The Sandman: The Wake

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The Sandman: The Wake
Shelly Roeberg

The Wake is the tenth and final collection of issues in the American

Jon J. Muth, and lettered by Todd Klein.[1]

The collection opens with James Elroy Flecker's poem "The Bridge of Fire", prefacing the events which follow.

The stories in the collection first appeared in 1995 and 1996.[2] The collection first appeared in paperback and hardback in 1996.

It was preceded by The Kindly Ones and followed by Endless Nights.

Synopsis

The first three issues of the volume, "Chapter One, Which Occurs in the Wake of What Has Gone Before", "Chapter Two, In Which a Wake is Held", and "Chapter Three, In Which We Wake", comprise the wake and funeral held for

Daniel, starts relationships with the inhabitants of the Dreaming
.

Issue 73, "The Wake: An Epilogue Sunday Morning", serves as

Death
. Issues 74 and 75 resonate thematically and tonally with the first three issues; in terms of plot, they are placed achronologically.

"An Epilogue, Sunday Mourning"

"Sunday Mourning" follows the immortal

Destruction
on a beach, where the Dream King reconfirms his death and his companions laugh. The three walk off together, and Hob, waking, returns to his girlfriend.

In The Sandman Companion, Gaiman mentions that he wanted to write a story of Hob visiting a Ren Faire for a long time, stating that he himself has never liked American Ren Faires but found the idea of a medieval man confronted with a Ren Faire to be full of potential humor.

"Exiles"

"Exiles" is something of a companion to a story from

Daniel Hall
. As a reward for sharing his precious water with the white kitten, rather than abandoning it, the second Dream puts the old man on a path that reunites him with his guide.

"The Tempest"

"The Tempest" concludes the bargain struck between Dream and William Shakespeare in "Men of Good Fortune" and featured in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". "The Tempest" sources less from its namesake than "A Midsummer Night's Dream" though Gaiman's tale reflects the Bard's continually. Gaiman sees "The Tempest" as a play about "stories and endings" and thus thought it a fitting end to the series, even though he had initially planned to place the issue long before.[4]

References to other DC characters

At the wake,

Clark Kent
persona, constantly trying to conceal the edge of his red Superman cape as it fell from beneath his funeral jacket, stating that he felt this was something about which Superman would have nightmares; allegedly DC rejected the image as being disrespectful to the character.

Books of Magic miniseries,[7] Darkseid appears beside Rose Walker and her brother Jed during the wake, and the Golden Age Sandman, now an elderly man retired from the superhero life, delivers one of the elegies.[8]

References to other comics

Mistress Quiney from The Tempest is an homage of Gran'ma Ben (with minor changes) from the Bone series of comics. [9]

Issues collected

Issue Title Writer Penciller Inker Colorist Letterer Ast Editor Editor
70 "Chapter 1, Which Occurs in the Wake of What Has Gone Before" Neil Gaiman Michael Zulli n/a Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Shelly Roeberg Karen Berger
71 "Chapter 2, In Which a Wake is Held" Neil Gaiman Michael Zulli n/a Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Shelly Roeberg Karen Berger
72 "Chapter 3, In Which We Wake" Neil Gaiman Michael Zulli n/a Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Shelly Roeberg Karen Berger
73 "An Epilogue, Sunday Mourning" Neil Gaiman Michael Zulli n/a Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Shelly Roeberg Karen Berger
74 "Exiles" Neil Gaiman n/a Jon J Muth Jon J Muth Todd Klein Shelly Roeberg Karen Berger
75 "The Tempest" Neil Gaiman / William Shakespeare Charles Vess / Bryan Talbot / John Ridgway / Michael Zulli Charles Vess Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Shelly Roeberg Karen Berger
  • Issues 70-73 did not have an inker, and were done only in pencils and color.
  • Issue 72 contains additional pages in the collected edition comprary to the original comic book.
  • Issue 74 did not have a penciler, and was done entirely in inks.

References

  1. ISBN 1-56389-279-0
    .
  2. ISBN 1-56389-279-0
    .
  3. ISBN 1-56389-279-0
    .
  4. ISBN 1840231645
    .
  5. ISBN 1-56389-279-0
    .
  6. ISBN 1-56389-279-0
    .
  7. ISBN 1563890828
    .
  8. ISBN 1-56389-279-0
    .
  9. ^ M. Bezuijen; Jeff Smith (19 May 2011). Ralf Hildebrandt (ed.). "Issue 75: "The Tempest"". The Annotated Sandman.

Sources

External links
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