Hello Dreamers,

Before I dive into the next issue of our journey through The Sandman, I need to do a little bit of housekeeping. As those of you who are also subscribed to The Creative Cure will already know, I will replace my corresponding newsletter podcasts with article-native readouts. You can read all about it here.

I am a writer and connect most with the written word, and for those of you who need accessibility features or prefer a readout version of this newsletter: that can be provided via Substack without massive effort. I will upload the readout to today’s article to all the usual podcast platforms so people who are following there will also get notice (they will already get the auto-generated readout), but from issue #7 onwards, Shadow Truths will stay entirely Substack-native, and the readouts will only be available here. So if you are happening to listen to this on your favourite podcast platform: All the details are in the show notes for you.

With that out of the road, let's finally delve into an in-depth exploration of “24 Hours”. I have to warn you straightaway: If you are reading along for the first time (or if you intend to watch the corresponding Netflix episode), this one isn’t for the faint at heart, and you will need to buckle up for a journey through terror, madness, and dark desires. This isn’t just any comic book issue; it’s a journey through a day that you wouldn’t want to experience in real life, and you maybe want to leave the lights on when you read it. To say it in Neil Gaiman’s own words:

“Sandman 6 was the first time I tried to break all the rules of what had been done in comics to date, to go as far as I could go. In that story, a small bunch of people are essentially tortured to death over a twenty-four-hour period. A lot of readers said they stopped buying Sandman after issue 6 and didn't come back for ages, until they were told it was safe.”

—The Sandman Companion, by Hy Bender