Sandman, Preludes&Nocturnes #1
Nov. 13th, 2003 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
platedlizardI am currently reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. It's really, really awesome. Because I need a project I will go through each issue once an entry (or whatever I feel like doing really). Today's entry is Issue #1 of Preludes&Nocturnes.
Page One. We have a Dr. John Hathaway visiting an old creepy mansion. The date is June 6, 1916. My sister was born on June 6, 1983 but other then that that day means nothing to me (sorry Martha!) He is visiting a Mr. Burgess. We see the good doctor, his driver, and the butler in this page.
In panel one his driver is waking Dr. Hathaway up. Sleep theme.
Page two. Dr. Hathaway is talking with Mr. Burgess in the study. Hathaway is giving a book to Burgess, one that he had been apparently reluctant to give away. We learn that Hathaway changed his mind when his son died when his Destroyer sank a week ago.
The book is the Magdalene Grimoire. According to Burgess a spell in it means "No one need ever die again."
Page Three. June 10th. We are introduced to four children.
Ellie Marsten (Toronto, Canada) Her mother is reading _Through the Looking Glass_ to her, and she finds it frightening.
Daniel Bustamonte (Kingston Jamaica), he is sleeping under a table in his father's inn. He dreams of a Castle in the air that is made of clouds.
Stefan Wasserman (Verdun, France). Trench warfare is nasty, he never dream war would be like this, he lied about his age in order to enlist. He is almost 14.
Unity Kinkaid (London, England). Unity is sleeping. She dreams of a tall, dark man with burning star-like eyes. She mutters and whimpers in her sleep.
Burgess dreams of power and glory, and of Death.
Page four. We are introduced to Burgess's son, Alex.
Page Five. They are downstairs in a mage's work room. There are at least four other, possibly more. They surround a magic circle and begin to cast a spell.
Page Six. The spell continues. "I call you with names, oh my Lord" Possibly this is Burgess's mistake. As we will see, Death is not a 'Lord'.
Page Seven. Their summoning is answered.
Page Eight. This issue is titled "Sleep of the Just".
Burgess knows he failed. He takes the Ruby, Pouch, Helm, and clothing from the unconscious figure in the circle.
Page Nine. Ellie keeps falling asleep. She never wakes up.
Daniel's Cloud Palace becomes insubstantial and he falls. He is too scared to sleep again. Ever.
Page 11. Stefan has a new type of 'shell shock'. He can't sleep, and not even morphine helps. (Morphine=Morpheus)
Unity falls asleep, and doesn't dream. Nor does she wake.
Page 12. Fish bowl perspective of Burgess and Co. He demands eternal life from his captive. He doesn't get it.
Page 13. Dr. Hathaway commits suicide; Burgess magically burns his (incriminating) suicide note. It should be obvious by now that Hathaway is a museum curator, and the book he gave Burgess is part of the Museums collection. Illegal
Page 14. The scandal about Hathaway's death can't touch Burgess due to lack of evidence.
The "sleepy sickness" spreads. No one knows why.
Stefan kills himself a year after he leaves the army, unable to sleep.
Page 15. August 1926. Alex figures out that the prisoner is Dream, not Death. Burgess knew this all along. Sykes is Burgess's second-in-command.
Page 16. Nov. 1930. Sykes and Burgess’s mistress Ethel Cripps disappears, along with the Ruby, Pouch, and Helm. The Helm is traded with a demon for an amulet of protection Dec. 1930.
Page 17. 1936 Ethel leaves Sykes, taking the Ruby and Amulet. Sykes is killed by Burgess's magic.
Page 18. July 1939 Ellie is in a charity ward. She was woken twice in the last decade. She still thinks she is eight.
Daniel finally falls asleep in 1926, due to sleepy sickness. His wife and kids miss him.
Unity was raped and had a baby girl; she never once woke up for it. The baby was adopted out.
Wesley Dodd (the 'old' Sandman, not related to Dream) fights crime at night as the 'Sandman'. He no longer has nightmares about it. He sleeps the sleep of the just.
Page 19. 1947. Burgess dies cursing his prisoner. "Watch my captor grow old and die. No satisfaction. Still here."
Page 20. 1955. Ellie is diagnosed with Encephalitis Lethargica. He wake four to five times a year.
Daniel is awake much of the time, but zombie-like. He doesn't talk.
Unity is moved to a nursing home when her parents die. She wakes, but rarely.
Page 21. Alex and his partner Paul discuss what to do with the captive. They decide to wait.
