1. Sandman: Dream Country
(Neil Gaiman, William Shakespeare, Kelley Jones, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, Dave Mckean)
Available at your local shop or via Bookshop.org

We begin with four unrelated stories. No common theme, no recurring characters (aside from Morpheus, who is in the first three stories), not much of a connection to any of the previous volumes. But, of course these are building blocks for later on in the story. The Shakespeare story won a World Fantasy Award. There's also a story about cats, which is super popular, because it's a story about cats.


2. Sandman: Seasons Of Mist
(Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Matt Wagner)
Available at your local shop or via Bookshop.org


This is my favorite Sandman volume from a story perspective. I think it's visually disappointing compared to the other volumes, but the story, which sets the stage for the Lucifer series, and really sets Morpheus's long-game story in motion, is excellent. You could read this volume independently of any of the rest of Sandman, and Absolutely Love It.


3. Hellblazer: Fear And Loathing
(Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon)
If you can't get it locally, check Ebay for the most affordable versions.

From my favorite Sandman story, to my favorite Hellblazer. This is a more conversation-focused Hellblazer than much of Delano's run. But it's probably the best Garth Ennis has ever written, with the possible exception of his Battlefields series. He nails every character and their motivation, and makes you care more about John Constantine's exploits in this volume than in any of the previous ones.


4. Hellblazer: Damnation's Flame
(Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, William Simpson, Pete Snejbjerg)
Check out your local shop or Ebay.

Ennis's temporary farewell to all things Hellblazer, he gives every character from his run a curtain call, and gives us a weird pop culture history lesson via Papa Midnite during another of Constantine's treks through The United States.


5. Sandman: A Game Of You
(Neil Gaiman, Shawn McManus, Colleen Doran, Bryan Talbot)
Readily available at your local shop or buy it from Bookshop.org

Barbie from "A Doll's House" takes center stage, as we are placed solidly in the middle of one person's connection to The Dreaming. The story also contains one of the best and most compassionate use of a trans character, with an understanding of that person's relationship to the non-binary that I've seen in comics. This came out, originally, in 1991.


6. Sandman: Fables & Reflections  
(Neil Gaiman, Bryan Talbot, Shawn Mcmanus, P Craig Russell, Jill Thompson, John Watkiss, Duncan Eagleson, Stan Woch, Kent Williams)
Readily available at your local shop or buy it from Bookshop.org

Another volume of short stories. These, even less connected than in "Dream Country". Apart from a spread of stories about emperors, each of the stories is more concerned with specific character traits that will come back to haunt Morpheus, rather than specific storybeats that progress the plot. We do get to see a focused telling of Orpheus's journey, and also check in with Johanna Constantine, who is somehow related to John.


7. Books Of Magic: Summonings
(John Ray  Rieber, Peter Gross, Pete Snjejberg, Gary Amaro, Dick Giardano)
can currently be found on Thriftbooks, after that EBay might be the way to go

Neil Gaiman created the Books Of Magic series about a young boy wizard who happens to look a lot like Harry Potter, and who has a message bearing owl, but who doesn't get to go to fancy wizard school. Instead, when he hits puberty, John Constantine and a bunch of DC Magic characters show up and are awful to him. It's not my favorite Neil Gaiman story. John Ray Rieber continued the universe, and his books aren't my favorite Vertigo titles, either. This is the second of Rieber's volumes and it involves young Tim Hunter (aka pre-Harry Potter Harry Potter) trying to figure out his parentage. That whole plot didn't interest me. What I liked about this, is that Hunter is almost a villain in his own story here, as several female characters, including a very well-conceived and thoughtfully written succubus do their best to help Tim, and any time he deviates from their help, his life gets worse. It's the most feminist succubus story I've ever read, as she comes off much more empathetic than the story's technical protagonist.

