Mark Reads ‘The Sandman’: 8×02 – Cluracan’s Tale

In the fifty-second issue of The Sandman, Cluracan gets help from an old acquaintance in order to help cause an uprising. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Sandman.

“Cluracan’s Tale”

You know, for all my yapping about how the last issue was clearly a big reference to H.P. Lovecraft, this issue helped me realize I was missing the bigger reference in Worlds’ End: Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. A group of strangers swapping stories in an inn while they are all traveling their own separate ways? My god, I seriously miss the obvious all the time.

Anyway, I like the art in “Cluracan’s Tale.” I like the reasoning for why Dream appears to help out Cluracan. It’s clear that this whole volume chronologically takes place after the events in Brief Lives because Dream’s behavior has changed. The Dream I knew in the first seven volumes of this series would not have entered the Faerie realm to help anyone out unless he benefited from it. He just wouldn’t have! He doesn’t intervene like that. But in this case, he chooses to help Cluracan because he wants to please Nuala. MY GOD, LOOK AT THAT CHARACTER GROWTH. I love it so much!

I even enjoyed the sheer verbose nature of Cluracan’s storytelling. It’s humorous, for the most part, but I must admit that it was incredibly hard to read. This isn’t the most exciting tale ever told, and it started to drag quite a bit before Dream showed up. Hell, this honestly isn’t an issue I ever see myself revisiting. It’s neat, but the appeal doesn’t last very long. OH GOSH I SWEAR I STILL LIKE THE SANDMAN.

As consolation for the fact that I really can’t think of much else to say, let’s play a game. Imagine that all of us – the whole Mark Does Stuff community – are stuck in a giant room, and we’ve got an unknown number of hours to kill. What story would you choose to tell the group to help pass the time? (PS: I fully plan on participating in this storytelling exercise, so you should read the comments.)

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