Was Gaiman's 'The Sandman' the greatest comic book series of all time?

“The Sandman” comic books series began in 1989, and many of you will remember when it first hit store shelves. The series continued for seven years, ending in 1996. While that was 17 years ago, it really wasn’t so long ago that you could pick up the most recent issue in your local bookstore.

Back in the heyday of the series, I was a teenager, and I can vividly 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 put “Read the complete Neil Gaiman ‘Sandman’ graphic novel series” on my “bucket list.” If you’re not familiar with 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, read the second volume, “The Doll’s House," and in July I read the third volume in the series, “Dream Country.” Last week, I finished reading the fourth volume in the series, “Season of Mists.” Originally published as a trade paperback collection in 1992, “Season of Mists” contains issues No. 21-28 in the series.

Of the four volumes that I’ve read so far, I’d say that “Season of Mists” was the most bizarre, but best volume in the series. In these issues, the series makes somewhat of a departure from the style of the stories in the preceding volumes. You’ll have to read it for yourself to get the full effect.

With that said, I’ve got six 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. 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.