The Sandman #13: Men of Good Fortune

by Neil Gaiman (W.); Michael Zulli (P.); Steve Parkhouse (I.); Robbie Busch (C.) and Todd Klein (L.)

DC/Vertigo

Michael Zulli, 'The Sandman: The Wake', (Retail Poster), 1995

Dream - art by Michael Zulli

Michael Zulli (American,b.1952)

Swamp Thing, 1993

Art by Michael Zulli

Fellow art lovers, we need to talk about this one…

I love Zulli (as many of you might have noticed by now), but this one’s got me stumped. Because we know everything in his art has meaning, up to the tiniest detail.

What am I looking at here? We see the ruins again, which are a recurring theme in Zulli’s work (e.g. in the painting with Dream, Death and Hob. I’ll talk about that one separately soon because I think interpretations have been “retconned” a bit to make it fit what people want to see in the show, instead of looking at the deeper symbolism).

But what are the ruins referencing in this case? And what is he wearing? What time reference/frame are we looking at? Medieval (the sort of over tunic makes one think so)? Why the holes in his trousers?

This one is hovering on that eerie spectrum between court jester and priest garb-wise, and I’m trying to make sense of it. I even thought about archetypes and tarot cards, the Fool and the Hierophant/High Priest specifically. The latter might not be as obvious to some, but as a lapsed Catholic and now resident family heathen, I can’t look at the green/purple overtunic and not see a priest’s stole/chasuble and cincture. Green is for pretty ordinary times, but purple is always lent and passiontide, sacrament of reconciliation and the dead. And the fact there’s also a lot of red in there (Good Friday, all the martyr’s days), but no white unless we count the holes (white would be actual Easter and the resurrection) also makes me think. Quite possibly overthink 🤣

The Fool is always the protagonist of the story (oh, Morpheus would not agree with that, but of course we all know he has his own story, even if he pretends he doesn’t). And he then goes on his journey. And apparently falls apart (ruins and tattered clothes)?

The Hierophant gives me connotations of the balance between law/rules and freedom (many decks even have symbols for that in the actual card). It also makes me think of righteousness, keeping things in order, sometimes captivity.

And all of these make sense in certain ways. As does the sunset/autumnal feel. This one is really, really interesting, and I feel there’s more in there.

What is everyone thinking?

Queen of the Faerie, Titania in Sandman vol 2 #71 art by Michael Zulli

Hi Neil,

I hope you are well :)

I am deathly curious on what the prompt for this illustration was. Is it referencing an existing piece of art? If not, what is the meaning behind the spilling of the wine?

I’m sorry. I know authors like to leave things to interpretation but, omg this is killing me, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Anything you can say about it would mean a lot.

PS: Love your work dearly.

PPS: This is my first time interacting on Tumblr so I’m sorry if I’m breaking any etiquette / doing something wrong.

The lovely thing about Michael Zulli's art is that everything is thought through and everything has a reason. Where they are and why they are there, why it's Death drinking with Hob while Dream pours the wine into a third glass that isn't there, what the ruins behind them symbolise and the cherub-demon statue holding up the table represents. Why Matthew (or an earlier Raven) is on the back of Hob's chair facing away and what the flowers are and what they mean. All those things have meaning.

You would have to ask Michael, though, I'm afraid.

sandman fandom i need your help with something! so quick back story I bought the individual issues of the whole brief lives arc! the thing is this are from an original 1995 run and from an editorial in my country that no longer exists ——>

i realized that in the back of the final issue there’s a collection of illustrations by various sandman artists which is pretty cool! BUT here’s the rub who is this guy???

caption for this is “ aesthetic gentleman” artist unknow mixed media 1889 which leads me to believe that —- this is Hob Gadling???? I’m pretty sure too that this is an illustration by Michael Zulli who did the art for A Men of Good Fortune??? And in so happens that this particular artists loves adding a lot of symbolism for his work and it’s responsible for this two infamous pieces THAT ALSO have flowers/ roses symbolism in them??

Am I crazy? What do you guys think? Does anybody can confirm if this is Hob? I’ve asked other people if their copies of Brief Lives have this illustration but nobody seems to know anything about it!

Michael Zulli

Sandman "The Wake" Daniel Hall by Michael Zulli

Happy 634th Anniversary, Dreamling! 🏳️‍🌈

Alice Cooper The Last Temptation

by Neil Gaiman: Michael Zulli; Bernie Mireault and Todd Klein

Marvel

Daniel - art by Michael Zulli

Death Gallery II

Destiny and Dream—Michael Zulli

Ouch 🥺