The issues in the collection first appeared in 1993, 1994 and 1995. The collection first appeared in paperback and hardback in 1996.
Marc Hempel is the primary penciller, inked variously by himself, D'Israeli and Richard Case. He is relieved at different points in the story by Teddy Kristiansen, Glyn Dillon and Dean Ormston, and Charles Vess draws a story within a story sequence. Kevin Nowlan draws a short story which originally appeared in a Vertigo promo book.
The Kindly Ones belongs with the second collection, The Doll's House, and the seventh, Brief Lives, in that it finishes off a story that mostly originated in these collections; but includes elements of Season of Mists and the story of Orpheus, told mostly in Fables and Reflections. A character from A Game of You, which also has its roots in The Doll's House, also appears. The most structurally ambitious of the collections, The Kindly Ones is a single storyline written as a Greek tragedy, with Morpheus as its doomed hero and an aspect of the triad of witches, the Erinyes, as the Greek chorus. It pulls together various threads left dangling throughout the series, notably the grudges against Morpheus of several characters: Hippolyta Hall; the witches themselves; the Norse god Loki; and the witch Thessaly. The Kindly Ones also continues several other stories, including that of Cluracan of Faerie and his sister Nuala; that of the Corinthian; and that of Rose Walker and her former landlord Hal.
After Daniel is kidnapped by Loki and Robin Goodfellow, his mother Lyta convinces herself that Morpheus has killed him and resolves to destroy Morpheus where she finally persuades the Three to do so. In many places, Lyta is depicted as Medusa, and even encounters Medusa's two sisters, Stheno and Euryale. Unbeknownst to Lyta, Daniel is recovered alive and well by Morpheus's servants, the raven Matthew and a restored Corinthian who does not act like his predecessor. After Loki's eyes were eaten by the Corinthian, Odin and List of The Sandman characters#Thor have Loki placed back in his imprisonment as Lyta is unable to call off the Three's attack. In a misunderstanding of tragic proportions, the Three's Erinyes aspects continually accuse Dream of having killed his son where they also kill Mervyn Pumpkinhead, Abudah, Fiddler's Green, Abel, and the Griffin member of the Gate Keepers. While this is not true in Daniel's case, it is true in the case of Orpheus which weighs on Dream greatly. At length, Dream yields to the Erinyes only for his sister Death to stop the Erinyes. The main story ends with Dream and his sister Death on a desolate peak with a flock of pigeons; echoing a sequence from one of the series' early high points, "The Sound of her Wings" (issue #8). Death asks for Dream's hand and he disappears. Immediately upon the death of Dream, Daniel becomes a new aspect of Dream with white clothes, white hair, and an emerald suspended on his neck and chest.
Issues collected
Issue
Title
Writer
Penciller
Inker
Colorist
Letterer
Ast Editor
Editor
Vertigo Jam #1
The Castle
Neil Gaiman
Kevin Nowlan
Kevin Nowlan
Daniel Vozzo
Kevin Nowlan
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
57
The Kindly Ones - 1
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
Marc Hempel
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
58
The Kindly Ones - 2
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
D'Israeli
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
59
The Kindly Ones - 3
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
D'Israeli
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
60
The Kindly Ones - 4
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
D'Israeli
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
61
The Kindly Ones - 5
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
Marc Hempel / D'Israeli
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
62
The Kindly Ones - 6
Neil Gaiman
Glyn Dillon / Charles Vess / Dean Ormston
Glyn Dillon / Charles Vess / D'Israeli
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
63
The Kindly Ones - 7
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
Marc Hempel
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
64
The Kindly Ones - 8
Neil Gaiman
Teddy Kristiansen
Teddy Kristiansen
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
65
The Kindly Ones - 9
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
Richard Case
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
66
The Kindly Ones - 10
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
Richard Case
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
67
The Kindly Ones - 11
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
Richard Case
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
68
The Kindly Ones - 12
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel / Richard Case
Richard Case
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
69
The Kindly Ones - 13
Neil Gaiman
Marc Hempel
Marc Hempel
Daniel Vozzo
Todd Klein
Shelly Roeberg
Karen Berger
Reception
Steve Faragher reviewed Sandman: The Kindly Ones for Arcane magazine, rating it a 9 out of 10 overall.[2] Faragher comments that "This is still one of the greatest tales ever told in a graphic novel and is essential reading for anyone who wants to try and tell believable and yet fantastical episodic stories. Gaiman is a master of his craft."[2]
