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Sandman Mystery Theatre (collected editions) #3
Sandman Mystery Theatre, Vol. 3: The Vamp
Collecting the fourth story arc (issues #13-16) from the acclaimed reimagination of the original Golden Age Sandman, THE VAMP continues the story of Wesley Dodds and his soon-to-be paramour (and narrator) Dian Belmont as they become entangled in mystery from two different directions.
104 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
2 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Matt Wagner
967 books231 followersMatt Wagner is an American comic book writer and artist. In addition to his creator-owned series' Mage and Grendel, he has also worked on comics featuring The Demon and Batman as well as such titles as Sandman Mystery Theatre and Trinity, a DC Comics limited series featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
November 17, 2017
“She was a scamp, a camp, and a bit of a tramp;
She was a V-A-M-P...VAMP."
*Random Goodreader punches Jeff in the solar plexus*
Gah! What was that for?
Random Goodreader: Using Sonny and Cher lyrics in a comic book review!! You’re crossing a line. Don’t let it happen again!
But, but, but…
Matt Wagner raises the profile of Dian Belmont, soon to be The Sandman’s main squeeze…
…by giving her a lion’s share of the page time. Poor Dian, back in the ‘30’s, women didn’t have many career options: housewife, school teacher, man-hating psycho killer lesbian… Yet she does her best trying to sort for clues to a series of grisly murders involving some snotty grown-up frat boys and possibly one of her old sorority friends.
Dian examines her friends with a keen sleuthing eye:
Lesbian. Check.
She even turns her detecting eye towards Wesley Dodds, aka The Sandman.
Psycho Loser. Check
The Sandman? What’s he up to?
Yep. Sneaking and creeping around New York City. Looking forlove clues in all the wrong places.
And don’t forget the Fooshing and stuff…
Wagner’s jaded eye picks up some interesting period details.
Lt. Burke, the inept police detective, is the lightning rod for some racial, sexist, and class haterade, both on the giving and receiving end.
Takeaway - Picking up random dames with an insane agenda in hotel bars…
Spoilered for the kids and the impressionable. Kids, stay in school and stay out of dimly lit hotel bars!
…could find yourself dead…
…with the blood syphoned out of your body in painful ways and your corpse dumped in a hotel broom closet.
Bottom line: As I’ve been reading this series for a second time, in the proper publishing order and with a more critical eye (As if. Shaddup!) a few things stand out: 1) Matt Wagner’s writing is uneven at best, but when he’s on his game, these stories are fairly compelling - this one’s a good entry into the series. 2) The art, although it captures the noir-ish aspects fairly well, is second rate no matter who’s doing the sketching.
Onto volume 4 - Sandman Mystery Theatre, Vol. 4: The Scorpion
A sample of the atmospheric cover art for an issue of this volume:
She was a V-A-M-P...VAMP."
*Random Goodreader punches Jeff in the solar plexus*
Gah! What was that for?
Random Goodreader: Using Sonny and Cher lyrics in a comic book review!! You’re crossing a line. Don’t let it happen again!
But, but, but…
Matt Wagner raises the profile of Dian Belmont, soon to be The Sandman’s main squeeze…
…by giving her a lion’s share of the page time. Poor Dian, back in the ‘30’s, women didn’t have many career options: housewife, school teacher, man-hating psycho killer lesbian… Yet she does her best trying to sort for clues to a series of grisly murders involving some snotty grown-up frat boys and possibly one of her old sorority friends.
Dian examines her friends with a keen sleuthing eye:
Lesbian. Check.
She even turns her detecting eye towards Wesley Dodds, aka The Sandman.
Psycho Loser. Check
The Sandman? What’s he up to?
Yep. Sneaking and creeping around New York City. Looking for
And don’t forget the Fooshing and stuff…
Wagner’s jaded eye picks up some interesting period details.
Lt. Burke, the inept police detective, is the lightning rod for some racial, sexist, and class haterade, both on the giving and receiving end.
