Peter Hogan (2)Reviews

I don't love it as much as I love the TV show (there is virtually no humor to this comic) but, the story is fascinating and the idea original enough - a stranded alien masquerading as a town doctor is engaged in solving local crimes - to keep me entertained.

Despite the danger of exposure (and other things), Harry is drawn to New York City to solve a mystery that may hit close to home. In order to resolve it, he has to come to grips with what it means to be an immigrant.

Another interesting mystery for Harry to solve. Plus bonus Neil Gaiman Easter egg.

Several unrelated (?) mysteries big and small for our favorite alien amateur detective to solve. These are resolved. But another bigger, more personal mystery pops up and we get more of Harry's backstory.

An interesting mystery and satisfying payoff

I love the concept of an alien living a normal-ish life, (almost) undetected, on Earth. The story and art were well done and made for an enjoyable, quick read.

843

***directly after finishing***
3.5⭐ rounded down
That reviewer was right! It was fun! I read this so fast. And I think I'll put this on the list of buying a physical copy... Well depending on the next 2 volumes and the ending...

***Before reading***
I read a review on GoodReads that called this fun. Then I saw that the actor in the trailer is Mr. Nobody from that DC series I forgot the name of. He also played in Firefly and I've always enjoyed his acting.

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/7zhi01GHD7M

Enjoy!

Martian Manhunter meets "Murder She Wrote" in this small-town murder mystery starring a marooned alien whose vague mental powers allow him to appear to be human to most of the people around him. Aloof and posing as a doctor, he's recruited by the local police to help look over the victim's body in a murder and finds himself getting drawn deeper into the community.

Low-key and low-stakes, it's still a pleasant read if a smidge too cozy for me.

The Dreaming: Through the Gates of Horn and Ivory collects issues no. 15-19 & 22-25 of The Dreaming, a spin-off from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, written by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Peter Hogan, and Jeff Nicholson, with art from Peter Doherty, Paul Lee, Jeff Nicholson, Gary Amaro, Chris Weston, and D’Israeli, and colors by Daniel Nozzo, and lettering by Todd Klein. The first story details an office manager who feels no sense of accomplishment and dreams of work that he can tangibly measure, leading him to Mervyn Pumpkinhead. Following that story, Peter Hogan and Gary Amaro tell a tale of Faerie, alternating between Nuala on Earth and the Cluracan in Faerie as both celebrate the New Year. The next tale, from Caitlín R. Kiernan, Peter Doherty, and D’Israeli, sees Matthew the Raven and the new Corinthian traveling to Georgia to clean up the mess leftover from when the previous Corinthian incarnation escaped the Dreaming and became a serial killer on Earth (covered in The Sandman, Volume 2: The Doll’s House and The Sandman, Volume 9: The Kindly Ones). The previous Corinthian left a victim alive, who now steals peoples’ eyeballs with the help of his lover, Echo. The next story, also by Caitlín R. Kiernan with art by Paul Lee, picks up shortly after that, with Echo using magic from Anton Arcane to transform the raven Matthew back into the human Matt Cable. In this, Kiernan builds upon a foundation that Alan Moore laid in Swamp Thing and that Gaiman continued in The Sandman, adding context to both. In the final story, writer Paul Hogan and artist Chris Weston tell the story of one of Dream’s earlier ravens, Aristeas of Marmora. Aristeas was a real person who lived around the seventh century BCE. In the story, he missed his humanity and so Oneiros (Dream’s Greek name) allowed him to return to human form for a year and a day, after which he would have to decide whether to return to the Dreaming or to remain a human. He found the world much changed and, after some new adventures and mishaps, decided to return. In this, the story builds on the events of The Sandman, Volume 10: The Wake. This volume and its stories make a nice companion to Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series, deepening the fictional universe of his narrative.½

The Dreaming: Beyond the Shores of Night collects The Dreaming nos. 1-8 from 1996-1997, with the stories “The Goldie Factor,” “The Lost Boy,” and “His Brother’s Keeper.” They were written by Terry LaBan, Peter Hogan, and Alisa Kwitney with art by Peter Snejbjerg, Steve Parkhouse, Michael Zulli, and Dick Giordano. Dave McKean provided the covers while Neil Gaiman acted as a consultant. The stories are set within the Dreaming, the realm of Morpheus the Lord of Dream from Gaiman’s Sandman comic series.

