The ensuing uproar at the awards ceremony and the umbrage that many took at a mere comic book winning instead of a standard-print story resulted in the rules of the awards being changed. Henceforth, no comic book could be nominated, much less win. Like the people at the World Fantasy Awards in 1991, most of us would not think that a comic book could reside on the same level of artistic creativity as a paintings, epic novels, poems or concertos. For the comic to have been selected, by a panel of blue-ribboned experts, no less, surely there has to be something in The Sandman to render it worthy of the honour of receiving the award. For us to understand what it was about The Sandman that caused such a reaction, indeed, such fear, we have to know what, in the first place, a comic is.
Comics rely on a combination of words and pictures to bring across a message, to tell a story.
To even use the medium is an exercise in creativity itself. The possible combinations of text and pictures are endless, and to create a coherent meaning and consistent tone of narrative from the manipulation of text boxes, word and thought balloons, panels and artwork is no easy task and require a strong mastery of the medium. Neil Gaiman is one such master. It has been recognised as a groundbreaking title in comics. The story of how a god-like being, the personification of dreams and ruler of the realm where we spend a third of our lives, comes to question his past actions, the consequences of this questioning, and other incidents in his existence have engaged imaginations in more ways than one.