Takeaway - Picking up random dames with an insane agenda in hotel bars…
Spoilered for the kids and the impressionable. Kids, stay in school and stay out of dimly lit hotel bars!
…could find yourself dead…
…with the blood syphoned out of your body in painful ways and your corpse dumped in a hotel broom closet.
Bottom line: As I’ve been reading this series for a second time, in the proper publishing order and with a more critical eye (As if. Shaddup!) a few things stand out: 1) Matt Wagner’s writing is uneven at best, but when he’s on his game, these stories are fairly compelling - this one’s a good entry into the series. 2) The art, although it captures the noir-ish aspects fairly well, is second rate no matter who’s doing the sketching.
Onto volume 4 - Sandman Mystery Theatre, Vol. 4: The Scorpion
A sample of the atmospheric cover art for an issue of this volume:
September 4, 2023
Read as part of Sandman Mystery Theatre Book Two.
March 24, 2025
Sandman Mystery Theatre Volume 3 continues the series' streak of compelling, dark storytelling, diving deep into the gritty world of crime and emotional turmoil. This volume even decides to be more forward thinking, exploring LGBTQ themes in a nice way, even if the lead is using the sex as a way to murder people.
At the heart of the story is a powerful and tragic femme fatale, whose backstory is heartbreaking in its depth. The reader can't help but sympathize with her pain, and when she seeks revenge, it feels not only justified but almost necessary, making for a morally complex and engaging narrative. That's the best type of "bad guy" you can have.
However, the art, while unique and fitting for the tone of the series, can be a challenge to me because I can't tell who the fuck is who sometimes. The distinctive style sometimes blurs the line between characters, making it hard to differentiate who’s who in certain panels. This can be frustrating at times, especially when you’re trying to stay engaged in a story that requires emotional and visual clarity.
Overall, Volume 3 is another solid entry in Sandman Mystery Theatre, providing an intricate, dark, and rewarding story. No surprise really being 3 volumes deep now.
At the heart of the story is a powerful and tragic femme fatale, whose backstory is heartbreaking in its depth. The reader can't help but sympathize with her pain, and when she seeks revenge, it feels not only justified but almost necessary, making for a morally complex and engaging narrative. That's the best type of "bad guy" you can have.
However, the art, while unique and fitting for the tone of the series, can be a challenge to me because I can't tell who the fuck is who sometimes. The distinctive style sometimes blurs the line between characters, making it hard to differentiate who’s who in certain panels. This can be frustrating at times, especially when you’re trying to stay engaged in a story that requires emotional and visual clarity.
Overall, Volume 3 is another solid entry in Sandman Mystery Theatre, providing an intricate, dark, and rewarding story. No surprise really being 3 volumes deep now.
October 9, 2025
I love this series. I love the 1938 setting combined with the very dark stories. This story deals with a revenge plot of a woman scorned. Guy Davis art here, which gives the series some consistency. Overall one of the better story arcs so far.
November 21, 2008
Although some comic book series need to be read in sequential order – take for example either Neil Gaiman’s brilliantly original Sandman or Brain K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man – SMT doesn’t require that level of exactitude. As I read this series when it was serialized in its monthly installments -- which drove me crazy, I must admit, having to wait that long to see a mystery through to its end – it’s now fun to be able to go to my neighborhood library and pick-up a collected volume of one of Vertigo’s best unsung series of the 90s (perhaps it was its successful sister-title of a related name that overshadowed it?), and devour it in one sitting.
In these early adventures of Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman of later JSA fame, the grim and gritty streets of Depression-era New York are teeming no just with huddling masses yearning to be free, but also vindictive souls hell-bent on revenge. (Oddly, most of the victims well-deserve their hideous fates.) In “The Vamp”, a fraternity of well-to-do young gentlemen are off-ed one-by-one by way of sexual entrapment. As these thing coincidentally go in the world of detective and pulp fiction, Wesley’s leading lady Dian Belmont has odd connections with the killers. (Oh, did I give anything away there by use of the plural of “killer?”) “The Vamp” is a brutal and shocking murder-mystery that will remind you not to score a home run on the first date, not to mention the fact that past crimes will in fact come back to haunt – and if not kill – you.