In “The Goldie Factor,” Abel’s golden gargoyle wanders off after seeing the abuse Cain constantly inflicts upon Abel. The two brothers go searching for Goldie and find the meaning of origin stories. “The Lost Boy” focuses on a man who finds himself transported forty years into the future and must figure out his place in the world. It also features Johanna Constantine, Made Hettie, Destiny, and Cain from The Sandman. Finally, “His Brother’s Keeper” further explores the relationship between Cain and Abel as well as their extended family: mother Eve, brother Seth, and sister Aclima.

Interesting as these stories are, both Gaiman’s Endless Nights anthology and DC’s reboot of The Dreaming under their 2018 Sandman Universe banner ignored all of the events and characters from this version of the title. As satisfying as series contributor Caitlin R. Kiernan found the work, she felt it suffered from the expectation that it live up to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman rather than exist as its own, loosely-related work. For fans of Gaiman’s The Sandman, this still has plenty to offer even if later stories removed it from canon.

Three story arcs collected in one volume. The Goldie Factor in which Abel's gargoyle is lead astray by the Serpent who is trying to undo the Fall and then discovers her identity and destiny; The Lost Boy in which an encounter with the Fay and with Mad Hetty causes a man to lose his way in time but participate in the fate of the US as a nation; and His Brother's Keeper, in which Seth learns more about his brothers. Each is interesting in its own way.

I really really love this series. I love the doctor more and more and I love Asta more and more. I've said it before, but it has a lot of depth and I love that.

I really do love this series. I love the art, and I love the doctor and Asta. I also like that even though it's science fiction and about a stranded alien, it's also about reality and real people. It's got depth.

I really really enjoyed this. I have a soft spot for cool alien people though, I guess.

When I really think about it, the mystery plotline itself wasn't that interesting and the resolution wasn't super satisfying. But I don't think the story is ultimately about that. It's about Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle. Who is pretty awesome and kind of adorable and I really can't wait to read more of this.

I found this in the bf's car yesterday. I forgot I'd started it, but it was pretty good. I'll try another volume, if the library has it.

The second volume of The Dreaming has more of a throughline than the first, which is probably meant to stop it from feeling like a series of weak imitations of the standalone issues of its parent series. That said, it's actually one of the standalones that's the best story in this book, Jeff Nicholson's "Day's Work, Night's Rest," which tells of an office drone who dreams that he's working with Merv Pumpkinhead's construction team in the Dreaming. Merv was my second-favorite character in The Sandman, so of course I loved this, despite a bleak ending at odds with the tone of the rest of the story, not to mention the art. How could Merv telling everyone that he runs the Dreaming not be fun?

I also really enjoyed Peter Hogan and Gary Amaro's "Ice," which is a mood piece about a number of different Sandman characters some New Year's Eve/Day: Lucien, Merv, Farrell the God of Transport, Nuala, Cluracan. The Cluracan subplot is baffling, but it's small, and the interplay between Lucien and Nuala, now over Dream and working in a bar on the Earth, is sweet.

Caitlin R. Kiernan, Peter Doherty, and d'Israeli's "Souvenirs" promises to be interesting because it focuses on my favorite Sandman character, Matthew the Raven, teaming him up with the Corinthian, which worked really well in The Kindly Ones. Unfortunately, this story is nonsensical, and then it just stops. Matthew gets some good material, though, such as when someone on the Earth realizes he's a talking raven: "Yeah, Sherlock. I can talk. I'm a talking bird. Now, call him an ambulance or I'm gonna peck your stupid face off." The story gets a direct followup in Caitlin Kiernan and Paul Lee's "An Unkindness of One," which should be even better but is even worse. It puts Matthew back in his human body and Lucien back into a raven one, but then does nothing interesting with either concept, aside from the occasional cool image, and there's a lot about Echo, the villain in "Souvenirs" and I just don't care. How could you mess up what should be the definitive Matthew story this bad?

The book is rounded out by another Peter Hogan story, this time with Chris Weston, "My Year as a Man," which is an okay tale about one of Dream's earlier ravens. Nothing too bad, nothing too great; the best part is the brief appearance of Abel, Lucien, and Matthew in the frame.

Apparently Caitlin Kiernan essentially took over the direction of The Dreaming after this; maybe I should be grateful that the rest of the issues are uncollected even if they are about some great characters, as based on her lackluster six issues here, she just doesn't get what makes the Dreaming interesting.

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Spin-Offs: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »

The Dreaming was the second of the three ongoings to spin out of The Sandman (the others being Sandman Mystery Theatre and Lucifer).  Unlike the other two, it's largely uncollected; there are only two trades, which collect a scattered seventeen issues of the sixty-issue series.  Maybe this is because it had a sort of anthology format, moving between different characters and concepts from the Dreaming, the realm ruled over by Gaiman's character-- there's not really an ongoing character narrative.

