Death: The High Cost of Living

Rating:
Summary: Death Takes a (Working) Holiday
Review: Meet Sexton Furnival. Sexton is a well-spoken, intelligent lad, whose best friend is the mute, wheelchair-bound kid in the apartment down the corridor from he and his mother's (an unfortunately not quite burned-out hippie) and a dead ringer for Kurt Cobain (both physically and in attitude). Here's what Sexton isn't: in love with anyone, or hating anyone. In other words, his life ain't feeling particularly Hollywood right now. He doesn't feel the point to Life. So, in typical short-sighted 90's-youth fashion, he's going to take his own life. In a garbage dump, of all places. And for his trouble, he gets pinned under a fridge.

Enter his savior, a young gal by the name of Didi, who we (being the faithful fans of Gaiman's Sandman that I know we all are) instantly recognize as the one and only Death of the Endless, looking slightly less pale, more chipper (if that's possible) and a little younger (about 16) than usual. She's spending her one day-per-century as an orphaned

girl living alone in NYC. Sexton takes the information in stride. ("Uh... right. So. I suppose you must do a lot of drugs.")

Problems ensue, of course. Mad Hettie, who has popped up in Sandman (Preludes & Nocturnes, for the uninitiated), holds Sexton at gunpoint (well... pointy broken wine bottlepoint), demanding that Didi go off and fetch her heart for her. She's hidden it, you see, and forgotten where she left it. And a chap by the name of "The Eremite" is after Death's signature ankh she wears about her neck.

Here's what Death: The High Cost of Living isn't:

Plot-heavy. All the better for it. Both plots sort of fizzle, but in good ways. This story's not about would-be masters of life and death (that plot ends with Eremite being kicked out of a restaurant by the owner) or an old woman getting her heart back (but a sweet moment it is indeed); it's about a kid regaining interest in Going On.

It isn't Hollywood, and all the melodrama which that word summons up. What there ARE, are lots of Gaiman moments. Understated, fleeting, quiet, human moments that make you fall in love with bit characters. Especially in the sequence at The Undercut club. Foxglove sings a ditty about that poor Judy girl who died in the aforementioned Sandman vol.1 and Hazel, her very-pregnant lover, who relates the pain of nicotine-withdrawal during pregnancy. Theo, the thuggish, unsuccessfully double-crossing acolyte of the Eremite, meets with a bitter end, but his passing shows us more about Death's passion for life than anyone knew. My favorite is the anonymous soul at Undercut, who relates her "friend's" brush with childhood sexual abuse and subsequent attempted suicide to Sexton, only to have him give her the brush-off. Sexton and Didi shine together, whether locked in a warehouse, playfully tossing around a Russian doll; perusing the merits of hot dogs' chemical aftertaste; or discussing her Day in the Life by a water fountain in Central Park.

(I could be wrong, but isn't that the same one that Dream was sitting in, feeding the pigeons, when Death first walked into our unsuspecting lives in Sandman #8? Really need to brush up on my New York geography.)

It isn't an "R-rated" human-misery-fest. It's amazingly very PG-13. Let's check the key words again, shall we? Death. Suicide. Sex abuse. But aside from very occasional cursing and one instance some barely "on-camera" violence, this is something that anyone can pick up. It's one of the few Vertigo books I own I'd feel 100 percent confident my family would read and love. Bachalo's cartoony/sketchy art is expressive, magic and real. At a lean 100 or so pages, this is really a direct book. It's got a story to tell, and it tells it, unlike some volumes of The Sandman. (Though it does tie into the second Death mini, Time of Your Life, but that's neither here nor there, as I've not read it.) If "It's a Wonderful Life" had been made in comic form, in 1993, this is what it would be (and who wouldn't take a Winona Ryder look-alike over Clarence, the second-rate... sorry, second-class angel any day of the week?).

Oh, and there's a couple o' neat supplementary tidbits: Tori Amos' introduction, Tom Peyer's text piece on the history of the character Death, and, of course, the "Death Talks About Life" six-pager illustrated by Dave McKean, which gives frank information about AIDS, condom instructions and how life is a sexually-transmitted disease. Useful stuff, that.

So. In a sentence: one of my personal favorite of Gaiman's works, and I hope yours too. Pick it up and feel glad to be alive.

Rating:
Summary: Death becomes mortal for a day.
Review: This is arguably one of the best comic book stories ever written. A must read for any fans of Neil Gaiman and his Sandman comic book series.Originally appearing in three separate issues with the same title, "High Cost of Living" follows Death as she spends a day as a mortal. Along with her is Sexton Furnival, a boy who is filled with depression and hopelessness. He is a perfect compliment to the perky and smiley Death. Together they venture on a search through a big city for a lost heart. However, this is more than just a day-in-the-life story. It presents everyday life, and everyday activities, as something fun, exciting and worth living for. In essence, it shows just how precious life is -- all of life, the good parts and the bad parts.

