When fans and critics discuss comic book art, they're usually just talking about technical skill and character consistency. Is the character gripping his gun realistically? Are the super hero's muscle groups anatomically correct? Is a figure's height comparable in two different scenes? This is why comic art doesn't often get the same treatment as high art or even other forms of pop art. It's art with a function and it is so often viewed as subordinate to the story written around it in speech bubbles and box narration. Sandman is special in this way. The art in the series, while certainly still in a comic book style, is a lot more varied, expressionistic and overall impressive than you'll find in the average comic. The images tell the story just as much as Neil Gaiman's writing.

The early issues of Sandman, mostly those covered in Preludes and Nocturnes, had a slightly different artistic lineup. Sam Keith began as the series penciler, but a lack of creative chemistry between he and the rest of the staff combined with an "awkwardness" in those first few issues led Keith to quit the project. In stepped then-inker Mike Dringenberg as penciler and a newcomer named Malcolm Jones III took over as inker. This new team proved well-matched for Sandman and together they established the indelible style that brings the series to life.

While the eight issues contained in Preludes and Nocturnes are a nice teaser to get potential readers into Sandman, the series really begins to hit its stride in The Doll's House. The story pulls away from following Dream every step of the way and instead focuses its attention on Rose Walker, the granddaughter of Unity Kinkaid, one of the people to be adversely affected by Dream's imprisonment during most of the 20th century. Rose is a 21-year-old American girl who follows her mother to England after they're contacted by Unity in her final years. While in England, Rose begins to experience interactions with the dream world, a result of her being a "Vortex", a living human who inexplicably becomes the center of the dreaming and potentially the cause of its destruction. This and her search for her long-lost brother Jed puts Rose on a collision course with a few dreams that went AWOL during Morpheus's absence and eventually with Morpheus himself. In The Doll's House we also meet some of the lesser Endless, including Desire and Despair. Desire is a fickle, constantly shifting and deeply irresponsible individual who is depicted in an unmistakable homage to the art of Patrick Nagel.

Aside from Rose's story, The Doll's House deepens its immortal cast through a few stand-alone vignettes, including an ancient African tale of a queen's love affair with Dream and a clever mini-arc about a 14th century Englishman named Hob Gadling whom Death decides to spare from mortality as an experiment. The African fable factors into Rose's story, but Hob's four centuries and counting are more about Dream's personality than anything. It gives us a sense of the scale the Endless experience on a daily basis. To them, individual mortals are both extremely important but ultimately fragile. Dream, Death and the others use their powers to shape humanity, but humans have a way of themselves shaping the Endless with their ability to grow, change and invent.