The origin
In 1916 an English occultist attempts to capture Death and bind her, so that he might never die. He gets her younger brother instead. Dream of the Endless, also called Morpheus, is imprisoned in a glass sphere in a cellar for seventy-two years while the world above sleeps badly. When he finally escapes he is weakened, stripped of his tools, and quietly furious. The story that follows is what he does with the next seventy-five issues, and what it costs him.
What makes The Sandman different
The Endless are not gods. They are seven siblings who are the things they represent, Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium, and they existed before belief and will outlast it. That framing let Gaiman write a superhero-adjacent comic that is really about myth, story, obligation and change. It is the only mainstream comic on this list that regularly gets taught in universities, and the only one where the protagonist's central problem is that he cannot change, in a series entirely about change.
Where to start reading
The full reading order
Preludes and Nocturnesessential
Dream escapes captivity and hunts for his stolen tools. Gaiman pays homage to a different horror subgenre each issue. Rougher than what follows, and 24 Hours (#6) is genuinely disturbing. Issue 4 introduces Lucifer and issue 8 introduces Death, which is where most people fall in love with the series. #1 and #8 are the keys.
+ Add to my want listThe Doll's Houseessential
The series finds its own voice completely. Introduces Rose Walker and the Corinthian. Issue 14, the serial killers' convention, is a masterpiece of horror.
+ Add to my want listDream Countryessential
Four standalone stories, including A Midsummer Night's Dream (#19), which won the World Fantasy Award for short fiction in 1991. The rules were changed afterwards so a comic could not win again.
+ Add to my want listSeason of Mistsessential
Lucifer quits Hell, empties it, and hands Dream the key. The best entry point for anyone who wants proof this book is special.
+ Add to my want listThe Sandman Special: The Song of Orpheusrecommended
October 1991, a standalone about Dream's son Orpheus and the worst thing Dream ever did. Collected in Fables and Reflections, and it matters enormously later.
+ Add to my want listA Game of Yourecommended
The most divisive volume, and one of the most quietly moving. Sits apart from the main arc.
+ Add to my want listFables and Reflectionsrecommended
Short stories across history, published between 1991 and 1993. Ramadan, issue 50, is arguably the single most beautiful comic Gaiman wrote.
+ Add to my want listBrief Livesessential
Dream and Delirium go looking for their lost brother Destruction. The emotional turning point of the entire series, and where the ending becomes inevitable. The book moved to the new Vertigo imprint from #47.
+ Add to my want listWorlds' Endrecommended
Travellers shelter from a storm at an inn and tell each other stories. The calm before the end, and a showcase for some of the finest artists in comics.
+ Add to my want listThe Kindly Onesessential
The longest arc, from 1993 to 1995, and the one everything has been leading to. Marc Hempel's angular art divides people; the story does not. Read it knowing it is the payoff, not a detour.
+ Add to my want listThe Wakeessential
The funeral, the epilogues, and the last issue in March 1996. Nobody has ended a long comic better.
+ Add to my want listDeath: The High Cost of Livingrecommended
One day a century Death lives as a mortal. Gaiman and Chris Bachalo, and the friendliest door into the whole world. Give this one to people who have never read a comic.
+ Add to my want listDeath: The Time of Your Lifedeep cut
April to July 1996, Bachalo and Mark Buckingham. Foxglove and Hazel from A Game of You, and a bargain with Death. Quieter and sadder than the first.
+ Add to my want listThe Sandman: The Dream Huntersrecommended
A Japanese fable about a fox and a monk, written as prose. P. Craig Russell adapted it as a four-issue comic in 2009, and both are worth owning.
+ Add to my want listEndless Nightsrecommended
Seven stories, one for each of the Endless, each drawn by a different artist. Uneven, and the Despair and Delirium chapters are as good as anything in the run.
+ Add to my want listThe Sandman: Overturerecommended
Gaiman and J.H. Williams III, 2013 to 2015, telling the story of what left Dream weak enough to be caught in 1916. Read it last, not first, however tempting the number one on the cover is.
+ Add to my want listThe Sandman Presents: Luciferdeep cut
Mike Carey picks up the Lucifer who walked out of Hell in Season of Mists. The trial run for the ongoing.
+ Add to my want listLuciferrecommended
June 2000 to August 2006, all seventy-five issues written by Carey with Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly and Dean Ormston among the artists. The one Sandman spin-off that stands entirely on its own, and for some readers the equal of the original.
+ Add to my want listThe Dreamingdeep cut
June 1996 to May 2001, the first attempt to keep the Dreaming going without Dream, from Terry LaBan, Alisa Kwitney, Bryan Talbot and Caitlin R. Kiernan. Patchy, with real highlights, and cheap to collect.
+ Add to my want listDeath: At Death's Doordeep cut
Jill Thompson retells Season of Mists from Death's side in a manga style. A curiosity, and a charming one.
+ Add to my want listThe Sandman Universe and The Dreamingdeep cut
Gaiman's 2018 relaunch of the corner, with Simon Spurrier and Bilquis Evely's The Dreaming running twenty issues from November 2018 to June 2020. The best of the modern Sandman books, and the same team went on to Hellblazer.
+ Add to my want listChasing any of these The Sandman issues?
Whether you are hunting a key, thinking about selling a collection, or just want to talk comics, I am always happy to hear from you.