''The Sandman Universe'' is a line of

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

s published by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

under its imprints

DC Vertigo Vertigo Comics, also known as DC Vertigo or simply Vertigo, was an imprint of American comic book publisher DC Comics started by editor Karen Berger in 1993. Vertigo's purpose was to publish comics with adult content, such as nudity, drug us ...

and

DC Black Label DC, D.C., D/C, Dc, or dc may refer to: Places * Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia), the capital and the federal territory of the United States * Bogotá, Distrito Capital, the capital city of Colombia * Dubai City, as distinct from the ...

. The line launched to celebrate the 30th anniversary of

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 ...

's ''

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 ...

'' (1989–1996) and Vertigo's 25th anniversary. ''The Sandman Universe'' began in August 2018, with a titular

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 ...

, which was followed by four

ongoing series In comics, an ongoing series is a series that runs indefinitely. This is in contrast to limited series (a series intended to end after a certain number of issues thus limited), a one shot (a comic book which is not a part of an ongoing series), ...

—''House of Whispers'', ''

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...

'', ''

Books of Magic ''The Books of Magic'' is the title of a four-issue English-language comic book mini-series written by Neil Gaiman, published by DC Comics, and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo. Since its original publication, the mini-series has ...

'', and ''

The Dreaming The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...

''. Each comic is overseen by Gaiman but written by new creative teams.

Conception and development

''The Sandman Universe'' celebrates the 30th anniversary of

' ''

'' and the 25th anniversary of the launch of the

imprint. The line was conceived and is overseen by the series' creator,

, but produced by new creative teams. ''The Sandman Universe'' expands ''The Sandman''s part of the

DC Universe The DC Universe (DCU) is the fictional shared universe where most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. Superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Green Lant ...

using new characters and concepts. The line was announced by ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' in March 2018 and was accompanied by a trailer featuring Gaiman. It launched with the

''The Sandman Universe'' #1 on August 8, 2018, with the other series following on later dates. When asked why he returned to ''The Sandman'', Gaiman said he began to feel guilty that almost no one had been able to return to the series since its conclusion and liked the idea of reviving it, as well as letting new writers play with his "toys". Gaiman assembled the writing team for the line with the Vertigo editorial team. Both parties suggested writers who they thought would be good for new ''Sandman'' stories. Samples by writers were then read by Gaiman, who decided whether or not they were proficient. Deciding writers also involved choosing which comic suited which writer best; Gaiman cited

Nalo Hopkinson Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels ('' Brown Girl in the Ring'', ''Midnight Robber'', '' The Salt Roads'', ''The New Moon's Arms'') and short stories such as thos ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

work as an influence for assigning her to ''House of Whispers''. Gaiman chose

Kat Howard Kat Howard is an American author and editor. Her stories have been published in the anthologies ''Stories'' (edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio), and ''Oz Reimagined'' (based on L. Frank Baum's characters). She is also a contributor to magaz ...

, who he has worked with for several years, to reboot ''

The Books of Magic ''The Books of Magic'' is the title of a four-issue English-language comic book mini-series written by Neil Gaiman, published by DC Comics, and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo. Since its original publication, the mini-series has ...

'' because of her handling of magic in her stories, and Dan Watters to write ''

'' because he was up to the challenge of recreating the character.

Titles

''The Sandman Universe'' began with a titular

released in August 2018. It picks up after the events of DC's 2017–2018 '' Dark Nights: Metal''

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

event.

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 ...

has disappeared since the conclusion of ''Metal'', leading to chaos in his homeland of the Dreaming. Each ''Sandman Universe'' series follows a story thread introduced in the one-shot.

Collected editions

Reception

According to the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Comic Book Roundup, the line has an average rating of 8.9/10 based on 20 reviews.

References

External links

Official press release
from