By: Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean etc.

Don’t worry: this is nothing to do with Spider-Man 3 or Thomas Haden-Church. This Sandman is the reason that Neil Gaiman became a geek god, with a hugely ambitious and ground-breaking graphic story that's worth getting lost in. To get the lot, you’ll have to pick up nine trade paperbacks or four massive Absolute collections, but there you get the complete story of Dream of the Endless, aka the Sandman, Morpheus, Oneiros, Lord of the Dreaming and any number of other monikers. The series starts with Dream being captured and held by a human magician for 70 years, escaping in the modern day and beginning the long process of reclaiming his kingdom and regaining his powers – only to start to question his eternal place as the personification of Dream as he does so. Sprawling and epic, taking in myths and legends from all over the world, this is intelligent, endlessly twisting and complex, and satisfyingly multi-layered.