I wanted to love the Sandman TV series as much as I loved the books. I wanted gorgeous visuals, the intricate storytelling from the books, and the sense of wonder I've had whenever I've reread the stories. Many of my friends found that in the TV series. People whose opinions I respect were so thrilled to see this universe on TV that they gushed about it and had very little criticism. 

It was not for me.

I thought Morpheus was miscast. I found him utterly dull to watch. While Amazon threw a nation's economy at the tepid Game Of Thrones prequel, it looked like they gave the Sandman director a hundred bucks to spend on CGI and said "Good luck."

The episode "24/7" was a perfect modernization of the storyarc it was based on, and I think you could teach a class on how well it was constructed. I had hoped that would be a turning point for me. Alas, the rest of the series bored me. When I posted about it on social media, friends who loved the books as much as I had berated me for having bad taste or too high expectations. But my friends who hadn't read the books tended to agree, it wasn't fun to watch. It had a very high bar to reach for and it ended up beyong beyond the sound of its wingspan.

I was so disappointed that I stopped reading the Vertigo books for over a year, completely deflated. And that's not fair to the books or the people who enjoyed the TV series that would like to read more of the universe. Maybe some day I'll go back and rewatch the show and find a similar joy to that of my peers but, until then, I'm happy to return to reading the books I loved and sharing how I wish I had experienced them (you know, just the good stuff).

1. Sandman Mystery Theater Book Two
(Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle, Guy Davis, Vince Locke)

We open this first Gaimanless season by following the sordid adventures of Wesley Dodds, the golden age Sandman. Running concurrently with Gaiman's series, this look at the human sleuth whose gas mask resembles the one stolen from Morpheus at the beginning of the first episode, takes place just after the American Depression. Our point-of-view character is Dodds's love interest, Dian, the daughter of a police woman who likes to party and solve her father cimes. Think of her as a more sexually adventurous Batgirl. There are a few things in this volume that haven't aged particularly well, but when it was published it was a solid examination of misogyny, class warfare, and racism in the 1930s with a very slight occult bent.

2. Lucifer Book Three
(Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, Dean Ormston, David Hahn)

An Asgardian ship of fingernails, a pool flowing with the thoughts of Yahweh, a garden of human souls sewn into lanterns, the rise of gods of chaos, and a brief glimpse back into The Dreaming. There's a lot to love in this volume. I've said it before but it bears repeating: every word in this book seems a necessary part to reach its climax. No plot point is wasted, nor does Carey waste time getting from point to point. Storyarcs that most writers might draw out for twelve issues, Carey condenses to three or four, and it never feels forced. 

3. Hellblazer All His Engines
(Mike Carey, Leonardo Manco)

Just after his long run on the Hellblzer books, Carey put out this side story where Constantine and Chas head to America to stop ... the usual Hellblazer thing ... a demon has taken a step too far and has impacted the life of someone tangentially related to Constantine. And then Constantine must work with other demons to double cross the original demon but he's also got to double cross them or else ... sigh. So, while it's the same old same old Hellblazer plot, it's done deftly here with fantastically spooky art by Manco.

4. Hellblazer The Gift
(Mike Carey, Leonardo Manco)

As much as I wanted to love Mike Carey's run on Hellblazer, much of it was a build up to an apocalypse that mostly sat in the background while John Constantine's life was ruined in a bigger and more spectacular way than ever before. Until the next storyline where his life was ruined in a bigger and more spectacular way than ever before while an apocalypse happened in the very background. There's a wilting Swamp Thing storyline, and he even manages to make a "main character forgets all the trauma in his life and has to start over while being pursued by powerful demons" story pretty boring. BUT. Near the end of that amnesiac storyline, a demon offers to return everything to him in exchange for his services for a day. And during that day, he lives three lifetimes and has three separate, terrible children with three of his exes. This volume has his three aged up children from his demon-induced lifespans getting their revenge by ... checks notes ... ruining his life in a bigger and more spectacular way than ever before while society recovers from the apocalypse in the background. But this story has more character building than the previous arcs, and a better payoff.

