Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium Two!

As with the first volume of the Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium, these stories deal with the established Golden Age hero but transform him into an exceedingly mortal Wesley Dodds, living in a gritty urban environment filled with strange crime and bizarre murder. Dodds gets dreams and is forced to act upon those bewildering messages, to find the answers and solve the puzzles those dreams present. He is aided by Dian Belmont, the daughter of the District Attorney and in many ways the center of many of the stories. All the stories with a few exceptions are transmitted in four-issue arcs (with an exception at the end), giving the creators a good expansive canvas to spin their creepy yarns. All the stories are written by the team of Matt Wagner and Steven Seagle or by Seagle alone. The art for most of the arcs is by Guy Davis, unless I indicate otherwise. 

The Mist introduces us not only to Ted Knight, a young inventor from Star City who is eager to showcase his invention before a board of wealthy men including Wesley Dodds, but also introduces a man named Smythe who offers up a device which will dissolve matter. Smythe has made his device available to gangsters for use in order to get funds to refine his creation. He is absorbed by his desire to gain wealth and fame due to the power of his invention. Ultimately the device is turned against him in such a way as to make him inhuman and so he becomes a "super-villain", one destined to confront Starman. 

Phantom of the Fair is set during the famous World's Fair in NYC, the one which showcased a delightful vision of a clean and wonderous future. While those behind the fair's operation want to keep things profitable, they are frustrated by the murders committed on the fairgrounds. The police are frustrated themselves when the directors clean up murder scenes so as to avoid bad publicity. The Sandman pursues the sadistic killer. There is also a subplot of sorts about homosexuality in this story which strikes quite close to Wesley Dodds himself. The Crimson Avenger makes an appearance in this storyline. 

The growing threat of Hitler's war machine in Europe is brought into focus in The Blackhawk, a story which introduces the dashing Janos Prohaska, the Polish air ace who will one day lead the Blackhawks. Janos proves to be quite the lady's man and that is a bit of a problem when it seems he's being set up repeatedly to take the wrap for murder. Wesley Dodds is seeking a way to fund an operation as part of a group led by "Blackhawk", but that too is threatened by the bad publicity of his possible involvement with murder. The art in this one is supplied by Matt Smith. 

The Return of the Scarlet Ghost is likely my favorite of all the Sandman Mystery Theatre story arcs. It fuses the more realistic Sandman stories with the blood and thunder of the pulps and the coming comic book craze. We are treated to versions of The Sandman in both formats with the gold and purple version of the hero fashioned by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby making a several-page appearance, aided by Sandy. The criminal ties of some publishers are explored with devastating results for Dian when she's caught in a bombing of a publisher's office. 

The Crone takes the series into the world of radio, specifically a show which is besieged by a series of murders seemingly committed by an old woman with a deadly needle. Echoes of famous voices come and go as the death count rises, and our list of possible suspects rises. Radio is presented as a mass medium which is reshaping the minds of people in ways unpredictable, and frightening to folks who wish for a world filled with books of great literature. Wesley Dodds gets involved when the radio show needs a sponsor and that gives him access to function as The Sandman as well. 

Spirit of the Season is a short tale in the Vertigo Winter's Edge series which offers up a holiday tale that focuses on Wesley Dodds' Jewish heritage via his late mother. While visiting a temple he is able to stop a brutal robbery. 

The Cannon refers to a Reverend Hawsley, British clergyman who both Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont know as "Bagsby". He is in search of stolen Jewish gold which is being used by the underworld, and fights alongside The Sandman to retrieve it. Michael Lark draws this story which proves to be quite a bloody affair as certain gold coins prove to be tokens which can unleash hell on their "owners". The war overseas is getting hotter and as this storyline showcases, is not something that America will be able to ignore. 

The City offers up something a bit different structurally. Each issue focuses on a single member of the cast and presents their stories during the same two-day period. We first follow Wesley as The Sandman as he solves a brutal slaying involving two barbers. Next, we follow Dian as she heads to Staten Island to solve the mystery of the identity of a famous writer. The third installment follows the butler Humphries as he is forced to travel to Queens in search of his daughter Elsie who has gotten involved with some shady picture making. Finally, we focus on Lieutenant Burke as he investigates a savage mob hit in Brooklyn, where is able to find love as well perhaps. It's fun to read these stories and see how they interlock. 

The Goblin is the final four-issue story in the series and gives us a bizarre individual who steals babies. The story takes us to two orphanages, one seemingly well-managed and the other filled with neglected children. Dian and Elsie are keys to this story as they volunteer to help these forgotten waifs. Of course, "The Goblin" of the story is a complicated individual who is at once dangerous but in his own way well-meaning despite having committed murders. Sandman's intervention might well solve the crimes, but it falls short of fixing a significant social problem. In point of fact, The Sandman is injured early in this story, and he becomes trapped to a degree within his dreams and so is a marginal menace who is not in his right mind. 

In the City of Dreams is a story in the second issue of Vertigo's Winter's Edge drawn by Paul Rivoche contrasts the idealism of a perfect city contrasted with the crimes required to bring its creator the credit he imagines he deserves. 

The Hero is a two-issue story which wraps up the series. In it we are treated to the return of the Crimson Avenger and The Hour-Man. They battle a crazed soldier who is wreaking vengeance on former allies from the first World War. Wesley and Dian decide to leave NYC and travel to Europe to help more directly with those struggling against fascism. A number of relationships are tied up as they prepare for their departure and feel that the city is now safe in the hands of other heroes. 

