Sandman - The Dollhouse

The Doll's House (AKA The Doll's House ) is the second collection of graphic novels of the comic series The Sandman , published by DC Comics . It includes issues 9 through 16. The series was written by Neil Gaiman , illustrated by Mike Dringenberg , Malcolm Jones III , Chris Bachalo , Michael Zulli and Steve Parkhouse , and lettered by Todd Klein .

It was first published as a paperback in 1989 and as a hardcover in 1995. This made it the first Sandman collection to be published and originally included number 8 in the series, "The Rush of Their Wings". When it turned out that the series was popular enough to appear in collections in its entirety , “The Rush of Their Wings” was added to Preludes and Notturni , the story of which it forms the epilogue, and removed from The Doll's House .

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Stories in the Sand ( Tales in the Sand )

It starts with a prologue that takes place in an old African tribe and tells the story of Queen Nada, with whom the dream king falls in love. But when he asks her if she wants to be his queen, she decides against it and he condemns her to hell.

The Doll's House ( The Doll's House )

The real action begins immediately after Dream has been freed and has regained his insignia. He is now busy lifting his empire from the ruins into which it has sunk. To do this, he must recapture four of his dream creatures that fled during his absence.

In the waking world, the young Rose Walker and her mother Miranda Unity Kinkaid meet. She was a victim of the sleeping sickness that circulated while Dream was incarcerated. While she was ill, she was raped without her knowledge and the child was put up for adoption. Now, before she dies, Unity wants to see her daughter Miranda again.

The feeder ( Moving In )

While Miranda stays with Unity in England, Rose returns to look for her brother Jed. She moves into a house where she lives with various strange characters who also appear again in the later stories of the series (for example Barbie from Across the Sea to Heaven ). Gilbert, with whom she befriends, also lives there.

Two of the escaped dream creatures, Brut and Globe, have created a dream world in Jeds Geist, in which Sandman , a character from the DC Comics of the 1970s, also plays a role. Jed, cut off from the real dream world, dreams of catching villains with the superhero Sandman. In reality, however, he is locked in the basement by his foster parents who want to get a state pension. While Rose searches for her brother with the help of a detective, Dream tries to find Brut and Globe, but cannot find them at first because they are in a separate world.

Father, mother, child ... ( Playing House )

Hector, the Sandman, and his wife Lyta are living together in the dream world in Jed's mind when Dream shows up to find Brut and Globe. He destroys the world and everyone involved finds themselves in the basement in which Jed lives. Brut and Globe are punished. Dream lays claim to Lyta's child, he wants to fetch it from the mother at a later date (cf. The Kind ). Jed escapes, but is picked up on the street by the Corinthians, a nightmarish creature from the dream realm that has also made off.

Men with luck and skill ( Men of Good Fortune )

In this mid-book side story, Hob Gadling appears, an unusual 14th century man who refuses to die, a wish that Dream's sister Death grants him as long as he does not wish to die. Hob agreed with Dream to meet in the same pub once every century. During one of the meetings, Dream observes a young - and apparently only moderately talented - playwright named William Shakespeare , with whom he signs a contract. Hob later becomes one of the closed dream's closest friends.

Among collectors ( Collector )

Dream now goes in search of the Corinthians. He is the star guest at a bizarre gathering of serial killers , disguised as a food congress . In the hotel where the meeting is taking place, Rose Walker has also stayed in search of her brother, together with Gilbert, who later turns out to be the last missing dream. When Rose is attacked by one of the serial killers in the hotel, she calls Dream for help. After he has saved her, he sets up the Corinthians and dissolves the "Congress". Meanwhile, Gilbert has found Jed in the trunk of the Corinthian's car.

In the night ( Into the Night )

After being in the hospital with Jed, who is slowly recovering, Rose returns to her apartment. The night everyone is asleep, she discovers that she is able to fuse the dreams of the people in her apartment building together. When she tries to do this with everyone in town, Dream steps in.

Lost heart ( Lost Hearts )

Dream explains to Rose that she is a dream vortex and that he must kill her to protect the dreamers. Otherwise, Rose would wreak havoc on the world. It turns out that Dream's androgynous sibling Desire has all of this planned in advance. Desire is Rose's grandfather because Desire raped the sleeping young Unity Kinkaid. So if Dream killed Rose he would kill a member of his family. But Unity, who would have been the vortex had she not fallen into permanent sleep, takes on the role and dies shortly afterwards. Rose returns to her life and Dream confronts Desire. Angered by the failure of the plan, Desire threatens to cause Dream to shed family blood.