5. Lucifer Book Four
(Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, Dean Ormston, David Hahn)

Yes, every Lucifer book is in this chronology. Rereading it was a joy and a relief that it held up my memories. Every character seems to make an appearance as this is essentially just setting up the final volume. It never feels like filler, though, it's all building to a spectacular climax.

6. Sandman Mystery Theater  The Blackhawk And The Return Of The Scarlet Ghost
(Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle, Guy Davis, Matthew Smith, Richard Case, Daniel Torres)

This series has never been fully collected, which is a shame. Currently there's a compendium that contains the first half of the run but there's bee no release date for a second volume. Until then, this is the last set of issues that's been collected in trade form. Honestly, it's a perfectly fine ending. All of the Sandman Mystery Theater stories are wonderful 1930s noir with what one reviewer referred to as "Sergio Aragonés scribbles...without the silliness". It's art I usually wouldn't enjoy but is somehow perfect for this nostalgis based series. This volume, like the rest, has two excellent mysteries but it also features a brief journey through all of the different forms of Sandman, including Morpheus. It's a great callback, and it help leads to the final page of this volume which is a reveal. And if you're sad that there's no more Sandman Mystery Theater in this chronology given the reveal, don't worry. Wesley and Dian will be back next season in a completely different series.

7. Books Of Magic: Life During Wartime Book One
(Si Spencer, Dean Ormstrom)

This is the weakest episode of the season but it moves The Books Of Magic is a completely different direction that might come up later. Years have passed since we last saw Tim Hunter. In that time, he built a pocket dimension where he can be "a regular human". Apparently, this means swear, do drugs and fuck a lot. While he's off trying to be normal, John Constantine is overseeing a war between humans, demons, and faeries. I didn't love the series but I appreciated its evolution.

8. Lucifer Book Five
(Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, Colleen Doran, Michael Wm Kaluta, John J Muth, Zander Cannon, Dean Ormstrom, Aaron Alexovich)

The Lucifer finale pulls no punches. There's no Game Of Thrones sped-up narrative racing to the conclusion, the pace is steady with logical twists spiraling throughout the journey. Every character gets their curtain call, and we even see some conversations with the previously absent Yahweh. It's impressive that this never feels overly preachy or too philosophical given its characters and subject matter.  It's a lovely way to end the season.

We're a couple of weeks away from Sandman finally coming to television. The previews for it look fantastic. Fingers crossed that this ends up more Good Omens than Neverwhere.

After about a year long break, I dove back into the Vertigo universe, revisiting old favorite stories and reading some for the first time.

The central theme of this season is Death. The member of The Endless. Yes, we have three Morpheus stories, two Lucifer stories, one Lucifer, one Madame Xanadu, and one focused exclusively on Death, but Death of The Endless appears in all but one of these "episodes", even if she just pops up briefly.

Also, if you're only really invested in Morpheus's story, this can be your final season. I have at least one or two more before I'm finished, but this brings an end to the Sandman proper stories.

1. Sandman World's End
(Neil Gaiman, Mike Allred, Gary Amaro, Mark Buckingham, David Giardano, Toy Harris, Steve Leialoha, Vince Locke)
Readily available from your local shop or you can order it from Bookshop.org

If you're here for the narrative tale of Morpheus, and the march towards the end of the series, you might not love this volume as much as I do. This is technically a House Of Mystery story (what's that, you ask? well, we'll be seeing more of that next season) that occasionally, but not always features Morpheus. A group of travelers find themselves stranded in an inn where you purchase your food and drinks with stories, so this serves as sort of an anthology of dreams. Each story has a different artist. It's a wonderful read.


2. Lucifer Book One
(Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Ryna Kelly, Dean Ormston, Scott Hampton, Chris Weston, James Hodgkins)
Readily available from your local shop or you can buy it at Bookshop.org

So, last season, Lucifer gave Morpheus the keys to Hell and told him to find someone else to run it. Well, now we catch up with Lucifer and Mazikeen as they have their own fully developed stories to tell. Lucifer is not by Neil Gaiman, but by Mike Carey. And while Sandman is a brilliant tapestry that tells the story of Morpheus from different angles and at different times, Lucifer is one of the best told narrative fantasy stories in comics. Every page leads directly to its conclusion. Every word feels important. It's one of my all-time favorites, and the Mike Carey run is not at all related to the TV shows that are supposedly based on the character. And while I don't remember Morpheus appearing here, Death drops in for a bit, and the events that occured in Sandman that led up to this series are referenced a few times.


