Sandman - Dream country

After the heavy subject matter of the "Dolls House" reading "Dream Country" is a light relief and a joy. There are four self contained stories which show the width; breadth and depth of the Sandman world -even though Morpheus barely features in any of them.

"Calliope" is about the lengths a writer to go in order to find the spark of inspiration. Illustrated by Kelly Jones, it's one of my favourite of Gaiman's short interludes. There is also a script of it at the back of the tpb to show how Gaiman sets out his stories.

"Dream of a Thousand Cats" is an amusing story about a cat who is trying to encourage 1000 other cats to dream the same dream, in the hope that they can change their reality.

"Façade" is about Urania Blackwell -a Metahuman with similar powers to Metapmorpho- who is trying to come to terms with her life; whilst wishing for her death. In fact, this story features Death herself, who's one of my favourite characters. (I kind of wish that the real Death was like this -it certainly beats the shrouded and scythed version that we grew up with!!) For me this is the weakest of the stories -which, let me please state, is still head and shoulders better than most of the other comics on the market. I didn't connect with this the way I did with Calliope -perhaps it had something to do with the subject matter, I'm not sure. But surely that's the strength of Gaiman's writing, that he can take you on these amazing journeys, across the gamut of emotions.

I've saved the best story to last -"A Midsummer Nights Dream". Gaiman won a "World Fantasy Award" for this story -the first time a comic won such an award (and also the last as they changed the rules the year after!!). The story is a simple one -William Shakespear and his troupe perform the "Midsummer Nights Dream" play to the REAL cast, on the downs near The Long Man Of Wilmington. Only Gaiman would have the brass to even attempt such a story, the fact that he pulls it off so well is amazing. It seems effortless -the way the actual lines from the play segue way into the story. The art by Charles Vess is sublime and really conveys the magic and charm of the story.

In many ways, "The Dream Country" could be called "Light Sandman" not only because of it's subject matter, but also because of its size -it's a thinner book than the rest, but it's still worth reading. It acts as a breather between "The Dolls House" and the "Seasons of Mists" -where things will get a lot deeper and heavier.