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When did you begin reading Sandman (or insert name of fave comic) ?

10:50 / 12.04.06

So, over the last few years – I’ve been making my way through the Sandman trades. Yesterday I just read the remaining one that I hadn’t read.

It got me to thinking that “Wow, these books were first published in 1989 – I was 13 then.” I wonder how 13 year old me would have dealt with serial killer conventions, The Corinthian, witches animating dead guy’s faces, stripper-goddesses, subversion of Narnian tropes, exploration of sexual mores and drunk drivers who come back as dream ravens…

So yeah, I guess I want to talk about:

a) If you read the Sandman, when did you read it? How did your reading age impact on what you got out of it?
b) Are there other trades / comics that you’ve read as an adult, and thought “Gee, I’d really love to give this to (younger) me?”

11:06 / 12.04.06

I think I read Sandman in college, probably around '90 or '91. I know I was aware of it by '93.

When I was 13, I was more into D&D than comics...so I probably would have given my younger self Busiek's Conan. And told him to hide the naughty bits from my mom.

11:34 / 12.04.06

i was probably about thirteen or fourteen - that kind of desperate age where you flail around for things that you reckon are well grown-up, but are really just a barely post-kiddy's idea of 'what i ought to do with my reading time when i'm an adult'. i remember one of the trades had a quote from fucking norman mailer or someone saying something like 'sandman is a comic for intellectuals and i say about bloody time and i done marilyn i done'. some friends saw the 'comics for intellectuals' bit and spent about six weeks asking me how intellectual i was being that day, and how intellectual spider-man was being too.

it was the horror bits that got me into it really, the one in the diner is perfect teen-kewl fodder, and then the shakespeare one and then the lucifer one seemed to be kind of, y'know, 'rapidly maturing' in the way that i imagined i was myself. then it got to the one which is like an episode of friends for goths and they all jump around in each others' dreams at the end (like it's the fountain in the credits sequence). bored the right piss out of me that one, and me and 'neil'-(neil) parted company. i'd quite like to read the rest of the series, if it was free and someone else placed it directly in my hands - i won't be going to any extra effort for it, is the drift.

12:00 / 12.04.06

I started reading 'Sandman' at the age of 16, my junior year in high school. It was actually a blessing to be reading that and Mozz's 'Doom Patrol' at that time. My comic collection was expanding exponentially at that point and my mom was becoming very worried. "Those thinigs are rotting my son's braaaaane!" Y'know how it goes. Junior year of high school also found me in a class called 'British Literature' (stop laughing), and I rocked that shit HARD. The class cleared up references in 'Sandman' and 'DP' that I wouldn't have gottten otherwise and clued me in to some of the source material for the comic stories I was reading. I started bringing issues of each in for the teacher to see and she was blown away, surprised to see that comics weren't just for kids anymore. I think I even loaned her the first three 'Sandman' trades. She fucking loved 'em.

When Parent/Teacher Meeting Day rolled around that year, my mom went straight to the Brit Lit teacher and asked that she PLEASE get me to stop reading comics. The teacher wasn't having any of it. She told my mom that there was absolutely no need to worry, that these "funny books" were actually very well written and were enriching my mind and learning experience in her class. "Leave him alone on this one. Your son knows what he's doing." After that I was, thankfully, left alone to read whatever I wanted. This whole incident was a belated but very necessary first step away from what my parents wanted me to be and toward what I wanted to be.

12:13 / 12.04.06

This is dumb, but honest.

When Sandman came out, I was really excited to see the McKean covers, but was disappointed by the interior art. I was in art school and not impressed with a lot of the writing in comics at the time so I bought comics for the art then.

I kept checking over the next few months to see if the art got to a level that was comparable to the cover art, but was disappointed. I said to myself if they ever put out a collection of just the covers, then I would read the series.

So the Dustcovers collection of Sandman covers came out and I bought the first trade. I thought it was fanatastic and thought that I had been dumb to wait so long to read it, but I was young and my tastes were different. I then bought all the trades and read it every couple of years.

I think I'm happier that I waited because I wouldn't have gotten all the literary references at the age I was when it came out. I also thing I would have gotten swept up in all the cult-i-ness of it and regretted it later.

Now, I think I would give 13 year old me Seaguy. But I wouldn't have understood why "future me" thought it was worth reading.

12:17 / 12.04.06

Augury, I notice you've been a member for a couple of years but you don't post much so you're probably unaware that Gaiman has a fair few detractors around these parts. Don't be surprised if some people take the piss - it's par for the course where Gaiman is concerned.

