The Sandman, World's End, Vol. 8

Stranded by a reality storm, a group of travellers take refuge at an inn at the end of the world and tell stories to while away the time. There is a story about a city that sleeps, a young sailor who sees a huge sea serpent, a boy who becomes President and a city where the only profession is to bury the dead.

The story about the boy named Prez runs parrallel with the story of Jesus Christ—the naming of the child, the temptation, the miracles, the death—but at the end of the story, readers realise that there is no such thing as a "watchmaker", only the Prince of the World, Boss Smilely. Prez is saved by the King of Dreams and goes to visit other worlds. This idea of a multitude of worlds was also seen in "A Game of You", where an entire world passes away. I am thinking that this may be a cornerstone in Gaiman's philosophy in The Sandman series: this sense of multitude, plurality and diversity. I wonder how this Series will end...

The stories about Necropolis are probably my favourite just because they are so strange. Necropolis is an entire city of people specialising in the burial of the dead. The dead are shipped to this city and the inhabitants dispose of them according to the rituals of the client. After an air burial, the grey-faced people sit down and eat a sandwich and tell a story each, a story that is embedded in the story that a traveller tells in the inn, that is embedded in the story Gaiman tells. Amazing. In fact, one of the storytellers in the burial party tells a story which includes a lady that tells her own story within it. Makes a person as dizzy as running blindfolded in a catacomb.

The last scene in the night time sky is moving in a mysterious way. I still don't know who the funeral procession is for, and I am almost afraid to find out. Time will tell.

[In other news, I read another comic Black Orchid by Dean McKean and Neil Gaiman which I didn't care for at all. I think I'm not a fan of the superhero.]