This first volume collects three different stories, the first of which is Terry LaBan and Peter Snejbjerg's "The Goldie Factor."  This concerns a couple of my favorite characters from the Dreaming, Cain and Abel, the brothers were one is an eternal murderer and the other is an eternal victim.  They set off after Abel's pet gargoyle, Goldie, who is being misled by "the Great Tempto," the snake from the Garden of Eden.  Gaiman's Eve, Matthew the Raven, and Lucien also appear.  It's a decent quest story, mostly worth it for the way that LaBan nails the personalities of all the different Sandman characters; I like the interplay between the feuding brothers especially.  On the other hand, LaBan and Snejbjerg's Dreaming feels too much like a pedestrian fantasy world, not a place you might inadvertently wander into on the fringes of consciousness.

The second story is Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse's "The Lost Boy," is about an architect from 1956 who wanders into 1996 and finds a world he doesn't understand.  Unfortunately, the man-out-of-time story has been done better than here, and though I think the architect is supposed to be a likeable average guy, he's more just boring.  This undercuts an ending which I think would have been sweet had it been written better.  The best part of this over-long story (it is by no means a four-issue concept) is the return of Mad Hettie, the vagrant who popped up from time to time in both The Sandman and Death.  I honestly never paid a lot of attention to her before, but amidst these dull characters, she delights with her matter-of-fact weirdness, as she speaks plainly about mystical happenings to humans and fairies alike.  I really liked Steve Parkhouse's artwork, though.

Last is Alisa Kwitney and Michael Zulli's short "His Brother's Keeper," which follows up on a mention of Cain and Abel's brother Seth from "The Goldie Factor," but then tells a story that has nothing to do with that concept at all.  Baffling and dull.

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Spin-Offs: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »

Caitlin Kiernan (who wrote two story arcs in this collection made up of 3 issues each) is a worthy successor to the Sandman universe--which is not an easy thing to be--and Peter Hogan (who wrote two short stories) is close.

The Dreaming: 'Day's Work, Night's Rest' Issue #15 >>
Mervyn Pumpkinhead takes center stage in this story (which doesn't happen very often) as he shows a "lost" dreamer what his duties consist of in The Dreaming.

The "lost" dreamer is Robert, a unique kind of self-made businessman--he finds himself unable to stand the paper empire that he's made--instead he longs to be one of the blue collar workers who, according to his subordinates are stuck in their "slave-like station in life." He longs so much for it that he found himself suddenly being recruited by Merv to join the latter in the constant construction of The Dreaming.

Who knew that most dreamers end up in Young's Playground, The Sex Gardens, Vengeance Square, etc.? It's fascinating to imagine the vastness that makes up Morpheus' realm.

The Dreaming: "Ice" Issue #16 >>
We get to meet Farrell, the God of Transport, as he continues with his duties in modern-day Dublin. This is the only time he reappeared ever since Morpheus asked for his help in providing transport for him & Delirium. I wished that there was some depth as to his characterization within this one shot issue.

Much more interesting and significant is the focus on the important characters of Faerie: Nuala and her brother The Cluracan. Watch out for the sudden appearance of his "brother" whose main goal in life is to destroy him. I giggled when Cluracan referred to him as a "talking venison"!

The Cluracan, being an amoral, gay (in both the literal and modern sense of the word) rogue, is strongly reminiscent of the "trickster" archetype also associated with Loki. Being fond of men, he then refuses to follow Queen Titania and ends up owning his "brother" a favor: "...drink to...my brother's stag night."

Meanwhile, Lucien visits Earth to check up on Nuala whom he believed to be grief-wracked and guilt-stricken but instead is surprised by what she has become, "For my love for my Lord has indeed...shaped me. And in that shape, I am now...learning how to grow."

The Dreaming: "Souvenirs" Issues #17-19 >>
Dave McKean's covers really crept me out on this issue, more so than that of the drawing of the Corinthian's victims. The Corinthian is of course created by Morpheus--nightmare made flesh. "A nightmare created to be the darkness, and the fear of darkness in every human heart. A black mirror, made to reflect everything about itself that humanity will not confront."

His most notable physical feature is his lack of eyes: in their place, two rows of small jagged teeth line each eye socket. The Corinthian often wears sunglasses to cover this up. This is first appearance in The Dreaming series; please note though that this is the "second Corinthian" since Morpheus uncreated the first one.

What's ironic is that the nightmare personified is himself having nightmares due to someone in our waking world who couldn't stop thinking about him. "I've been right here, doing my job, my prescribed duty, playing looking glass for every cringing mortal too afraid of who or what they really are to face it while they're awake."

