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Neil Gaiman

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Death: The High Cost of Living Paperback – June 1 1994

by Neil Gaiman (Author), Chris Bachalo (Author), Mark Buckingham (Author),

4.7 148 ratings

Part of: Death: The High Cost of Living

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/Neil Gaiman /Dave McKean, Chris Bachalo and /Mark Buckingham, illustrators From the pages of THE SANDMAN LIBRARY Neil Gaiman tells the story of the one day every hundred years when Death, older sister of The Sandman, walks among humans to gain a better understanding of.

From Publishers Weekly

The High Cost of Living is a continuation of Harvey Award-winning fantasy writer Gaiman's series detailing the cosmic duties of a loose family of seven immortals. Not quite Gods, they embody realms of psychic experience: Dream, Desire, Despair, Destiny, Delirium, Destruction and Gaiman's very popular character, Death. Reaper, yes; but Death's not very grim as she goes about her business visiting the just-about-to-die and ushering them into their new existence. In this story she meets Sexton, a teenager contemplating suicide, and they end up searching New York City to find a witch's heart (the old hag hid it centuries ago, it's a witch tradition), so the old girl can hide it again. Up pops the Eremite, an evil wizard type, out to steal Death's mysterious necklace, who makes the usual threats against life and limb. Gaiman has created a character sweetly at odds with her modbid duties; dressed like a Satanic rocker, she's as pretty as a cheerleader and even more upbeat. While Gaiman brings a gritty urban contemporaneity to the fantasy genre, the story also suffers from a TV script-like sensibility--danger-defying quips, the good-hearted overweight black neighbor, melodramatic villain. Nevertheless the combination of wry mystic immortal and MTV slacker produces an engaging chemistry. Top-notch production, and although the illustration is a bit stiff, it's stylishly rendered and very nicely colored. The introduction is by pop singer Tori Amos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Part of Series

Death: The High Cost of Living
Print length

104 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vertigo
Publication date

June 1 1994
Dimensions

17.15 x 0.64 x 26.04 cm
ISBN-10

1563891336
ISBN-13

978-1563891335
See all details

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vertigo (June 1 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 104 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1563891336
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1563891335
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 181 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17.15 x 0.64 x 26.04 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #878,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,113 in Fantasy Graphic Novels (Books)
- #7,015 in DC
- #53,055 in Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 148 ratings

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Neil Gaiman

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Neil Gaiman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including Norse Mythology, Neverwhere, and The Graveyard Book. Among his numerous literary awards are the Newbery and Carnegie medals, and the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner awards. He is a Professor in the Arts at Bard College.

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Sounder36

A companion piece for lovers of Sandman

Reviewed in Canada on March 30, 2019

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I ordered this for my sister, as I have my own copy here at home.
I cannot recommend this book enough for young people, storytellers, and fans of Neil Gaiman.
It is THAT GOOD.
A pleasant surprise the first read, and an old friend, now.

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Adam Noble

Death Takes a (Working) Holiday

Reviewed in Canada on April 24, 2000

Meet Sexton Furnival. Sexton is a well-spoken, intelligent lad, whose best friend is the mute, wheelchair-bound kid in the apartment down the corridor from he and his mother's (an unfortunately not quite burned-out hippie) and a dead ringer for Kurt Cobain (both physically and in attitude). Here's what Sexton isn't: in love with anyone, or hating anyone. In other words, his life ain't feeling particularly Hollywood right now. He doesn't feel the point to Life. So, in typical short-sighted 90's-youth fashion, he's going to take his own life. In a garbage dump, of all places. And for his trouble, he gets pinned under a fridge.
Enter his savior, a young gal by the name of Didi, who we (being the faithful fans of Gaiman's Sandman that I know we all are) instantly recognize as the one and only Death of the Endless, looking slightly less pale, more chipper (if that's possible) and a little younger (about 16) than usual. She's spending her one day-per-century as an orphaned
girl living alone in NYC. Sexton takes the information in stride. ("Uh... right. So. I suppose you must do a lot of drugs.")
Problems ensue, of course. Mad Hettie, who has popped up in Sandman (Preludes & Nocturnes, for the uninitiated), holds Sexton at gunpoint (well... pointy broken wine bottlepoint), demanding that Didi go off and fetch her heart for her. She's hidden it, you see, and forgotten where she left it. And a chap by the name of "The Eremite" is after Death's signature ankh she wears about her neck.
Here's what Death: The High Cost of Living isn't:
Plot-heavy. All the better for it. Both plots sort of fizzle, but in good ways. This story's not about would-be masters of life and death (that plot ends with Eremite being kicked out of a restaurant by the owner) or an old woman getting her heart back (but a sweet moment it is indeed); it's about a kid regaining interest in Going On.
It isn't Hollywood, and all the melodrama which that word summons up. What there ARE, are lots of Gaiman moments. Understated, fleeting, quiet, human moments that make you fall in love with bit characters. Especially in the sequence at The Undercut club. Foxglove sings a ditty about that poor Judy girl who died in the aforementioned Sandman vol.1 and Hazel, her very-pregnant lover, who relates the pain of nicotine-withdrawal during pregnancy. Theo, the thuggish, unsuccessfully double-crossing acolyte of the Eremite, meets with a bitter end, but his passing shows us more about Death's passion for life than anyone knew. My favorite is the anonymous soul at Undercut, who relates her "friend's" brush with childhood sexual abuse and subsequent attempted suicide to Sexton, only to have him give her the brush-off. Sexton and Didi shine together, whether locked in a warehouse, playfully tossing around a Russian doll; perusing the merits of hot dogs' chemical aftertaste; or discussing her Day in the Life by a water fountain in Central Park.
(I could be wrong, but isn't that the same one that Dream was sitting in, feeding the pigeons, when Death first walked into our unsuspecting lives in Sandman #8? Really need to brush up on my New York geography.)
It isn't an "R-rated" human-misery-fest. It's amazingly very PG-13. Let's check the key words again, shall we? Death. Suicide. Sex abuse. But aside from very occasional cursing and one instance some barely "on-camera" violence, this is something that anyone can pick up. It's one of the few Vertigo books I own I'd feel 100 percent confident my family would read and love. Bachalo's cartoony/sketchy art is expressive, magic and real. At a lean 100 or so pages, this is really a direct book. It's got a story to tell, and it tells it, unlike some volumes of The Sandman. (Though it does tie into the second Death mini, Time of Your Life, but that's neither here nor there, as I've not read it.) If "It's a Wonderful Life" had been made in comic form, in 1993, this is what it would be (and who wouldn't take a Winona Ryder look-alike over Clarence, the second-rate... sorry, second-class angel any day of the week?).
Oh, and there's a couple o' neat supplementary tidbits: Tori Amos' introduction, Tom Peyer's text piece on the history of the character Death, and, of course, the "Death Talks About Life" six-pager illustrated by Dave McKean, which gives frank information about AIDS, condom instructions and how life is a sexually-transmitted disease. Useful stuff, that.
So. In a sentence: one of my personal favorite of Gaiman's works, and I hope yours too. Pick it up and feel glad to be alive.