Rating:
Summary: Quality industrial-strength, sub-plots by the pound
Review: Neil Gaiman truly is the consummate storyteller able to weave first-class storylines and memorable characters seemingly at the drop of a hat. In this 3-chapter collection, Gaiman expands on his epochal Sandman universe by focusing on the Dreamlord's fetching younger sister - Death. Those who already follow the Sandman series are already familiar with this sassed-up, Goth personification of Death and will surely be remiss not to indulge in this graphic treat. Those completely new to the Sandman saga will still be able to dive straight into the story without missing a beat, enjoying the full brunt of Gaiman's genius.

The strangest thing about this volume is a 6 page, Public Service Announcement of sorts found at the very end. In this PSA, Death gives a full blown lecture on safe-sex, AIDS, and even gives a demonstration of proper condom insertion utilizing a banana! A bit weird, no doubt and in the end very much dates this book as somewhat of a relic from the mid-90's.

Rating:
Summary: A very special Death.
Review: After becoming one of the most beloved of the Endless family of characters from the incredible Sandman comic series, Death finally gets her own special 3 comic series. Neil Gaiman has created possibly one of the greatest concepts in modern literature...the idea that Death is not a robe-wrapped skeleton waving a scythe around, but a young, beautiful, endlessly perky Goth girl just wanting to have fun while she reaps her harvest of souls.

In this adventure, however, Death is not out to take a soul but to save one. In The High Cost of Living she guides a young, potential suicide case around Manhattan. She's partly on a quest to find an old witch's heart, but mostly she's out to show her escort that life is just too damn interesting to throw away.

Gaiman yet again gives us a fantastic morality tale that meanders around seemingly aimlessly but hits its intended targets with awesome laser-like accuracy. An absolute must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Could Death really be this bovinely mindless?
Review: The story begins in an alley where Mad Hattie is searching for her heart, and quickly moves to an urban apartment where fifteen year old Sexton Furnival lives with his "slightly off" mother Sylvia, an aging Earth Mother type.

Sexton is sitting at his computer typing out his suicide note when his mother obliviously sends him out for the afternoon because she has taken the day off to spring clean their apartment. When he literally falls into a garbage dump, he meets a cute and saucy Goth girl named Didi, not knowing that she is Death walking in flesh for a day. She takes Sexton back to her apartment to mend her torn jeans, and now the story begins its long slide downhill.

Mad Hattie confronts Death and threatens to cut off Sexton's nose if Didi (Death) does not go out to find her missing heart. So Didi and Sexton set off into the city at night, to have some fun and search for Mad Hattie's heart. And unexplained thread unravels as Didi (Death) continually is offered free goods by kind people. I didn't get it, and Gaimen never explained it. They go into a "hot" club (for free), and once inside with them, we are subjected to some extremely cheesy lyrics sung by lesbian acoustical guitarist.

Outside the club, a strange blind man and his minion do unexplained things to find Didi in the club, and when the minion lures them out, Death follows as bovinely as a cow does into the slaughtering pens. It gets worse. Once Sexton and Didi are trapped in the cellar, the story becomes even more aimless, filled with pointless conversations which all build up to a ridiculous and anticlimactic ending.

For me, Death lost her charm as Didi when she became so naively helpless and stupifyingly frivolous in her actions and speech. I was interested in Death presented as a charming Goth girl, but I expected her to have more power, more intelligence, more drive, and something more to say. Oh, and I have never met a Goth girl who babbled like a Valley girl...another disappointment.

To top off my disgust, this unsatisfying story is followed by a brutally inane short in which Didi (Death) lectures us on condom usage. I never thought that I would be subjected to a cartoon character putting a condom onto a cartoon banana, but it happened and I shudder every time I think of it.

I love stories of Death, and if you do too, I would caution you to glance through this particular graphic novel in the bookstore before laying your hard earned cash down on the table. This was very disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Not the usual Sandman-esque story
Review: This story follows Death after she rescues a teenage boy with a strange name. A very old homeless lady tells Death to find the heart she hid, but can't remember where it was placed. Death and the boy go to various places, and Death gets to experience the life of a human for a day. One of my favorite graphic novels. You don't have to be familiar with the Sandman books too well either, unless you want to know about some of the characters that also show up in this book. It's a fun book to read and Death is quirky as always and true-to-character.

Rating:
Summary: Ruining a Perfectly Good Mystery
Review: I have to complain about this one. I'm sorry. I love Neil Gaiman. He's brilliant. He's created some of the best comic books and short stories I've ever read. He screwed this up royally.

