S is for Sandman and Theories of Time Travel and Collating Gaiman Blogs

is for Sandman.

For this year's A to Z I'm featuring books I've read based on the Reading Challenge.

Today's book is a graphic novel: The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman.

I'm trying to think of a way to describe this in the shortest possible terms to anyone who might not have heard of it. The Sandman (Dream) is one of the Endless, along with Death, Desire, Despair, and so on. They're like angels, in that they can intervene in individual human lives, and also like Greek or Norse gods, in that they not only intervene but sometimes see their plans go awry.

Here's the Sandman Wikipedia page for the nuts and bolts of the comic, the reading order and so on.

One of the many reasons I love this series (and I'm still only on book eight of the collected volumes!) is the seamless weaving of history, myth, mythology, and character development. Because I have read a limited amount of fantasy and science fiction, and because I'm a Tolkien and Gabaldon fan, I tend to be a stickler when it comes to continuity. Stephen King, for instance, in his brilliant 11/22/63, has a character time travel to a time he's already in. This isn't possible, physics-wise, based on the Gabaldon Theory of Time Travel. It's another reason that Hermione's use of the Time Turner works when she's attending classes but not at the end, when they use it to save Sirius and Buckbeak (unfortunately). Mainly because if Harry's the one to cast the Patronus (and not his dad, as he believes it was until he sees himself), there has to be a first moment in time when that occurred before they travel back to it.

But back to Sandman. One interesting light-hearted aspect about the character is that every once in a while in the books he looks like Robert Smith of The Cure. Other times he's Bowie-ish. Once he reminded me of Tim Burgess of The Charlatans. I saw one photo of Neil Gaiman looking like his creation, but can't seem to find it, so here's a random collection:

Here are most of my 2012 blog posts featuring Neil Gaiman, the year it all started:

An Unexpected Post About Neil Gaiman -- it begins!

I Want to be Neil Gaiman's Copy Editor

Body-in-the-bog whisky

I ask Neil a question

Neil Gaiman Writes Back!

Quotes from Stardust

Neil Gaiman Pep Talk

Neil with a chainsaw

More copy editing wishes, and Douglas Adams

American Gods

The faces of authors

Ray Bradbury

Neil Gaiman references George Formby. Your argument is invalid.

Utterly bonkers and deeply profound

Twitter wives and honey

What's in my bag? and Amanda Palmer Kickstarter Deluxe Edition, yay!

Gaiman on Poe

Free short story

Rule No. 8 for writing

Shortest Neil Gaiman story ever

A cartoon of Neil, and Dr. Martignetti

Neil and the Earl of Rochester

Neil and Doctor Who

Neil Gaiman perfume

My 2012 year-end books read review

Plus, bonus - Neil, Chu, and my nephew

And then there was the time I dressed up as one of the Endless for a party...

Can I sneak in an ROW80 update? I've kept up with the A to Z! Mostly. Still making my way 'round, visiting everyone. But otherwise, real life continues to be busy. One life event, one life project, and lots of tasks at work. Ah well, the writing/editing will come.

Which comics and graphic novels have you enjoyed?