Sandman Universe

Sandman (Wesley Dodds), a pulp hero in the DC Universe

by Fabien
Updated on May 28, 2024

Long before Neil Gaiman introduced his version of the Sandman in the DC Universe, another Sandman haunted the pages of comic books. For a long time, I mean 60 years. The original Sandman was one of the first “superheroes,” a DC Golden Age superhero.

Really, this Sandman was more of a pulp hero. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Bert Christman for Adventure Comics #40—but he appeared a bit earlier in the New York World’s Fair Comics #1 (April 1939), a book published on the occasion of the 1939 World’s Fair—, The Sandman was one of the one original mystery men, a vigilante wearing a green business suit, a fedora, and a World War I gas mask, who used a gun emitting a sleeping gas to incapacitate criminals.

Dead Boy Detectives Reading Order, From the Sandman Universe

by Fabien
Updated on August 8, 2023

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (reading order here) led to the creation of multiple spin-offs, not all became as successful as Lucifer (reading order here). It was the case with The Dead Boy Detectives, two young sleuths that are also ghosts.

Created by Gaiman and artist Matt Wagner in Sandman #25, The Dead Boy Detectives are Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine. Edwin was murdered at his boarding school in 1916 and he went to Hell. But when Hell was emptied of its residents, Edwin and the souls of past teachers and pupils came back to the boarding school when Charles and a few teachers stayed for the holidays.

They didn’t survive and Charles became a ghost, like Edwin. The two boys decided to forego going to the afterlife with Death and became detectives investigating crimes involving the supernatural.

The Sandman’s Death Reading Order: What to read with Death of the Endless?

by Fabien
Updated on August 12, 2022

The world of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (reading order here) has inspired numerous spin-offs. There are a few anthologies, numerous one shots, miniseries and other specials – few were written by Neil Gaiman.

The character of Death is not one of those who were lucky enough to get an ongoing series, unlike Lucifer (reading order here) and Dead Boy Detectives (reading order here), even if she is extremely popular. That said, we still can find Death in a few publications outside the main Sandman story.

In this Vertigo series, the Endless are the personification of concepts. They all play a specific part in the human world. Dream (or Morpheus) is the king of the Dreaming Wold, where you go when you sleep. His older sister is Death and she mostly meets with the recently deceased and guides them into their next existence.

Death is the second eldest of Endless and possibly the more powerful being in the Universe. In The Sandman, Death takes the appearance of a young goth woman. She is omnipotence and omnipresence, being with all those who die when they die.

Lucifer Reading Order (The Sandman spin-off)

by Fabien
Updated on June 30, 2022

Straight from the world of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, here comes Lucifer Morningstar himself. Let me start by saying that, if you are here to read about the TV version of Lucifer, you’ll probably be disappointed. Even if the FOX/Netflix show was based on this character, the similitudes are quite limited. That said, those books are really good.

From The Sandman Universe, Lucifer Morningstar is a fallen rebel archangel who was cast out of Heaven as punishment for leading the revolt of the angels. Once upon a time, he rebelled against the Kingdom of Heaven and end up in what became Hell, until the day he decided to close shop. He retired to Earth and ran bar named Lux with his mistress Mazikeen at his side.