Gaiman is a god and Sandman is wonderful. The story gets better and better, especially as it pulls away from DC comics and creates its own universe. The first book is peppered with DC comics characters but not so much after that, and wait'll you meet Death! Best character ever! This is the first comic to win a Hugo? Nebula? some award that before that only went to actual books. I came into it with issue 19 and never regretted spending a small fortune (pre ebay days, so hard to find, too) on the previous 18.

Gaiman also created the best Lucifer ever who was spun off into his own 75 issue comic.