The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes

On the plane for our last trip I started and finished an amazing graphic novel, which is the first in a series of 10 graphic novels (or 75 comic books) by Neil Gaiman.  The series is the Sandman series.  The premise in the first graphic novel, Preludes and Nocturnes, is that an occultist performs a spell in which he intends to capture Death.  By capturing Death he intends to force Death to give him its powers giving him endless life.  The plan goes awry when he gets Death's younger brother, Dream.  With that as the teaser I think the writing for this series is truly profound and goes far beyond what I would expect out of a graphic novel/comic.  As an aside I tend to use the term graphic novel and comic interchangeably.  I know there are significant differences, but in my mind at this point in my life they are very similar.  The drawing style is not as refined as other comics are, but I think that leads more focus to the writing though it could also be to force the reader to use their own imagination to develop a better picture of beings and places from other planes of existence.  One of my favorite lines occurs when Dream is trapped in Hell with his exit blocked by thousands of demons.  Lucifer comments on how Dream has no power in Hell and that he will be defeated by the demons.  Dream responds that the existence of Hell depends on the dreams of those trapped in it about Heaven.  I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next copy from the library.