In these early adventures of Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman of later JSA fame, the grim and gritty streets of Depression-era New York are teeming no just with huddling masses yearning to be free, but also vindictive souls hell-bent on revenge. (Oddly, most of the victims well-deserve their hideous fates.) In “The Vamp”, a fraternity of well-to-do young gentlemen are off-ed one-by-one by way of sexual entrapment. As these thing coincidentally go in the world of detective and pulp fiction, Wesley’s leading lady Dian Belmont has odd connections with the killers. (Oh, did I give anything away there by use of the plural of “killer?”) “The Vamp” is a brutal and shocking murder-mystery that will remind you not to score a home run on the first date, not to mention the fact that past crimes will in fact come back to haunt – and if not kill – you.
July 11, 2021
I don't like these as much as I like a French detective comic like Jerome K. Jerome Bloche, which seems to me infinitely better in terms of narrative pacing, mixing humour with a serious detective plot and variety of subject matter. But as a pastiche of 30s comics this is fine; the stories may be so so (to the point sometimes of being downright silly), but that seems to be all in the game for American superhero comics, whose stories can't be anything but silly. And I really like the art work of Guy Davis, which has none of the slick robotic look of some comics I've seen. In fact, it looks rather Tardi-esque to me, it wouldn't surprise me if he knew his work and admired it. Refreshingly unslick, and the characters look refreshingly normal, not like the run of the mill Ken and Barbie you find in so many comics.
January 28, 2024
I liked this volume much better than the second one. In this one, there is a female serial killer targeting and killing men in extreme and weird ways. Once again, Wesley a.k.a. the Sandman is on the job to find out who the killer is and bring them to justice. This time I figured out the killer pretty early on but it was still a great story. Good graphics. The only thing is that Dian is getting a wee bit annoying in this one and I hope she calms down in the next volume.
October 14, 2012
Sandman Mystery Theater: The Vamp by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle is written with a voiceover by Dian Belmont, girlfriend to Wesley Dodds (Sandman) and daughter of Larry Belmont (District Attorney). Dian, who is worried by the strange behavir of her friend, Carol, decides to investigate into a series of brutally murdered blue-blooded men. The deeper she digs, the more certain she becomes that their fraternity membership holds some clue to their killer.
Fuelling Dian’s interest is her jealousy of Madeline Giles, a beautiful, self-assured, and pushy woman from Carol’s past. Not only does she make Dian feel as if she’s being pushed out of Carol’s life, she makes her feel not as glamorous, especially when it seems that she has enchanted Wesley Dodds.
Through her clumsy detective work and clinginess to Wesley, Dian is made to look foolish. As much as everyone tells her to get out of the way and let the men do their work, it actually appears that she should get out of the way and let the professionals do their work. Nothing in the story convinces the reader that she is doing anything more than endangering herself.
The look at lesbianism is problematic, as well. The lesbians come across as manipulative misandrists. While it is important to create characters from a wide variety of backgrounds, it is not progressive if the characters reinforce preexisting stereotypes.
Fuelling Dian’s interest is her jealousy of Madeline Giles, a beautiful, self-assured, and pushy woman from Carol’s past. Not only does she make Dian feel as if she’s being pushed out of Carol’s life, she makes her feel not as glamorous, especially when it seems that she has enchanted Wesley Dodds.
Through her clumsy detective work and clinginess to Wesley, Dian is made to look foolish. As much as everyone tells her to get out of the way and let the men do their work, it actually appears that she should get out of the way and let the professionals do their work. Nothing in the story convinces the reader that she is doing anything more than endangering herself.
The look at lesbianism is problematic, as well. The lesbians come across as manipulative misandrists. While it is important to create characters from a wide variety of backgrounds, it is not progressive if the characters reinforce preexisting stereotypes.
