So here, let’s share:

Adi Granov:

Marc Hempel:

Steve Rude:

Chrissie Zullo:

Cameron Stewart:

Death, Contantine & Bansai Swamp Thing – David Baldeon:

Bruce Timm:

David Petersen:

But to end on…. three from the definitive Death artists (in my humble opinion); Jill Thompson:

Mike Dringenberg:

And Chris Bachalo:

By Jill Thompson

Based on The Endless characters created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg

DC/Vertigo

There’s a joy in listening to a story being read to you, and likewise there’s a joy in reading aloud for someone else. We read all sorts of books to Molly when she was younger (and still do – you’re never too old!)

But me being me, I was always on the lookout for comics I could share with her, and The Little Endless Storybook came along at just the right time – a perfect book to read aloud. In fact it worked so well that Molly’s copy, the original paperback release, is now practically falling apart on the shelf and I’ve had to get a new hardback copy for her.

The concept is simple – Neil Gaiman’s Endless characters – the embodiments of (from left to right in the portrait below) Desire, Despair, Delirium, Dream, Death, Destiny and Destruction are reimagined by Thompson as a group of wonderful, absolutely delightful chibli style little characters – a Muppet babies for Sandman readers if you will. Delirium, youngest of The Endless and once called Delight, is a scatterbrain, prone to confusion, strange imaginings and a habit of finding fun and weirdness in the strangest of places and most bizarre of ways.

Cuteness only gets a book so far however, and what really made it work was the beauty of Thompson’s watercolour artwork and the simple, flowing text that combine to create a fully formed world of whimsy, cuteness, amazement, and wonder.

In The Little Endless Storybook Delirium manages to lose herself and it’s up to her puppy Barnabas to travel through the realms of The Endless to find her again. It’s cute, it’s lovely, and written in a beautiful flowing, repititious, rhythmic style it’s perfect to read out loud to a tired and happy toddler.

(Once upon a time, in an ice-cream-coloured realm,
there lived a tiny little princess named Delirium and her dog Barnabas.

It was Barnabas’ job to look after the princess
because she was very easily distracted and often got lost
if she went out walking by herself.)

And now, many years later we have Delirium’s Party – where Delirium, late one night after a visit, decides that it’s time to get her grumpy sister Despair to smile. And what’s the best way to do that?

“What is it that everyone loves more than anything? More than zucchini toast and glockenspiels and the tiny, scary, toothity fish that live in the inky parts of the oceans?”

“A nap?” replied Barnabas hopefully.

Nope, a party. A party for all of The Endless. And she goes and organises it all, in suitably delirious, completely ridiculous fashion, as outrageous and out of control as her ever-changing hair. But as each of the siblings presents their gifts to Despair, not one of them manages to raise even the slightest of smiles. All seems lost and it could all end in tears. But Delirium isn’t one to give up so easily.

(“SUUHH-PRIIIZE!!” Delirium shouted as
the family burst out to greet their sister.

“…” said Despair, her face set as if in stone.
“SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!”
giggled Delirium as she danced about the room.
Yet, Despair only said, “…”
And did not smile.)

It’s beautifully done, as you can see, with Thompson’s lush full-page watercolours a counterpoint to snappy dialogue between Delirium and Barnabas. It manages to be sweet as candy, but not sickly so, cut with a sharpness and sense of glorious out of control whimsy, packed with wild and wacky visual touches, it really befits a character once called Delight and now Delirium.

It almost, but not quite, lives up to the highest of standards set by The Little Endless Storybook. The art is every bit as good as the original, but the storyline and ideas suffer from being the sequel. Something’s missing. Not a huge something, but enough to make it pale, just slightly, in comparison. Where The Little Endless Storybook was perfectly paced, with a repeating flowing style, lovely rhymes and repeated phrases and ideas that built and built so that Molly soon relished the next set-piece. Here, it’s not so successful, it doesn’t flow quite so well, it doesn’t repeat so effectively.

But being slightly less than the perfection of The Little Endless Storybook isn’t the end of the world by any means – As it is, it’s a beautiful little delight, all wrapped in a beautifully made package – consider it the second favourite chocolate in the weirdest selection box you’ve ever seen. But spoil yourselves – why stop at one, don’t you deserve a little more Little Endless in your life?

It appears DC have had a look at the accounts and realised that the dip in profits in 2010 may have had something to do with a complete lack of the very profitable high price point Absolute Sandman Volume for the first year since 2006.

Absolute Sandman Volumes 1-4 appeared, one a year, from 2006-2009. And that was that. In those four volumes we had the complete Sandman; issues 1-75 plus a few odd bits and bobs. Which did rather present the editorial and marketing types at DC with a bit of a problem…. what to put in the next Absolute Volume?

Luckily, there have always been some Sandman projects too big to be included in amongst the regular series run, and that’s what’s going to be making up the bulk of Absolute Sandman Volume 5. From the DC Vertigo blog, here’s the running order:

“THE SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS – The Eisner Award-winning collection of SANDMAN stories written by Neil Gaiman and featuring breathtaking art by P. Craig Russell, Milo Manara, Frank Quitely, Miguelanxo Prado, Bill Sienkiewicz, Glenn Fabry, Barron Storey and a Dave McKean cover.

