Recently Graphic Novel has been officially translated and published in Korea. This Thesis is about the graphic novel The Sandman published by DC Comics, which appeared in the U.S. in a series from 1989 to 1996, and was published in Korea in 2009. The ...
Recently Graphic Novel has been officially translated and published in Korea. This Thesis is about the graphic novel The Sandman published by DC Comics, which appeared in the U.S. in a series from 1989 to 1996, and was published in Korea in 2009. The reason for this study began with the curiosity; why The Sandman targeting only adults became widely popular at the time of publishing and acknowledged as a good artwork by the populations even now.
The background of this study relates with the situations that American graphic novels are officially translated and published in Korea, the circumstantial history while The Sandman was published serially, and the reason why Sandman's spin-off was not able to get the same attraction as The Sandman.
Chapter Ⅱ: Neil Gaiman, The Study on Neil Gayman's life and career, and his works published in Korea enables to analyze Neil Gaiman's dispositions, and denotes that he is at post-modernism creating realistic fantasy work of arts.
Chapter III. : Graphic Novel, This study also takes on the comparing differnces between American comics and European ones as well as the history and characteristics of America Comic strips, comics, graphic novels where Neil Gaiman belonged to by 1990's when The Sandman was published.
Chapter IV : The Sandman, The Chapter analyzes The Sandman's characters, storylines, and the sequels of it respectively; Neil Gaiman's original characters and super heroes by DC Comics, the characters in Shakespeare's books, Greek Mythology, Northern European myths, and Western folks.
Chapter V: Characteristics in Style, Expressions, contents, genres are referred. In expressions, the dominant color of the work and costume traits such as the main costume style, punk, gothic punk, and character's make up style are discussed.
In contents, literary theories of Totorov and Kathlyn Hume are applied and analyzed, and the post-modernism world-view widely shown in The Sandman is studied. Also based on Heri Theory of Jocept Campbell, Sacrificing attitude of Superman, America's super hero, and Morpheus, Sandman's main character's behavior are compared and analyzed. In content of mixture, Morpheus's characteristic existence is discussed using Frued's unconsciousness theory and Jung's psycho-analysis approach related with dream theory. Also the characters of Morpheus's Endless brothers are analyzed by Lacan‘s desire theory.
In genres, Post Modernism is generally referred in The Sandman; The Bible, Lost Paradise, Shakespeare's book, Greek and Roman Mythologies, Egyptian Mythology, North European Myths, Folk Stories, Lovecraft's Cthulhu Myths are shown. The Sandman could be concluded as the first Dark Fantasy of graphic novel 'for adults', which is over the limit of graphic novel. In detail, a serial killer character, who plays an important role in violent and sexual item, is identified in this thesis and especially Morpheus's brother, Death is intensely discussed.
The conclusion of this thesis is as follows; The Sandman's popularity is based on the Post-modernism world view, which contains and mixes many myths, folk stories, and legends etc., its harmony with characters and plot, life frustrations and sacrifices, and the content of metaphorical message of resurrection, appropriate distribution of social issues targeting adults such as violent, sexual, gender items. Those characteristics make The Sandman even still a great comic work.