Was Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman' the greatest comic book series ever?

“The Sandman” comic books series has been around since 1989, and many of you will remember when it first hit the stores. The series continued for seven years, wrapping up in 1996. While that was nearly 20 years ago, it really wasn’t so long ago that you could pick up the latest issue in your favorite store.

Back in the heyday of the series, I was a teenager and can remember seeing issues of this comic for sale in the Walden Books store in Mobile. Eventually the series (and Walden Books) came to an end, but what hasn’t ended is my long-running desire to read the complete “Sandman” series, which is considered one of the greatest comic book series of all time.

My interest in this classic series received a much-needed jumpstart in November when the Web site, “The Writers Almanac” (writersalmanac.publicradio.org) mentioned “The Sandman” series in one of its daily articles. They made the series sound so great that I actually put “Read the complete Neil Gaiman ‘Sandman’ graphic novel series” on my “bucket list.” If you’ve never heard of the series, here’s a little background.

In the late 1980s, Gaiman, a British writer, was selected by DC Comics to revive “The Sandman” comic book series. Before he was done with it, he’d turned it into an award-winning series that was 75 issues long and ran from January 1989 through March 1996. Since then, the complete series has been collected and republished in a 10-volume series of graphic novels called “The Sandman Library.”

In March, I took the first step toward reading the entire series when I finished reading the first volume, “Preludes and Nocturnes.” In May, I finished reading the second volume, “The Doll’s House," and last week, I finished reading the third volume in the series, “Dream Country.” Originally published as a trade paperback collection in 1991, “Dream Country” contains issues No. 17-20 in the series, including “Calliope,” “A Dream of a Thousand Cats,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Façade.”

I enjoyed reading “Dream Country.” Each issue collected in this volume was outstanding in its own right, and it’s hard to say which one I liked the most. They were all good, but for different reasons. “Calliope” wasn’t just a cool story, but it also raised as many questions as it answered. I enjoyed “Dream of a Thousand Cats” because of its weird cat-centric twist on reality. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was entertaining because of its Shakespearean elements. I enjoyed “Façade” because it made us of an old DC character called Element Girl. If you twisted my arm and made me pick a favorite, I’d choose “Calliope” with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" running a close second.

With that said, I’ve got seven more volumes left to read before I can say that I’ve read the entire run of the series. The other editions of “The Sandman Library” are as follows:

- The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists

- The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You

- The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections

- The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives

- The Sandman, Vol. 8: World’s End

- The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

- The Sandman, Vo. 10: The Wake

In the end, how many of you out there are fans of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman” comic book series? How many of you have read the complete series? What did you think about it? Have you read anything else that measures up to it? Let us know in the comments section below.