In the epilogue of the ninth volume of The Sandman, I’m really scared for what’s going to happen. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Sandman.
“Prologue”
I don’t know why this very brief prologue exists just yet. And that frightens me. I get the sense that even if this is just some sort of thematic introduction to the Dreaming, it still takes place before the events in volume eight. So Gaiman already gave us the ending of this story, and now we have to find out how the story gets to that point. So why this introduction, then? Is this to show us how structured and dependable the Dreaming is? Is this a way of hinting at the contrast to come? Will this all be disrupted? Will the young man who enters the Dreaming and gets the tour come back to play a larger role in the story?
Obviously, I don’t know yet. I’m still reeling from the end of Worlds’ End, and the idea that Dream died just fills me with dread. I don’t want to find out that this is real. I want there to be another twist ending, and I want to discover that this was all a ruse. But I also can’t ignore just how unhappy Dream is at the end of volume seven. The events of that story have affected him so profoundly that I wouldn’t be surprised if he did something that eventually lead to his death. Would I be upset? Of course.
Bah, I don’t know what the fuck is going on!
I really appreciated that there was such a drastic change to the art and lettering in this prologue. Kevin Nowlan has a much more angular style than most of the other artists in this series, and it gives this all a drastically different feel as well. It’s almost like it’s signaling change to come. Okay, that’s probably a stretch, but it’s really fun to think about why the artists make the choices they do in comic books and graphic novels. I briefly thumbed through this volume when it arrived in the mail, and I loved that it didn’t look like any of the volumes before it.
Ah, damn it, I am so hopelessly unprepared.
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