Page 22. Alex tries to make the same offer to the captive that his father tried to make. He is refused. We get our first look at Dream. He is very pale, with black hair and black eyes.
Page 23. 1968. Alex attracts hippies ect. Doesn't allow any psychedelics in the house, for fear the waking dreams would power the prisoner.
Ellie is moved to a hospital specializing in encephalitis. There are many other people there who the sands of time have stopped. Daniel sleep walks through life. Unity is still in the nursing home.
There are always two guards in the prisoner's room at all times. They can have as much in the way of coffee and amphetamines as they want. They must never sleep on duty.
Page 24. Alex obsesses about Dream.
Page 25. 1972-1982 he pleads with and threatens his prisoner. Dream waits. By now it should be obvious that Dream is not human.
Page 27. The newspaper says September 4, 1988 or 1989. Alex accidentally breaks the circle containing Dream's powers.
Page 28. One of the guards day dreams about going to the beach. Sand. Dream enters the day dream and takes a handful of sand. He collapses.
Page 29. The guards summon Paul and a few others. Dream pretends to be unconious.
Page 30. They unlock the crystal cell. Dream puts them to sleep with the handful of sand.
Page 31. Dream enters Mort Notkin's dream and takes food from the buffet. Dream hasn't eaten in 70 years.
Page 32. Dream conjures clothing for himself.
These show two of his powers. To take something from a dreamer's dream and to conjure stuff for himself out of nothing.
Page 33. Ellie, Daniel, and Unity wake up. Unity remembers having a baby.
Page 34. Alex is asleep. He follows a black cat through the dream-mansion.
Page 35. The cat turns into Dream, who is very pissed. Alex is a young man again. The age at which his father summoned Dream instead of Death.
Page 36. "Lord, what fools these mortals be." Indeed.
Page 37. Alex tells Dream they meant to capture Death. Lucky they didn't.
Alex tells Dream that his tools were stolen. Dream punishes Alex with 'eternal waking'
Page 38. 'Eternal Waking is a really horrible nightmare. The kind you wake up into another nightmare, but you think you are waking up for real. Nasty.
Page 39. More nightmares.
Page 40. Paul and the nurse try to wake Alex up. He doesn't wake.
Nest issue, 'Imperfect Hosts'.
Page One. We have a Dr. John Hathaway visiting an old creepy mansion. The date is June 6, 1916. My sister was born on June 6, 1983 but other then that that day means nothing to me (sorry Martha!) He is visiting a Mr. Burgess. We see the good doctor, his driver, and the butler in this page.
In panel one his driver is waking Dr. Hathaway up. Sleep theme.
Page two. Dr. Hathaway is talking with Mr. Burgess in the study. Hathaway is giving a book to Burgess, one that he had been apparently reluctant to give away. We learn that Hathaway changed his mind when his son died when his Destroyer sank a week ago.
The book is the Magdalene Grimoire. According to Burgess a spell in it means "No one need ever die again."
Page Three. June 10th. We are introduced to four children.
Ellie Marsten (Toronto, Canada) Her mother is reading _Through the Looking Glass_ to her, and she finds it frightening.
Daniel Bustamonte (Kingston Jamaica), he is sleeping under a table in his father's inn. He dreams of a Castle in the air that is made of clouds.
Stefan Wasserman (Verdun, France). Trench warfare is nasty, he never dream war would be like this, he lied about his age in order to enlist. He is almost 14.
Unity Kinkaid (London, England). Unity is sleeping. She dreams of a tall, dark man with burning star-like eyes. She mutters and whimpers in her sleep.
Burgess dreams of power and glory, and of Death.
Page four. We are introduced to Burgess's son, Alex.
Page Five. They are downstairs in a mage's work room. There are at least four other, possibly more. They surround a magic circle and begin to cast a spell.
Page Six. The spell continues. "I call you with names, oh my Lord" Possibly this is Burgess's mistake. As we will see, Death is not a 'Lord'.
Page Seven. Their summoning is answered.
Page Eight. This issue is titled "Sleep of the Just".
Burgess knows he failed. He takes the Ruby, Pouch, Helm, and clothing from the unconscious figure in the circle.
Page Nine. Ellie keeps falling asleep. She never wakes up.
Daniel's Cloud Palace becomes insubstantial and he falls. He is too scared to sleep again. Ever.
Page 11. Stefan has a new type of 'shell shock'. He can't sleep, and not even morphine helps. (Morphine=Morpheus)
Unity falls asleep, and doesn't dream. Nor does she wake.