November 22, 2022
Torna ai disegni Guy Davis, e nel complesso l'ho trovato lievemente migliorato rispetto al primo volume, Tarantula.
L'argomento della storia è la vendetta di una ragazza, lesbica, che al college venne ripetutamente violentata dai membri di una confraternita durante un rito d'iniziazione finito male per eccesso di ubriachezza. Quindi il tema è la vendetta ma anche i rapporti con l'altro sesso. Poiché una amica di Dian Belmond è coinvolta, ne viene coinvolta anche Dian. Wagner è affiancato da Seagle nela sceneggiatura e onestamente questo credo che giovi alla trama. Il gioco di incastri è più credibile, e anche l'uso dei sogni che motivano Wesley Dodds risulta un poco più incisivo.
Personalmente mi sto godendo questa rilettura. Decisamente questo quarto ciclo è migliore rispetto ai primi tre, sia per l'approfondimento dei personaggi principali e del loro rapporto in evoluzione verso quello che sappiamo bene diventerà un rapporto stabile e duraturo.
4 stelle all'albo.
L'argomento della storia è la vendetta di una ragazza, lesbica, che al college venne ripetutamente violentata dai membri di una confraternita durante un rito d'iniziazione finito male per eccesso di ubriachezza. Quindi il tema è la vendetta ma anche i rapporti con l'altro sesso. Poiché una amica di Dian Belmond è coinvolta, ne viene coinvolta anche Dian. Wagner è affiancato da Seagle nela sceneggiatura e onestamente questo credo che giovi alla trama. Il gioco di incastri è più credibile, e anche l'uso dei sogni che motivano Wesley Dodds risulta un poco più incisivo.
Personalmente mi sto godendo questa rilettura. Decisamente questo quarto ciclo è migliore rispetto ai primi tre, sia per l'approfondimento dei personaggi principali e del loro rapporto in evoluzione verso quello che sappiamo bene diventerà un rapporto stabile e duraturo.
4 stelle all'albo.
May 22, 2014
This one is a marked improvement from Vol. 2. Here, one of Dian's friends is running with her old sorority sisters, and Dian thinks things are a little strange...
Also, strange murders of high society men are taking place, seemingly by a woman 'of loose morals' having her way with them and then killing them.
Throw in some intrigue, lesbianism, "marijuana cigarettes" and my goodness! Shocking!
This is more like the Film Noir Book I was looking to read. Well done, though the art still befuddles me, as one point has Wes Dodds looking like he's 30s with Brown hair, then he looks like he's 60s with Grey hair.
Also, the Sandman runs into some trouble here like he never has before...
Solid entry in the series.
Also, strange murders of high society men are taking place, seemingly by a woman 'of loose morals' having her way with them and then killing them.
Throw in some intrigue, lesbianism, "marijuana cigarettes" and my goodness! Shocking!
This is more like the Film Noir Book I was looking to read. Well done, though the art still befuddles me, as one point has Wes Dodds looking like he's 30s with Brown hair, then he looks like he's 60s with Grey hair.
Also, the Sandman runs into some trouble here like he never has before...
Solid entry in the series.
April 10, 2015
Fantastic! I've been meaning to read these stories for 20 years and feel ridiculous that I waited this long to get through every issue. Wagner & Seagle have crafted wonderful characters and continue to throw them in compelling stories that just drip with period accuracy and atmosphere. The return of Guy Davis on art for this volume was a welcome one. I didn't hate the previous artist but I identify Sandman Mystery Theatre so closely with Davis' aesthetic. The story of The Vamp was quite good and, without throwing out any spoilers, hits all the right notes. This is possibly my favourite SMT volume so far. Very much looking forward to the next one.
