Bill Kerwin's Reviews > The Sandman: Endless Nights

Endless Nights is an enjoyable, albeit unnecessary, addendum to “The Sandman” epic: seven unrelated tales, each one of which featuring one the “Endless,” the group of seven sisters and brothers which includes the Sandman (AKA Dream, AKA Morpheus) himself. I did not find any of them particularly memorable (I had to pick up the volume again to remember exactly what they were about) but my favorites are the one about Death (which features a singularly decadent party hosted by a degenerate 18th century count) and the one about Dream (which takes place during a period anterior to all the other Sandman, in happier days when Destruction was still an active member of the family and Delirium was still known as Delight.)

None of these Gaiman tales are equal to the rest of the Sandman opus, but I found the art, if anything, superior to the earlier ten volumes. (The art of the prequel Overture, which came after, is even more remarkable.) I particularly liked Milo Manara’s “Desire,” whose art deceives you into thinking you are reading a conventional romance tale, until the bloody, willful conclusion disabuses you of the notion, Bill Sienkiewicz’s appropriately varied styles in the tale of “Delirium,” and—perhaps above all the others—Barron Storey and Dave McKean’s fifteen experimental portraits of “Despair.”

As I said, this is not an essential work, and—although the stories are entertaining too—it is worth checking out for the art alone.