The Annotated Sandman Edited and largely written by David Goldfarb Issue 51: "A Tale of Two Cities" [Note: no official title is given; I am using Gaheris' title for his internal story.] Neil Gaiman, Bryan Talbot, Alec Stevens, Mark Buckingham First story in anthology, "Worlds' End" 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 goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (Internet) or goldfarb@UCBOCF.BITNET. This material is posted by the editor directly to rec.arts.comics, 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 3 panel 8: Not Kansas? Awww... It's worth noting that Buddy Holly (whose music is playing) died in an Iowa field in a snowstorm. In a plane crash rather than a car crash, to be sure. Page 5 panel 4: A hedgehog with very similar speech patterns, named Redlaw, appeared in volume 3 of "The Books of Magic" miniseries. This isn't necessarily the same one, of course. Page 6 panel 5: A "free house" is a pub or inn with no ties to a brewery, as opposed to a "tied house", where the land or pub is owned by the brewery and the publicans are merely tenants. The main difference is that a free house canserve any beer they wish, while a tied house will usually only sell beers produced by the brewery the pub is tied to. In the context of the story, the inn is a free house in that it's tied to no one world or reality stream. panel 6: Abdera: according to Brewer's _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, a Thracian seaport, proverbial for stupid inhabitants although it produced several noted philosophers. No refs on the particular story. The name Menton may be a reference to Minneapolis-area guitarist and vocalist Todd Menton, who certainly either knows Gaiman or knows friends of his. Page 7 panel 3: Webster's dictionary defines "chirurgeon" simply as an archaic synonym of "surgeon". Page 8 panel 1: As we will learn, the travelers in this inn tell stories. This is Brant's, although not one that follows traditional narrative style. panel 5: In Greek myth, the centaur Chiron taught medicine to Asklepios, who went on to become the patron demigod of doctors. His credentials as a physician are thus fairly impressive. He also served as Herakles' childhood tutor. Page 9 panel 4: The man with the beer stein at left foreground is wearing a distinctive hat, the same worn by noted fantasy writer (and friend of Gaiman's) Steven Brust. Neil Gaiman confirms that it's meant as a cameo. panel 6: There was a knight of the Round Table named Gaheris, brother to Gawaine. Panel 7: By Charles Dickens, of course. Page 11 panel 6: Compare 36:23:4 and 37:19:2-4. Page 20 panel 7: Given that the restaurants are always closed, I can't help wondering what Robert is finding to eat. His beard is growing, so he's not somehow exempted from normal bodily functions. Page 22: Odd that whenever two real people meet, one of them immediately returns to the real city. Coincidence, perhaps. Page 23: Another inn, in which other tales are told; Robert's story turns out to be a story-within-a-story. Release history: Version 1.0 released 29 Apr 94. Version 2.0 released 5 Mar 94. Version 3.0 released 30 May 94. Credits: Greg "elmo" Morrow (morrow@physics.rice.edu) created the Sandman annotations, forwarded much useful commentary on "World's End", and helped reference Chiron the centaur. D. W. James (vnend@princeton.edu) suggested that Todd Menton somehow found his way to the inn of World's End, and noted Steven Brust. Lance "Squiddie" Smith (lsmith@cs.umn.edu) noted the Buddy Holly connection, and corrected "Worlds'" vs. "World's". He also explicated the term "free house" and noted Steven Brust's appearance.