Absolute Death

This last Sandman Absolute Edition collects the adventures of Dream's sister, Death. It leads off with two Death-centric issues from The Sandman, which was probably done to pad out the book, but I still appreciated the chance to reread "The Sound of Her Wings," which features Death's first appearance. In retrospect, it stands out: Dream narrates part of it, which rarely (never?) happened again in the series, and it also seems to set up some of Dream's decisions in The Kindly Ones, a full fifty issues later. But the primary point of this collection are the two Death-focused miniseries it collects.

The first of these is The High Cost of Living, which tells the story of a 24-hour period spent by Death as an ordinary, living person in modern show more New York. Primarily told from the perspective of a layabout teenager, it's a nice story with a lot of fun moments and couple reappearances by Sandman stalwarts such as Mad Hettie and Hazel and Foxglove. Death's adventures are alternately entertaining and horrifying, as you might imagine, and I enjoyed this one a lot.

The second is The Time of Your Life, which isn't really about Death at all, though she appears; it's more about Hazel and Foxglove, and how they deal with having a child and the pressures of fame. I liked getting to focus on these two because, for me, Death doesn't really work as a principal character-- even more so than Dream, she's all-powerful and all-knowing, and what's worse, she likes what she does, so what's at stake for her? She works better as a side character in the stories of others. Hazel and Foxglove go on a stranger journey in this tale, and learn a bit about themselves-- though unfortunately the story occasionally descends into the kind of cheesy aphorisms you might see inside of chocolate wrappers. Also the ending is a convenient cop-out.

The art of both tales is ably provided by Chris Bachalo. I especially liked his art in the second story, where Mark Buckingham's inks are clear and gorgeous. The use of color in The Time of Your Life is really great, too.

After this, there's a few mini-stories about Death, all of which look pretty good, but maybe didn't do a whole lot for me. The one about 9/11 also descends in cheesy aphorisms, I think. The AIDS awareness story featuring Death was worth it for John Constantine holding a banana while Death put a condom on it.

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

This book encompasses every story Neil Gaiman has ever written that involved Death. I always loved Death the way Gaiman writes her, as the perky Goth girl that is basically like a mother to everyone, waiting for them at the end of their day. The artwork through out the book and the galleries at the end are especially beautiful and it is interesting to see how different artists view the character. Throughout all of Death's stories I always feel there is a message telling the reader to live life to the fullest without being foolish and taking unnecessary risks; but maybe that's just me. My favorite story from the collection is The Wheel, Death meets a boy on a ferris wheel who wants to ask God why Sept 11 occurred. This reminded me of how show more I felt after the tragedy, and I felt that the answers the Eternals gave the boy were respectful and just plain good. show less

This book encompasses every story Neil Gaiman has ever written that involved Death. I always loved Death the way Gaiman writes her, as the perky Goth girl that is basically like a mother to everyone, waiting for them at the end of their day. The artwork through out the book and the galleries at the end are especially beautiful and it is interesting to see how different artists view the character. Throughout all of Death's stories I always feel there is a message telling the reader to live life to the fullest without being foolish and taking unnecessary risks; but maybe that's just me. My favorite story from the collection is The Wheel, Death meets a boy on a ferris wheel who wants to ask God why Sept 11 occurred. This reminded me of how show more I felt after the tragedy, and I felt that the answers the Eternals gave the boy were respectful and just plain good. show less

This book encompasses every story Neil Gaiman has ever written that involved Death. I always loved Death the way Gaiman writes her, as the perky Goth girl that is basically like a mother to everyone, waiting for them at the end of their day. The artwork through out the book and the galleries at the end are especially beautiful and it is interesting to see how different artists view the character. Throughout all of Death's stories I always feel there is a message telling the reader to live life to the fullest without being foolish and taking unnecessary risks; but maybe that's just me. My favorite story from the collection is The Wheel, Death meets a boy on a ferris wheel who wants to ask God why Sept 11 occurred. This reminded me of how show more I felt after the tragedy, and I felt that the answers the Eternals gave the boy were respectful and just plain good. show less

It's wonderful to have all of these Death-related graphic novels and comics in one spot. I loved revisiting these stories, though it's a little jarring to read them all in a mish-mash together. This collection just makes me think Death deserves her own series. She's a supporting character that sometimes steals the show in "Sandman." Putting these stories all together in one place show how short-changed she's been.

So the four-star rating is for actual story content, because these stories aren't knock-yourself-out amazing. The collection gets five stars on presentation, because it's absolutely gorgeous. Even though I have the graphic novels that the bulk of this book collects, the never-before printed stories and the gallery make this a show more wonderful collection of the beloved "Sandman" character. show less

This book encompasses every story Neil Gaiman has ever written that involved Death. I always loved Death the way Gaiman writes her, as the perky Goth girl that is basically like a mother to everyone, waiting for them at the end of their day. The artwork through out the book and the galleries at the end are especially beautiful and it is interesting to see how different artists view the character. Throughout all of Death's stories I always feel there is a message telling the reader to live life to the fullest without being foolish and taking unnecessary risks; but maybe that's just me. My favorite story from the collection is The Wheel, Death meets a boy on a ferris wheel who wants to ask God why Sept 11 occurred. This reminded me of how show more I felt after the tragedy, and I felt that the answers the Eternals gave the boy were respectful and just plain good. show less

I just love everything by Neil Gaiman that I've gotten my hands on so far, and The Absolute Death is no exception.

Best read AFTER Gaiman's The Sandman, the stories of Death are alternately: scary, sad, funny, and touching. Much like, his Sandman stories, you don't know what you'll get when you start reading and could get all these emotional responses in a single story!

While the standalone Death stories (Death:The High Cost of Living and Death:The Time of Your Life) could be read on their own, this is a book that should be saved for after The Sandman.