Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Dreaming (1996-2001) #1-8

The Dreaming: Beyond the Shores of Night

Rate this book
Once more, the doors of the Sandman's realm, The Dreaming, are thrown wide, and we are invited to sample the many and varied delights and terrors of its worlds within worlds. Beyond the waking mind, where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, lies an infinite world of possibilities. The weird, the wonderful and the wicked all co-exist in a mystical landscape where the only limitation...is the imagination. The industry's top writers and artists are let loose as never before, exploring and expanding on themes, characters and situations from The Sandman series of graphic novels. Both darkly macabre and soaringly uplifting, this is adult fantasy fiction at its most sublime. Contains adult themes.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

3 people are currently reading
1665 people want to read

About the author

DC Comics

15.1k books142 followers
DC Comics is one of the most influential and enduring comic book publishers in the world, widely recognized for launching the superhero genre and shaping the modern mythology of American pop culture. Founded in 1934 as National Allied Publications by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, the company published the first comic book featuring all-original content. That early publication, New Fun Comics, marked the beginning of a new form of entertainment that would quickly gain momentum.
The transformation from a publishing experiment to a cultural powerhouse began in earnest with the creation of Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938. Introduced in Action Comics #1, Superman is widely regarded as the first true superhero and set the standard for the genre. His instant popularity laid the groundwork for DC’s expansion and its rapid rise within the industry. The debut of Batman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, in 1939, and Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter, in 1941, added to DC’s growing pantheon of heroic figures.
As superheroes captured the public imagination, DC introduced a wide array of characters, including the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Arrow. In the 1960s, these characters were brought together as the Justice League of America, reflecting the company’s focus on interconnected storytelling and shared universes—concepts that would become central to comic book publishing.
DC’s influence extended far beyond its own titles. During the Silver Age of Comics, the company reimagined older characters and introduced new ones, revitalizing interest in the medium. The company also played a central role in the development of the Comics Code Authority, which shaped the industry’s self-regulation following public criticism and Senate hearings in the 1950s.
In the 1980s, DC undertook a bold redefinition of its brand and storytelling approach. The publication of The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and Swamp Thing marked a creative renaissance. These works pushed the boundaries of what comic books could express, bringing mature themes, literary depth, and psychological complexity into the spotlight. This era confirmed DC as a platform for serious artistic exploration, not just superhero adventure.
DC also took steps to streamline its increasingly complex fictional universe with the crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, an ambitious effort to consolidate decades of continuity. Since then, the company has repeatedly reinvented its universe through major storylines and publishing initiatives, including Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, Flashpoint, and Convergence. In 2011, DC launched The New 52, a line-wide reboot that modernized characters and storylines. This was followed by DC Rebirth in 2016, which aimed to reintroduce classic elements and emotional resonance.
In addition to its core superhero line, DC has published influential works under its imprints, including Vertigo, which released genre-defining series like Sandman, Preacher, and Y: The Last Man. These titles broadened the scope of comics and attracted new adult readership. More recent imprints such as Black Label and DC Ink continue to offer creator-driven, experimental storytelling for mature and young adult audiences.
DC’s characters have transcended the comic book medium, becoming mainstays of global entertainment. From Christopher Reeve’s Superman films to Tim Burton’s and Christopher Nolan’s Batman adaptations, from animated series like Batman: The Animated Series to the DC Extended Universe, the company’s heroes have been interpreted and reinterpreted across generations. Games like the Arkham series and shows like The Flash, Arrow, and Peacemaker have extended DC’s reach into interactive and serialize

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
1,228 (45%)
4 stars
798 (29%)
3 stars
513 (18%)
2 stars
119 (4%)
1 star
61 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Scott.
Author 13 books24 followers
November 9, 2014
For whatever reason, while The Sandman (1989-1996) has stayed perpetually in print, this sequel series has not, and most of it remains uncollected. This volume contains the first eight issues, and the second contains issues 15-19 and 22-25. The remaining 44 issues and one special can be obtained only in single issue format, although they are generally not very expensive. This volume contains three stories, "The Goldie Factor" (3 issues) by Terry LaBan, "The Lost Boy" (4 issues) by Peter Hogan, and "His Brother's Keeper (1 issue), by Alisa Kwitney.

