The Annotated Sandman Edited and largely written by Greg Morrow Issue 16: "Lost Hearts" Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcolm Jones III Seventh part of long storyline _The Doll's House_ Ninth story reprinted in trade paperback _The Doll's House_ Disclaimer: Sandman and all related characters are copyrights and trademarks of DC Comics Inc. Sandman and this annotation are intended for mature audiences only. Notice: Commentaries and additional information should go to morrow@fnal.fnal.gov (Internet) or morrow@fnal.BITNET. This material is posted by the editor directly to rec.arts.comics and COMICS-L, and is licensed to appear on Compu$erve and GEnie. It is also available via anonymous ftp from theory.lcs.mit.edu in pub/wald/sandman. Please contact the editor if you see this material on any other forum. Reproduction in any form without permission of the editor (as agent for the contributors) is forbidden. Page 4 panel 6: An unusual case of anthropomorphism, for a _place_ to become a _person_. Page 5 panel 1: Dream's assertion that vortices are mortals directly contradicts Lucien's assumption, issue ten page 14, that the vortex was an "it", a thing. Panel 5: I suppose I should start keeping a "Canonical list of Sandman danglers". This would obviously be one. Page 9 panel 5: We need not worry that Fiddler's Green was the historical G.K. Chesterton, as here he says he was not even a "very good _copy_ of a human" [emphasis his]. Page 13 panel 2: Dream is not very bright, indeed. He has great knowledge, born of age and, perhaps, his status, but he is not even as capable of insight as a human. Page 17 Panel 3: That's an Iggy Pop CD on the bottom of the panel, _The Idiot_. Neil mentions that Lou Reed's _Berlin_ didn't make it into the panel. Panel 4-5: Barbie's life will be more fully explored in a later storyline. Panel 6: Two books have readable titles: _Empire of the Senseless_ and _Sleeping in Flame_. "Sleeping in Flame" is by Jonathon Carroll, an American writer often writing from Vienna who writes surreal, fantastic, and often horrific fiction. This particular book is a modern retelling of the Rumpleskiltskin fairy tale. Carroll has a reputation for using dreams or fictions becoming reality, and it is rumored that Neil Gaiman had to rework the plot of _The Doll's House_ after reading a Carroll book that used his original idea. _Empire of the Senseless_ was written by Kathy Acker in 1988. Perhaps coincidentally, she dedicates the book to her tattooist. It is described as a postmodern novel, and "not a pretty story." Neil indicates that Shirley Jackson's _We Have Always Lived in the Castle_ and M.R. James' _Ghost Stories of an Antiquary_ were in the script but didn't make it into the panel. He notes that this should help people identify Zelda's short story extract from _Sandman_ #15 and the title of this issue. Page 18 panel 2-3: We saw Judy, and the massacre, in _Sandman_ #6. We will see Donna in a later storyline. Panel 6: A presumably genuine photo of G.K. Chesterton, who was the inspiration for "Gilbert". Note the signature at lower left. Page 19 panel 1 (right caption): Talking about dolls probably relates to the title of this storyline. Panel 2: Note Rose's namesake tattoo. Panel 7: "And then she woke up" is the conclusion to, among other things, _Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland_ and the movie [blech!] version of _The Wizard of Oz_. Page 20 panel 6: A fox's "set" is hunter's jargon for a den. It is therefore unusual for Jed to use it. Page 21 panel 5: Note that Desire's sigil is different from issue ten, and that the order of sigils is peculiar (Desire to the left of Death). Page 22 panel 1: Desire's costume is in many ways reminiscent of Catwoman's, a villain of Batman's. However, felinity often seems to have an erotic effect, and that may be its purpose here. Panel 7: Another of the unspoken rules that govern the Endless, apparently. Disaster of some sort would strike were Dream to slay kin of the Endless. We saw a possible hint to this in _Sandman_ #10, where Rose is warned of the "Kindly Ones", and a later issue also uses the Eumenides as a threat. Page 23 panel 4: Delirium is the name of the Endless whose sigil is the swirly one to the right of Despair's on issue 10 page 4. Contributors include: Col. G. L. Sicherman (gls@cbnewsh.cb.att.com) defined "set." David Goldfarb (goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu), Viktor Haag , and Jim W Lai (jwtlai@watcgl.waterloo.edu) combined to identify Rose's reading material. Neil Gaiman, via Tanaqui C. Weaver (cen@vax.oxford.ac.uk) expanded on material in Rose's room. David Goldfarb (goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu) speculated on the nature of an Endless disaster.