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8. Sandman: Brief Lives
(Neil Gaiman, Jill Thompson)
Readily available at your local shop or buy it from Bookshop.org

One of Morpheus's siblings, Destruction, has been mostly absent from the Sandman series. In this volume, the youngest Endless, Delirium, gets Morpheus to agree to help her track their missing brother down.  The story has a great Season Finale, and sets us up for the final stretch of Gaiman's Sandman.

With a cover date of January 1989 (meaning it probably hit comic book stores in November of 1988), Neil Gaiman's Sandman #1 began slowly changing a chunk of the DC Universe into its own corner that would eventually be called DC Vertigo. The Vertigo line would be more literature focused than its mainstream superhero counterpart, but would still share ... not continuity ... influence. There are some Justice League members who fall into the Vertigo chasm, but their ambitions seem different when they're in Vertigo titles. And, sure, Death from Sandman, and Swamp Thing and Animal Man cross back and forth between DC Vertigo and DC proper every decade or so, but the two universes were mostly separate. Until. Until Flashpoint and The New 52 in 2011, at which point the Vertigo imprint ceased having its historic value. In January of 2020 Vertigo was completely removed and replaced by DC's "Black Label", which I'm sure they will relaunch again as something else within the next five years.

But the books that inspired the creation of the label: Gaiman's Sandman, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, and Jamie Delano's Hellblazer are still vital to DC mythology. While books like Y The Last Man, Fables, and Transmetropolitan are  important books that came out with the Vertigo label, they would also fit right in with current Image Comics titles or IDW. The early '90s Vertigo books had fun with characters and references crossing between titles, even as the books themselves didn't have Crossover Events. Dream would just show up in Hellblazer to chastise John Constantine. And Constantine, himself, first showed up in the pages of Swamp Thing. Variations on these characters and these stories went on for almost forty years before they were completely swept into DC proper.

I'm currently reading through as much as I can of the Sandman/Swamp Thing/Hellblazer/Books Of Magic/Dreaming universe in preparation for the upcoming Sandman/Locke & Key crossover.

You shouldn't have to do that. There's a lot of it. Like pretty much every ongoing comic series that lasts more than a couple of years, the quality varies wildly. So I've put together a reading list/order if you want to read Just The Best of these titles. I don't care for which stories are the most Historically Important, like the first appearances of so and so, or The Absolute Beginning of this universe. I care about what's fun to read, and what art is just bonkerstown great.

Most to all of these books should be in print and available from a local comic book store. And if they do dip temporarily out of print, I'm fairly confident they'll return quickly with new cover art and probably a heftier price point. Hope you enjoy!

1. Sandman: Overture
(Neil Gaiman, JH Williams III, Dave McKean)
Buy Sandman Overture on Bookshop.org

The universe is cyclical, and this is, as of when I'm writing this, the most recent collection in this continuity. It could absolutely serve as a coda, having several callbacks to the original Sandman universe that Gaiman laid down in the 80s and 90s. BUT. Why not start your journey with one of the most beautiful books in the series. JH Williams's art is phenomenal, and Gaiman has crafted a story that, yes, is enhanced a bit if you've read the full run of Sandman and are feeling nostalgic, but it also stands on its own and gives you an idea of how weird this universe is going to be. Also, it's a prequel story so it does actually set up the next time Dream comes into continuity. It's a much more fun and engaging beginning to the continuity than the true start of this universe: Alan Moore's Swamp Thing.


2. Swamp Thing: The Curse
(Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben)
currently collected as Saga Of The Swamp Thing Book Three

Alan Moore purists and classist comic completists will call this sacrilege that I'm not starting with the beginning of Moore's Swamp Thing run. That's ok. They can still read and enjoy it. I found it overwritten. Alan Moore told the same basic Swamp Thing story over and over and over again until it felt right to him. For me, this was the fist excellent portion of the story. It's all about love and identity and environmental politics. Which is exactly what a Swamp Thing story should be. We're also introduced to John Constantine, who will be the linchpin of this entire storytelling universe.

