In 1989, Neil Gaiman started writing the comic book The Sandman (1989), about the living embodiment of dreams and sleep and his 6 siblings, who are collectively known as The Endless. In issue 40 of the series, there was a brief story featuring Dream and his sister, Death, as chibi characters in a story for a little boy.
This is what happened when that concept was spun off into a whole book (later 2).
The Little Endless Storybook is the tale of Delirium, princess of “an ice-cream colored realm” whose best friend is a little dog named Barnabus. Delirium’s home is very surreal and confusing, and so sometimes she wanders off and gets lost. On this particular occasion, Barnabus decides to ask each of her siblings where she went, all the while being pursued by a mysterious and sinister “thing”. In the sequel to the book, titled 'Delirum’s Party', Delirium decides to throw a party for her sister, Despair, whom she has never ever seen smile. Her other siblings help her out as best they can by giving gifts.
- Lighter and Softer: the main premise is that these are meant to be kid-friendly stories of the endless, although interestingly, the endless themselves still act according to their nature, just less graphically than the main comic. Specifically:
- Death is never actually shown collecting anyone like she normally does, and she isn’t even named in the first book, her domain only being implied. Still, in the second book she does get named and her gift to Despair is a quiet, peaceful death whenever she wants.
- Despair’s nudity had to be strategically hidden, and she isn’t ever shown cutting herself, but she’s also not any happier than normal.
- Scenery Censor: As stated above, Despair is still naked, but her nipples and lower-portion have to covered up, usually by her arms. This is especially noticeable in Delirium’s Party, A Day in the Limelight book where she’s in basically every scene.
- Super-Deformed: All the Endless are. They're not called “little” for nothing.
- Tastes Like Purple: The description of Delirium’s realm is this, naturally. Delirium herself is described as a “Technicolor princess” and her realm is pretty much pure sensory overload according to the pictures.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: These books are told from Delirium’s perspective, and so all the descriptions and pictures in the story are trippy as hell.
- Being Watched: Barnabas knows that “something” is following him as he looks for Delirium. it turns out to be his own tail.
- Dimensional Traveler: Barnabas has to go through each Endless realm looking for Delirium, and each of the Endless tells him that she’s not there because she’s not engaged in their specific aspect of reality (i.e. she’s not sad, so she’s not in Despair’s realm, etc). Then they give him a charm and tell him to ask a different sibling
- MacGuffin: Each of Delirum’s siblings gives Barnabus a different charm that they say will help him find her. In the end, they form a leash for him to keep her on.
- A Day in the Limelight: Despair doesn’t get a lot of focus in the comics, but in this book, she gets a whole party!
- Only One Finds It Fun: After all the gifts have failed to make Despair smile, her siblings begin to cry, and that’s what makes her smile. She is misery incarnate, after all.
- Silent Snarker: Whenever her family tries to do something nice for her, Despair just frowns and says “...”
- Super-Empowering: Each gift that Despair gets from her siblings are a form of their power that she can use to her benefit. Dream gives her the power to hear her favorite tales and not have nightmares, Destiny gives her an easy life-path to walk, and so on.
