Sandman Overture #1 (DC/Vertigo)

Rating: 4.5/5 – An untold tale of Morpheus as only Gaiman can  tell it.

Gaiman is back with the Endless and their rich supporting cast and it’s just like going home to see all the familiar people you’ve not seen in years (depending on when you last read Sandman).  After a rocky start with the flower-people of Quorian Gaiman kicked the story into gear with the reappearance of the Corinthian in 1915 London and we were off and running.

JH Williams is a superb artist with an unequaled design sense and the page designs/layouts are superb as one would expect.  It’s too bad the DC/Vertigo production office interrupted the story 4 times with double-page ads.  In a normal super-hero comic this doesn’t tend to bother me, but the stark and uninteresting layout of the ad pages was really jarring compared to the beauty of Williams’ story pages.

When we got to the 4 page fold out I was floored, this is something where digital readers are really going to miss out, they’ll not experience it the way we do in print.  The is the opening act but a lot happens in these 28 pages.  Gaiman leaves us off at a point in the story where we’re left on the edge with expectation for what will happen next.  The worst part here is that this is a bi-monthly book so we have 2 months to wait for #2.  I’m not sure how many people are going to double-dip on the “in between” months with the Director’s Cut issues, but I’m going to try to resist.  This book is already expensive enough that I don’t need to be getting a 2nd copy of each issue but we’ll see.  I may weaken.

Highly recommended for Sandman fans.  If you’ve never read Sandman before, go get the trade paperbacks of the original series first.  At least the first 2 or 3 volumes (or the 1st Absolute).  Overture will still be here waiting for you when you’ve finished those.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall – bob@comicspectrum.com
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