On Friday, to celebrate the release of The Sandman TV series on Netflix, we asked you to name your favorite story from the original comic book. In first place with a whopping 26.7 percent of the vote was ‘Season of Mists‘ (issues #21-28), comprising the fourth trade paperback, featuring art by Kelley Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Matt Wagner, and many more. Essentially the beginning of the comic’s second act, the story sees Lucifer abdicate the throne of Hell, and give their key to Dream, who then has to contend with representatives of different pantheons that want the realm. Destiny, Delirium, Loki, and even the Dead Boy Detectives make their debut here, in a huge story that makes the scope of Neil Gaiman’s ambition abundantly clear. If you’ve been following our 2022 Summer Comics Binge of the series, we’ll be starting our dive into this arc this week.
In second place, we have a tie between ‘The Sound of Her Wings‘ (issue #8) and ‘Men of Good Fortune‘ (#13), which each received 11.1 percent of the vote. These stories, which respectively introduce Death and Hob Gadling, were beautifully adapted into the sixth episode of the TV show. In third place, strangely enough, we have a three-way tie between Charles Vess’s award-winning ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘ (#19), P. Craig Russell’s ‘Ramadan‘ (#50), and the climax of the series, ‘The Kindly Ones‘ (#57-69), which each gained 8.9 percent. It’s clear, other than ‘Season of Mists,’ how difficult it is to determine a definitive ranking of the stories in “The Sandman,” a testament to the overall brilliance of the comic.
Hopefully we won’t have to wait long to see ‘Season of Mists’ get dramatized in the show’s second season. In the meantime, check back on Friday for our next Reader Poll!