The first story reminds me a lot of Bill Willingham's Fables, only a bit deeper and less flippant (I enjoy Fables, but find it often predictable and insubstantial, with The Good Prince being the first volume to reach any level of profundity). While conceptually, The Dreaming is created by Neil Gaiman, its characters are much older. Cain and Gregory debuted in House of Mystery #175 (July/August 1968), Abel debuted in DC Special #4 (July-September 1969), Destiny in Weird Mystery Tales #1 (July/August 1972), Eve in Secrets of Sinister House #6 (August-September 1972), Lucien in Weird Mystery Tales #18 (May 1975), and Mad Hettie in Hellblazer #9 (September 1988). Lady Johanna Constantine, in spite of her apparent relationship to John Constantine, had appeared only in The Sandman up to this point. While the differences between the older representation of Eve as a hag witch were somewhat explained in the early issues of The Sandman by Dream's absence, I don't know if The Dreaming ever addressed the apparent murder of Lucien in Secrets of Haunted House #44, since I have yet to read beyond the contents of this volume.

One point that both the older DC "mystery" books and The Sandman would dance around was the relationship of Cain, Abel, and Eve to their Biblical counterpoints, Destiny at one point expressly denying it in a letter column (which were hosted by the characters in those days). Both "The Goldie Factor" and "His Brother's Keeper" are very explicit that they are the same characters. The serpent of Eden is a limbless man called Tempto, who lures a dissatisfied Goldie (born in The Sandman #2) to undo the the Fall. Over the course of the story, Cain finds a statue of himself that proves that he is the biblical Cain, something that he was not sure of himself. The story explains Goldie's origin and the function of the golden gargoyles. In never really seems to reach Gaiman's level, but remains, for me, a notch or two above Willingham.

The next story, "The Lost One" is longer and a bit more trenchant. Cain and Abel's roles are much smaller, and the story is focused on architect Brian Salmon, who has been displaced from the 1950s by an encounter with beautiful (and nude) Faire Folk and Mad Hettie, and the investigation of his case by Professor Muriel Jenkins, who became friends with Mad Hettie through her as a study subject, although her notes always disappear. Its connection to the history of the United States in a subplot featuring Destiny and Mad Hettie is deliberately ambiguous. I loved the moment when Mad Hettie paid for a plane ticket from London to Washington with leaves using a potato as a passport. The mystery around Mad Hettie is, to Hogan's credit, never really cleared up, in spite of learning more about her powers and responsibilities. While the ending of the story is romantic and predictable, the way the story was written would not allow it to be thwarted and would have made for an unsatisfactory ending if it had been.

In spite of having taken up only one issue, Alisa Kwitney's "His Brother's Keeper" packs the most wallop. I wasn't a bit surprised yesterday when I found issue #8 absent from a dollar bin full of issues of the series. This issue introduces Seth to the DC mythos, and is beautifully illustrated by Michael Zulli. (Peter Snejberg's art in "The Goldie Factor" is reminiscent of Mark Buckingham's in Fables and Steve Parkhouse's work in "The Lost Boy" is close to Vertigo "house style," if such a thing exists.) This story not only introduces a new family conflict in the dysfunctional relationship between Cain, Abel, and Eve with which DC has dealt since 1972 (up to this point, Adam has appeared only in flashback and in an alternate reality briefly created in "The Goldie Factor"), but explains the real reason why Abel murdered Cain. Without letting in any spoilers, it deals with women that are not mentioned in the Bible because the Bible writers saw women as less than people, often mentioning "sisters" and "daughters," but leaving their names unrecorded. Kwitney's story feels like one of DC's old "mystery" comics done profoundly well and with the frame story thoroughly integrated into what the storytellers are telling. The best comparisons to this issue are Swamp Thing #33 by Alan Moore and The Sandman #40 by Neil Gaiman, to which this stands in triumvirate.

