“The Sandman” Winter Readalong
Image from Wikipedia
My friend Jeff K, who leads Twin Cities’ Books and Bars, and I have talked about doing a readalong of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman for a while now.
The original series was 75ish issues. They’re most commonly collected in 10 graphic novels; full-price retail is about $20 each though they can be gotten for less at Powells.com and other retailers including your local, independent comic shop. Digital copies are available for $12.99 each at Comixology. Most libraries have the ten volumes as well as some of the other collections (Absolute, Annotated, and Omnibus). They are also fairly easy to find used.
We’ve decided to do the readalong online, with weekly posts here at Girl Detective on Mondays, plus both Jeff and I will be tweeting about each week’s issues starting Monday, too.
On Twitter, Jeff is @jefe23 and I’m @kjboldon. We’ll use the hashtag #SandMN for our discussions.
We’re reading over December 2014 and January 2014. The dark of winter will be a great time to read or re-read this intricate, atmospheric work.
You can start reading anytime, or wait till the beginning of December. The first post and tweets will be on Monday 12/8/14 to discuss Preludes and Nocturnes (volume 1), which is issues 1-8.
Below I’ve listed the “Read by” dates, and the volume and issue numbers.
Are you interested in reading along? Do you have questions, or need advice? Email me at girldetective (at) girldetective (dot) com, or ask in the comments, or tweet at me.
My first piece of advice if you’re thinking about this: read through issue 8. Sandman is often categorized as fantasy, but it spans many genres. The early issues tend more toward horror than fantasy. Some people start and think it’s not their thing, but like any series, it took some time (only a little) to find its way. Issue 8, in my opinion, is where things really started to cook. So stick around till then. If you’re new to comics, or not so much into horror, perhaps don’t invest in the whole series right away. Start with volume 1, and go from there.
Without further blather, the schedule, which takes a week off over the end of December. I hope you will join us. The Sandman was my gateway comic into geekdom almost 25 years ago. I’ve re-read it several times, but never in a group, and I’m very much looking forward to this.
12/1/14 start reading Preludes and Nocturnes v. 1 (issues 1-8)
12/8/14 Preludes and Nocturnes v1, #1-8 (8 issues)
12/15/14 A Doll’s House v2, #9-16 (8 issues)
12/22/14 Dream Country v3 #17-20 and Season of Mists v4 #21-28 (12 issues)
BREAK for holidays and to catch up
1/5/15 A Game of You v5 #32-37 and Fables and Reflections v6 #29-31, 38-40, 50, Special #1 (14 issues)
1/12/15 Brief Lives v7 #41-49 and World’s End v8 #51-56 (15 issues)
1/19/15 The Kindly Ones v9 #57-69 (13 issues)
1/26/15 The Wake v10 #70-75 (6 issues)
October 21st, 2014 at 6:56 am
I’m scared. It’ll be my first read of this series. Can it withstand its reputation? For how much I love comics and more current Gaiman books, what took me so long? I’ve been waiting for the right time and place and this finally feels like. Please join us in this journey into darkness, whether you want to help guide as an expert or be a newb. @jefe23 #SandMN
October 21st, 2014 at 10:08 am
This is written in large, friendly letters: DON’T PANIC! Sandman is an epic, much like Middlemarch or War and Peace–intimidating in its length and reputation, which is why you probably put it off so long. Doing a long work in a readalong is great. It gets you through the rough spots, plus there’s funny along the way.