''The Sandman: The Dream Hunters'' is a novella by English author

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

, illustrated by

Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. He first came into prominence in the late 1960s working on the anime adaptation of ''Speed Racer''. Amano later became ...

, and published by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

under its Vertigo imprint. The story is tangential to ''

The Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

'' comic book series, and can be read without prior knowledge of the main sequence. It won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Illustrated Narrative. The story deals with a love affair between a Buddhist monk and a fox spirit or kitsune. Gaiman's afterword states that it was based on an old Japanese folk tale, drawn from Y. T. Ozaki's '' Old Japanese Fairy Tales'' and retooled to fit in the world of ''The Sandman'', but no such tale is to be found in Ozaki's work. Gaiman has since stated when asked that the story was entirely of his own devising, most recently in the foreword to '' The Sandman: Endless Nights''.

Plot

A fox spirit and a badger (''

tanuki Tanuki may refer to: *Japanese raccoon dog (''Nyctereutes viverrinus'' or ''Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus''), a mammal native to Japan *Bake-danuki, a type of spirit (yōkai) in Japanese mythology that appears in the form of the mammal *A de ...

'') wager that whichever of them drives a Buddhist monk from his temple, can claim the temple as its own. Both of them fail, and the badger flees in disgrace, whereas the fox apologises to the monk, and he allows her to stay in the temple. In a house in Kyoto, a rich '' onmyōji'' is consumed by a nameless fear, and consults three women living at the edge of town. They give him instructions to alleviate this fear; the result is that the aforementioned monk will become trapped in a dream, and his body will sleep continuously until it dies. The fox overhears this from several demons employed by the ''onmyōji'' and consults the King of All Night's Dreaming (who takes the form of an enormous black fox). In the ensuing conversation, the fox plots to capture a ''

baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

'', and herself take the monk's place in the dream. The plan is successful, but the monk is distraught at the fox's condition and leaves his temple to awaken her. Binzuru Harada instructs him on how to find the King of All Night's Dreaming. After a journey through the realm of dreams (during which he encounters the Japanese counterparts of

Fiddler's Green Fiddler's Green is an after-life where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire. In 19th-century English maritime folklore, it was a kind of after-life for sailors who had served at least fifty ye ...

and

Cain and Abel In the biblical Book of Genesis, Cain ''Qayīn'', in pausa ''Qāyīn''; gr, Κάϊν ''Káïn''; ar, قابيل/قايين, Qābīl / Qāyīn and Abel ''Heḇel'', in pausa ''Hāḇel''; gr, Ἅβελ ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hāb� ...

from the ''Sandman'' comics), he arrives at the palace. The gatekeeper, an '' Itsumade'', eventually lets him in. A

raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

, who is the departed spirit of a poet, guides him through it, and he is granted an audience. The King of All Night's Dreaming tells him what the fox had done, and that rescuing her entails the failure of her plan. The monk frees her against her wishes, and the King of All Night's Dreaming allows them a farewell. The monk then takes the fox's place, giving her the advice, "Seek not revenge, but the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

"; but in conversation with the King of All Night's Dreaming, she resolves to seek revenge first. Following the monk's death, the fox tracks down the ''onmyōji'' and seduces him in her human form; then persuades him to destroy his possessions. Therefore, he burns down his house and that of the three women, killing his wife, concubines, and servants in the process. He then returns to the fox, who cajoles him into disrobing, then reverts to her true form and bites one of his eyes. In the realm of dreams, the King of All Night's Dreaming is satisfied by the story, and that everyone involved learned an important lesson. The narration then suggests that the monk and the fox were re-united in the afterlife; but this is purposely ambiguous.

Comic book adaptation

For the 20th anniversary of Sandman, Neil Gaiman announced at Comic-Con 2007 that

P. Craig Russell Philip Craig Russell (born October 30, 1951) is an American comics artist, writer, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. Russell was the first mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay. Biography ...

would illustrate a comic adaptation of the story. ''Sandman: The Dream Hunters'' was released by

under its Vertigo imprint as a four-issue monthly

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

from November 2008 to February 2009, featuring cover art by Yuko Shimizu, Mike Mignola,

Paul Pope Paul Pope (born September 25, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope's tw ...

and Joe Kubert.

Awards

In 2000, it was nominated for the

Hugo Award for Best Related Book The Hugo Award for Best Related Work is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for primarily non-fiction works related to science fiction or fantasy, published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The Hugo Awards have bee ...

and won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Illustrated Narrative.

References

External links