Why do you like SANDMAN? THIS is why we like Sandman!
Approximately a year and a half in to writing The Sandman, writer Neil Gaiman really hits his stride. The four single issue stories, collectively referred to as the Dream Country issues, usher in the richest and most prolific phase of Gaiman's career. The first of the quartet is 'Calliope' the story of a blocked writer who derives inspiration from the muse Calliope, who he keeps locked in his attic.
Like a lot of Gaiman's writing, there is an eternal quality here, looping back on literature that has come before. There are echoes of Homer and Cicero here, as well as the kind of Faustian motifs Gaiman likes to evoke. But also it loops back on The Sandman itself in a kind retelling of the very first issue. Again, we return to England where, in the furtive darkness, a man arrives on the doorstep of a wealthy personage with a powerful arcane object. Again we discover that an immortal being of great power has been bound by a mortal for nearly a century in a power grab. In lesser hands this might seem clichéd and repetitious, but not here.
Of course, Oneiros (Dream) is eventually prevailed upon to intervene on the muse's behalf (who we learn is yet another of Dream's former lovers). And we see how dark and vengeful Oneiros' can actually be.
This is an issue that stands the test of time and helps define the comic book medium as another one of the great art forms - deserving of it's own muse.