Reviews for The Sandman Companion: A Dreamer's Guide to the Award-Winning Comic Series

The average rating for The Sandman Companion: A Dreamer's Guide to the Award-Winning Comic Series based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-14 00:00:00 Timothy Ricketts This book is a fun read for any Sandman fan, but I'd recommend re-reading the series right before diving into the companion if it's been a while. There are many specific references throughout the companion and despite the fact that I had just read the series I still had to go back and look things up several times to figure out which scene was being discussed. I liked the mix of details on Gaiman's writing, the characters/storyline, and the work done by the pencillers. The companion is full of fun tidbits like a dissection of the different fonts used for characters' speech bubbles, an exploration of all the past DC characters and people in Gaiman's life that made cameos, and lots of examples of symbolism throughout the book. My only complaint is that the interview-style conversation between Gaiman and companion author Hy Bender felt too rehearsed. Each chapter is supposed to contain an interview with Gaiman, but I can't imagine how much work it took to construct these interviews the way they appear on the page. Bender will ask a general question and Gaiman will respond with five different examples (including the comic and page number) and they will take turns quoting long chunks of text from those examples. But at the same time, Bender often asks follow-up questions that would have to flow naturally from the conversation. It's probably the strangest interview I've ever read, just because it's too perfect. But the book is thorough without becoming boring, and I came away from it feeling that I had a much deeper understanding of the Sandman series, and of Gaiman.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-03-11 00:00:00 Michael Hardesty A largely unnecessary book, made worthwhile almost exclusively for the interviews with Gaiman. The occasional input from other creators & Sandman-boosters add little to the text, and even less to the reading of the series itself. Bender also tends to promote his own theories from time to time without any support from the prime series creator himself (e.g., that Lucien the librarian is actually the Biblical Adam), and ignores other information that could be further explored (just who is Leigh Bauch, the person credited in this book with early art in developing Sandman?). Even the art is mostly previously published, with only a few unpublished sketches to entice the completist. A miss for anyone but the absolute most hardcore Sandman follower.