The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds’ End (1993)

A fairly Endless-light volume after the events of Brief Lives, but still a good one, offering up a variety of fanciful tales and some intriguing ideas. Even though it’s taking me a while to get through The Sandman – I find that I enjoy it best when I give it some space to breathe between volumes – it’s still a worthwhile journey featuring some really striking storytelling.

Brant and Charlene are driving overnight to Chicago when their car gets into an accident in the middle of a reality storm. The only refuge to be found is at the Worlds’ End inn, where an assortment of creatures from different worlds and realms tell stories as they wait for the storm to pass.

This is a good setup. I enjoy the concept of a reality storm, both just the basic idea of it and the notion that it’s caused when something so monumental happens at a cosmic level that the ends of reality start coming undone. I also like the idea of the inn as this insubstantial way station in the eye of the storm, a place to ride it out safely but a place that only really exists in these moments of crisis. And “a bunch of disparate individuals sit around and tell stories” is a frequent winner of a premise, and Neil Gaiman makes the most out of this one.

The stories are varied and largely unconnected, though there are a few brief glimpses of members of the Endless here and there, and one character identifies a common stylistic thread throughout the different tales toward the end of the volume. They’re full of Gaiman’s characteristic macabre, fantastical vision, plucked out of a no-place between anecdote, fairytale, and myth. I also enjoy the conceit of having each tale drawn by a different artist, while the connective tissue of the World’s End scenes all have a single style.

Some of the stories are more intriguing than others, but there’s something to enjoy in all of them. I particularly like “A Tale of Two Cities,” the story of a man who gets caught in the dream of the city where he lives, and “The Golden Boy,” about a young political idealist who’s offered the chance to make a deal with a devil in exchange for power. I also really enjoy the concept of the necropolis in the story “Cerements,” a society of ghouls whose livelihoods (in a manner of speaking) are derived from diverse ceremonies of the dead.

As interesting as this volume is, it is admittedly a bit of a letdown after Brief Lives. When I reviewed that volume, I mentioned that I hoped to see some continuation on the story presented there, even though I know that’s not really The Sandman’s way. And we do get a few hints, but it’s only enough to tantalize, not enough to really explore any of the revelations made in Brief Lives. Part of me hopes for more in the coming volumes, but it’s hard to say if there’s any likelihood of that happening at this point.