A New Kid on my Fandom Block: Neil Gaiman.

FIR RB# 2
Title: A New Kid on my Fandom Block: Neil Gaiman.
Book read: The Sandman vol. 1 Preludes and Nocturnes
Author: Neil Gaiman
Volume 1, Chapter 1
Name: Audreleine Tanya
Section: 203B
Subject: Foundations in reading

For as long as I lived, I never considered Neil Gaiman's works before to even tickle my taste for fiction. Even though he won an award for his works in The Sandman series, I wasn't into him so. Perhaps it was my ignorance that prevailed over me to not even lift a book or article about him as I somehow find him to be nerdy--physically and mentally (no offense, Neil Gaiman). But ever since reading the first chapter of the first volume, I was immediately a fan.
If you don't know who Neil Gaiman is, I'll tell a summary of who he is.

Neil Gaiman is an English author of numerous Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels and short stories, comics and other forms of fictional read. He once worked as a journalist, though it was just his way of getting connections to different writers and authors and getting recognized as a writer. He actually wrote a biography of the Duran Duran, his first book. When he finally made friends with Alan Moore--a DC comics artist--he eventually started working on writing for comic books in numerous DC titles, which would morph his idea of his trademark work, The Sandman. Up until now, he still works for the DC company, helping on writing new volumes of comics from other titles like The Swamp Thing, Marvelman and many more. He also made a children's book entitled Coraline, published in 2002 and adapted as a stop-motion film in the year 2009.

Now, we shine on The Sandman series.
The Sandman series is about Morpheus, the King of Dreams (also called the Sandman as well, but he goes on many names in the series), and his adventures as he tries to reestablish his Dream realm after being imprisoned for 70 years and also trying to find redemption in his past injustices.
So far on what I read (Chapter One), it tells the story of the Burgess family and their ritual in trying in vainly to bring Death (yes, Death!) to their realm. They wanted Death's powers--bringing people back to life, no more deaths, no more ends, you get the picture--and had planned to seal her inside a Glass Bubble to imprison Death and make her grant their vain wishes. Unfortunately, they got Death's little brother instead--Dream. Dream--Morpheus--knew he had been forced to be teleported to the Human's realm but couldn't do anything as he was trapped. For 70 years, Morpheus waited and spied on the lives of the Burgess family to plot his escape, but at the same time trouble seeps in to those who sleep as their usual unreal dreams became nightmares and they couldn't wake up. Without Morpheus in the Dream realm, Humanities' dreams become erratic and despondent, making them sleep more and wake less.
When the Head Burgess had finally died and a new one had been assigned to watch over the imprisoned Morpheus, Morpheus faked his death so that the ones who are watching over him would open the Glass cage to check on him, which was a mistake. Once they had opened the cage he immediately blew upon them Sand and fell asleep at once.
With Morpheus finally out, he hunted down the last remaining Burgess and cursed him to forever sleep in nightmares because he had to pay the price of imprisoning the Dream King...

Review of the Sandman vol. 1 Preludes and Nocturnes, Chapter 1
I have always been into Contemporary Dark Fantasy fictions, especially on books and on Japanese comics, or manga. I never really expressed great amazement on Western comics because of my stereotypical mindset that all, if not most, of the Western comic books would be all about Superheroes, which is getting a bit mediocre for me. Although there are films nowadays about superheroes, you have to admit, to those who aren't that geeky on Superhero comics would only find the appeal of the Superheroes because they're on film! And they're moving! In 3-D!
But that somehow changed my mind when I saw Neil Gaiman. I have already seen his Graphic Novels before on other bookstores, most notably on Power Books and Fully Booked, and never picked it up. Only when I saw it on the College Library's shelves that I became interested to see what's inside. Upon opening it, I wasn't that engrossed much on the artwork of the comic book, for although the artist did draw the characters facial features and the settings correctly, the coloring was on par with mediocrity. But being still interested as can be, I read the words on the vain and greedy Burgesses characters' speech bubbles as they plotted on how to get Death's powers, Dream's thought bubbles on how he perceives Humankind today and the steady objective monologue bubbles of the narrator and, voila! A fan is born! The appeal of the dark drama and the tragic characters of the first chapter are indescribable. Besides telling the story of the Dream King, minor Human characters set the darkness and the atmospheric gloom of the story, realistically telling the readers how evil can be trumped by something that is bigger that them.
In other words, I just can't wait to read the second chapter! Who knows what has happened to Morpheus?