''Sandman Midnight Theatre'' is the title of a

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

in which two DC comics characters called the

Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

—

Dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

and Wesley Dodds — encounter each other. ''Sandman Midnight Theatre'' was co-written by ''

Sandman Mystery Theatre ''Sandman Mystery Theatre'' was an ongoing comic book series published by Vertigo Comics, the mature-readers imprint of DC Comics. It ran for 70 issues and 1 annual between 1993 and 1999 and retells the adventures of the Sandman, a vigilante ...

'' author

Matt Wagner Matt Wagner (born October 9, 1961) is an American comics artist and writer who is best known as the creator of the series ''Mage'' and ''Grendel (comics), Grendel''. Career Matt Wagner's first published comic book work was ''Comico Primer'' #2 ( ...

(co-plot) and ''

The Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

'' author

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

(co-plot/script), and featured painted artwork by

Teddy Kristiansen Teddy Kristiansen (born 29 July 1964) is a Danish comic book artist, known for his work in mystery, horror, and dark, suspense-filled comics. He drew one chapter of " The Kindly Ones" story arc in Neil Gaiman's ''The Sandman'' series. In 2005, Kri ...

and lettering by

Todd Klein Todd Klein (born January 28, 1951) is an American comic book letterer, logo designer, and occasional writer, primarily for DC Comics. Biography Early career Todd Klein broke into comics in the summer of 1977, hired by DC Comics as a staff prod ...

. In 1996, it received the

Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award The ''Comics Buyer's Guide'' (''CBG'') magazine administered the annual Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards from 1982 to circa 2010, with the first awards announced in issue #500 (June 17, 1983). Upon taking over as ''CBG'' editors, Don and Maggie T ...

for Favorite Original Graphic Novel/Album of 1995.

Publication history

''Sandman Midnight Theatre'' was published with a cover date of September

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

. The following issue of ''The Sandmans regular series was #72, in which Dodds appeared out of costume as an epilogue to the events in this book. Chronologically, ''The Sandman #72'' happened long after ''Sandman Midnight Theatre'', which occurred during Dream's imprisonment. In terms of ''

'', ''Sandman Midnight Theatre'' occurs between the storylines "The Python" and "The Mist" (between issues #36 and #37).

Plot

Following the events of "The Python,"

Dian Belmont Dian Belmont is a fictional DC Comics character, associated with the golden age Sandman, a socialite and amateur detective, she assisted Sandman on most of his adventures as his aide and confidant. She made her first appearance in ''Adventure Comi ...

left New York City for London. Dodds uses a murder case as an excuse to follow her, and he finds her working at a church's soup kitchen. While Belmont deliberately avoids

Dodds The Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) are a network of schools, both primary and secondary, that serve the dependant, dependents of United States military and civilian United States Department of Defense (DoD) personnel in three ar ...

, both end up, for different reasons, at a party held by

Roderick Burgess This is a list of characters appearing in '' The Sandman'' comic book, published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. This page discusses not only events which occur in ''The Sandman'' (1989–1994), but also some occurring in spinoffs of ''The Sandman' ...

, the man who imprisoned

in his cellar.

Collected editions

The graphic novel was reprinted in the 1999 anthology, ''

Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days ''Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days'' is a 1999 compilation of new and previously released comics stories written by Neil Gaiman, and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. Background Due to Gaiman's increased popularity resulting from his s ...

''.

References

1995 comics debuts Fantasy comics Vertigo Comics titles The Sandman (comic book) Comics by Matt Wagner Comics by Neil Gaiman Gothic comics {{DC-Comics-stub