''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 their f ...

under its

imprints Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

DC Vertigo and

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. 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, gra ...

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

'', ''

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

' '' The Sandman'' and the 25th anniversary of the launch of the DC Vertigo 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 Lantern, ...

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 cultu ...

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

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 univers ...

work as an influence for assigning her to ''House of Whispers''. Gaiman chose Kat Howard, 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 one-shot released in August 2018. It picks up after the events of DC's 2017–2018 '' Dark Nights: Metal'' crossover 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