This is a wonderfully gritty series that captures the pulp flavor while at the same time giving the stories a modern gloss unafraid to touch on serious issues in serious ways. These are flawed people trying to reach out and make contact with others, while at the same time staying true to themselves. Wesley and Dian have a wonderfully rich relationship, filled with erotic pleasure and adult personal interaction. Each is selfish and each is giving. As the series moves along, we also get richer pictures of Humphries, Burke, and Dian's father among many others. This series is highly recommended. 

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Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium One!

For all its popularity, I've never read Sandman from DC...with a few exceptions. I've read the Golden Age stories by Simon and Kirby and the later reboot by that same team. I've read a few of the Golden Age stories by other talents as well. And I've read a few installments of the DC/Vertigo series Sandman Mystery Theatre. I was searching for some variety in the 1990's in my comics reading after years of steady Marvel consumption and found this weird dark comic among many others. It deals with the established Golden Age hero but transforms him into an exceedingly mortal Wesley Dodds, living in a gritty urban environment filled with crime and bizarre murder. Dodds gets dreams and is forced to act upon those bewildering messages, to find the answers and solve the puzzles those dreams present. He is aided by Dian Belmont, the daughter of the District Attorney and in many ways the center of many of the stories. All the stories with a few exceptions are transmitted in four-issue arcs, giving the creators a good expansive canvas to spin their creepy yarns. 

The first four-issue tale is titled The Tarantula and offers up an exceedingly creepy series of murders and tortures committed by a weird, hooded individual. We meet a strange family and realize they are connected in perverse ways to the deaths. It's in this first sequence that we first meet Wesley Dodds, a wealthy man fresh from the Orient who is taking over his recently deceased father's expansive businesses. He's a quiet, even meek man who puts on a gas mask and invades city hall to gather data for his investigations. We meet Dian Belmont, a well-to-do young woman who is seeking not only pleasure but meaning and she and Wesley seem attracted to one another. Also on hand in this first one is police detective Lieutenant Burke, a hard-nosed racist and sexist cop who brings a distinct edge to the storytelling. All the stories in the series were written by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle and drawn by Guy Davis, with some exceptions I will take note of as necessary. 

The Face shifts the action into Chinatown and involves both Dian Belmont and The Sandman with the Tongs. Actually, the villain is a killer who can shift his looks. We learn a great deal about Dian and about her former romances. The art by John Watkiss offers the reader a much more idealized hero than Guy Davis presented. 

The Brute gets The Sandman involved with the boxing game, in particular with a boxer named Ramsey who refuses to take a dive and is forced to flee with his ill daughter to escape the revenge of some mobsters. The titular "Brute" in this story is an enforcer with a particular secret. This story does an excellent job of counterpointing the extreme poverty present in the 30's with the creature comforts of the world both Dian and Wesley inhabit. The art on this sequence was by R.G. Taylor. 

The Vamp focuses on Dian Belmont again, this time her friends. Bodies drained of blood are turning up all over the city and getting to the bottom of this lurid mystery is The Sandman's focus. The repressive social morals of the era are highlighted in a story which gives us a villain who operates as do so many from pain and regret. 

The Scorpion brings the "Wild West" into the urban world of The Sandman. We are treated to a range of characters, from country singers to grasping oil executives. Wesley is pressured to participate in a financial scheme he has grave doubts about, meanwhile as The Sandman he attempts to stop a killer who leaves a scorpion brand and uses scorpion venom to slay his victims. 

The Sandman Mystery Theatre Annual is a treat as we get many chapters focusing on a mugger in Central Park. Each chapter gets a distinctive artist all its own. The talents in this one are John Bolton, David Lloyd, George Pratt, Alex Ross, Peter Snejbjerg, Stefano Gaudiano, as well as regular series artist Guy Davis. 

Dr. Death offers us a killer who uses perverse medical skills to do in his victims. The social ill focused on in this sequence is sexism and the brutality of men to women. These issues are counterpointed nicely by the increasingly complex relationship between Dian and Wesley. 

The Butcher, as the name implies, is to date the most gruesome of the sequences in the series. It is in fact the first of the storylines I followed back in the 90's when I plugged into the series. Burke gets a focus as he attempts to bring to ground a brutal killer who seems to wander the city at will unseen. What he leaves behind is nauseating. The Sandman is up against it when he finally has to confront the killer. 

The Hourman is about exactly what you think it's about. The broader DC Universe is tapped into as Rex "Tick Tock" Tyler debuts in the series as "The Man of the Hour". I've always liked Hourman and it was nifty to see this "origin" story. Tyler is a man who seems to genuinely want to help people with the talents his "Miraclo Pill" has granted him. He is unclear how to do that. He and Sandman do a proper team up and it's great to see. 

The Python closes out this first of two volumes reprinting the series. The Sandman finds himself investigating a strange series of bizarre strangulations, and the search takes him into the world of celebrity and the health industry. Dian for her part becomes integral to the story when she ends up at a remote health farm, one in which clothing is optional. It's all handled with taste. The art for this sequence was produced by Warren Pleece. 

I haven't commented on the covers for these stories. Art and photography are combined by Gavin Wilson for all the covers with the assistance of Richard Bruning on some. These offbeat covers give the series a bizarre but distinctive look. I'm not sure how effective they were, because I likely hesitated originally on the series by judging the book by its covers. I've come to appreciate them more as the years have rolled by. 

More to come in volume two later this month. 

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