Ah, if this isn't the most 90's thing you see today; congrats for working at the last Blockbuster store. (Are there still Blockbusters? Now that joke seems mean...) From 1993, Sleepwalker #25, featuring "Land of Broken Dreams" (Written and created by Bob Budiansky, pencils by Kelly Krantz, inks by Frank Percy.) and "Falling Asleep" (Written by Dan Slott, art by Bret Blevins.)
I think I maybe read Sleepwalker once in the 90's, seeing it as one of several mid-tier Marvel titles of the time. That said, I'm a little sad to find the expression "Sandman done right" may be apocryphal and never used to describe him. Still, you can see a couple of interesting reversals of Marvel's usual formulas here: instead of the usual teen-empowerment wish-fulfillment like Spider-Man or Nova (or like forty others...) Rick Sheridan only has power when he's asleep! And it's not a Jekyll&Hyde/Incredible Hulk thing, either: Sleepwalker was an alien, completely separate from Rick, but emerging from his mind when he slept. Rick did seem to have all the personal, soap-opera type problems Spidey did--girl trouble, always broke, lame secret identity excuses--without getting many of the upsides!
Most of this issue features Sleepwalker's people invading earth, and just crushing it. Kinda seems like it would've been a good issue for some guest-stars like the Avengers, because the aliens' powers and weapons were pretty devastating. (As is typical for comic-book aliens, Sleepwalker is the one cool one that doesn't want to destroy humanity, like the Martian Manhunter or Superman.) Meanwhile, Rick and Sleepwalker try to piece together what's going on, and if killing Rick might stop the invasion...
The back-up story features Rick getting knocked out and falling out of an airplane, with Sleepwalker having to save him without waking him up! Although Krantz does an okay job in the rest of the book, Brevins was Sleepy's original artist, although I thought he usually drew him more gaunt and less buff than this.
I know I saw Sleepwalker guest in the last few issues of Fantastic Four, but I'm not sure you see Rick...probably because he's asleep out back, duhr.
Yeah I've heard you say Sandman done right before, and I guess it kinda' fits, without getting too philosophical and sophisticated like Gaiman's work. Still, Sleepy(much like Darkhawk and other select 90's characters) as character has too much offer to be allowed to rest in comic limbo hell. he deserves better than that.
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