The Annotated Sandman

              Edited by Ralf Hildebrandt and largely written by David Goldfarb

                                 Issue 52

       Neil Gaiman, John Watkiss, Bryan Talbot, Mark Buckingham

	      Second story in the anthology "Worlds' End"

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 tonsilitis. 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: "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". 
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 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 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: That tower doesn't look like it has as much room upstairs
as was shown on page 21...
An inconsistency: on page 21 panel 9, the Psychopomp & Cluracan go *down* 
into the room, via a hole in the floor; yet here, the Psychopomp is 
falling out of a window at the *top* of a building.

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".
	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.