Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: Overture prequel art revealed!

Writer Neil Gaiman is once again returning to the world of the Endless. Over a quarter of a century after he and the Sam Kieth/Mike Dringenberg art team unveiled Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams on an unsuspecting comic-reading public, the award-winning author is scripting a sequel to the 1989 series that made his name.

Set prior to events revealed in the groundbreaking Sandman #1, Sandman: Overture premieres in October. It not only celebrates 25 years of The Sandman but also the Platinum Anniversary of Vertigo, the DC mature readers imprint for which the title became a tent pole series.

“There is one Sandman story that I never got to tell… what happened just before Preludes and Nocturnes [issues #1-8] began,” said Gaiman, referring to the story in which it was revealed that Morpheus – aka Sandman, the Lord of Dreams – had arrived in England dressed for war before he was captured for 38 years by a black magic organisation. “He had come from somewhere very far away, and that was why they captured him so easily. But I never told that story.”

Describing the new mini as “a kind of psychotic space opera,” Gaiman said of the six-parter featuring his signature character, “It hasn’t even started getting weird, and it’s already weird. But I don’t want to tell anybody anything about it. There are answers to questions nobody’s ever asked about the Endless. And I’m not even going to tell you the answers, because that gives away the questions.”

With covers by Dave McKean (who produced the covers for all 75 issues of The Sandman), Overture is being illustrated by J.H. Williams III. The Promethea and Batwoman artist wraps the first issue with a single image spread across an amazing four-page fold-out.