The Sandman: The Dream Hunters #3 cover

Previously in The Sandman: The Dream Hunters: Onmyogi, bound on killing the young monk in order to gain his strength, attempts to do so through dreams. Within each of these dreams the monk receives a different gift: a box, and then a key. In the third dream, he is supposed to open the box with the key, and upon doing so, will die. However, the fox, aware of Onmyogi’s plan, attempts to save the monk – sacrificing herself in the process.

Upon waking from the third dream unharmed, the monk finds the fox lying unconscious on the front steps of the temple. He leaves the temple to get help at the nearest village, but is stopped by Binzaru Harada disguised as an elderly man. He explains to the monk that he must return to the temple with the fox and sleep with a  token of the King of all Nights’ Dreaming for it is in dreams that the fox is trapped. With that, the monk returns to his temple, places the token – a slip of paper – beneath his head and falls asleep with the fox.

**Spoilers after the break**

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The Sandman: The Dream Hunters #2 Cover

Previously in Sandman: The Dream Hunters: At a small temple in a far off region of Japan, a fox and badger make a wager: whichever of them succeeds in driving the monk from the temple will keep the place as a home.  However, the monk is more cunning then he appears and sees past the animal’s trickeries.  And as time passes, the fox begins to fall in love with the young monk.

Some nights later, the fox overhears some demons talking about the young monk and her.  Their master has foretold that, come the next full moon, either she or the monk shall be dead.  Their master intends to kill the monk through dreams.  For three nights running, the monk shall have evil dreams.  During the first night, he shall dream of a box.  On the second, he shall dream of a black key.  And on the third night, he shall dream of unlocking the box with the key.  When he opens the box, he shall lose all connection to the world and die.

The next day, the fox takes her most prized possession and offers it to the sea asking for knowledge on how to save the monk’s life.  She has a dream that night where she speaks to a great black fox, which is actually Dream of the Endless.  He explains to her that if she loves him enough, and is willing to die for him, then that she should stop him from having the dreams.

**Spoilers after the break **

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So, this new idea came to mind just a few days ago that we here at DestroyTheCyb.org should get together and let you guys all know what our favorite comics were for the month of November. We all have our favorites and even with the short amount of time we all managed to come up with our favorites, so without further ado, DestroyTheCyb.org’s Favorite Comics of November.

**possible spoilers after the break**

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The Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1 Cover

It’s a surprise that the original The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (by Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano) has been around for ten years now – time passes and this prose begins to build up dust as each year seems to float by, although you’d never know it. The Dream Hunters is another example of Gaiman’s fine work in storytelling. One of which never ages, but instead stares back at the reader with a wistful smile, looking to be broken into and enjoyed again and again. As though the writing itself is lost in time and the reader’s imagination is all that can ignite thoughts and feelings.

Ten years later, those thoughts and feeling have been ignited once more, this time in the form of a comic drawn by P. Craig Russell. Anyone unfamiliar with Russell ought to know that he loves adapting prose into comics. As Gaiman puts it, “His opera comics and his [Joseph Rudyard] Kipling and [Oscar] Wilde adaptations are remarkable and fine”. Russell’s sense of design and flow, are key. The way that he keeps his opposing lines dynamic, not forming symmetries, while keeping his lines fine and nuanced allows him to suggest the volume of the figure with shape alone (note the wave-like curves in his lines). The cartoony elements give his characters warmth and life, and his backgrounds are ornate without being over-rendered. This balance of halves remains the pinnacle of Russell’s art, establishing him to be one of the most admired and original artists today.

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I’ve always been at least a casual fan of Neil Gaiman’s original Sandman series, but then, who hasn’t? Dream’s intrigues with his family, the crazy art, the way it leaves you often thinking at the end of an arc, the little stories nestled away, just stellar stuff.

Sadly, the original coloring doesn’t live up to the discerning eye of today’s comic reader (at least, not mine); plus, it can be difficult to pickup an old issue for the sake of one-shot enjoyment without having to be intimately familiar with every ounce of backstory that has happened before.

This is part of what makes this comic adaptation of Gaiman’s novel “Sandman: the Dream Hunters” so wonderful. Starting as a simple Japanese fairy tale about a monk, a bold badger, and a wily fox, the tale time-releases mood and energy with fantastic lines, color, and page design by P. Craig Russell.

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