How many times have you attempted/read Gaiman's Sandman before getting into it?

[stgeorge602]

I will make my third attempt to read this series in the coming weeks. Ordered volume one of the deluxe edition.

My first attempt was around 2008-09 when I first got into comics, it was volume one of the paperback edition. I remember enjoying the first (and still do on subsequent future attempts). I don't recall why I stopped, though.

Second attempt was last year, omnibus edition) and couldn't make it past the third issue. This attempt was due for a couple reasons; had a lot on my mind (stress from work, relationship, kids, etc). Finding the time to read this without distractions and a clear mind has been tough for me. The Other reason is the format, was uncomfotable to read in omnibus format.

I remember having a similar experience when I read Robinson's Starman. Never got into it the first time around. But then I came around and have read it multiple times since and is one of my favorite series.

I still hope and do have interest to read this series as it's an important piece of literature, both in general and for the medium. I'm curious to know what your experiences are with Sandman.

Have you tried multiple times? Do you still struggle to read it? If you have read it do you still not like it?

Appreciate your thoughts.

[slop101]

I'm old, so I read it as it was released monthly. I wasn't in on the ground floor - started at around issue 12, but grabbed the back-issues soon after and read it monthly from there. I think that might help digest it more, by pouring over each issue for a month, building anticipation for the next issue. Reading it all at once might be a bit much.

[newparisian]

I've never fully gotten into Sandman. It's something I appreciate more than actively enjoy. Like, Morpheus is not in my top 20 favorite characters or anything. Now, I don't need explosions and car chases, per se. It's definitely a meditative read. When I'm lounging around and looking to read something, Sandman is never something I reach for. It's usually Saga or something superhero. It's the same with films. On a lazy Sunday I'm not reaching for the 3 hour Oscar nominated Asian film Drive My Car; I'm watching Infinity War.

Starman is different, to me, as it's a much more straight forward superhero story. Nothing opaque or "oh THAT'S what they're going for" with Starman, as it is with Sandman. Even Lucifer is more straight forward and "exciting" in this regard. In TV terms, it's like the Wire vs the Shield. The latter is just much more visceral to watch.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I've read the first few volumes and liked them. But I enjoy Spurrier's run on the Dreaming more.

[MRP]

I'm old, so I read it as it was released monthly. I wasn't in on the ground floor - started at around issue 12, but grabbed the back-issues soon after and read it monthly from there. I think that might help digest it more, by pouring over each issue for a month, building anticipation for the next issue. Reading it all at once might be a bit much.

Same here, but it was issue 8 as my first. What attracted me was how different it was from other comics on the stands at the time that I was reading. Everything from pacing, visual aesthetics, depth of the fictitious milieu, style of storytelling, themes, etc. felt different and therefore fresh, but it was something that I as a reader was seeking out at the time in other areas of my life as well, not just in my comics reading. It engaged me in ways beyond me being a comic book fan and ties to other areas of interest that I was beginning to explore at that point i my life (I was an undergrad at the time), so for me the timing was right for the book to hit me with stuff I wanted even if I didn't know I wanted it yet. It was very much a voyage of discovery for me not knowing where it was going but thrilled by where it could take me at a time where my tastes were evolving and changing as I was experiencing more of the world not just experiencing more of comics.

Approaching Sandman after the fact when it was a fait accompli is a different experience. And each time I have endeavored a reread has been a different experience. There have been a time or two where I attempted a reread when I didn't get all the way through. It wasn't resonating with me at that point in time, but it had previously and did again at a later point. There are other comics like it in terms of that total experience, but they are not the norm for mainstream comics, especially not for most books produced by Marvel and DC. And that's not a bad thing, comics are not and should not be a monolithic thing. It's a medium, not a genre, so there can and should be comics that run the gamut in style and approach just like there are books, movies, and TV that do so. Not every movie ha to be for every person, or for every person at all times, it can resonate with some people and not others, or with a person at some times in their life and not others, and the same is true of comics. Just because a comic doesn't resonate with you when you try to read it, doesn't mean it's a bad comics, just the wrong comic for you at that point in time. It may become the right comic at another time, or it may just be a comic that's not for you. There are certainly comics I enjoyed as a kid that no longer resonate with and are just nostalgia flashes, there are comics that I didn't like as a kid but that I adore now, and there are comics (some of them pretty universally acclaimed) that have just never resonated with me no matter how many times I have tried reading them (Preacher comes to mind for me).

