Heh, yeah. Someone told me that Swampy killed the Bogeyman. How did it tie into Hellblazer?

The Family Man, the guest of honor who didn't show, was the serial killer who killed John Constantine's father, and who died in those pages.

Oh, nifty.

PC, just so you know, I'm getting a huge kick out of seeing your unspoiled and utterly fresh reactions to "Sandman."

Good heavens, yes.

Morpheus is my woobie.

Big angsty drama-queen woobie.

My favorite Sandman stories constantly change, but right now they're "A Doll's House", "Brief Lives", and the single issue of "Three Septembers and a January".

The Family Man, the guest of honor who didn't show, was the serial killer who killed John Constantine's father, and who died in those pages.

Ah, I was trying to remember where he'd shown up. Thanks.

Good heavens, yes.

Yay!

"Season of Mists" is one of my favorite arcs just because of the interplay between the various realms that have a vested interested in the outcome. And, like every other arc, it has little callbacks and foreshadowings for the other arcs, and for the Big Arc that is the entire series.

So many parts of me want to comment about your comments, but I have taught myself not to spoil, so my tongue will stay bitten. Painfully bitten.

I appreciate the blood you draw for me, Broomy. I haven't yet put together what the Big Arc really is, per se, but it's becoming clear that Everything Is Important. Which is awesome.

The introduction to "Endless Nights" includes a bit where someone asked him to sum up the series in one sentence. Look for that after you're done and I think you'll agree it's apt.

(I think I've just fallen completely in love with Vampire Loves )

So I finished Season of Mists, and hm. I think overall, I'm not as in love with it as I anticipated at the beginning. Various realms bitching over who gets to rule Hell is wicked cool, don't get me wrong, but I feel like there should have been more. Maybe I want more damn fighting. This is a comic, for God's sake! Where's my THWAP! POW! BIFF!

And in this story, rather than deus ex angina, we get deus ex...deus. I mean, the resolution makes a certain kind of sense, but it also feels like something out of Gilbert and Sullivan. We're teased with all these things Dream could have gotten from various factions, and in the end all he got was the relief of having gotten rid of the key. I did love, however, the angel's progression from "You can't do this! I haven't rebelled!" to "That's it! I'm rebelling!...Shit."

Oh, oh, and I must say: CHEER UP, EMO ENDLESS. "I've got this key I don't want, and it's causing me so much paaaaaain. I'm going to wear my black clothes and sit in the dark and broooooood." Of course, he balances it out every time he's like, "You're in the Dreaming, bitch! This is MY WORLD."

Also, I thought the zombie schoolchildren issue was kind of meh. It was boring and confusing. Yeah, I'm sure it will be important later, but that's no excuse for not making the setup a good read. When Death is going around cleaning up after a big mess ("When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth!"), I want to see THAT. I want to see mass chaos everywhere. Not just someone's dead grandmother talking about anal sex. Though that was good.

I think the problem is Gaiman keeps subverting my expectations, and dammit, once in a while I want him to fulfill them.