''The Sandman Universe'' is a line of

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

s published by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

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

DC Black Label DC Black Label (also referred to simply as Black Label) is an imprint of American comic book publisher DC Comics consisting of original miniseries and reprints of books previously published under other imprints. The imprint intends to present t ...

. The line launched to celebrate the 30th anniversary of

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

'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 The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for the Devil in Christian theology. He appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bib ...

'', '' Books of Magic'', and '' The Dreaming''. 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 shared universe in which most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. In context, the term "DC Universe" usually refers to the main DC Continuity (fiction), continuity. It contains v ...

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

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'' 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. Choosing writers also involved deciding 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 (novel), Brown Girl in the Ring'' (1998), ''Midnight Robber'' (2000), ''The Salt Roads'' (2003), ' ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

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 Limited series (comics), miniseries written by Neil Gaiman, published by DC Comics, and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo Comics, Vertigo. Since its or ...

'' 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 sensation (psychology), 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 ...

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

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

References

External links

Official press release
from