The Annotated Sandman

               Edited by Ralf Hildebrandt and largely written by Greg Morrow

                                Issue 27
             Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, and Dick Giordano

                       Season of Mists Chapter 5

                     In which the vexing question
             of the sovereignty of Hell is finally settled,
                     to the satisfaction of some;
                   the finer points of hospitality;
                    and in which it is demonstrated
                       that while some may fall,
                          others are pushed.

                  Not yet reprinted in any other form

Page 1 panel 2:  It is assumed that the reader recognizes the significant
characters, and recalls the significant events, of this storyline.
	Panel 3:  Seneferu is the founder of the 4th Dynasty of Egypt, the
father of Cheops.  This dynasty is remembered primarily for building the great
pyramids of Egypt.  A number of folktales about these god-kings exist;
interested readers are invited to look in M. Lichtheim's _Ancient Egyptian
Literature_, vol. 1, and Simpson, Faulkner and Wente's _Literature of Ancient
Egypt_.  [Note the inventive titles!]

Page 2 panel 4:  Bast claimed to know the exact whereabouts of the Prodigal
Endless.
	Panel 6:  We saw the bloke in the pointy hat and the faceless guy
briefly last issue.  According to _Wonder Woman_, the Greek gods have forsaken
this plane for another, unknown destination, although similar circumstances
did not prevent the folk of Faerie from sending representatives.

Page 3 panel 1:  "Veratyr" is an appelation for Odin meaning "Lord of Men".
Kvasir is a dwarf, who was referenced in the annotation to _Sandman_ #24.

Page 4-5:  This is a two page splash panel spread.  Note the cherubs spreading
the tarpaulin.  Beyond those figures gathered below that we have already seen,
we may note a figure in a fur cloak and wooden mask, possibly African; a figure
in Greco-Roman armor, who resembles _Wonder Woman_'s depiction of the Greek god
Ares, and who may therefore be the Roman god Mars; an American Indian in
chief's headdress; and a serpent-headed being of unknown provenance.  The
pictures and designs on the ceiling do not appear to have any obvious
significance.  Note that the armored figure may be the same figure that
appeared briefly in the previous issue.

Page 6 panel 1:  Thor has a hangover, which has manifested itself as a storm
cloud above his head in deference to his nature as God of Thunder.
	Panel 4:  Note that, unsurprisingly, Dream does not sleep.

Page 9:  The flip panel effect of Dream and Duma is somewhat odd, since Duma
apparently disappears from panels 2 and 3.  I reconstruct the sequence as
follows:
	Panel 1:  Duma floating above and to the right of Dream, his feet about
30" above the level of Dream's hair.
	Panel 2:  Pan down, so that only Dream is visible.  (Note that the
scale actually suggests that Duma's toes should be visible at the upper
boundary of the panel.)  Dream and Duma have not moved.  Perspective is skewed,
since we do not get a different view of Remiel.
	Panel 3:  Pan further down.  Dream is almost entirely visible.  Our
view of Remiel still has not changed.
	Panel 4:  Camera still, but Duma dropping very quickly.
	Panel 5:  Duma lands.  Note that Remiel has rebelled, thus condemning
him to Hell, a nice piece of irony on the Creator's part.  (That's a pun, boy,
couldn't find your nose if'n it wasn't screwed on :-)  [Note for Bill Sherman:
Creator = creator, Neil Gaiman]  There is no indication that Remiel has landed.

Page 10:  Remiel's speech on this page is a swipe of a speech preached upon the
Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, the sequence in the Bible where
Jesus asks his father if he may avoid the suffering that he will face in the
next day.  "Let this burden pass" and the cup metaphor are exactly taken from
that soliloquy.

Page 11 panel 1:  Thor's joke depends on a lisp, a speech impediment in which a
person pronounces /s/ and /z/ like an unvoiced and voiced /th/ sound.
  	Panel 3:  In the primary Norse myths, Niddhogg was a nasty serpent or
dragon that lived in Hel's domain and spent its days gnawing at one of the
roots of Yggdrasil, the World Ash.  Nidhogg (also spelled Nidhoggr, Nithogg)
is described as a flying, corpse-eating dragon in other accounts.  His name
means "Hateful".

Page 15 panel 4:  "Got the balls" is an idiom for "courageous enough".  "Balls"
is, of course, slang for testicles.  This sounds odd coming from a demon.

Page 19 panel 4:  Did anyone _not_ see this conclusion coming from a couple of
light-years away?

Page 20 panel 1:  The skull in Dream's souvenir chest is that of the
Corinthian, from _The Doll's House_. Note the penny:  There is a giant penny
in Batman's Batcave,  a souvenir of one of his early cases, although it is
unlikely that Dream would have a copy.
 says:
The city in a bottle is indeed Baghdad ("Ramadan") and the pocketwatch 
belongs to Prez ("The Golden Boy", world's end #5), as seen on page 24,
panel 2.  Its history is given in the preceding few pages.
There is also a tankard shown.  Perhaps this is the tankard Dream first
drank from when meeting Hob Gadling?

Page 22 panel 8:  Loki's remark will be expounded upon next issue.

Page 24 panel 2:  Matthew's remark has ominous reverberations.

Contributors include:
	Bill "Peach Melba" Sherman, , corrected my New
Testament recollections, recalled a point of similarity between Faerie and
Olympus, and hadn't seen the revised edition of 24, which explains Kvasir.  He
also spotted the Corinthian's skull amongst other treasures.
	Mark A Biggar (mab%wdl39@wdl1.wdl.loral.com) also corrected my New
Testament scholarship.
	Glenn Carnagey  identified
Seneferu.
	dennis c hwang  referenced Nidhogg.
	Michael Bowman  checked Veratyr,
Niddhogg, and corrected one of my page numbers.
	Jim W Lai  spotted a previous appearance of
Faceless, Thor's headache, and the Corinthian's skull.