Sandman: Dream Hunters (edition 2010)

In comparisson to the illustrated version of this story, the graphic novel is distinctly different but still retains the original mood of the story. The pacing is slightly more dynamic in this version, even though the writing hasn't really changed, due to the additional imagery and to the style of the comic book layout. The linguistic style of Gaiman is ever present, even though Russell did the written adaptation for this book, but I figure that's because Neil's language is particularly well suited to graphic novels and because Russell is wonderful at doing adaptations. Overall, reading this was like going back to the original Sandman comics but having completely new and wonderful material! ( )

A quite enjoyable tale with a classic moral transcending the Oriental flavor, with cameos from a few of our favorite Sandman characters, including Dream, himself.

The art is, I believe, much better than most of the previous Sandman series, with clean lines and beautiful images, but that's also a taste of the thematic style, so obviously it was intentional on every level and not just an improvement on the series which is ostensibly ended... (but not quite, obviously.) :)

It was fun and light, with all the trappings of trickery, love, dreams, and revenge. A fairy tale with a moral? Sure! And it may deserve to be a classic and an ideal. :) ( )

Apparently the original Dream Hunters marked the 10th Anniversary of Sandman, and this marked the 20th. The original *is* better, but it's not really a necessary comparison, because this one is great too. It does make me long for an updated glossy edition, though. ( )

My first introduction to Russell's work was thanks to Neil Gaiman. My husband and I have both been big fans of his work for a long time and are always happy to read more. I picked up Russell and Gaiman's Murder Mysteries as a gift for my husband - because it's about angels and murder mysteries, how can you not want to read that? When I got around to reading it myself there was something particular about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. It wasn't until I read Russell's afterword that I did. It was the meticulous care he put into the division of text boxes and speech bubbles across panels that gave it that little something extra.

This just about blew my mind. I have been reading comics for a long time and it somehow never occurred to me how much impact the placement of text could have on the feel of a comic. It was always clear to me that it takes skill and experience to do it properly for the sake of coherency, but the approach and amount of planning in Russell's process was on a whole different level. Needless to say the next comic I read suddenly felt incredibly bogged down by text!

Years passed and I came across more comics and adaptations done by Russell, and they'd always have that little something else. Not quite to the extent as my experience reading Murder Mysteries, but it was always still there.

I recently started reading Gaiman's The Sandman for the first time. Between the two enormous omnibuses I took a break to read Russell's adaptation of The Dream Hunters. I can't express the extent to which I loved it. Gaiman's story is of course a huge contributing factor. The closest I can compare it to is Gaiman's Stardust - both feel like old fairytales, and yet you haven't read any like them before.

As much as I enjoy Gaiman's work, Russell's illustrations in The Dream Hunters really elevated my enjoyment of the story. They were gorgeous. Up until then my appreciation of Russell's work was primarily in his layouts - framing and positioning. It wasn't that I didn't like his artwork in other comics, but there's a difference between recognizing that artwork is good and having its style appeal to your personal tastes. His illustrations in The Dream Hunters really is the latter for me.

Everything with water - waves, rain splashing and puddles - is simply beautiful in its intricate detail. The lady's kimono design is incredible! The pattern is subtle, but clear if you're paying attention, and as the story progresses is becomes even more on the nose when it mimics the tail shape. And Dream, both as his fox and human incarnations, felt very magical. I always thought that what the illustrators did in the early comics with images and shadows in his cloak/robe was really cool and I missed it when they stopped doing it. I was very happy to see Russell bring this back.

And this is just a handful of things that really stood out to me. The whole thing was a delight to read, look at, and flip through again to really soak it in. As a graphic designer, I have a great admiration for the talent and work that went into making this. I was also amused reading the afterword that listed Chinese woodblock printing, Art Nouveau and Disney as influences for the artwork - all three being things I really love, so no wonder this appealed to me!

Anyway, my goal with this long thing was to attempt to express what an amazing experience it was reading The Dream Hunters. It might be my favourite comic I've ever read. I really look forward to seeing more of Russell's work in the future, even though I don't think I can ever hope to find a similar experience to this one. Gaiman's story and Russell's art was - at the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy - a magical combination.

- Lucky ( )

In The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell adapt Gaiman’s novel of the same name. Russell adapts the story to better match the artwork of The Sandman series as opposed to Yoshitaka Amano's original artwork for the novel. While Gaiman originally claimed that the story was based on a story in Y.T. Ozaki’s Old Japanese Fairy Tales, he later admitted that the story was of his own creation.

The story focuses on a fox spirit befriending a lonely monk who tends a temple on a Japanese mountainside. When the fox spirit learns that a rich onmyōji plans to kill the monk to steal his sense of contentment, she pleads with Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, to intervene. Morpheus grants her the ability and, when the monk finds her slowly dying in his place, he, too, pleads for the ability to save her. The story first appeared following The Wake, which ended the main Sandman storyline, though it takes place long before the events of Gaiman’s original series. Further, like some of the more interesting self-contained stories in Gaiman’s Sandman, Morpheus only appears as a supporting character.

Gaiman and Russell produced this adaptation in honor of the twentieth anniversary of The Sandman. It collects all four issues of the series as well as the original cover art from Yuko Shimizu, Mike Mignola, Paul Pope, and Joe Kubert. This work perfectly complements Gaiman’s original novel and is a must-own for fans of The Sandman! ( )