Death is one of his most inspired creations, especially in "The Sound of Wings," which is possibly his best single issue ever. In most of her other appearances, she is lacking a certain something that she had in "The Sound of Wings." A little bit of a spark, if you will. This spark did return in "Death: The High Cost of Living," providing it with what may be it's only redeeming feature.

The basic problem with this book is that it spoiled a perfectly good mystery. Early on in "The Sandman" the idea was brought up that once a century Death takes on mortal flesh. Fine. Good. Nice idea. We didn't need to know any more than that though. As Gaiman delights in saying, the part about a mystery that's remembered is the mystery, not the solution. This was a spectacular little gem that deserved to be kept exactly that way: a little mystery that never gets explained.

Instead, however, we are treated to a painfully long three issues in which Gaiman expounds upon the nature of Death and the ways in which she works. Now I'm not saying that it's a bad character he creates: it's quite a nice character. But why can't it be more like Delerium, a character I find much more interesting, where we can clearly see she's fascinating, but we don't get the full explanation on why she's the way she is? Instead of this, Gaiman shows us the strings behind the puppets. He shows us how Death becomes mortal, how she acts, what she does, and, most infuriatingly, we get glimpses into why.

This is not to say it wasn't a good story. It was a great little story with some truly inspired scenes. The problem with it is that it's end purpose was to explain a lot of things that shouldn't have been explained.

Rating:
Summary: Good, not great
Review: Death is the most lovable character of the Endless and this book just helps flesh that aspect out some more. Yet it isn't quite as good as it could've been. The main problem with it does not lie with her, but rather with the supporting cast and the "plot," if you could call it that, regarding the ankh and the blind man. This makes it seemed like a rather rushed work because while there is a lot of exposition regarding Death, it still feels as if there isn't *quite* enough and there is never a peak or climax of sorts to the conflict at hand. I guess to conclude, The High Cost of Living is not the most serious or well written tale you'll read from Gaiman and I guess was expecting that coming in from Sandman - compared to that this is, well, rather light-hearted - but it does make a short and interesting read at the comic shop.

Rating:
Summary: A perfect introduction and a great, great read
Review: It's been said so many times in so many different introductions and reviews, but it remains true: Neil Gaiman is the king of dreams. With deft and subtle touches his work lifts you out of ordinary life and into a world where Great Things Happen, imagination-sparking things. In Death: The High Cost Of Living there are no supreheros in spandex, no ultrapowerful weapons, just hi-fidelity characters that catch tantilizing glimpses of magic just beneath the surface; it is one fun and fulfilling comic, best read by those who haven't yet encountered the classic Sandman series (knowing more about the character of Death spoils some of the tasty ambiguity, in my opinion), and a perfect introduction to Neil Gaiman and Comix-as-literature in general.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent graphic novel.
Review: I used to read "Sandman", in its early days. I thought Death was a pretty cool character (if a trifle over-imitated by Gothling chicks). There are several incarnations of Death as imagined by people -- one of them is the well-known "skeletal guy with the scythe". Another is the "Gay Deceiver", which is more how I see this Death -- handsome, personable, approachable. Gaiman, who has shown himself to have an exquisite handling of leitmotifs, does his usual good job here. The story is well-told, with few false notes.

The story is simple and does not assume any previous knowledge of "Sandman". Didi, a Gothling, saves the teenaged Sexton's life when he figures out at the last second that he really doesn't want to die. Though Didi's existence is quite explainable (she has neighbors who know her, and photos of her family in her apartment), she claims to be only a few hours old -- and she says she is the incarnation of Death. Sexton, a cynical grunger, doesn't believe it at all, but he ends up hanging around anyway. Didi has a lust for life and all sensations it holds, from the good taste of food to the pleasure of "a really good party". She also has major problems in the form of a few supernatural folks looking for her, including a creepy old mage looking for her ankh necklace (thinking that she puts her power into it, like Dream did his toys), and a British bag lady who's lost her heart and thinks Didi can find it. After 24 hours, Didi dies, having changed Sexton's outlook permanently. He never knows if she is what she claimed.

It is a sweet story, with none of the superhero bombast pervading comics today. Death has a nice day out and shows a very human side of her personality. When she dies, she whispers "No. Please." She doesn't want to die. She doesn't want to leave this magical, wonderful life she's tasted so briefly. But that, she is told, is what gives life its value. Her conversation with her alter ego, after her death, is what made the whole story for me.

The art isn't bad, but it has a clumsy, blocky feel to it that detracted some from the story. I also thought the ending insert, a b/w piece featuring Death talking about AIDS, had shoddy art and poor movement -- it looked like a fanfic piece. But these both take second place behind an excellent story and a likable heroine.