Welcome back to Searching Sandman, my personal journey into my favorite comic series ever (well tied, as I have Bone and Locke and Key on my personal comic Mount Rushmore next to it) with the direct goal of learning from the Sandman team how they made anything this frigging good.  If this is the first […]

David hasn’t admitted he’s sick of me yet, so I’m continuing the conversation with him about the sixth issue of Sandman titled “24 Hour Diner.” At the end of our last talk (found here: http://www.kechalcomics.com/searching-sandman-6-david-brown-part-2/ ) I’d just asked David what he thought Gaiman did really well in this issue (spoilers ahead): David: What Gaiman got […]

My conversation with Horror writer David Brown continues. An introduction to David can be found here: http://www.kechalcomics.com/searching-sandman-issue-six-with-our-first-guest-star-david-m-brown/ I wanted to talk to him because I feel like Sandman 6 is the most effective horror issue in the entire series. I’m really not a huge horror aficionado, and am definitely not a horror writer, I wanted […]

The Last Show at the Wreck Bar   By Kevin Joseph   This is unusual for me. Usually, when I’m done with a story, I’m done with it. This time, however I have to write it again. I just keep getting stuck on the difference between the truth and the facts. If you happened to […]

The sixth issue of Sandman is in my memory, the most horrific issue in the entire series. When I introduced my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) to Sandman, this story nearly turned her off of the series. And rereading it I can see why. This issue seems to show Gaiman reaching down to find the most […]

I reread issue 5 and was worried. Nothing jumped out at me like it had in earlier issues, but then it hit me. Most of the things I’d noticed and written about were on a micro level. Canted angles to create the feeling of a dream state. Planting seeds which will pay off later. But […]

I usually start these essays with a spoiler warning. And so I’m sort of doing it now. But it really isn’t a big spoiler to say the following: DREAM IS A REAL DICK. In issue 1 Morpheus condemns (with good reason) the son of his captor to an everlasting nightmare. Brutally forcing him to forever “wake […]

Sandman four is the first issue to really show off the aspect of Neil Gaiman’s storytelling that most entertains me as a reader, and inspires me as a creator. We are in the middle of Morpheus’ search for his three missing tools. He found the pouch of dream sand last issue, and is venturing, literally, to […]

The plot of issue three is pretty straight forward. Sandman is on the hunt for his three lost tools (Sandbag, Helm and Ruby). His strongest lead is for the bag of sand, the everlasting magic dust he uses to send us off to dreamland. It was last known to have been in the possession of […]