Page 12. Fish bowl perspective of Burgess and Co. He demands eternal life from his captive. He doesn't get it.
Page 13. Dr. Hathaway commits suicide; Burgess magically burns his (incriminating) suicide note. It should be obvious by now that Hathaway is a museum curator, and the book he gave Burgess is part of the Museums collection. Illegal
Page 14. The scandal about Hathaway's death can't touch Burgess due to lack of evidence.
The "sleepy sickness" spreads. No one knows why.
Stefan kills himself a year after he leaves the army, unable to sleep.
Page 15. August 1926. Alex figures out that the prisoner is Dream, not Death. Burgess knew this all along. Sykes is Burgess's second-in-command.
Page 16. Nov. 1930. Sykes and Burgess’s mistress Ethel Cripps disappears, along with the Ruby, Pouch, and Helm. The Helm is traded with a demon for an amulet of protection Dec. 1930.
Page 17. 1936 Ethel leaves Sykes, taking the Ruby and Amulet. Sykes is killed by Burgess's magic.
Page 18. July 1939 Ellie is in a charity ward. She was woken twice in the last decade. She still thinks she is eight.
Daniel finally falls asleep in 1926, due to sleepy sickness. His wife and kids miss him.
Unity was raped and had a baby girl; she never once woke up for it. The baby was adopted out.
Wesley Dodd (the 'old' Sandman, not related to Dream) fights crime at night as the 'Sandman'. He no longer has nightmares about it. He sleeps the sleep of the just.
Page 19. 1947. Burgess dies cursing his prisoner. "Watch my captor grow old and die. No satisfaction. Still here."
Page 20. 1955. Ellie is diagnosed with Encephalitis Lethargica. He wake four to five times a year.
Daniel is awake much of the time, but zombie-like. He doesn't talk.
Unity is moved to a nursing home when her parents die. She wakes, but rarely.
Page 21. Alex and his partner Paul discuss what to do with the captive. They decide to wait.
Page 22. Alex tries to make the same offer to the captive that his father tried to make. He is refused. We get our first look at Dream. He is very pale, with black hair and black eyes.
Page 23. 1968. Alex attracts hippies ect. Doesn't allow any psychedelics in the house, for fear the waking dreams would power the prisoner.
Ellie is moved to a hospital specializing in encephalitis. There are many other people there who the sands of time have stopped. Daniel sleep walks through life. Unity is still in the nursing home.
There are always two guards in the prisoner's room at all times. They can have as much in the way of coffee and amphetamines as they want. They must never sleep on duty.
Page 24. Alex obsesses about Dream.
Page 25. 1972-1982 he pleads with and threatens his prisoner. Dream waits. By now it should be obvious that Dream is not human.
Page 27. The newspaper says September 4, 1988 or 1989. Alex accidentally breaks the circle containing Dream's powers.
Page 28. One of the guards day dreams about going to the beach. Sand. Dream enters the day dream and takes a handful of sand. He collapses.
Page 29. The guards summon Paul and a few others. Dream pretends to be unconious.
Page 30. They unlock the crystal cell. Dream puts them to sleep with the handful of sand.
Page 31. Dream enters Mort Notkin's dream and takes food from the buffet. Dream hasn't eaten in 70 years.
Page 32. Dream conjures clothing for himself.
These show two of his powers. To take something from a dreamer's dream and to conjure stuff for himself out of nothing.
Page 33. Ellie, Daniel, and Unity wake up. Unity remembers having a baby.
Page 34. Alex is asleep. He follows a black cat through the dream-mansion.
Page 35. The cat turns into Dream, who is very pissed. Alex is a young man again. The age at which his father summoned Dream instead of Death.
Page 36. "Lord, what fools these mortals be." Indeed.
Page 37. Alex tells Dream they meant to capture Death. Lucky they didn't.
Alex tells Dream that his tools were stolen. Dream punishes Alex with 'eternal waking'
Page 38. 'Eternal Waking is a really horrible nightmare. The kind you wake up into another nightmare, but you think you are waking up for real. Nasty.
Page 39. More nightmares.
Page 40. Paul and the nurse try to wake Alex up. He doesn't wake.
Nest issue, 'Imperfect Hosts'.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
...next thing you'll be moaning I ought to get a scythe...
Date: 2003-12-13 03:45 am (UTC)Yup... Neil Gaiman fan over here... >^-^<
~etcetera-cat
"You are utterly the stupidest, most self-centered, appallingest excuse for an anthropomorphic personification on this or any other plane!"