The Sandman: Volume VI (1993)

Fables and Reflections (1993)

Author: Neil Gaiman | Illustrators: Kent Williams / Shawn McManus / Stan Woch / Duncan Eagleson / Bryan Talbot / John Watkiss / Jill Thompson / P.Craig Russell | Page Count: 259 

"Death was a little older than Dream. Things had the potential to die before they had the potential to dream."

Volume VI of X in the Sandman saga is another collection of standalone stories. It's about twice as long as the previous such collection, Volume III: Dream Country, but arguably only half as good. In fact, overall, I feel it's the worst TPB of the ten original volumes.

There are nine stories in all, four of which are known collectively as Distant Mirrors, and three of which are known collectively as Convergence.

The Distant Mirrors section, featuring historical figures, offers little of interest for the average reader. Except perhaps Ramadan, the 50th issue of the series - the lingering revelations after the last page is turned and P. Craig Russell's beautiful art help raise it above average.

The Convergence section is mostly uninteresting, except for the lengthy Orpheus tale, which is essential to the overall arc of the series.

The remainder of the shorts are merely subtext that I found tedious to read. They flit backwards and forwards in time, showing different eras of Morpheus' lifetime, but they're out of sequence, the publication order has been shuffled around for some reason leaving all the better stuff in the second half. That decision made the first half a real struggle to get through.

The book collects together Sandman issues 29 – 31, 38 – 40 and 50, Sandman Special issue 1, and Vertigo Preview issue 1.