I am Kyle's self-indulgence

Brian Cronin's recent feature of a cool Sandman moment on his blog and Henry's response have inspired me to highlight my own favorite moments from Neil Gaiman's legendary series.

Incidentally, this month marks the 20th anniversary of Sandman #1 (and nearly the 10th anniversary of my own discovery of the series).

For those who have not yet heard of it, Sandman is nothing short of the greatest ongoing comic book series of all time (It may be my opinion, but it is not mine alone). Neil Gaiman wrote all 75 issues (plus miscellaneous extras) himself, crafting an intricate mega-novel that took years to complete and changed mainstream comics forever. It's really impossible to overstate the greatness or the importance of this essential work.

I don't even know how many times I've read the series from start to finish, and I am currently reading it yet again, but this time in the shiny new Absolute volumes. There are some great moments in the series that continue to move me even after multiple readings. I have arbitrarily chosen ten to feature here.

The first one chronologically happens to be the same one Brian Cronin featured. It comes in the first Sandman story arc.

In a moment of weakness Dream has been imprisoned on earth and some of the tools that contain his power have been taken from him. Among them is his royal helm, which has fallen into the possession of a demon. In issue #4 Dream travels to Hell to retrieve the helm. The Demon, Chronzon, is not willing to surrender the object willingly, so Dream challenges him to a duel. It's really a battle of wits as each in turn declares himself to be a creature capable of defeating his opponent's most recent incarnation.

Choronzon: I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler.
Dream: I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing.
Choronzon: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.
Dream: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.
Choronzon: I am a snake, spider-devouring, poison-toothed.
Dream: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy footed.
Choronzon: I am an anthrax, butcher, bacterium, warm-life destroying.
Dream: I am a world, space-floating, life nurturing.
Choronzon: I am a nova, all-exploding… planet-cremating.

...which brings us to this page (click on the image for a larger version):

But that's not the end of the story. Choronzon has lost the duel and Dream gets his helm back, but Lucifer offers his own challenge. He asks why he should allow Dream to leave, given that he has no power in Hell. Here is Dream's response:

(By the way, all the images I am using for these posts are from scans of the original comics I downloaded. The production quality of pretty much any collection you now buy is going to look better than these, and the Absolute editions have dramatic improvements in color quality, especially for the early issues)