But then I have discovered as I have gotten older that I have very much become a mood reader, I read whatever the mood strikes me to read, and trying to force myself to read something I am not in the mood for just because it's popular or critically acclaimed or the current release makes me feel very much the way I did when I was forced to read something for a class or a job. It didn't matter what it was, how good it was or if it was something I would have enjoyed in other circumstances, I was reading it because I was supposed to rather than because I was enjoying it and that sucked all the life and enjoyment out of the experience for me.

The times I failed to achieve the full reread of Sandman were times I just wasn't in the right mood, and I was trying to read it for other reasons that it was what I felt like reading at the time. The times I did take up reading it when I was in the mood, I immensely enjoyed it, in a different way than when I first discovered it, but a way that was no less engaging or positive. So I can't speak for the OP, but maybe the time wasn't right previously, but there's also the chance that the time may never be right for them. That's for them to discover.

-M

[LordMikel]

First, shouts out to the Audible version which is out. I totally recommend it.

Sandman is good, but grotesque. There were so many times I was like, "I didn't really need this scene."

I read it once, enjoyed it, but never really felt the need to go back, until I listened to the Audible version as I thought that was interesting.

[charliehustle415]

A LOT.

This time I got all the way to Kindly Ones before taking a long break.

[doolittle]

Third time was a charm for me. First two times, I made it up to around the Element Woman issue. My wife bought me the first Omni for Christmas, and I finished it last weekend. I'm hooked this time. Really looking forward to reading the rest.

I'm 42. Maybe I was just finally mature enough for it. ;-)

[chicainery]

I just reread it this year! It had been at least 8 years since I'd read it last. I probably enjoyed it more this year than ever before.

I wasn't into it as it was coming out. However, I did join one of those book clubs where you could buy so many books for a quarter or something as long as you paid full price for three books later on. That's where I got The Kindly Ones and The Sandman Book of Dreams. After reading these I wanted to get the rest. It took me a few years but I eventually got all of the main Sandman books to read. That lead to the Death tpbs, The Dream Hunters, and even the Little Endless. I got Endless Nights and Overture when they were released.

I didn't understand The Kindly Ones when I first read it, not fully for sure. I've read it, along with the other books a number of times now.

[The Lucky One]

Not that I think you should ever HAVE to read supplemental material to appreciate a work; but I first read Sandman alongside Hy Bender’s The Sandman Companion, and it definitely enhanced my appreciation of the series. Lots of insights and spelling out things that’d passed me by.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I liked the first 3 trades upon first read, but I loved Seasons of Mist. I would say I was in from the start so to speak. Now I can reread it over and over. I still think its a high water mark.

[SJNeal]

In the late 90's Vertigo ran "Essentials" volumes of Sandman and Moore's Swamp Thing - basically monthly facsimile editions long before those were a thing. So I my first read through of Sandman was monthly, except it was the reprint series. I loved it from the first page of issue #1. Unfortunately it ended around #30 or 32 ("Season of Mists"). I sold those for way less than I should have, to help subsidize the 10 trades, which I picked up all at once and read through from the beginning.

I've since upgraded those trades to the Absolute editions, which I've flipped through extensively but still haven't found the time to actually sit and read in their entirety.

[SJNeal]

Not that I think you should ever HAVE to read supplemental material to appreciate a work; but I first read Sandman alongside Hy Bender’s The Sandman Companion, and it definitely enhanced my appreciation of the series. Lots of insights and spelling out things that’d passed me by.

Love that book! It's boxed up in storage somewhere, but I should dig it out to have on hand once I finally start my Absolute re-read.