Helpful

The lesser of two evils

An excellent graphic novel.

Reviewed in Canada on August 28, 2002

I used to read "Sandman", in its early days. I thought Death was a pretty cool character (if a trifle over-imitated by Gothling chicks). There are several incarnations of Death as imagined by people -- one of them is the well-known "skeletal guy with the scythe". Another is the "Gay Deceiver", which is more how I see this Death -- handsome, personable, approachable. Gaiman, who has shown himself to have an exquisite handling of leitmotifs, does his usual good job here. The story is well-told, with few false notes.
The story is simple and does not assume any previous knowledge of "Sandman". Didi, a Gothling, saves the teenaged Sexton's life when he figures out at the last second that he really doesn't want to die. Though Didi's existence is quite explainable (she has neighbors who know her, and photos of her family in her apartment), she claims to be only a few hours old -- and she says she is the incarnation of Death. Sexton, a cynical grunger, doesn't believe it at all, but he ends up hanging around anyway. Didi has a lust for life and all sensations it holds, from the good taste of food to the pleasure of "a really good party". She also has major problems in the form of a few supernatural folks looking for her, including a creepy old mage looking for her ankh necklace (thinking that she puts her power into it, like Dream did his toys), and a British bag lady who's lost her heart and thinks Didi can find it. After 24 hours, Didi dies, having changed Sexton's outlook permanently. He never knows if she is what she claimed.
It is a sweet story, with none of the superhero bombast pervading comics today. Death has a nice day out and shows a very human side of her personality. When she dies, she whispers "No. Please." She doesn't want to die. She doesn't want to leave this magical, wonderful life she's tasted so briefly. But that, she is told, is what gives life its value. Her conversation with her alter ego, after her death, is what made the whole story for me.
The art isn't bad, but it has a clumsy, blocky feel to it that detracted some from the story. I also thought the ending insert, a b/w piece featuring Death talking about AIDS, had shoddy art and poor movement -- it looked like a fanfic piece. But these both take second place behind an excellent story and a likable heroine.

One person found this helpful

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Daitokuji31

Death is a Sweetheart

Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2001

First off, I very rarely read American\British comic books, I tend to read Japanese manga, so it is really something for me to be reading this book in the first place. Second I have not read The Sandman series, so my entire knowledge of the series is picked up from conversations and articles. However, let me say that I love the two death books. This volume tells the story of Sexton Furnival, a 16 year old boy who has decided to kill himself. Whether he is really serious about killing himself, or if he is just mad at the world is left up for the reader to decide. On the day he decides to go kill himself, Sexton goes to a garbage dump, and the trash he was standing on collapses and his legs are caught beneath the debris. Luckily for him a cute goth girl comes along and helps him. She says her name is Didi. Didi of course is Dream's older sister Death. Death is a bubbly petite thing who decides to take Sexton out for a night on the town. They run into some interesting characters, including a 250 year old witch, a crazed blind man who has dark magical powers, a lesbian chef whose girlfriend is performing her first gig that night. Really good stuff. Death will touch your heart. Her over all sweetness might be corny at sometimes, but it will win you over in the end.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Zaida Delflor

Nice story

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2021

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I thought I got the wrong book but after google search it was correct book. I really liked it.

Javier Eduardo

Buena compra

Reviewed in Mexico on October 21, 2018

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Tardo bastante en llegar pero esta en buenas condiciones

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SusanoWo

One of the best comic books of all time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2013

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A fantastic side dish to the Eternals story in Gaiman's Sandman. It can be read as a standalone and it is likely to sweep the ground off your feet. Greatly recommend it.

John Venable

"Death", one of Gaiman's "Endless"

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2014

Verified Purchase

Neil Gaiman's "Endless" make up, in my opinion, one of the best invented pantheons in modern literature. Death, who is presented as cute and friendly, who says to the dying " Take my hand", is a welcome substitute for the traditional Grim Reaper- and a very interesting girl in her own right even though the only one of the Endless who is older is Destiny. John Venable, MD

Nathan

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2013

Verified Purchase

A great story in the best sandman tradition with the same style of story telling and artwork you come to expect from the othe sandman novels.

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Death: The High Cost of Living Paperback – June 1 1994

From Publishers Weekly

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About the author

Neil Gaiman

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