Neil Gaiman

thenightling:

I notice there’s been some debate about the Lucien question on tonight’s episode of Jeopardy because Trebek referred to Lucien as having “Become head Librarian of The Dreaming” in “this one word comic title.”   Needless to say the show is clearly ignoring “The” from The Sandman to refer to it as one word.  But the biggest debate among fans is about Lucien “becoming head librarian of The Dreaming.”   I’ve seen people arguing that it’s because Lucien was once a raven (which, in canon, is true) or saying the question is out right wrong. And it occurred to me.  A lot of you don’t know Lucien’s retconned origin.

Before Neil Gaiman said Lucien was a Raven who became the head librarian of The Dreaming Lucien already existed.   In the 1960s and 1970s DC had a lot of horror anthology comics.  Cain hosted The House of Mystery, Abel Hosted The House of Secrets, Eve was a host, so was Destiny.  The three witches (the Hecatae) were the hosts of “The Witching Hour” (hence “The Witching Hour” name drop in issue 2), and Lucien was the host of “Tales of Ghost Castle.”  Even “The Fashion Thing” who was originally called “The mad mod witch” was a horror host.

The reason issue 2 is called “imperfect hosts” is because it’s a pun.  Nearly all the characters introduced in issue 2 of The Sandman are former horror anthology comic hosts.   For a DC horror fan it’s like getting to issue two and finding out Morpheus’ minion consist of The Crypt Keeper, The Vault Keeper, The Old Witch, The Creep from Creepshow, and maybe Peter Vincent from the original Fright Night for good measure.  There are also homages to the artwork of the late Bernie Wrightson such as the small panel of Abel lighting his finger like a candle, that’s from a cover of The House of Secrets drawn by Bernie Wrightson.   

As Matthew began as a Swamp Thing character (Swamp Thing was also created by Bernie Wrightson, by the way), Cain, Abel, Eve, Destiny, The three witches (Hecatae) and The Mad Mod Witch (Fashion Thing), were all horror hosts.       

In Writing The Sandman Neil Gaiman retconned Tales of Ghost Castle into being what Lucien was doing while Morpheus was gone, so he didn’t entirely erase it.   Ghost Castle became the Castle of The Dreaming.  And Lucien was now (as of The Sandman) Librarian of The Dreaming.   Also in the Tales of Ghost Castle Lucien had a pet werewolf named Rover.  There is a little nod to this in issue 38 of The Sandman and Morpheus quips about Lucien’s newfound habit of “bringing home strays.”