The king is dead. Long live the king.

Like most fables, the story begins with a wager between two jealous animals, a fox and a badger: which of them can drive a young monk from his solitary temple? The winner will make the temple into a new fox or badger home. But as the fox adopts the form of a woman to woo the monk from his hermitage, she falls in love with him. Meanwhile, in far away Kyoto, the wealthy Master of Yin-Yang, the onmyoji, is plagued by his fears and seeks tranquility in his command of sorcery. He learns of the monk and his inner peace; he dispatches demons to plague the monk in his dreams and eventually kill him to bring his peace to the onmyoji. The fox overhears the demons on their way to the monk and begins her struggle to save the man whom at first she so envied.

Dream Hunters is a beautiful package... this book has been crafted for a sensuous reading experience. Gaiman has developed as a prose stylist in the last several years with novels and stories such as Neverwhere and Stardust, and his narrative rings with a sense of timelessness and magic that gently sustains this adult fairy tale. The only disappointment here is that the book is so brief. One could imagine this creative team being even better suited to a longer story of more epic proportions. On the final page of Dream Hunters, in fact, Amano suggest that he will collaborate further with Mr. Gaiman in the future. Readers of Dream Hunters will hope that Amano's dream comes true.

From a review by Cliff Biggers and Brett Brooks in the November 1999 Comic Shop News
(reprinted with permission)--

The Sandman Companion isn't a comic book -- but it's a book that no Sandman reader is going to want to be without. Hy Bender has assembled the most comprehensive series of interviews, behind-the-scenes insights, factoids, and juicy tidbits that any Sandman fan could desire. Every Sandman series, every artist, every significant character is discussed here. No matter how familiar you are with Neil Gaiman's creation, you'll find things that you didn't know; and I guarantee that before you're finished, you'll be pulling your Sandman collections from the shelves and looking up a story here, seeing it in a new way.

I loved the interviews; Neil Gaiman makes the creation of each story arc almost as fascinating as the stories themselves. However, the parts I enjoyed the most were the factoids, the little shards of information that bring new light to the series. I'd never heard the story about Dave McKean's experience with Death on an airplane, for example; nor had I ever been consciously aware of the rat motif in Bryan Talbot's work until I read about it here.

Too many publishers put together a hastily-assembled compilation of sketch pages, maps, charts, brief interviews, mainstream articles & photos and pass it off as a "companion." Hy Bender has raised the bar by producing a book that deserves a place on the shelf right next to the Sandman tales themselves....Wonderfully done.

*****

From the Companion's back cover--

• This insider's look at the creation of a comics classic includes--
• Comments from noted authors and celebrities including Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison, Samuel R. Delany, Tori Amos, Alan Moore, and others.
• Rare and never-before-seen illustrations, including a special 16-page color section.
• Origins of the Endless and other prominent Sandman characters.
• Story-by-story explorations of Sandman, with a special focus on the World Fantasy Award-winning tale "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
• Analysis of Sandman's use of symbolism, historical and mythical figures, and other literary devices.