On October 30th – which is somewhat appropriate, being Devil’s Night and all – we will bear witness to the return of Neil Gaiman to his much-beloved, much-acclaimed Sandman series for the first time over ten years. He’s teaming up with the truly stunning Batwoman artist J.H. Williams III to bring us The Sandman: Overture, which will reveal a previously untold story about Morpheus and his world before he was captured.
“This is the one story that we never got to tell,” Gaiman told The New York Times today. “In Sandman #1, Morpheus is captured somehow. Later on in the series, you learn he was returning from somewhere far, far away – but we never got to the story of what he was doing and what had happened. This is our chance to tell that story, and J.H. Williams III is drawing it. It’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”
The Sandman: Overture will be a bi-monthly Vertigo series, and each issue will include variant covers from Williams and original series artist Dave McKean. Alternating with the main series will be “special edition” deluxe versions of each issue, featuring Gaiman scripts, Williams concept art, Q&As and more.
Additionally, a lot more about this “literary event” will likely be revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in a couple of weeks, as Vertigo will be hosting a 25th anniversary panal featuring Gaiman, McKean, Williams and Sam Kieth.