Had the entire volume been as good as "His Brother's Keeper", I would have given it the full five stars, but being only 1/8 of this book's content, it doesn't pull it up from the overall 4 I would otherwise give it. Extremely worthwhile reading for fans of The Sandman or DC's "mystery" comics of the 1960s and 1970s. While I doubt that most readers would approach this expecting to find it par or better than Gaiman, as I did not, they may find this return excursion to the Dreaming most worthwhile, and with an immensely satisfying conclusion.
Profile Image for Amy.
828 reviews39 followers
May 30, 2008
This is the first book in the Dreaming series, which uses "minor" characters from the Sandman universe like Cain and Abel, Goldie, Matthew and Nuala. Stories are set in both the Dream universe and in the real world, so to speak. I really enjoyed this series and was sorry to see it end - the art was always great, especially the covers by Dave McKean. But the series did last for a while, so if you missed out, you've got some great art and fantasy to enjoy.
Profile Image for Dan.
259 reviews23 followers
February 13, 2019
I think this is essentially anything I’d hope for as a spin off of The Sandman series.

Everything feels tonally in touch with the original series.

It just has fun telling stories in a vast landscape of the Dreaming, and I really enjoyed it!
Profile Image for Raj.
1,681 reviews42 followers
August 31, 2014
I only found out that these spin-offs from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series existed recently and I'm still confused as to why there are only two volumes collecting just 16 of the 60 issues of the series. From reading this book, which collects issues 1-8, split into three stories, the quality of both the stories and art is definitely high enough for me to want to read the rest of it. Who do I badger to get them on the case?

Of the three stories in this volume, I think the second one is my favourite, even though it's the one least connected to the Dreaming. The first volume tells the story of Goldie, the golden gargoyle who lives with Cain and Abel and the third is also a Cain and Abel story, with an unwanted relative coming to visit them. While Cain and Abel can be fun characters, Cain's bad habit of repeatedly killing his brother can get a bit wearing. The second story, The Lost Boy, tells the story of Brian Salmon, an architect living in the 1950s, who has an encounter with fairies and finds himself pushed forward in time, via the Dreaming, to the 1990s. Here, he has to try and survive the bizarre world he comes to and try and get home. There is also a cameo from Johanna Constantine and the main plot driver is Mad Hettie, both of whom appeared in Sandman.

There's a lot of scope to tell stories set in the Dreaming, and I'd love to read them all. I hope that Titan or DC or whoever can do so, rethinks the lack of collected volumes of this series.
Profile Image for Maggie Gordon.
1,914 reviews163 followers
June 11, 2017
Woo, more comics in the land of the Dreaming! These ones focus on secondary characters, but I will take what I can get.

This first collection has three stories. The first is about Goldie, the baby gargoyle that lives with Abel. He runs away because of Cain's cruelty and runs into a rather nasty fellow. Readers get to find out the secret history of the golden gargoyles and learn a bit more about the first brothers and Eve. Not quite Gaiman level writing, but an interesting story nevertheless!

The longest narrative is about Mad Hettie, the fair folk, and a poor lost soul that ended up accidentally travelling through time. The story of the time traveller is quite engaging, but there's a bunch of weird stuff going on with Hattie that doesn't pay off. Maybe it became relevant later in the series?

Finally, there's one last story about Cain and Abel's brother who wants to know about why Cain killed Abel. It involves forgotten sisters and dreamer house guests and is an incoherent mess. It could have been interesting had it either been reframed or given additional issues to explore its content.

