The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country

I really enjoyed these little dreams - especially the cat and Shakespeare ones!

WHY: With Sydney in lockdown again, my local library service offered an amazing free delivery service for online reservations. I was able to secure Dream Country, and continue the universal, gothic and mind-bending journey of Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
STORY: Unlike previous issues, Volume 3 presents four unlinked stories which intermittently feature Dream and his sister Death. Calliope was brutal, featuring a Muse from Greek mythology and a struggling writer who rapes her. A Dream of a Thousand Cats was really interesting, with a pet's dark perspective on humanity prompting a journey through dreaming which leads to revelations and a message. The most-acclaimed story, A Midsummer Night's Dream, was a faithful covering of “Shakespear's” play with actual Faeries from another plane being Morpheus's guests, but I found myself less emotionally engaged here. Finally, Facade takes DC's Element Girl and humanises her through depression as she adopts faces to fit into society after losing her job to an off-page corporate entity.
ART & WRITING: I've been impressed with the art and writing in Sandman from Volume 1, and whilst Dream Country lacks a singular overall cohesive narrative, the shifting gutter structure and shadowed details within the layout of different panels made this a great read visually. Even when I was less invested in the plot, the density of details comprising each issue and sheer inventiveness of Gaiman's writing and perspectives constantly kept me captivated.
WHO: Although I recommend Volume 1 for anyone into dark horror and dream mythology, Volume 3 can be read as an entry-point or even standalone to the series due to its overall design. I will definitely be continuing this tale in the much thicker Volume 4!

I feel like an apostate, but I just didn't like this much. (Even #1 didn't wow me that much, and this didn't come up to that level.) It's just a collection of short stories with Dream shoehorned in. The art ranges from mediocre to dreadful (Calliope looks like she has 150% of the normal allotment of vertebrae, and I'm pretty sure it's not a deliberate attempt to make her look inhuman).

So. Yeah, not my favorite.

Now it's getting good. This volume was much shorter than I expected. I liked how it was less focused on the sandman. His brooding got old quickly. Instead it features Calliope (the muse that inspired Homer), the inspiration and creation of A Midsummer Night's Dream and then ends with a reference to Ra (the egyptian sun god). The issue with Calliope was a bit dark for my taste. Overall, the volume was well done.

Also liked the Sandman's new look. Looks less like Neil Gaiman now. Easier to focus on the story instead of the author.

This review is really for the entire Sandman series.
I'm not sure I've ever found it so difficult to review something. I feel like I've been on a long bizarre journey and have just woken up. I'm pretty sure that was what Neil Gaiman was aiming for from the start, the series centering around the Lord of Dreams, Morpheus himself. While we follow Morpheus around and through interweaving tales we get amazing insights about the importance of stories, the human condition, family, mythology, nightmares, dreams, religion, faith, madness, life & death and the list could go on. There is so much packed in this series that I can't even put it into a category, it really is a category all its own. I haven't ever read anything like it and doubt I will ever again. It is fantasy of the highest sense. Poetic, meaningful, dark, funny, sad (okay in the last few there is a lot of sad), but also a lot about hope and new beginnings and changes. I feel like Dream, Destiny, Desire, Delirium, Despair, Death and Destruction are a pantheon of mythos I will never quite shake from my mind. Like the Greek gods, they will forever be apart of a mythology in the fabric of people's consciousness. They live there now in the back of my mind and when I encounter these things in my life, I won't be able to help but think back on Neil Gaiman's amazing story and colourful characters.
The artwork was always great and even surprising sometimes and inventive. I especially loved the Dreaming and it's heart where Morpheus' surreal and ever changing castle was. I feel like now that the journey is over, I need to start it over again, so that I can pick out all the things I missed the first time. See all the hints about where it was headed, to put characters into perspective now that I know their fates. I feel like I missed a lot, because there were stories within stories that I didn't realize were significant until after the fact. I can only marvel at its intricacy.
The imagination on display is vast and mind blowing and the way in which Gaiman can take flawed creatures or humans and give them hearts and voices and emotions that you carry with you through the entire series, is a testament to his character-building. I never thought I'd shed a tear for a pumpkin-head or raven or for a place that doesn't even exist, although I really wish it did.
I could go on and on about this series, but I'll do the only thing I can do and that is to recommend it to everyone, just as the comic book store employee recommended it to me. I have read very few graphic novels, so I can't compare to it to other graphic novels, but as a story completely on its own and of its own merits, I highly, highly recommend you give The Sandman series a read. Even if you only do it once, it will be worth it. You will see storytelling in a different way and it will stick with long after you finish the last volume.

Sorry, I know many of you love this collection, but I just can't connect with it... I couldn't read the first volume so it was suggested that I skip to this one. But I'm just not FEELing it. Intellectually I understand that it is GOOD, I recognize it's value in the world but... it just isn't for me.

And maybe I'm just coming off of reading a couple comics I really really connected with, heart and mind, and this just didn't live up to that....

Dream Country is one of the best collections of stand alone tales of Sandman, all of them bringing amazing stories that everyone must read. The first, Calliope, tell us about writer's block and how the Dream changed after his captivity; A Tale of Thousand Cats, the second tale, is just AWESOME, talking about the captivity of our bodies and minds... Midnight Summer's Dream tell us about our captivity of our wishes, dreams and aspirations; the final one, Facade, about of us and the captivity of old masks and identities... It's just amazing. it was after reading Hy Bender's Sandman Companion that I've learned several “secrets” (hidden layers is a better term) in Midnight Summer's Dream... Gaiman is awesome, with Sandman as his master work.

For Caliope, I'd give it 5 stars. Mixed feelings about the rest.

The third volume of the Sandman compilation features 4 stories and a script. Didn't like the comics script; would've preferred another story. Anyway, the stories are more standalone compared to the previous ones.

The first is Caliope - a dark tale about the imprisonment of a Muse. It was amazing - disturbing, but amazing.

Dream of a Thousand Cats puts Morpheus into a different light, and it basically expanded what I had thought of the Dreaming. It was great.

I couldn't get around to liking A Midsummer's Night Dream though. It features Shakespeare and introduces to us the world of faerie.

The last is Facade, and it features Death instead of Dream. It's also great reading as it showcases more of Dream's sister.