the character’s few appearances in the main Sandman run. So, when it was announced that Gaiman would be teaming up with Vertigo to launch The Sandman Universe, a collection of four series inspired by and expanding upon the original Sandman run, I was a bit skeptical. Of the four titles that were revealed, there were two that interested me the most: Simon Spurrier’s The Dreaming and Dan Watters’ Lucifer. As The Dreaming was the first of the four books to launch, it’ll be the first of the four that I’ll cover here. In volume one of The Dreaming, Spurrier takes us back into the realm of the Dreaming where Daniel, the current Lord of Dreams, has disappeared just as things are going wrong. And it only gets crazier from there.

Neil Gaiman’s original Sandman series was known for its dense plots and surreal imagery and The Dreaming beautifully continues that trend. From the very first page of this graphic novel, readers are assaulted with a barrage of crazy, fantastical imagery, accompanied by an immediately dense plot. To be totally honest, I’m not sure any description I could provide for this graphic novel would do the plot any real justice. Essentially, Daniel has gone missing and Lucien, Marv, and Matthew are trying to cope in his absence. Meanwhile, a new being has appeared in the Dreaming – Dora – who is angry at her perceived betrayal by Dream and seeking for her memories. All of these characters’ fates soon become intertwined as the Dreaming begins to fracture in the absence of Dream. In order to restore some kind of order to the realm, Marv unleashes Judge Gallows, a nightmare previously imprisoned by Dream after having gone a bit too far with his goal of fairly judging people. Naturally, this blows up in Marv’s face and everything just gets worse and worse.

Much of Spurrier’s plot reminded me of the way that Gaiman’s original run was as much a story about storytelling as it was a story in its own right. In The Dreaming, there are frequent meta-comments about who is narrating at any given moment and it’s really interesting. The Dreaming acts as an ending and a beginning both in a metatextual way and in a practical, narrative way. It’s the ending of the Sandman universe as we previously knew it and the beginning of The Sandman Universe as it will now be. In the context of the story, it’s the ending of the Dreaming as the characters knew it and the beginning of something new. This combination of these elements makes for a really interesting read. Plus, the plot itself unfurls in a very interesting and surprising way. Like The Sandman, The Dreaming is largely character-driven – here, Dora’s quest to learn her identity and come into her own makes up a large part of the character drama in the story, alongside Lucien’s crisis of faith and strong desire to find Dream and return him to power before everything can end. The character arcs are every bit as compelling as the plot and it’s nice to get to see all of these characters in The Dreaming take a more central role in this series than they were able to do in the original Sandman series.

Not only is Spurrier’s plot really good, but Evely’s art (and Lopes’ colors) are stunning. The Sandman is known for having a specific, surreal look and Evely and Lopes’ work perfectly fits into that established universe without feeling like a mere imitation of the work of all the artists from the original run. The characters still look like readers remember them looking, but Evely has clearly brought her own style to the artwork here – as she should! The artwork and the colors really mesh together in such a visually interesting way that you’re immediately dragged into this world. Lopes’ colors pop when they need to pop and they’re more muted when they need to be muted; Lopes uses his colors to elevate every scene he’s working on and the combination of his colors and Evely’s art just really worked for me. This book was just as beautiful to look at as it was to read. The combination of all three of these creatives was a combination that worked really, really well.

All in all, The Dreaming: Pathways and Emanations is a really good start to The Sandman Universe. It confidently kicks open the walls of this universe, allowing it to expand in new directions that reach far outside of the confines of Gaiman’s original run. The creative team behind the book understand this universe well and know how to tell really engaging stories within it. It’s really nice to see all of these side characters from The Sandman have a chance to shine on their own, outside of Dream’s shadow, though I am also intrigued at the little hints of Dream’s current situation that are peppered throughout this first volume. It appears that the next volume will take us a bit further into Dream’s story and I’m equally excited to see how this creative team handles that storyline while continuing to expand on all that’s happening within the realm of the Dreaming. The Dreaming is a definite must-read for fans of The Sandman and it’s a very worthy successor and continuation of this universe.