Issue 74: "Exiles"

Neil Gaiman, Jon J Muth

• Standalone Story
• Fifth story reprinted in trade paperback The Wake

This story is similar to #39, Soft Places.

Cover: The cover seems to have a lot in common with the "Vertigo Tarot" images, in particular the Two of Cups. It's got the dark, almost earthen-looking frame, and the theme of reversibility. The final version of the Cup 2 has two nude torsos. This cover also has the fossil seashell image in it that shows up in the Tarot quite often. On the other hand, it's in warm colors where the Two of Cups is blue -- perhaps this reflects the desert that dominates the story inside.

The writing on the frame is Chinese. The glyph in the circle at the top seems to be a "chop", or several characters representing a name, sometimes used as the equivalent of a signature. The next one down is not a Chinese character but a picture of a flower against some mountains; perhaps this is meant to symbolize the White Lotus. The next means "older brother", and the next two mean "magic".

The smaller characters in red and white further in are upside-down.

The characters in white are Japanese rather than Chinese, as they include hiragana. They're hard to read.

The large lettering on the two tables seems to be Japanese rather than Chinese, and in a calligraphic style meant more for ornament than legibility. The smaller characters on the upper table (in shadow) are definitely Japanese, but mirror-reversed for some reason. Also at the lower right of the frame is a small scrap of paper with Japanese writing, perhaps from a newspaper.

Page 3#

• Panel 2

  The Nan Shan mountains are the northeastern most boundary of the plateau of Tibet.

Page 4#

• The White Lotus was a Buddhist sect that appealed to the lowerclasses. It's known to have existed as early as the 13th century C.E.The "White Lotus Rebellion" lasted from 1796 to 1804.

Page 5#

• Panel 1

  According to report, this incident is based on something that happened to Gaiman himself.

• Panel 4

  No refs on whether there really was or is a town called Wei in western China. The Western Wei was a Chinese Dynasty, although the region involved doesn't appear to have a town of that name.

Page 6#

• Panel 5

  In Chinese and Japanese mythology foxes are considered spiritual beings with magic powers.

Page 14#

• Panel 2

  Morpheus refers to 39:21.1 -- the story "Soft Places".

  The young man was Marco Polo.

Page 15#

• Panel 1

  No refs on this story. The parallel with Dream and Orpheus is pretty obvious.

Page 16#

• Panel 2

  P'eng Tsu was a scholar reputed to have lived from the 12th to the 2nd century BCE. (Or perhaps from the 2nd century BCE to the 8th CE. My source is unclear.) He is to the Chinese the proverbial long-lived man, much as Methuselah is in the West.

Page 18#

• Panel 6

  A famous line from a Japanese poem reads, "As I crossed the bridge of dreams". In that poem the bridge represents death or a vision of death. Master Li has previously met with a Dream who is now dead; now he crosses to the realm of the one who lives.

Page 19#

• Panels 1-4

  These horsemen were also seen in #39. However, these men appear to be Roman soldiers, whereas the Soft Places horsemen where dressed as Mongols.

• Panel 4:

  "I must smash the emerald." This is a reflection of #7, where John Dee crushes Dream's Ruby.

Page 21#

• Panel 4

  "Tools can be the subtlest of traps" is quoted from the text piece from the "Doll's House" collection. Morpheus said he would never have thought of destroying his ruby (7:20.4); but this Dream, wiser, knows from the start that someday he must dispense with his greatest tool.

Page 23#

• Panel 5

  Note that Master Li's cry when he wakes is the same syllable as the laughing mechanical sailor from page 17.

Credits

• Greg "elmo" Morrow (morrow@physics.rice.edu) created the Sandman Annotations.
• Originally collated and edited by David Goldfarb.
• Anthony Rickey (pemb0004@sable.ox.ac.uk) referenced the bridge of dreams.
• Jerry Lee (wrenstar@leland.Stanford.EDU) commented on the Chinese on the cover.
• Ian McDowell (ikmcdowe@hamlet.uncg.edu) reported on Gaiman and the kitten.
• Ralf Hildebrandt added the observation on page 19, and the connection with #39
• Richard Munn added the possible Western Wei reference.

Last modified by Richard Munn on 2023-08-15 - Updated issue inclusion blocks, adding extra trades, and audible/netflix episodes
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