From: morrow@fnalo.fnal.gov (Lake Elmo, MN)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
Subject: SANDMAN: Annotation 35
Summary: cuckoo takes command
Keywords: sandman annotation
Date: 10 Oct 92 21:51:39 GMT
Reply-To: morrow@physics.rice.edu
Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc
Organization: Calm Blue Water...and a Muskie the Size of Boise


                         The Annotated Sandman
    
               Edited and largely written by Greg Morrow
      
                Issue 35:  "Beginning to See the Light"
                     Neil Gaiman and Shawn McManus

               Fourth part of storyline _A Game of You_
                  Not yet reprinted in any other form

Disclaimer:  Sandman and all related characters are copyrights and trademarks
of DC Comics Inc.  Sandman and this annotation are intended for mature
audiences only.

Notice:  Commentaries and additional information should go to
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posted by the editor directly to rec.arts.comics and COMICS-L, and is licensed
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from theory.lcs.mit.edu in pub/wald/sandman.  Please contact the editor if you 
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permission of the editor (as agent for the contributors) is forbidden.

Title:  _A Game of You_ clearly refers to the question of identity.  Who and
what the characters in this story are is a question either to the readers or to
the character him, her, or itself, and that is the most important theme the
reader should keep in mind when reading this story.
	This issue has a number of parallels with #32, suggesting an overall
structure for the storyline, similar to what was done with _The Doll's House_.

Page 1 panel 2-3:  The Land is full of fantastic elements, such as the Trees
and the Tweeners, which don't have obvious direct antecedents.

Page 2 panel 1:  Wilkinson is singing an old folk song.  Tipperary is a 
location in Ireland.

Page 3 panel 3:  Barbie's remarks about the Hieromancer are a clue to the
nature of the Land's inhabitants.

Page 4 panel 1:  This was foreshadowed in _Sandman_ #32 page 1.

Page 5 panel 2:  Because the Tantoblin made breakfast, I suspect that his name
comes from the pastry and not the scatological sense of the word.
	Panel 3:  The name "Room Patrol" is reminiscent of DC's comic book
_Doom Patrol_, another title from the "Mature Readers" line 
with a British author and a similar editorial feel to _Sandman_.  
	Panel 6:  Wilkinson's speech here is quite reminiscent of John
Constantine; Wilkinson is probably meant to be an analog to Constantine, given
the similarity in costume and language.  I have not identified a "Swamp Thing"
analog in the Land; that would complete the DC Mature Readers homages in _A
Game of You_.

Page 6 panel 5:  Barbie's face painting was prominently seen in _Sandman_ #32.

Page 7:  The text of the scroll is presumably taken from a specific reference
work on birds which I have not identified.
	Panel 3:  These are evidently the Black Guard alluded to before.
	Panel 5:  There is irony here. 

Page 9 panel 1-4:  This will be explained more fully later.

Page 11 panel 2:  No refs for Gniedrig.  Probably a German or Polish myth.
	Panel 7:  The Land has the surface appearance of a children's fantasy
land, like Oz or (particularly) Narnia.  Wilkinson's remark about "necessaries"
points out, even more than the Tantoblin's grisly form, the entirely different
style of the Land now that Barbie is full grown.

Page 12 panel 3:  This hearkens back to page 9.

Page 13 panel 2:  Note the clawed hand.  Possibly a Tweener?
	Panel 5:  Nobbled:  From context, "torn to little bloody gobbets."
Origin unknown.

Page 14 panel 3:  Barbie refers to J.R.R. Tolkien's _The Hobbit_, a highly
regarded novel.  It is that most rare of beasts, a bridge between juvenile and
adult fantasy, done with extraordinary skill and mythic sense, style, and
scope.

Page 18 panel 2:  "Follow the yellow brick road" were the instructions given to
Dorothy in _The Wizard of Oz_, the first in a long and excellent series of
juvenile fantasy novels (and later made into a execrable movie that 
inexplicably became a "classic").

Page 19:  George attempts to play Wanda in the Game of You, but Wanda refuses.
	Panel 8:  The consequences of bringing the moon closer to the Earth are
pretty severe.  Tides would be higher; weather probably wilder.  Earthquakes
would also be more common.

Page 21 panel 6: 'Nana:  probably banana.
Page 24 panel 3:  This is a big clue to the nature of the inhabitants of the
Land (but somewhat misleading about the nature of the Cuckoo.
-- 
"Love is a grave mental disease."--Plato                                       
"Plato is a bore."--Nietzsche                                                  
"Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal."--Leo Tolstoy                              
"I'm not going to climb into the ring with Tolstoy"--Ernest Hemingway          
"Hemingway was a jerk."--Harold Robbins                                        
  
elmo (morrow@physics.rice.edu,morrow@fnal.fnal.gov)



--
-Hades (Brian V. Hughes) 
   "You know Television has gone to hell when, with every commercial,
	 you find yourself hoping to see the Energizer Bunny."