Dream Hunters (The Sandman)

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Edit: dopo avere letto il fumetto che adatta la storia in prosa, si scopre che Gaiman si era totalmente inventato la genesi di questo racconto, dovendo riempire diverse pagine di postfazione poi diventato un trafiletto scritto piccolo piccolo per via della mole di illustrazioni. La richiesta di scrivere una storia di Sandman per il decennale lo ha spinto a riscrivere la storia giapponese che aveva scoperto in passato, illustrata da Amano. Gaiman's afterword states that it was based on an old Japanese folk tale, drawn from Y. T. Ozaki's Old Japanese Fairy Tales and retooled to fit in the world of The Sandman, but no such tale is to be found in Ozaki's work. Gaiman has since stated when asked that the story was entirely of his own devising, most recently in the foreword to The Sandman: Endless Nights. [1] Plot [ edit ] A fox and a badger make a wager: if they can get a young, solitary monk to leave his tiny, remote temple, they will share his humble abode, as it is more comfortable than their dens. They try to fool the monk into leaving, but he sees through their deceptions. The badger eventually gives up, but the fox becomes unexpectedly attached to the young man, and when she hears demons whisper about a plan to kill him through his dreams, she undertakes a long journey to try to save the man she loves.

It’s yet another story of sacrifice and obligation, of love and honor and commitment, set amidst high fantasy and dark dealings and the shifting veil of the world that lies beyond sleep.Un volume che contiene una storia in prosa, la storia giapponese riadattata da Gaiman e inserita nell'universo di Sandman. Corredata delle splendide illustrazioni di Amano, compreso un paginone centrale doppio da aprire completamente per gustarsi Morfeo nella sua sala del trono.

Although technically a Sandman story, this can certainly be read without involving that lengthy series. It could be considered a story in that universe, and not an essential piece of it. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because I needed and wanted more and even if it feels like the perfect length (theoretically) it's also incredibly short at the same time. I also feel like I didn't know enough about this world and the characters to fully appreciate it. I'd probably have to read Sandman first.Russell has a unique line, and I love his jagged edged look for angry and scary creatures. He does a fantastic job of showing emotion in the panels. My complaint with the art is the coloring. The color uses this faux-painted look that at worst ends up looking like a wall painted with Windows Paint gradient colors. It doesn't distract too much, and sometimes does look nice - I believe the attempt was to make the book look like it was created with old Japanese silk paintings. The colors are done by Russell's longtime collaborator Lovern Kindzierski who besides for that effect I dislike does a wonderful job as usual.

The Dream Hunters focuses on a monk and two spirit creatures in the form of a badger and a fox who want to oust the monk from his abode. They set up a bet that they both lose, but the fox also loses her heart to the monk in the bargain. The master of demons also wants to usurp the power of the monk, and the fox-spirit intervenes on the monk’s behalf, but Morpheus, the Dream Himself (from the Sandman) intervenes. I read all the volumes of The Sandman and loved it but this is a spinoff work, published in 2009, a fable of a monk and a fox set in “old Japan,” that has the feel of something Gaiman adapted from a centuries old myth, but in fact was invented whole cloth all by his lonesome. And Japan is a good place for a story of this mythological complexity, because it is a country and culture steeped in mythologies and monsters, in a belief in yokai.But in the case of The Dream Hunters, my incorrect understanding about the origins of the story—spurred by that sneaky Neil Gaiman and his Afterword hijinx—led me to completely dismiss the book upon its original release. Until approaching the book anew with this reread, I had always thought of the Gaiman/Amano work as “lesser” Sandman because it was just a retelling of some old Japanese story. Barely even Sandman. Just something that was a related project. Like a silver ankh sold at a comic shop or something. Dopo averli letti entrambi uno dopo l'altro devo dire però che messo a fianco dell'opera del decennale, questa impallidisce abbastanza. The Dream Hunters was beautiful. I have no words to describe just how beautiful it was. Both in the stellar writing by Neil Gaiman, who has yet to disappoint me, and the marvellous art by Craig Russell. The two of them combined could not have created anything more brilliant.

Those two sentences not only provide an overview for The Dream Hunters, they could be used to describe the whole of Sandman. Yes, it’s true that he wrote a prose story for the tenth anniversary of Sandman and yes it was illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, but it was no Neil Gaiman adaptation of a Japanese fairy tale. It was an original story posing as an adaptation, with Gaiman himself providing the misdirection in the form of an unreliable Afterword in which he cites his (fabricated) sources. In the realm of dreams, the King of All Night's Dreaming is satisfied by the story, and that everyone involved learned an important lesson. The narration then suggests that the monk and the fox were re-united in the afterlife; but this is purposely ambiguous.Il risultato non poteva che essere egregio, specie se si è cresciuti leggendo o vedendo storie relative a racconti di questo tipo.