Hob Gadling

Hob Gadling
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	The Sandman vol. 2, The Doll's House, issue #13, "Men of Good Fortune"
Created by	Neil Gaiman
In-story information
Full name	Robert Gadling
Supporting character of	Dream
Abilities	Immortality

Hob Gadling, also known as Robert or Bobby, is a fictional character from the Sandman comic book series by Neil Gaiman. Gadling first appears in in issue #13, "Men of Good Fortune", from The Doll's House, illustrated by Michael Zulli. A soldier recently fighting in Hundred Years' War, Gadling argues with friends about the nature of death in an inn in what will become modern-day London. He develops significance both as a recurrent character in the series and friend to Dream, appearing in a total of seven issues spanning six hundred years.

Background

Gadling first appears in 1389, sitting in a smoky tavern in what will eventually become London's East End. Gadling is arguing that if he refuses to die, he will have eternal life. Dying, he argues, is merely a habit, something that people do simply because everybody does. It is, as Gadling puts it, "a mug's game." This catches the attention of Dream and Death, who are passing by for reasons not explicitly stated but that can be guessed by a fragment of their conversation: Death wants to show her brother the way of mortal life.

Death agrees, at the request of her brother, who says that "it might be amusing" to grant Gadling eternal life. Dream strikes a conversation with Gadling who agrees to meet him again in the same inn once every hundred years. They do so, and Gadling recounts each century of his life. In the penultimate meeting in 1889, Gadling suggests to Dream that the true purpose for meeting was friendship. Dream rejects the suggestion angrily and walks out. In 1989 Dream acknowledges that the two are friends.

While preparing for a visit to hell, Dream visits Hob in his dreams sometime in 1990. He gives Hob a bottle of rare Chateau Lafitte 1828 which remains in the waking world.

Hob Gadling appears without Dream for the first time in volume eight of the Sandman series, "The Worlds End", in which he features in a story framed by the perspective of Brant Tucker.

The narrative later reunites Hob and Dream in The Kindly Ones. Having lost his latest girlfriend in a car accident, Hob is devastated and begs Dream to use his "magic" to resurrect her. Dream states that such an act is impossible, but offers Hob the comfort of making her killer aware, while dreaming, of that which he has destroyed. As they leave Hob warns Dream that he has the stench of death upon him, which Dream responds with an ambiguous smile and thanks.

He returns in the final story arc "The Wake", wherein Death, reflecting that Hob may have reconsidered his pact for eternal life since Dream’s death, offers him an end. He refuses the offer.

Appearances

In the century following his initial appearance and meeting with Dream, Gadling becomes rich, marries and is knighted (1389-1589 AD). Over the course of the next three hundred years, he falls into disgrace following the premature death of his wife and child (1589-1689 AD), enters the slave trade to again become wealthy (1689-1789 AD), and exits it after Dream comments on its immorality (1789-1889 AD).

His 1789 their meeting is interrupted by the arrival of magician Johanna Constantine, ancestress of John Constantine, who says she heard it rumoured that once every hundred years The Devil and The Wandering Jew meet in a tavern. He also mentions a more polite man named Jack Constantine, who was killed by Night Walkers.

The first and last meetings each have a scene where snippets of conversation around the inn can be seen; though the scenes are in 1389 and 1989 respectively, the conversations are very similar. For example, "No, of course the plague isn't God's punishment" matches "Don't be a pillock, Darren, of course AIDS isn't a punishment from God", as well as criticisms of two unpopular and resistance-inducing poll taxes, one instituted in the 1380s under King Richard II, the other instituted in the 1980s under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This statement of 'the more things change, the more they stay the same' is echoed in the penultimate issue in Daniel's Latin phrase: "Omnia mutantur, nihil interit" (figuratively translated as "everything changes, yet nothing is truly lost"). There are also overheard fragments of those who believe that those in poverty live better than the rich.

Characterization

Gadling, like Element Girl, is one of several humans in The Sandman series who do not age.

Gadling regularly ponders the nature of his blessing. Sometimes this pondering is whimsical - at Morpheus's wake, a slightly drunk Gadling comments to the centaur Chiron: "I once worked out that I'd spent over six years all told, just pissing. Six years of piss" In contrast, a poignant scene in volume nine sees Hob weeping next to the grave of the latest of his wives to die: "I thought we'd have longer. It never gets easier, people you love not being there any more."

The last time we see Hob, indeed, he seems to be more ambivalent about his gift. In issue 73 in he attends a Renaissance Festival with his current girlfriend, Guenevere, who is black. 'Robbie' repeatedly voices regrets and even apologizes for his earlier involvement in the Atlantic slave trade, an occupation Morpheus advised him to forgo centuries before. Gwen tells him to drop the subject, and when he responds "You can't just forget about it", she answers "Sure you can, Robbie. You know how? You just forget about it", echoing Gadling's own method of achieving immortality .

Gadling also has much to say about the inauthenticity of his surroundings: 'It's just someone's idea of the English Middle Ages crossed with bloody Disneyland.' When Guenevere complains she can't play a queen because of her race, Hobb mentions how Catherine of Aragon was actually black due to the Moors mixing with Spaniards. "Take it from me, if Catherine of Aragon had lived in Alabama in 1950, she would have been at the back of the bus." He spends most of the afternoon drunk in a disused and derelict tavern, vaguely similar to the one in which he first met Dream and Death. Here he encounters Death again, who tells him of her brother's demise and offers him a way out. He asks her many questions about what happens next and the nature of life and death, all of which she avoids answering. He admits to being tempted by her offer of death: 'There'd be an awful neatness to dying here, wouldn't there? ...like coming full circle'. Eventually, however, and after a long pause for thought, he declines: 'I'm not ready to die. Not today. Not yet. Maybe not ever.' But there is a wistfulness in him we haven't seen before. Ultimately, though, he chooses to live, and we suspect he always will. The encounter reveals that Gadling believes in reincarnation, and considering the nature of belief in the Sandman universe, this may be what happens when he dies.

'Sunday Mourning' is the last episode of Sandman to be set in a contemporary setting, the final two taking place in ancient China and Shakespearean England respectively. There is a feeling that Hob, as the only human we've followed this long and this closely through the series, is the last modern character we see. On the last page, he relates a dream to Gwen in which he met Dream and Destruction on a beach, and they walked off into the sunset together. When Gwen asks how it ended, he fobs her off with the cliché that 'they all lived happily ever after'. We are left with the feeling that neat, happy endings of that kind are only to be found in dreams - Gadling may live ever after, but the happiness is not guaranteed.

Inspiration

Gaiman has said that he based Gadling's speech pattern on that of British actor Bob Hoskins, particularly in the film The Long Good Friday. He has been regularly portrayed as a man of middle height with slightly receding reddish-brown hair, but only in 'Sunday Mourning' did artist Michael Zulli base his appearance on a specific person: Ian Anderson, lead singer of rock band Jethro Tull.