The Dreaming (comics)


The Dreaming is a fictional place, a comic book location in the DC Universe. The Dreaming first appeared in the Sandman vol. 2 #1, and was created by Neil Gaiman and Sam Kieth. The Dreaming is the domain of Dream of the Endless.

Publication history

The Dreaming was a monthly comic series that ran for 60 issues and has since been completely rebooted in 2018. It is set in the same dimension of the DC universe as The Sandman and the stories occurred primarily within Dream's realm, The Dreaming, concentrating on characters who had played minor roles in The Sandman, including The Corinthian, Matthew the raven, Cain and Abel, Lucien the dream librarian, the faerie Nuala, Eve, and Mervyn Pumpkinhead. It also introduced a number of new characters, most notably Echo and a new dream raven, Tethys. There were brief appearances by The Endless during the series, including cameos by Dream, Death, Destiny, and Desire.
The series was initially conceived as an anthology series edited by Vertigo editor Alisa Kwitney, and as such it was written, drawn and inked by a variety of artists. The covers were all painted by former Sandman cover-artist Dave McKean, and Sandmans writer Neil Gaiman acted as creative consultant on the series - having a notional right of refusal on scripts and plotlines and suggesting developments or characters for exploration.
However Gaiman was quick to undo events of The Dreaming comics with the publication of Endless Nights, just one year after The Dreaming ended. Endless Nights ultimately ignored events from The Dreaming, such as the death of Matthew the raven, and later the new Sandman Universe version of The Dreaming would quietly ignore all the events and new characters from the first iteration of The Dreaming.
Kwitney contacted several writers inviting them to submit stories for the new anthology, amongst them Peter Hogan on the basis of his work for British comic 2000 AD. He suggested the story that eventually became "The Lost Boy".
Following the completion of Al Davison's "The Dark Rose" story, The Dreaming underwent a change of direction: it changed from an anthology series to an ongoing series concentrating on a small group of core characters. Kwitney decided that the series needed to develop its own internal continuity, with irregular The Sandman Presents mini-series being introduced to present stories told outside of that continuity. Gaiman explained the need for the change by saying:
Initially, the writing duties on the revamped series were to be shared between Caitlín R. Kiernan and Peter Hogan, who had recently impressed with their stories "Souvenirs" and "Ice" respectively. However, Hogan's increasing commitments with other work and the perceived pre-existing fanbase that Kiernan had brought with her to the title meant that she was offered the position as sole writer from the "Many Mansions" story, despite Kiernan herself admitting that there did not seem to be much crossover between the two readerships. Peter Hogan would be made a semi-regular writer for the series The Sandman Presents by way of compensation.
The series suffered from its ties to the original Sandman series throughout its run, with Kiernan saying "from the start, The Dreaming has been saddled with living up to what Neil Gaiman did with The Sandman. It doesn't take long to get puking sick of hearing 'It's just not the same,' or 'It's not as good as The Sandman,' or 'Why is it so much darker than The Sandman,' or even 'It's almost as good as The Sandman.' I know the comparisons are inevitable, and even logical, but it's been an uphill battle trying to get readers to look at The Dreaming as a series separate from The Sandman, with its own tone and atmosphere and concerns." Kiernan received strong criticism for the direction she took the series in, with commentators placing the blame solely on her.
However, Kiernan found the experience genuinely satisfying - despite the stress and comics not being her first love - and the series continued for 60 issues before being cancelled to focus on the more successful The Sandman Presents and Lucifer series. Kiernan contributed a story to this new post-Dreaming era, the three issue The Sandman Presents: Bast featuring the cat goddess introduced in the Season of Mists storyline.
The Dreaming comics have since undergone a complete reboot, written by Si Spurrier, starting in 2018 as part of the Sandman Universe reboot, celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Sandman. Many of the events in Kiernan's The Dreaming run seem to have been either undone or retconned.

The Domain

The Dreaming is the world where people go to dream, and is a vague, shifting realm of symbol, belief, and imagination. It is named after another name for the Dreamtime, a central concept in Australian Aboriginal mythology.

Inhabitants

Merv Pumpkinhead

Mervyn "Merv" Pumpkinhead is Dream's jaded, street-wise, cigarette-smoking janitor who first appeared in The Sandman #5 in May 1998. While his appearance can vary based on who is viewing him, Merv is generally portrayed as having a pumpkin for a head. His appearance is based on Jack Pumpkinhead, a character in L. Frank Baum's Oz books.
Mervyn's first appearance in The Sandman #5 had him driving a bus, helping to transport Morpheus on his quest. Pumpkinhead later claims this was his job during Morpheus' absence. Merv seems to be in charge of the construction and demolition of the Dreaming, though he often complains that his job is superfluous since Dream can change any of it at will. He takes up arms to fight the Furies in ' and is killed, but he was returned to life by the new Dream in '.
Mervyn also appeared in his own spin-off to The Sandman series called Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of DREAM, published in 2000. In this publication, Merv goes on a James Bond-esque adventure in which he attempts to foil the schemes of a would-be world conqueror, and along the way meets beautiful women and evil villains.

Locations

The Dreaming is vast, and its landscape varies greatly from place to place. Some of the important locations of The Dreaming include:
Two English-language trade paperbacks have been published: