Gaimanmani—
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Gaimanmaniacs!
(And those are the facts!)

From the always-helpful Continuity Pages:

This storyline took place at the same time as DC's much-promoted crossover entitled Zero Hour, a story that saw time collapse and alternate timelines merge (much like DC's earlier Crisis on Infinite Earths). More importantly for the story of Dream, however, was that the final issue featured a vision of Dream's funeral, the apparent foretelling of his death undercut by the very "reality storm" that offered the story's impetus.

So ... the funeral? Morpheus himself. The vision is one of the (nearish) future.

The stories? The stories are independent of one another, much like an earlier collection called "Dream Country." Most of Gaiman's stories were multi-issue arcs and the single-issue tales usually came one after another in a set of four or five. "World's End" just happens to have a framing story involving the tavern. If I remember correctly, the best of all these stories was the one about Prez. Prez was an actual DC comic from the early 70s, so Gaiman's much darker take (coupled with Allred's art) was rather inspired.

Read on. Pick up the next two (the last two) trade collections. I think you'll get you're answers there.

Yes, read on. The Kindly Ones and The Wake are the best in the whole damned collection.

And if you want to find out what happens to Lyta (and her dead husband Hector) you can read about them in JSA

I know the answers. I will not tell you, though, because it'll be major major spoiler.
It'll all make sense once you get to the Kindly Ones and The Wake.
(and no, it was not the first Despair's funeral).

9 and 10 are sitting on my shelf right now. I've been trying to pace myself and read one a month, however, it is almost July...

Thanks for the info on Zero Hour. I wasn't aware that Vertigo was at all involved (that's in part because I was a hardcore Marvel kid). I am familiar with Prez, though, so I did enjoy that tale.

Alright, I'll take heart from the knowledge that the answers are on their way.

I love this series so much. I'm excited you're reading it. Definitely keep reading. It doesn't end at World's End.

My read is that World's End is a story about stories. Dream is the king of stories, so this, at the beginning of the end is an exploration of what that actually means what stories are for, what they do, how they seem to recurse and have a life outside of the creators and tellers.

The Prez/Boss Smiley story is about the power of stories, the Necropolis one is about how a person's life is a story, etc, etc.

I am probably wrong.

The Kindly Ones is my favourite book in the series, I'm kind of jealous that you get to read it for the first time.

Dammit, grabbingsand, those're some big spoilers in your comment, considering the fact that Eideteker hasn't read the last two books yet.

It's definitely important to remember that Sandman was origially single issues, and several of the collections ["Fables & Reflections," "Dream Country"] feature single-issue short stories that weren't released in that order originally. Though there's a little bit more connection between the "World's End" stories, they're all single-issue stories that can be enjoyed in the same way as the ones in the earlier collections. Exploring storytelling and mythology was as much a part of the series as the overarching storyline - in some ways, it's really the point of the series [and of much of Gaiman's other work.] The "World's End" stories are a chance to do some other short stories - and they're also a breather before plunging into the final and intense stuff in "The Kindly Ones" and "The Wake." [And on preview, Capn has a good point - they serve as a reexamination of stories and storytelling at the beginning of the end.]

I'd recommend not waiting a month to read "The Wake" after you finish "The Kindly Ones," personally.

Why does Charlene stay at the end? It seemed to me that she stayed because the stories and the inn were more vivid and real to her than her previous life. She says, when asked, "I don't have a goddamn story." So staying at the inn is a chance for her to change that - to change things and write her own story, as it were. The funeral procession in the sky? Keep reading.

If Eid has read #8, then what I said is certainly not a spoiler. The Sandman series suffered from the same curse that afflicted most of the Vertigo line: excellent storytelling with inconsistent art. The vision at the end of "World's End" is meant to be taken as a sign of inevitable things to come. If you count the mourners, look at the "pallbearers" ... all are in attendance, save one.

I always thought the reality storm was caused by the death of one of the Endless and lasted until, well, the Wake. The stories they tell are meant as a substitute for the missing storyline -- the One story, that is. The events taking place (and the stories told) at the Inn take place outside the One story, so they don't necessarily have to precede the "events to come". Space and time (story space and story time) are suspended for a while. The One story can only continue after the storm is over.

[Charlene's lack of a story in some ways echoes what the apprentice from Litharge says in his story - and like her, he chooses to leave the predictable life he'd been leading at the end of World's End. The issue of choice and of responsibility is also a major theme in the last several books, and in a small way, the decisions made by Charlene & the Lithargian apprentice after the storm reflect that theme.]

Maybe I was really dense, but after reading #8, I wouldn't have predicted the events in The Kindly Ones. That issue makes sense for what it is - Dream is moping, Death bitches at him, and seeing her perform her duties helps drag him out of it. The climactic events of The Kindly Ones are definitely not talked about outright. One can look back and interpret things that way, or make a good guess, but then again, one can look back through the entire series and find all kinds of foreshadowing and see a sort of inevitablity to parts of the storyline. If I'd been in Eideteker's place, it would have been a big spoiler to me.

Oh, don't worry about me. The introduction to The Kindly Ones took care of most of the spoilers. But I know the price of admission; a few of the Sandman introductions give stuff away and so are read at one's own risk. Fortunately, I think the point of the journey is not to arrive.