Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The good news is DC is giving us access to another 1940's hero. Since I was a kid I have heard of the Simon and Kirby Sandman, but could not find (or afford) these comics. DC a couple of years ago did an archive edition of the Sandman (see Golden Age Sandman Archives, I recommend it too), but it did not get as far as the Simon and Kirby years. I am glad to see these stories. The stories are written OK for being 1940's material. If you're new to 1940 comics you will find the stories in this comic era are generally are not as well plotted or well written as the stories of today. Sometimes older comic stories are almost not readable. As I stated the readability of the Sandman stories here are OK.
The problem with this book is the art. It is neither a recreate or reprint scan of the original work. Recreated art has an artist interpret the original work. Depending on the artist doing this (or their contract, example Disney has strict guidelines for reconstruction of color with their old comics to capture the original visual impact) it may or may not be very accurate. Reprint scans do minor cleaning up of the art, but may not be very pretty to look at because of the primitive printing technology used and the deterioration the comics have suffered over time.
DC has used a hybrid scan approach with Sandman. Generally the yellow text boxes have been retouched (example page 19 and 20) in the book. Also the Sandman's yellow uniform in some places looks as its been retouched too, see page 19 and 20 again. The color where it has been retouched is smooth and continuous. The other art in the book is generally muddy and you can see the original printer dots.
What surprised me was how bad the art in the last story was. This story is from 1974. The colors are muddy and you see printer color dots galore. I compared this with the Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus volumes (which I recommend as great set of books). These comics were drawn around the same time as the last Sandman story. The color in the Omnibus books is crisp and the art has been fully reconstructed in these books. The Sandman's last story art is especially disappointing when you compare it to the Omnibuses.
Likely the art approach used in the Sandman was done to visually improve the art and also save money by only doing a partial recreation of the art. The bad thing is this hybrid art scan approach creates art that is now a 21st century interpretation of the 1940's work. You are not getting the impact of the original art work! Well at least the stories were not rewritten.
DC needs to clean up their act when publishing older comics (e.g. don't blame the book's restorer, Rick Keene, for the mess. He has done great jobs in the past, like the DC Archive series. He was likely contracted by DC to do the Sandman book this way). DC has brazenly published a string of badly restored comics in the last year; examples Starman Archives 2, Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore, and now the Sandman. DC - where has your focus on publishing quality gone?
DC you're lucky to get two stars here...
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Sandman by Kirby and SimonDC Comics continues its series of Jack Kirby titles with a volume collecting this 1940s super-hero series for the first time ever.In 1942, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon began a remarkable run of stories for DC Comics that included The Sandman, featured in the pages of ADVENTURE COMICS. Leaving behind his trademark green suit, fedora and gas mask, The Sandman became a brightly costumed adventurer, on the trail of crime in the big city with the help of his sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy.With a strong element of the fantastic in the form of haunted dreams and foes claiming to be figures of myth, these stories were the kind of fast-paced, slam-bang adventures that made Kirby and Simon famous.
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