December 13, 2024
Aunque tuve la dicha de leerla prestada completa hace ya un montón de años, en mi poder sólo se cuentan los primeros dos arcos de este revival del personaje, rescate del Sandman de la Golden Age en Vértigo, como el mejor noir de detectives y crítica social que se podría pedir. Bueno, sólo los dos primeros hasta que en esa venta de garage semi permanente que hace Ignacio Alcuri me compré algún arco más y este que toca ahora es el tercero. The Vamp cuenta una serie de muertes de jóvenes universitarios, quienes compartieran todos la misma fraternidad y a manos de una misteriosa femme fatale (la vampiresa del título), muertes que son investigadas en el mismo nivel de protagonismo por Dian Belmont, acaso la verdadera protagonista de esta serie e hija del fiscal de distrito; el detective Burke, policía de homicidios y cualquier cosa menos que aliado de nuestro héroe; y lógicamente Wesley Dodds, Sandman. El arte de Guy Davis es perfecto para estas historias sórdidas y muy negras, así como ejemplar es la narración en tres bandas o puntos de vista que componen Wagner y Seagle.
March 20, 2018
Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed by this book. The mystery was too obvious, and the Wesley/Dian secret identity confusion was way too straight-up superhero for such a complex book.
Dian, however, remains a fairly compelling protagonist (moreso than Wesley), and I'm always taken by the way that Wagner (and Seagle) portray the biases and bigotries of 1940's America with such an unflinching eye (I would like to see even more of these moments, actually. It's like seeing a car crash. Sadly, these characteristics are still common in America today, but sometimes you can hold up the mirror more effectively if you set the story in the past. Modern readers' defense mechanism for denial doesn't kick in so strongly!)
Guy Davis is a good artist, very well suited to this series, although I, personally, am not as big a fan of his work as others are. Lots of detail and good character work.
Dian, however, remains a fairly compelling protagonist (moreso than Wesley), and I'm always taken by the way that Wagner (and Seagle) portray the biases and bigotries of 1940's America with such an unflinching eye (I would like to see even more of these moments, actually. It's like seeing a car crash. Sadly, these characteristics are still common in America today, but sometimes you can hold up the mirror more effectively if you set the story in the past. Modern readers' defense mechanism for denial doesn't kick in so strongly!)
Guy Davis is a good artist, very well suited to this series, although I, personally, am not as big a fan of his work as others are. Lots of detail and good character work.
August 27, 2020
Pretty much everything I said about the last book only more so. With one LITTLE quibble. This story had fewer twists and turns than the previous volume I read. (The Tarantula.) I was hoping that the mystery would be a little more... I dunno...an actually mystery. I mean this was quite a story with two character... a guy in a white coat and a guy in a black coat, the next scene guy in the white coat is dead... guess who killed him... but it is pretty damn close. But it was a GREAT character study.
June 5, 2021
I think what’s most impressing me about this series is how much Wagner and his artists are willing to poke about with the formula without really settling on any particular element of it yet. The politics and morality are muddy and confusing and the already fluid and supple art of Davis now has a scratchy element which feels visibly like it is muddying those waters too. I like how it’s taking the time to build up the world and these characters too... very good indeed
January 15, 2019
And the style picks up again. Better than the last, still not qite as good as the first one. Good story, again the sensitive subject matter is handled well, I think. But now I'm just waiting for Dian to finally put two and two together and figure out who the Sandman is...
December 12, 2019
Artwork: Adequate Story: Excellent. It finally happens in this book . Wesley and Dian get together. I was happy they transcended what was going on to get together. The story was great but that pent up frustration is finally let out. Haha.
June 6, 2023
The best of the series to date, escalating the main character's relationship with Dian while weaving in a tragic tale of revenge, the book continues to perform. The only weakness is that sometimes it's difficult to tell which character is which
December 4, 2023
The Vamp (#13-16). Four arcs in, we finally get a traditional femme fatale. Wagner's backstory for our killer give her more depth than the usual villainess, but he also uses the storyline as a counterpoint to Dian's growing relationship with Wesley. Very nicely done [4/5].
