Neil Gaiman announces a "Universe" of Sandman Comics

David_D

EW has this in an exclusive

The project kicks off this August with The Sandman Universe one-shot special, which will catch readers up on what’s been happening in Dream’s realm. The most salient fact is that Dream has now gone missing, leaving chaos in his wake. Other important developments include the opening of a rift between worlds, revealing a space beyond the Dreaming. Dream’s official librarian Lucien is still in charge of all the books that were dreamed and never written, but now, one of those books has wound up in the waking world, to be discovered by a group of children. The Dreaming also has an important new resident, now that a House of Whispers has appeared alongside Cain’s House of Mystery and Abel’s House of Secrets. Meanwhile, Lucifer (the David Bowie-esque devil who originated in the pages of The Sandman before ending up on his own Fox show) has fallen once more, though now he might be in a Hell of his own design. And down in London, a young boy named Timothy Hunter alternates between dreams of becoming the world’s greatest magician and nightmares of becoming its worst villain.

The Sandman Universe #1 will be plotted by Gaiman but written by Nalo Hopkinson, Kat Howard, Si Spurrier, and Dan Watters, with art by Bilquis Everly and a cover by Jae Lee. Each of those four writers will then go on to explore the special’s various threads in four new series. Hopkinson will write House of Whispers and explore how the voodoo deity Erzulie ended up in the Dreaming with her titular house. It might have something to do with a comatose woman named Latoya, whose girlfriend and sisters used the Book of Whispers to try and heal her. Now out of her coma, Latoya is suffering from the Cotard’s Delusion belief that she’s already dead, and is transmitting her belief to others, catalyzing them to become guardians of the gap that has opened in the Dreaming. Howard will write Books of Magic, which will follow up on Gaiman’s 1990 miniseries of the same name and explore Timothy Hunter’s magical education as he’s torn between two powerful destinies. Spurrier will write The Dreaming, which will follow The Sandman supporting characters like Lucien the librarian and Matthew the Raven as they navigate a Dreaming without Dream. Watters will write Lucifer, which finds the titular devil blind and destitute, trapped living in a small boarding house in a quiet town where no one can ever leave. Artists for the books have not been announced yet.

nweathington

Vertigo is failing? I know, let’s throw some money at Neil Gaiman. Cynical, I know, but effective. My wife has already texted me saying she wants to get them. She’s been wanting to read Hopkinson’s work anyway. I haven’t read her work yet either, but she certainly has a good reputation. In fact, Spurrier is the only writer of the four I've read, but I really enjoyed his creator-owned comics Six-Gun Gorilla and The Spire.

They make it sound like they’re rebooting Tim Hunter, which is fine I guess. I thoroughly enjoyed Books of Magic when John Ney Rieber was writing it (mostly for Molly), but it lost some steam when he (and Molly) left. The stuff that came after BoM ended was pretty awful—they tried too hard to make it “not Harry Potter”.

Peter

I read BOM for years - but a return to the original mini sounds great, especially if it dips into the larger magical DCU as the mini did. I consider the original BOM as an addendum to the History of the DCU. The way it walks through magic in the DCU in more or less chronological order, while also introducing Hunter, makes for good reading.

Also - I wondered if perhaps all of this buildup (and his use in Metal) means that we might get a new Dream down the line?

Sidenote: I really dug the House of Secrets series by Steven T. Seagle & Teddy Kristiansen. If it had any connection to the Sandman-verse it was super minor but what an interesting set of ideas in that title.

nweathington

Yeah, House of Secrets was a pretty good series, as was The Dreaming. And it does sound like they're setting up for a new Dream. Alas poor Daniel, we hardly knew ye.