3. Madame Xanadu Disenchanted
(Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder, Richard Friend)
currently available on Thriftbooks.org

I'm embarrassed to say I slept on this series when it came out. Madame Xanadu is, like Sandman, a golden age DC character that gets reimagined with her own Vertigo series. It also features Death for a bit, but as cool as that scene is, the series would have been great without it. This volume follows Madame Xanadu from Camelot era Europe to Kublai Khan's dynasty in the Mongolian empire to Revolutionary era France to (sigh) Jack The Ripper era London to the US. There's a lot of interesting class structure in the guise of fantasy here, and just a really well told story by Matt Wagner with Eisner nominated art from Amy Reeder.


4. Swamp Thing Bad Seed
​(Andy Diggle, Enrique Breccia, Martin Breccia)
It's only really affordable on EBay right now if you can't find it at your local store.

This is a mediocre Swamp Thing story that also happens to be a wonderful Hellblazer story. Following the events of the almost unreadably bad Brian K Vaughan run on Swamp Thing (even a brilliant writer like Vaughan has off-times), Diggle tries to piece the story back together by making a buddy/road trip story where John Constantine and the skeletal remains of Alec Holland join up to seek out Abby and then have to do battle with the Alec Holland-free Swamp Thing. Come for the Swamp Thing continuity, stay for the art and the humor.


5. Lucifer Book Two 
(Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Jon J Muth, Dean Ormston, Ryan Kelly)
Hopefully, this will be back in print again soon, but for now, if you can't find it at your local shop, check out Ebay for an affordable copy.

All of the characters and storylines from Book One of Lucifer come together in this volume, which would undoubtedly be a Season Finale for Lucifer. It's epic, emotional, and really well put together. Lucifer and John Constantine would make a hell of a great mythological procedural story. And, yea, Death pops in again.


6. Sandman The Kindly Ones
(Neil Gaiman, Marc Hempel, Richard Case, D'Israeli, Teddy Kristiansen, Glyn Dillon, Charles Vess, Dean Ormstron) 
Readily available at your local shop or you can buy it from Bookshop.org

Like the previous book, a ton of seemingly unrelated Sandman storylines convene here for a steady march towards Morpheus's undoing. Everything changes for everyone involved at the end of this volume. The whole dreaming is altered. It's as intense as the previous Lucifer volume. What follows in the Sandman series is a coda, this is pretty much the climax/final boss fight/resolution of Morpheus's story.


7. Sandman The Wake
(Neil Gaiman, Jon J Muth, Charles Vess, Michael Zulli)
Readily available at your local shop or you can buy it from Bookshop.org

It's probably sacrileige, but this is, in my opinion, by a wide margin, my least favorite of the Sandman stories. It's kind of like how at the end of The Return Of The King movie when there are eight thousand "final" scenes, as every character gets a curtain call, and you realize that the story actually ended an hour ago, and it's just weeping hobbits and disaffected elves waving at the camera for a bit. I debated not including it but it is The End of Gaiman's Sandman run, and it's not terrible, it's just relatively dull compared to the previous volumes.


8. Death Complete Collection
(Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Marc Buckingham, Michael Dringenberg, P Craig Russell, Malcolm Jones III, Colleen Doran, Dave McKean)
Readily available at your local shop or readily available in hardcover form on Bookshop.org. Hopefully, the paperback edition will be back in circulation soon.

I didn't want to end this season with its weakest episode, so we close with Neil Gaiman's sagas of Death: "The High Cost Of Living" and "The Time Of Your Life", currently collected in one volume. This series is sort of a coda to Sandman: A Game Of You, and even as a standalone is an excellent story.

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.

​
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.