The Sandman: A Game of You

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A Game of You (1993) is the fifth collection of issues in the DC Comics series, The Sandman. Written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Shawn McManus, Colleen Doran, Bryan Talbot, George Pratt, Stan Woch and Dick Giordano, and lettered by Todd Klein.

The issues in the collection first appeared in 1991 and 1992. The collection first appeared in paperback and hardback in 1993.

The central theme of this storyline is identity and the part imagination plays in shaping it. Barbie, a minor character from The Doll's House, has recently divorced and is trying to rediscover her own identity. At the same time, Barbie's rich but childish fantasy world is threatened by a malevolent creature called the Cuckoo. Her hard-pressed imaginary friends reach out into the real world for help, resulting in blood and death in both worlds.

Gaiman often characterises Sandman stories as "male" or "female"; A Game of You, dominated by female characters and points of view, is one of his female stories. This volume divides the fans: some find it challenging or alienating while others see it as perceptive and rewarding. Of all the long story arcs in The Sandman, A Game of You is the most peripheral to the over-arching plot.

This fifth collection continues the story of some of the characters of the second, The Doll's House, and is closely linked with the ninth, The Kindly Ones.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The central character of A Game of You is Barbie, who was originally introduced a resident of the house where Rose Walker stayed during the events of The Doll's House. In that earlier storyline, Barbie was seen having a vivid dream in which she was a princess in a fantasy realm. But as A Game of You opens, we find a drastically changed Barbie who no longer dreams.

Barbie now lives in an apartment block inhabited by her best friend Wanda, a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual; the lesbian couple Hazel and Foxglove; the witch Thessaly; and a quiet man named George. Martin Tenbones, a huge dog-like creature who was seen briefly in The Doll's House, somehow manages to escape into the waking world. He is able to find Barbie and give her the Porpentine, a quartz amulet, but not before being gunned down by the police. Barbie is confronted with the reality of the fantasy land she used to visit in her dreams. Using the Porpentine, she is able to dream her way back to that place, known simply as the Land.

The Land appears to have been based on classic children's fantasy elements—most obviously the Chronicles of Narnia. It is a realm populated by intelligent talking beasts living in picture-book locales. But the Land now faces a threat from the mysterious villain known as the Cuckoo, whom Princess Barbie is called on to defeat. Upon returning to the Land she is greeted by Wilkinson the shrew, Prinado the monkey, and Luz the dodo—her allies in the quest.

Back in New York, George, a servant of the Cuckoo, magically releases a flock of birds that give nightmares to the other apartment residents. Only Thessaly is immune, and she soon traces the source and kills George. Barbie's friends find her in a coma-like state from which she will not wake.

Thessaly uses George's remains to divine the threat from the Cuckoo. After drawing down the moon, Thessaly, Hazel and Foxglove travel to The Land to help Barbie, leaving Wanda with the unconscious Barbie and the George's still-animate head. Thessaly's magic has serious consequences as a freak storm rages through the city, costing Wanda her life.

As the story reaches its climax, Barbie discovers that the Cuckoo resembles herself as a child. The Land turns out to be part of The Dreaming; it is the setting of Barbie's childhood dreams, populated with animated images of her stuffed toys. The Cuckoo causes Barbie to break the Porpentine on a monolith, an act that summons Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams and creator of the Land.

This means the end of the Land. All its hundreds of creatures march in one long procession that vanishes into the folds of Dream's cloak in a manner akin to the end of the Chronicles of Narnia. He then takes up the entire Land in the palm of his hand and lets it crumble into nothingness. Dream then grants Barbie a single boon. She asks that she and her friends be returned to New York safe and sound. The Cuckoo is able to escape into another plane. Soon after her return, Barbie heads west to attend Wanda's funeral, where she meets Wanda's God-fearing parents, who were never able to accept their "son" as a woman. They have Wanda buried with a headstone bearing the name she was born with, Alvin Mann, dressed in a suit and with her hair cut. Before she leaves, Barbie uses lipstick to cross out "Alvin" and writes "Wanda" on the headstone. She then dreams of Wanda, with the most perfect female body, and Death, who both wave goodbye to Barbie.

[edit] Issues collected

Issue Title Writer Penciller Inker Colorist Letterer Ast Editor Editor
32 Slaughter on Fifth Avenue Neil Gaiman Shawn McManus Shawn McManus Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Alisa Kwitney Karen Berger
33 Lullabies of Broadway Neil Gaiman Shawn McManus Shawn McManus Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Alisa Kwitney Karen Berger
34 Bad Moon Rising Neil Gaiman Colleen Doran George Pratt & Dick Giordano Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Alisa Kwitney Karen Berger
35 Beginning to See the Light Neil Gaiman Shawn McManus Shawn McManus Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Alisa Kwitney Karen Berger
36 Over the Sea to Sky Neil Gaiman Shawn McManus & Bryan Talbot Shawn McManus & Stan Woch Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Alisa Kwitney Karen Berger
37 I Woke Up and One of Us Was Crying Neil Gaiman Shawn McManus Shawn McManus Daniel Vozzo Todd Klein Alisa Kwitney Karen Berger

[edit] References

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Sandman
The Sandman
Library
1: Preludes and Nocturnes • 2: The Doll's House • 3: Dream Country • 4: Season of Mists • 5: A Game of You • 6: Fables and Reflections • 7: Brief Lives • 8: Worlds' End • 9: The Kindly Ones • 10: The Wake • 11: Endless Nights
from the World of
The Sandman
The Sandman: The Dream Hunters • Death: The High Cost of Living • Death: The Time of Your Life • Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold • The Little Endless Storybook • Death: At Death's Door • Dust Covers–The Collected Sandman Covers 1989-1997 • The Quotable Sandman • The Sandman Companion • The Dreaming • Sandman Midnight Theatre
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