Comic Book References

Many comic books refer only to other comics whereas Neil Gaiman's The Sandman refers to mythology and literature. The in house ad for The Sandman no 1 featured a deliberate misquotation from TS Eliot's The Wasteland.

However, early installments of The Sandman do refer to superhero comics and not always explicitly. Volume 2, The Doll's House, relocates two former members of Roy Thomas' superhero team, Infinity Inc, Hector Hall and Lyta Trevor, aka the Silver Scarab and Fury, into the dream dome of Jack Kirby's version of the Sandman.(Addendum: Apparently, Thomas had already done this.)

Roy Thomas also sought inspiration outside comics. Lyta Trevor/Fury had been the daughter of the Golden Age Wonder Woman, who in turn was powered by the Greek gods, but, when the Crisis on Infinite Earths changed continuity, Lyta's post-Crisis mother, newly created by Thomas, became the Golden Age Fury, powered by the Greek Furies, while Thomas simultaneously replaced the Golden Age Superman with the illegitimate son of the central character in Philip Wylie's Gladiator. Gaiman incorporated Lyta's connection with the Furies into The Sandman, Volume 9, The Kindly Ones.

Thus, Gaiman's The Sandman includes more superhero background material than some of its readers might realize.