Issue 52
Neil Gaiman, John Watkiss, Bryan Talbot, Mark Buckingham
- Second story in the anthology, Worlds' End
- Second story reprinted in trade paperback Worlds' End
- Audible Act III Chapter 15
Cover: Note the photograph, which will turn up as next issue's cover, and the vines from last issue's. The covers for "Worlds' End" have layers and multiple references just as the stories inside do.
Page 1#
Panel 2
Necropolis: "city of the dead".
Litharge: lead monoxide -- perhaps a substance used as an embalming agent?
Panel 3
Quinsy: suppurative tonsillitis. Derived from the Greek "kunanche"; as we will see in issue 55, many of the names around Litharge seem to be Greek-derived.
"Spartan quality goatskins": a reference to Trojans, a brand of condom.
Panel 4
Brougham: a type of horse drawn carriage>).
fusty: "smelling of the cask".
Panel 5
The uniformed ape resembles Prinado, a character from the earlier arc "A Game of You". They both also resemble organ grinder's monkeys, of course.
Panel 6
The OED uses several quotations from people named Klaproth: Julius von Klaproth, an 18th century traveler and writer; and Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a chemist after whom some minerals are named.
Page 2#
Panel 2
Cluracan, as longtime Sandman readers will recall, first appeared in the arc "The Season of Mists" -- 26:1, to be precise.
Page 3#
Panel 1
A noble family of Imperial Rome bore the name "Aurelius", derived from aureus meaning "golden". Aurelia is more commonly a girls name, meaning "golden one".
The city of Aurelia seems to be modeled on Rome in a number of ways.
Carnifex: Latin for "executioner" (literally "meat-maker").
The statue on the right resembles a real-life statue (of Apollo? Augustus Caesar? - can't remember). The statue was made, I think, by Michaelangelo.
Page 4#
Panel 5
We can infer that Aurelia's history has been similar to that of Italy; an empire has given way to a collection of city-states.
Page 5#
Panel 1
Nuala was given to Dream as a gift in that same issue #26.
Panel 3
Traditionally, the fair folk cannot bear the touch of cold iron.
Panel 4
"Mab" is a traditional name for the queen of the fay; see for instance Romeo and Juliet, act I scene 4.
Page 6#
Panel 2
No references for the "watter-women", and it's not clear if Duskward is a place or a direction. "Watter" is Scottish dialect for "water".
Panel 3
Scáthach is a legendary Scottish warrior woman in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Although here it appears to be a place.
Page 7#
Panel 1
Psychopomp: a god who directs dead souls to their final resting place. As we will see, the religion of the plains seems to give its head direct power over the afterlives of its followers.
Page 8#
Panel 4
I can't help wondering if this ruler is a gentle poke at Dave Sim in return for his Sandman parody. Like Cerebus, he combines the roles of Prime Minister and Pope; like Cerebus, he taxes heavily and threatens those who disobey with pain in the afterworld. And "Carys" sounds vaguely similar to "Cerebus".
Page 11#
Panel 8
Roman legend had it that the city was founded by twins who became gods: Romulus and Remus.
Page 16#
Panel 4
It's not clear if Nuala's appearance here (more 'fairy' than 'fae') was a mistake by the artist, or was intentional (due to being a dream) - The Audible narration describes her to match how she appeared when we last saw her during Brief lives, wearing the crystal pendant, and makes no mention of her having wings.
Panel 5
Cluracan is now fully clothed, when only 2 panels previously, he was stripped to the waist. Also, is left eye is no longer bruised. In the next panel, Nuala explains to her brother that he is dreaming. No surprises there.
Page 17#
Panel 2
Cluracan's bruised eye is back. Either this was a slip-up, or he's beginning to wake up. (He is fully clothed and unbruised in the next panel, which indicate that he's still dreaming.)
Page 20#
Panel 6
Suddenly, Cluracan's bruised eye has been healed. And all "before the sun [had] set". I'll be charitable, & say that he used some Glamour to cover it up.
Page 24#
Panel 1
There's something weird going on with this tower - on page 21 panel 9, the Psychopomp & Cluracan go down into the tomb, via a hole in the floor; yet here, the Psychopomp is falling out of a window at the top of a building.
Perhaps this is just another sign that the Cluracan isn't a reliable story teller.
Page 25#
Panel 5
The two human characters are old DC fantasy characters named Claw the Unconquered and Stalker the Soulless.
Credits
- Greg "elmo" Morrow (morrow@physics.rice.edu) created the Sandman Annotations and forwarded much useful information regarding "Worlds' End".
- Originally collated and edited by David Goldfarb.
- Kieran Mullen (kieran@cmatter.physics.indiana.edu) searched out references to "litharge" and "Klaproth" in the OED.
- Lance "Squiddie" Smith (lsmith@cs.umn.edu) commented on the cover.
- Abhijit Khale (Abhijit_Khale@transarc.com) identified Claw and Stalker.
- Timothy Hock Seng Tan for Cluracan's bruised eye.
- Ralf Hildebrandt added more details.
- Richard Munn added references for Brougham, expanded on the Aurelia definition, added notes on some of the places Cluracan traveled through, and added more thoughts on the 'impossible' tower at the end of the story.
Last modified by Richard Munn on 2023-09-14 - Added some references
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