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Adventure Comics #40 is believed to have been written fi rst. As World War II started,
the Sandman was reworked into a traditionally costumed superhero with a match-
ing sidekick, but as created by artist/writer Bert Christman with probable assistance
from writer Gardner Fox, he stuck to battling ordinary gangsters and thieves. After
a few adventures, he was joined by Dian Belmont, who became his girlfriend. Unlike
many comic book love interests (but like many from the pulps) she was no damsel in
distress but rather the Sandman’s confi dante and partner.
Dodds’ superhero makeover was done by artist Paul Norris and writer Mort
Weisinger, but it was Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s slightly tweaked version soon
afterwards that is most famous. Simon and Kirby gave the Sandman and his new
ward, Sandy the Golden Boy (later recast as the orphaned nephew of the now- absent
Dian), a series of creative adventures involving sleep and dreams. Th ey produced
most of his stories through his last original appearance in Adventure Comics #102.
Along the way Dodds had been a co-founder and member of the Justice Society of
America through most of the war, and made a few appearances in World’s Finest
Comics.
Th e Sandman returned in the Silver Age’s Justice League/Justice Society team-ups,
wearing his original costume. However, he had only minor appearances in JSA revivals
throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Simon and Kirby created a completely dif-
ferent Sandman in the 1970s who never became very popular, but the most important
new Sandman was Neil Gaiman’s incarnation of the character as the embodiment of
“Dream,” beginning in 1989. Gaiman acknowledged the fi rst DC Sandman in his fi rst
issue, and also tied him in with the later Simon/Kirby character. More importantly,
Gaiman’s success led to a revival of the Sandman’s original incarnation in Sandman
Myste r y Th eater, a critically and commercially successful series set in the late 1930’s that
ran for 70 issues. In addition to the expected crime fi ghting, this series further explored
the relationship between Dodds and Belmont, and the former’s ties to dreams. Silver
Age and later stories revealed that Sandy had been accidentally transformed into a “sili-
coid monster,” although his human appearance was later restored. Wesley Dodds and
Dian Belmont had long lives together although they never married. After Dian’s death,
Wesley sacrifi ced himself protecting the newly reincarnated Dr. Fate, transferring his
prophetic dreams to Sandy and leading to the revival of the Justice Society. As Sand,
Sandy became the fi rst chairman of the revived JSA. More recently he has adopted
the name Sandman (no longer exclusively associated with Gaiman’s character) and the
original costume of his mentor, restoring the pulp-infl uenced Sandman to an active
place in the DC universe.
See also: Sandman, Th e (Gaiman)
Henry Andrews
SATIRE. Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose human
vice and fallibility, particularly in a political or social context. Satire has intertwined
