HORROR COMICS 299
streetwise, cynical, manipulative, chain-smoking rogue whose charm can dilute his less
attractive qualities.
DC’s success with horror titles continued with Gaiman’s Sandman series, which
began in 1989. It had a strong current of horror in the opening arc of stories, and the
series would return to the genre at various times throughout its 75-issue run. It would
also focus on myth, legend, and history. Gaiman’s childhood interest in comics were
reignited in his 20s by Moore’s work on Swamp Th ing. He wrote a letter of apprecia-
tion to Moore, and included a copy of Ghastly Beyond Belief , a collection of humorous
quotations from science fi ction novels he had edited with Kim Newman. Th is led to a
friendship between the two writers. Moore showed Gaiman how to write a comic book
script, and Gaiman began to submit scripts in addition to his journalism work. He later
submitted a proposal for a new version of the Sandman character to DC Comics, which
became a major title for the company and led to widespread mainstream success beyond
comics fandom.
Th e fi rst issue tells the story of Roderick Burgess (created in the style of real-world
occultist Aleister Crowley), who tries to invoke and capture Death in a magic ritual. Th e
spell is not completely successful as Dream (or Morpheus, the Sandman of the title) is
captured instead, and imprisoned by Burgess for 70 years. Morpheus escapes, returns
to his realm of dreaming, and begins a quest to retrieve special items in which he had
imbued part of his power, as this had allowed him to conduct his duties more effi ciently.
As a part of this quest, which takes place over the fi rst few issues of the title, Morpheus
encounters a number of situations which fi t well within the horror genre: he discover
that Cain and Abel, the hosts of DC Comics’ horror anthology titles The House of
Secrets and Th e House of Mystery , are a part of the dreaming (issue #2); he meets John
Constantine, an important horror character, and retrieves a pouch of magical sand (#3);
he goes to Hell to recover his helmet (#4); he visits a diner where the clients are being
manipulated into conducting horrifi c acts (#6). Another early highlight was the serial
killers’ convention issue (#14). Th e title was also instrumental is helping to establish
the Vertigo line of books, an imprint within DC Comics that included pre-existing and
newly commissioned titles containing content deemed to be more suitable for a mature
audience. DC’s horror titles suited the aims of the new line, which led to Swamp Th ing
and Hellblazer joining Vertigo.
Another Vertigo book, Preacher , was written by Irish writer Ennis and British artist
Dillon. It ran for 66 issues and 5 specials between 1995 and 2000. It remains in print in
a series of 9 trade paperbacks, with a 10th containing Glenn Fabry’s cover illustrations.
Th e series tells the story of Jesse Custer, the eponymous preacher, who is suff ering a
crisis of faith when he becomes possessed by a creature who is the off spring of an angel
and a demon called Genesis. It grants him the ability to force others to do what he tells
them to. In his search to call God to account he is accompanied by Tulip O’Hare, an
ex-girlfriend, and Cassidy, an Irish vampire.
Ennis and Dillon combine overt horror conventions, like Cassidy’s vampirism, with
other genre conventions: there is a respectful take on the We s t e r n achieved through the