THE SANDMAN: THE DREAM HUNTERS – Both the prose novella written by Gaiman with art by superstar Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, and the 2009 comic adaptation by P. Craig Russell.

SANDMAN MIDNIGHT THEATRE – The hard-to-find crossover featuring Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner, and with art by Teddy Kristiansen.”

(Bill Sienkiewicz art from Sandman Endless Nights – Delirium.)

Okay, okay. I tease. I’m perhaps not as big a fan of Sandman as many I know, but the volumes are all there on my shelf somewhere and I enjoyed it when it came out first time round. And I know several people, the FPI blogs own Joe Gordon amongst them who’ll be needing the extra reinforcement for his shelves to get a 5th Absolute volume on there.

Any ideas if there’s enough material out there to make a Volume 6 possible? Because right now I bet that’s what some eager marketing person at DC is thinking.

Yep, just like Death, I can wait a loooong time for that volume.

The first three volumes of the new editions of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman go on the racks today, nice new trade paperbacks (using the much restored artowrk and colouring from the Absolute Sandman editions) of Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll’s House and the short story collection Dream Country. Glancing inside Doll’s House I’m reminded of a much younger me picking up the Sandman monthly issues in the Glasgow FP. I was already collecting it every month alongside Hellblazer, but it was with the advent of the Doll’s House story arc (collected in the second volume) that I really, really started to get into it. Until then I was intereststed in this new writer and thought the comic had potential, but with Doll’s House I started to think hold on, this isn’t just interesting, this is good, this is very good; there’s a real story arc developing here.

(the Cornithian, a nightmare now walking the Waking World, and his fellow serial killers decide to take turns in the Sandman: the Doll’s House, published DC/Vertigo)

By the time he reached the Season of Mists arc I was hooked in for the whole run, wherever it would go. I’m still hooked into it, years after it finished, still enjoy re-reading it. But Doll’s House was the moment I first realised I was reading something amazing. I mean, a serial killer’s convention, just how wonderfully, delightfully perverse, funny and scary all at the same time was that idea? If you still haven’t read the Sandman and the gorgeous Absolute editions are out of your price range then have a look at these new paperback editions.

Via Heidi at The Beat (after the original at The Hollywood Reporter)comes news of the oft-mentioned, oft-rumoured Sandman TV show:

“The Sandman,” the Neil Gaiman-penned comic book series considered a seminal work in the medium, is in the early stages of being developed into a TV series. Warner Bros. TV is in the midst of acquiring television rights from sister company DC Entertainment and in talks with several writer-producers about adapting the 1990s comic. At the top of the list is Eric Kripke, creator of the CW’s horror-tinged “Supernatural.”

“Gaiman was not officially involved with the HBO attempt, though he and Mangold held several rounds of talks surrounding characters and story. The author is not involved in the new developments, though since it is early in the process, that may change. In fact, securing Gaiman will prove key for the project to go forward. Kripke has been described as interested in tackling an adaptation but cautious because the comic book has such a passionate following and is held in such high regard. It’s the kind of series where each production decision, from casting to script to design, would be scrutinized by devotees.”

It makes a spectacular amount of sense, with Warner surely looking at exactly how they can transform their best selling longform series into a ratings winning long running fantasy TV series. And Gaiman’s name is certainly becoming more and more bankable in the world of moving pictures – Stardust, Coraline – could Sandman be a welcome addition to that list?

What’s this Sandman thing you may say? Well, how about heading here for Joe talking of Absolute Sandman, and here to start buying all things Gaiman. But right now, the TV thing is all very early and rumours are but rumours, so, like Dream says….

But in the world of Neil Gaiman, there is a definite TV series with Gaiman’s name attached – at least for just one episode. It’s Doctor Who, and, as he reports on his Journal, Gaiman is writing episode three of the upcoming season in 2011. And if all of Gaiman’s writing about it wasn’t enough, how’s this….

(Right to left, Richard Clark (director) Steven Moffat (showrunner/lead writer) Matt Smith (actor), Gaiman (writer of episode).)

(yes, it’s The Clash in a Hellblazer tale. Brilliant (excuse me, nostalgia rush). From Peter Hogan’s unpublished Sandman Presents: Marquee Moon, pencils by Peter Doherty, inks D’Israeli and lettering by the one and only Todd Klein, image borrowed from Roots of the Swamp Thing)

He carried it around for 8 years between ’86 and ’94 and now he’s decided that it’s time to start sharing some of the sketches with us. This is a very good thing.

(Neil Gaiman’s SandBean from Larry Marder’s Bean Book sketchbook – Nov 1992)

Even better is that December sees the first new Beanworld book in far too many years, just in time for the 25th anniversary of Beanworld in 2010. If you’re not already a fan of this most peculiar, most wonderful comic book experience I can heartily recommend that you get the two Dark Horse collections of everything Bean so far (Book 1, Book 2). And then wait with baited breath for the release of Remember Here When You Are There on December 3rd. You’re in for a rare treat.

(Larry Marder’s Beanworld Book 3 – coming in December.)

Declan has also started posting up some sketches from his BICS trip on his own blog.