To understand the leap in maturity that cartoons experienced at the end of the 20th century it is essential to highlight the role of a series of British authors who landed at DC and completely changed the narrative structure of American comics. Alan Moore Swamp Thing 1983 Grant Morrison Animal Man 1988 Jaime Delano Hellblazer 1988 and Neil Gaiman Sandman 1989 are the greatest exponents of this revolution.
If as a screenwriter the figure of Alan Moore is the one that best represents the paradigm shift as a collection it is Sandman which marks a new path in the way of narrating and presenting comics. His stories are more complex his characters deeper and his numerous cultural references demand more from the reader if he wants to understand the whole thing.
The origins
Neil Gaiman (1960) was an introverted boy whose obsession with reading from an early age provided him with a wide cultural background at the age of seven he had read The Chronicles of Narnia and at nine The Lord of the Rings. It was not surprising that he soon had the firm conviction of becoming a writer. In the middle of that adventure and without having finished his studies, he dedicated himself to journalism getting a job in a magazine by lying about his experience . In one of his interviews he crossed paths with unique screenwriter from Northampton Alan Moore.Gaiman was so impressed by their conversation that it sparked his interest in comics. He prepared a script that he sent to Moore himself, who returned it full of corrections. When he sent it back the response was: This is a script that I would be proud of. Gaiman never published it but Moore would use part of it in a Swamp Thing story #51. In 1986, he meets the young illustrator Dave McKean with whom he publishes his first great work Violent Cases. Her enormous quality draws the attention of Karen Berger DC editor at the time who does not hesitate to sign both talents to her editorial.
Together they signed their first job for DC OrquÃdea Negra (1987) a three-issue miniseries that would do very well at the sales level and that provided enough credit for Berger to commission a monthly project. Gaiman first tried to sell a horror story but when the publisher refused he opted for an old DC character Sandman (1974-76) which as he did with Black Orchid completely redefined.
A masterpiece
According to Gaiman himself the elaboration of the first number was a titanic work that took him more than six months . He created a new dream universe that overlapped with DC's own his creations The Eternals coexisted with characters like Constantine in a world in which reality dreams magic and fantasy shared the same plane.
In his first story The Dream of the Just he introduced his main character Morpheus, one of the eternal seven who had been mistakenly captured by a magician who sought to eliminate Death from the equation of humanity. In these first issues Gaiman builds a complex story with cultured language and far from traditional cartoons although he relies on some classic DC references such as Constantine Mister Miracle or Jonn Jonzz. As the issues progress the writer creates his own lore and leaves the DC universe. His stories become more and more fantastic although sometimes sprinkled with touches of terror.
After 75 issues and with everything there was to narrate already told, Gaiman decided to put an end to one of the best comic book collections in history. DC promised him that there would be no more Sandman without him and except for some loose special it is something that has been maintained over time.
Groundbreaking in every way
Sandman is a work that had not had a reference source to rely on it was revolutionary in its way of telling the stories Gaiman himself admits that when I worked on Sandman I felt like I was taking a machete and going into the jungle. I had to write in places and do things that no one had done before.
But it was not only formally groundbreaking it was also many years ahead in the recognition and normalization of the rights of minorities regardless of their sexual condition their race or their social status. He was the pioneer in including a transgender character in comics at a time when George Busch Sr. s Republicans were promulgating a return to traditional Christian morality: The fact that we have trans characters the fact that we have gay characters. All those kinds of things which were important to me were not especially from his time. Wanda was the first trans character in mainstream comics. She just was.
Acknowledgments
Sandman is one of the referential works of the world of comics and its significance goes far beyond the world of comics. Between the regular collection and its specials it has won more than 26 Eisner awards the comic Oscars. The Sandman No.19 A Midsummer Night's Dream won the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction the first comic to receive this award.
ECC Comics Edition
Sandman The Complete Saga compiles through 2 volumes the original collection and the specials more closely related to the main plot. The first installment contains The Sandman nos. 1-39 40 and 50 USA and the stories Fear of Falling Vertigo Preview No. 1 USA and The Song of Orpheus The Sandman Special No. 1 USA. The second contains The Sandman nos. 41-49 and 51-75 as well as the special El castillo Vertigo Jam no. 1 USA and the miniseries The Sandman
Overture.
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