Not Fray. Sandman.

The Sandman arc completes at 10.

Ha! Given the editor's letter in Fray #7, I was sure #8 would be late. I thought he protested way too much.

Not Fray. Sandman.

Oops! Sorry about that. The books do stop at #10, but their were spin-offs and mini-series that ran after. Not many of them are very good (excepting Lucifer).

I thought the dreams one was rumoured to be good. Augh. Can't remember the title.

I thought the dreams one was rumoured to be good.

Does anybody know where there is a good, reliable source for intelligent reviews of the Sandman spin-offs, or other, older series that still have impact (like Watchmen or Preacher)?

For that matter, is there any source of in-depth analysis of comics anywhere? Most of the reviews I see today aren't worth the electrons it takes to form them.

Sorry to jump in late on the new game thing, but that actually looks like Ethan Rayne in the group shot rather than Angel. At least that was my first impression when I saw the character. If it is in fact Angel, then yeah, it's badly done.

Oh, I read somewhere that Joss is supposed to be a secret character in the game, and will have the powers of all the characters, which would be amusing, to say the least.

I just picked up the original Buffy X-Box game and have been playing it this week and I've been enjoying it a lot. Ended up staying up an hour later than I meant to last night because I lost track of time. There are a few fights that are frustratingly hard and sometimes trying to figure out where you're supposed to go next is difficult (generally because you have to shimmy across a pipe that's not easily visible from a distance) but it's otherwise a lot of fun and the dialogue is very Buffy-like. And the actress they got to do Buffy's voice does a pretty good impression of SMG most of the time. Though that makes it kind of jarring when she does sound off.

Joss is supposed to be a secret character in the game, and will have the powers of all the characters, which would be amusing, to say the least.

Ha! I think he should have the power to write any character out of the game, or turn them evil.

Curious. Anyone looked at the Marvel Epic comic deal?

Belated responses: We don't know who Dream's lover was at that point, Wolfram--I remember us all furiously speculating about on the Net when the comics came out. Aside from the main series, there's The Dream Hunters, a late Sandman novella with gorgeous illustrations by a Japanese artist; two Death miniseries by Gaiman; Sandman: Book of Dreams, a prose anthology by other hands, variable quality, though at least two very good stories (Delia Sherman and Susanna Clarke); and spin-offs of variable quality. I liked Alisa Kwitney's Destiny miniseries, although it's merely good, not great.

The Lucifer monthly is excellent, and there's an interview with its author, Mike Carey, at Comic Book Resources. Carey also did a decent Petrifax spin-off.

Gaiman's Books of Magic is tangentially related to The Sandman, and the spin-off series by John Ney Rieber was wonderful for most of its run, although he really lost it at the end. His miniseries Mythos is set in the same universe, and is very good.

A lot of people liked Caitlin Kiernan's work on The Dreaming, but I've never been a big fan of hers, in prose or comics.