March 18, 2023
I loved the pulp feel to this book and that the casual racism and jingoism of the 30s is realistically portrayed.
October 27, 2023
Prima verhaal van Matt Wagener maar het resultaat is uiteindelijk mager
July 7, 2024
Further proof that the best comics of the '90s didn't come from Marvel.
August 14, 2024
Love Dian discovering lesbians and Wes being like “okay, and????” Love an open-minded king
September 29, 2024
Phenomenal noirism, Wagner and Seagal fundamentally get what makes the genre sing, and Guy Davis is at his best here.
February 1, 2025
I would have liked to see more Sandman; this focuses a lot on Dian.
February 7, 2025
Overall I might give it a 3.5. Tad too violent for me. Occasional weird plot jumps.
November 25, 2015
This is a book that I wanted to give five stars to. It came so close to getting five stars because how immersed I felt within the noir world of the Sandman. Maybe it's because I know this Sandman's world ties into Gaiman's Sandman. Maybe it's because I had been marathoning the first few episodes of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle around the same time. Either way, I could not give this book five stars for two reasons. One, without giving away the plot, The Vamp comes so close to portraying a commentary upon patriarchy and reactionary feminism, and in fact it dances around the territory quite knowingly, but just as it has the opportunity to reveal revelations of the human condition that arises from the clashing of genders, it backs away from the topic, leaving it haphazard. Two, while blood is a theme carried throughout the graphic novel, we are never told why there are people who are harvesting blood. We know how the victims are chosen, but we do not know if there is any purpose at all. We can conjecture given the title that the people involved are vampires, but we never know for sure. They just as easily can be mentally deranged. There is no exposition for their motives. No declaration that they are vampires, be it supernatural or delusionary, and while I can relish a healthy dose of ambiguity now and again, I prefer to have more solid clues to work with- still a great read nonetheless.
November 8, 2012
Originaly bought as single-issues, I have the complete collection.
Somehow, Matt Wagner and Guy Davis were the perfect team to bring the original Sandman back.
Where most writers would have updated the character to bring him into the 21st century, Matt Wagner goes way back to his original roots set in the 1940s and gives us a bare bones version of the character.
This isn't a super-hero, he doesn't jump from rooftops, he's faillable, he's a well-rounded, caring human being, heck he's not even muscle-bound, he could probably even lose a bit of weight. You actually get the impression that he has to make an effort to do the things he does. Add to that the more than believable love interest of Dian and you have the setting for some great stories.
These stories should be re-collected into Absolute or Deluxe editions... even if I might be the only one buying them :-)
Somehow, Matt Wagner and Guy Davis were the perfect team to bring the original Sandman back.
Where most writers would have updated the character to bring him into the 21st century, Matt Wagner goes way back to his original roots set in the 1940s and gives us a bare bones version of the character.
This isn't a super-hero, he doesn't jump from rooftops, he's faillable, he's a well-rounded, caring human being, heck he's not even muscle-bound, he could probably even lose a bit of weight. You actually get the impression that he has to make an effort to do the things he does. Add to that the more than believable love interest of Dian and you have the setting for some great stories.
These stories should be re-collected into Absolute or Deluxe editions... even if I might be the only one buying them :-)
January 31, 2008
Pleasant pulp storytelling with lurid blood-draining lesbians, villainous Ivy league frat boys, and an amateur detective with a gas mask and guns which shoot a potent sleeping gas. Guy Davis pleasingly styliized art and clear, intelligent layouts give a great feel for the era.
Wagner and Seagle keep away from cliche and pastiche and develop subtext (in this story, the difficulty of living as a lesbian in the 30's, as well as the racial politics of jazz) while still satisfying a good amount of nostalgia.
No great shakes, just a solid comics read.
Wagner and Seagle keep away from cliche and pastiche and develop subtext (in this story, the difficulty of living as a lesbian in the 30's, as well as the racial politics of jazz) while still satisfying a good amount of nostalgia.
No great shakes, just a solid comics read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews