Neil Gaiman Is Expanding The SANDMAN Universe with Four New Comics
It's hard to believe that it's been 30 years since Neil Gaiman launched the Sandman comic series at DC Comics. Gaiman stopped writing Sandman stories about three years ago but he's ready to jump back into the world of Sandman as he is going to expand the universe in four new comic spinoff series that he is overseeing for DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint.
Sandman followed the character Dream, who is both the personification, as well as the lord over all dreams and stories. Over the course of his stories, he has tangled with gods, monsters, and humans. Entertainment Weekly reveals that the new series will kick off this August with The Sandman Universe one-shot special. That special will catch readers up on what’s been happening in Dream’s realm. The report goes on to fill us in on some details of that, saying:
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.
Gaiman plotted this story and it will be 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 writers will then embark on a journey to explore the various aspects of this universe in the four 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.
EW also conducted an interview with Gaiman in which he talked about the series in depth, but when talking about why he wanted to dive back into the world of Sandman and build on the universe, he explained:
"It’s a huge sandbox with so many wonderful toys that nobody’s getting to play with right now. I started feeling guilty. I liked the idea of getting the toys played with again, reminding people how much fun this is, and also getting the opportunity to work with some fantastic writers. Down the line, there will be fantastic artists as well."
He went on to talk about the road to making this happen, saying:
"It’s always been personal, and there are still areas of it that have velvet ropes set up and 'do not disturb' signs hanging on the door. People will ask, 'Can we do this?' and I’ll be like, 'No.' Some of that is because one day I will want to go there and tell those stories, even if it’s not for another 5 or 10 years. For this stuff, it’s really the joy of looking back at the history of Vertigo. There’s always stuff I created in the Vertigo world, that spun off and went out into the world and did really well. But the natural life cycle of these things is it came, it went away. Let’s bring it all back, let’s have fun with it. So for me, the joy is just sitting with smart writers who love the material and saying, 'Let’s go play.'"
Hell yeah! I've enjoyed the comic series in the past and it will be interesting to see how this expansion of the universe turns out. I'm curious to see what stories they tell and the characters that those stories will explore.
Below you'll find a video of Gaiman talking about his plans. Check it out and let us know if you're excited about this.