3. Swamp Thing: Reunion
(Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Stephen Bissette, Alfredo Alcala, John Totleben, Tom Yeates)
currently collected as Saga Of The Swamp Thing Book Six

The end of Moore's run on Swamp Thing is hugely satisfying if you've slogged through his entire run (or enjoyed his entire run). He ties up all the various threads and given his characters their Happily Ever After. That's fine. But it also has a really trippy art issue, which counterbalances its inclusion of the DC proper space universe with its Green Lanterns, Thanagarians, and such.  The prose is very purpley (as much of Moore's work is) but it's worth it for the artwork.

4. Hellblazer: The Fear Machine
(Jamie Delano, Mark Buckingham, RIchard Piers Rayner, Mike Hoffman, Alfredo Alcala)
Until the next printing, rooting around comic book stores or EBay is your best bet to find this.
You could also get it affordably via Kindle, if you prefer.

The first few volumes of Hellblazer try, unsuccessfully to balance, magic, demonology, mythology, interpersonal relationships, politics, and Vertigo's burgeoning continuity. Mostly, it fails at its humanity by pushing its very valid political stances too far into the story. Eyes will roll. Here, we get a healthy dose of governmental paranoia, as well as some cool side characters to latch on to. The ending is out of nowhere, but the journey there makes this volume worth reading.

5. Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes
(Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg)
Easily orderable from any bookstore or comic store, or grab it from Bookshop.org.

Picking up from the end of "Sandman Overture", a rich, shitty, American has designed a scheme to trap Death and change the world to fit his beliefs. Unfortunately, he accidentally traps Dream, who refuses to speak to him. While Dream is trapped, The Dreaming falls apart, sleep pandemics occur, and the world goes all wibbly-wobbly-shakey-wakey. When he escapes, he quests to find his most important magical belongings, and set the world and The Dreaming back to its status quo. We also get a team-up with John Constantine, and some cameos from some DC Proper heroes.

​6. Hellblazer: The Family Man
(Jamie Delano, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Ton Tiner, Sean Phillips, Steve Pugh, Dean Motter, Dave Mckean)
Again, rummaging through stores and EBay is the most affordable way to go. 
​Or go the Kindle route.

A serial killer seriously messes with Constantine's  mojo. Also, his family deals with their own spiritual trauma. This volume is Delano's best interpersonal relationship story. While Morrison's contributions are true to Constantine's paranoia, they're fairly boring. Gaiman's one-shot paying tribute to a side character, on the other hand, is a moving and necessary part of Constantine's personal growth.

7. Sandman: The Doll's House
(Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Steve Parkhouse, Michael Zulli, Mike  Dringenberg,  Malcolm Jones III)
Should be on the shelves at any bookstore, or order via Bookshop.org

This was the volume that elevated Sandman (which was already great) to legendary status. The layouts are astounding, the art is crisp, the characters are interesting, the mythological backstory is well told and placed in the overall narrative, and we start to get a real sense for The Endless's powers and a hint at family dynamics. If you're only going to read one book on this list, I'd suggest Sandman Overture, but this is a close second.

8. Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits
(Jamie  Delano, Garth Ennis, William SImpson, Sean Phillips, Steve Pugh, Dave McKean)
You can get a previous printing which contains only the beginning of the Ennis run via Ebay at an affordable rate.

The end of Delano's run is, honestly wet fucken garbage. It's awful. It features an incredibly stupid retcon that I think, and hope, future writers ignore. It attempts at making things seem cyclical but falls way flat. Before that is a pretty decent family story featuring some characters and themes from "The Fear Machine", and that part works. Then ... ugh. The true highlight of this volume is the beginning of Ennis's run. In addition to Constantine's usual demon enemies (this triumvirate is straight out of Sandman "Preludes & Nocturnes"), he also must battle lung cancer. This is handled with surprising grace, given some of Ennis's other work.