In other news, I started reading Sandman when I was 13 or 14 in '88 or '89 and it sat well with my desire to read "mature" material - stuff with swearing and sex and horror and THEMES. However after a year or so I'd stopped buying it and only occassionally looked over my brother's shoulder to find out what was going on. I'd discovered drugs and mysticism and raves and girls and I didn't have time in my life for po-faced angst or authors telling me that the essential forces of the universe all began with D and included Delirium.

TBH, I'd actually like to revisit Sandman as I suspect there was (a little) more going on than I gave it credit for.

12:28 / 12.04.06

I've *ahem* nevereadSandman... *ahem* sorry!

BUT, if I would be able to give my young self some comics, I'd probably give myself George's Doom Patrol as well. I read it quite recently from start to end at it blew my tiny mind. If I'd have read it then, well, who knows? But I would have liked to have seen the expressions on my friends faces as I explained the stories. Of course, reading comics at school made me distinctly uncool, so I doubt anyone would have cared, other than having one more thing I love that they could take the piss out of (ooooh, bitter! Who said that time cures all, eh?).

However, I'm pretty sure that at the tender age of 12 or 13, I wouldn't have had a clue what was happening in the stories and I would have hated the artwork too. But that's kids for you I suppose, the ignorant little shits.

I do think that the spotty young oiky Exploding boy would have seriously dug Planetary though. Self contained stories, great artwork, riffing on iconic pop-culture motifs. I would have been the coolest kid in school. In my head.

Spinning the topic a little bit - did anyone here read anything earth-shatteringly cool at a young age that they're still proud for being exposed to? Did it help you through those horrible, car-crash puberty years, or were you still lost like the rest of us?

12:50 / 12.04.06

Well, I'd say 2000AD (particularly Zenith), Revolver, Crisis and Watchmen were all very worthwhile influences. Not only did they tie into my teenage mindset and take me to some interesting places, they've also stayed with me in that they've informed my thinking and taste.

13:19 / 12.04.06

I started reading it when I was 16 or so and read it intensely for around two years until it ceased publication and no longer feel much of a drive to re-read it. Structurally, Sandman bears close comparison to Gaiman's Miracleman work, but I find the latter to be more rewarding. I'm not sure if its because I'm overly familiar with the Sandman, but the Miracleman stuff seemed to be far more emotionally engaged and far less contrived.

I dunno, I've been reading comics since before I could read. I'm not sure there are many that I would have wanted to read younger, there are some I wished I'd discovered sooner, but that is a different proposition, I think.

14:12 / 12.04.06

Boboss - Yeah, I'm aware there is disdain towards the series on the 'lith (or at least the perception that there is disdain), and that some people may cite the 'twee' defence with this series, which was why i broadened the topic a little.

But, any response is a valid one...

oh and hey makeitbleed - in your "dumb, but honest" box, I'll add that i remember seeing some of those McKean covers when i was younger, and freaking out a little - probably because they were so different.

Also, i think 16 year old me would have really dug We-3! Dogs, guns, madness!

17:50 / 12.04.06

Read it when it came out - so if it was 1989, I would have been 15 or so. I liked it's creepy EC comics and Mystery feel to the first issue or so, and then got a little bored as it went on (the Dolls House never did it for me) but would dip in every now and then, and remember really liking the Caesar and the Emperor Norton issues especially. I can't remember exactly, but I think that the Martian Manhunter popped up in an issue, and I was really into him at that point, mainly because of the JLI, but also because of the Mark Badger mini-series.

As for what I'd recommend, I guess a younger me would really like the Loser's and 100 Bullets, but I was reading most of the stuff that I still like back then, nothing really jumps out.

18:45 / 12.04.06

I first read Sandman when I was around fifteen, I was just getting into comics, and picked it up coming off of Watchmen. I remember it took me roughly six months to read all the trades, because I was also looking into a bunch of other series at the time. This was before I was really familiar with comics, so I would just look online for reccomendations about what to check out.

Reading The Kindly Ones was the high point for me, it's my favorite volume of the series, and it's one of my most vivid memories of that summer. I've actually been pretty lucky in that I came to most of these series at the right time, I might have gotten a little more out of reading Sandman a few years later, but it was definitely a good introduction to long form comics.

Bubblegum Death

20:28 / 12.04.06

I started reading Sandman around 18 and the first volume I read was The Kindly Ones. It's still my favorite of the series.If I had started with Preludes and Nocturnes and read them in order; I'm not sure I would have kept going. I probably would have stopped after Dream Country.

I didn't start reading comics until I was 13. I would probably go back and make myself aware of the Invisibles, but I don't know if my 13 year old self would like them. I was still thinking how cool Spawn was.