The first issue of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman Overture” six-part series.Some questions remain unanswered for what may seem lifetimes. In “The Sandman Overture” writer Neil Gaiman hopes to answer at least one that has puzzled fans for more than two decades: How could Sandman have been captured so easily to begin with?
It was Sandman’s ensnarement that saw Gaiman launch his telling of the DC Entertainment character for Vertigo Comics in 1988, a move that pushed him, the character and the publisher into a new level of storytelling and sales, with collected editions quickly becoming best-sellers.
“You had people, like Norman Mailer, describing it as a comic for intellectuals; bless him,” Gaiman says.
“Sandman” has remained a critical darling and fan favorite, though it’s been 17 years since the book concluded what Gaiman dubbed its “75-issue limited series” run.
Now, says Gaiman, it’s time to provide answers of sort as the first issue of a six-part limited series – illustrated by artist J.H. Williams III – has begun its year-long run, with “moments” he’s been “looking forward to writing for 25 years.”