All in all, not a bad companion to the Sandman series!
Profile Image for EL LIBRERO DE JUDE.
246 reviews37 followers
February 19, 2023
LA ENSOÑACIÓN ha resultado uno de mis tomos favoritos del universo SANDMAN.

Tres historias que forman parte del universo creado por NEIL GAIMAN, pero que funcionan perfectamente de forma aislada.
Historias fascinantes, llenas de secretos y misterios sin explorar que te dejarán reflexionando sobre todo lo que creías saber sobre los temas que se abordan.

Dragones, gárgolas, el jardín del Edén, Adán y Eva, Abel y Caín, Seth, Constantine... Ésto y más podrás encontrar en las páginas de LA ENSOÑACIÓN.

Tres historias que se quedarán por mucho tiempo en mi memoria.
23 reviews
May 28, 2023
Sandman goes so hard, maybe favourite series all time. Idek how to describe other than just metal. like it is legitimately just cool as fuck. Story lines are all wacky and fun and I love the little one offs, art is so freaking cool. like idek what other word to use.
Also just realised because I'm putting these in retroactively as I am with lots of things I've read and want to add, I'm just gonna copy this review for the whole series lmao
Profile Image for Marie.
Author 23 books66 followers
April 12, 2017
Pretty good, though Cain and Abel get on my nerves. I suppose they are meant to be annoying, but at this point, I wouldn't read another book with them as the main characters. Still, revisiting the Dreaming after the initial Sandman series was nice.
Profile Image for Andrew Steele.
525 reviews2 followers
April 6, 2022
I enjoy the world of Sandman a lot. There are so many characters and tangents you can go down. This set of 2 stories shows the different strands quite well.

The first one is Cain and Abel and Eve and Original Sin. It was good enough. I like Cain and Abel stories pretty much but can get tired of them as well as they are usually just lots of casual violence. This story wasn't a lot better but the search for Goldie was fun in the characters they ran across.

Mad Hettie is a lot of fun and this was a great short story.
Profile Image for Courtney.
1,610 reviews42 followers
December 16, 2023
I’ve been wanting to read this for years, and I think that this is one of those instances that something just happens at the right time.

It was occasionally annoying to read Cain and Hettie’s dialogue.

Neil Gaiman is listed as the consultant. I’m not sure how much input he gave, but I feel that they got the emotional weather and characters right.

I rather enjoyed the characters of Eve, Abel, Cain and Tempto whom I though was somewhat of a clever twist.
Oh the Fair Folk and Shakespeare references made me smile.
Profile Image for Jon Shanks.
350 reviews
August 8, 2018
REally enjoyable collection of stories featuring fringe characters from the Sandman Universe. Very tempted to track down the rest of the series.
Profile Image for Deiran.
43 reviews
October 2, 2025
Todo en la licencia de The Sanman es interesante, y esto es más que entretenido.
Profile Image for Annie.
72 reviews24 followers
May 22, 2009
I liked the Goldie story best (cause Goldie... so cute!) - I liked the others too, but nothing here jumped out at me as WHOA! I think it's a little (or a lot!) because, coming after Sandman, it's really hard for one book of stories to live up to the level of depth Sandman was able to build over seven years. It's unfair to expect it to, anyway.

So I really did enjoy reading this, but it hasn't quite grabbed me yet. I'm excited to read the next collection "Through the Gates of Horn and Ivory", not least because of Caitlin Kiernan's involvement. I wish there were more than two volumes available - I'd love to be able to read more of the stories and individual issues appear to be hard to come by.
Profile Image for Bridgett.
656 reviews130 followers
August 19, 2008
I loved learning more about Cain, Abel, and Eve in The Dreaming. The overall plot kept my interest, too, about the nature of time. Really fun to read!
Profile Image for Tamara.
110 reviews20 followers
June 2, 2013
thia was not my faavorite. I really liked the Goldie bit, but the rest of it was kind of lack-luster for me :(
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.