We are also introduced to Echo, who as a character, will appear prominently in the series. I'm watching out for further developments...After all, old habits die hard.

The Dreaming: "The Unkindness of One" Issues #22-24 >>
Featured center stage is Matthew, the latest of the ravens who lives with Eve in Dream's domain. Echo is still seeking revenge (with the help of the demon Anton Arcane) from what The Corinthian has done to him and to his lover, Gabriel Ashe. I was saddened by the panel when Matthew found out he's alive yet again as the human Matthew Cable (a long-time supporting character in the Swamp Thing series; of which sadly, I'm not familiar with) and complications are mounting, he then yearns to become Morpheus' raven once more. "The world is heavy. And he can't remember to fly away."

I liked Matthew's word balloons and font style which are scratchy and uneven, probably to represent a hoarse, cawing voice, and perhaps as an indicator of his crude, smart-aleck personality.

I personally loved the gallant gesture done by Lucien for Eve, of offering to be her raven once more since Matthew was taken away from her. Seriously, if I die in my dreams and I get a chance to be the Librarian of dreams, I'd gladly say yes to Morpheus. Ahhh..to be the "sole curator of unfulfilled phantasms, shepherd of misplaced and miscreant shadows and romance."

The Dreaming: "My Year As A Man" Issue #25 >>
This issue recounts the story of one of Morpheus' ravens, Aristeas of Marmora. After serving the Lord of Dreams for 240 years, he starts feeling a "restlessness of spirit," Morpheus guessed its source and offered him a compact. The compact between them grants Aristeas to become a man once more and if he should desire to become the Dream's raven once more, he must return after a year.

Thus Aristeas returned to his birthplace in ancient Greece and encountered some difficulties in using his human limbs once more. He travels and readers are treated to great illustrations of ancient Greek cities and countryside while Aristeas encounters the centaur Chiron (tutor to Achilles, Jason and Solon) and was pressed into servitude with the Erinyes.

In the end, even Pandora can't deny him his wish to be immortalized when Aristeas appeared in Metapontum in Southern Italy to command that a statue of himself be set up and a new altar dedicated to Apollo, saying that since his death he had been traveling with Apollo in the form of a sacred raven.

Book Details:

Title The Dreaming: Through the Gates of Horn & Ivory
Author Caitlin Kiernan;Neil Gaiman (Consultant)
Reviewed By Purplycookie

I'd bought the first two issues of the first Terra Obscura series off the rack, and was impressed enough by them to want to read the rest; however, I was disappointed in the subsequent four issues when I finally bought the trade paperback collecting the series, as they seemed to lose the tightness of plotting and the numerous "Easter eggs" common in an Alan Moore story (perhaps that's because I've never read any of the Tom Strong comic books); actually the whole thing came off as an OK, not great, Marvel Comics and/or DC Comics superhero story arc from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.

The plot: an Earth (Terra Obscura) learns to live without superheroes as an alien creature seizes control; the surviving heroes are finally brought out of suspended animation thanks to the efforts of "our" Earth's pre-eminent "science-hero" (think Doc Savage), Tom Strong, and find a world that doesn't particularly want them, but which nevertheless needs them. Various actual Golden Age heroes from Nedor Comics that over the years lapsed into the public domain like the Black Terror (here called simply The Terror; when alive, his partner Tim and he were dubbed "The Terror Twins"), the Fighting Yank, American Crusader, Grim Reaper, Doc Strange (Tom Strange), Captain Future, the Ghost (a.k.a. Green Ghost), Lance Lewis the Space Detective, the Magnet, Miss Masque, etc., etc., are tweaked in the approved Alan Moore fashion going back to the early 1980s (Watchmen, Marvelman/Miracleman). While these versions are doubtlessly more interesting than their original incarnations, they're still not interesting enough, as presented here, for anybody who isn't a follower of the Tom Strong family of comics or an Alan Moore completist. The art team of Yanick Paquette and Karl Story is clean and serviceable; however, Moore's absence from the scripting chores here is really felt by the second half of the series.

Best wrinkle that isn't really explored enough: the Terror's computerized consciousness (he was killed fighting the aforementioned alien conqueror) being used to police some cities as part of a corporation ("Terror, Inc.," no less...), with the marketing slogan, "Your community could be like this too. All it takes is a little terror...and a whole lot of love." (Stay tuned, friends and neighbors: I'm confident we'll see a very similar program, albeit without the computerized, fascistic, masked zombie crimefighter, if and when the U.S. suffers another major terrorist attack...)

I might pick up the second mini-series if I see it on remainder (as I did this trade paperback), but I'm not going out of my way to get it.