The Sandman: Overture #1

The Sandman: Overture

by Neil Gaiman, J.H. Williams III (Illustrator)

Discover the events leading up to Morpheus’ capture at the beginning of the SANDMAN series with this prequel limited series by the legendary Neil Gaiman and award-winning artist J.H. Williams III.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Comic Book, Horror

18 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2013

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sandman: Overture #1 is one of the most anticipated comics of the year as Neil Gaiman returns to his classic comic series after 10 years away. Incredibly, this one manages to surpass expectations especially as JH Williams III brings the best art of his career - and he's had a helluva career - to this series. Amazing stuff - read the full review here!

[Nicolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since I've converted most of my new comics reading into digital, I've found the experience a more than suitable replacement for print comics. I don't have to worry about the storage and keeping them free from storage. I could read them at night with a bedside lamp with my iPad.

Yet, digital comics couldn't replicate all that print has to offer. Like reading the gatefold spread of this first issue of The Sandman: Overture. My iPad screen couldn't capture that magnificent spread in its full glory.

It is always great to have Neil Gaiman back on comics again, more so on his signature creation. Pairing Gaiman with J.H. Williams III is genius. Willaims kills it on the aforementioned spread.

The comic is a bit a pricey, much more than your regular one off your local comic shop but it's quality art and DC Comics has been pretty sporadic lately on releasing comics that I enjoy. This is one of them.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lord of the Dream is back, and it is tremendously exciting. Neil Gaiman has written a riveting, imaginative and stunning story.



In the first twelve pages of The Sandman: Overture #1 , we are privy to the beginning of four different stories. They are, of course, all actually parts of the same story, a structure that Sandman readers will be very familiar with.



Of course, folks who have read Sandman already have some idea of how they think this story will end since it is a prequel to the 1989-1996 series. But this is Gaiman after all. You know we will be surprised to some degree in the end.

For those of you who love Lord Morpheus, the cast of characters who inhabit the dreaming, and the constantly changing settings, The Sandman: Overture #1 immediately feels like you are home, back in the Dreaming. Gaiman has lost none of the narrative voice or dedication to disregarding genres that made the Sandman a brilliant read.



It looks as if Gaiman will be addressing some of the greatest unanswered questions of the Sandman Universe. Those hints, laid casually throughout the series, that there are things, dark and hidden and incomprehensible things, that are greater, bigger, and above the Endless, above the personifications of Death and Destiny and Destruction themselves. Who made the rules of the Endless? More than anything, it seems we are about to learn the true nature of the Lord of the Dream himself.

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 5 out of 5]

At long last, after almost two years of keeping these in my vault, Neil Gaiman and JH Williams finally completes the Sandman Overture collection. And yes, the read is very worth the wait.

To fully appreciate the beauty of this collection, one must have read the original Sandman series. Nonetheless, newcomers to this rich world will enjoy reading it as well. Gaiman has brought back just enough characters in issue 1 to bring nostalgia to Sandman fans but not too crowded for new readers to appreciate. The Sandman characters are, as they have always been, timeless and unchanged.

Much credit should also be given to JH Williams. I have seen his works in Promethea and Batwoman. Gaiman and Williams is the perfect team to pull this project off.

Since Overture runs only in six issues, you'd feel right away the faster pacing of the story, so the creative team has put so much beauty in every page. Yes, I mean every page.

[Vikas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, so this is Sandman. Well I will read through the entire series soon enough but it was nice reading through the jumbled mythology of Sandman world of dreams. keep on Dreaming.

I have always loved comics, and I hope that I will always love them. Even though I grew up reading local Indian comics like Raj Comics or Diamond Comics or even Manoj Comics, now's the time to catch up on the international and classic comics and Graphic novels. I am on my quest to read as many comics as I can. I Love comics to bit, may comics never leave my side. I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just Keep on Reading.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always wanted to read the Sandman and was able to get the first two editions of the overture and so far I really loved this! I think I will get the proper physical edition when I next go to a bookstore 😊😊😊

[Justin Fraxi · Rating 5 out of 5]

For accuracy's sake, pretend this review is just me making incoherent noises.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

See Sam Quixote's thorough review of this, but he's right, it's terrific, really a great start to the Overture volume, the prequel to The Sandman with lots of answers to questions. For those of you who did not know, Gaiman began this epic with a merry band of collaborators 25 years ago and about ten years ago completed all of his work on the ten volume series, some volumes over 200 pages long.

Gaiman was always good, and he was good from the start, but he also knows even more about writing and story structure than he did when he began 25 years ago… So it's a gift to have him, in a sense, reflect back on the series and its meaning for the history of story and fantasy. Sound audacious? An act of hubris? Sure. But it works and the quality of the work is wonderful, overall.

For each of the previous volumes he kept one of his best friends, Dave McKean, to do all the covers, but in every volume there are different artists doing the individual comics. This time around, Gaiman tries something different, maybe more conventional; the addition of JH Williams (Promethea, Batwoman) the sole artist for this volume is a smart choice given his majestic and also original use of the medium. If you were waiting for this for years, it is worth the wait, with some pretty impressive creative images and four page spreads and visual ways to help us appreciate The Corinthian (trust me, but the teeth image is central) and Dream and more. I am in the unique position of just having finished the original series, so there was no wait for me at all to read The Overture, and it feels pretty seamless to read, as if Gaiman, too, just picked up where he left off and started in again storytelling to me… Terrific stuff!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a review.

This a
YAY! Gaiman's back writing Sandman and a
YAY! J.H. Williams III is doing the art! comment.
I'll be writing an 'official' review once the entire series is done, but...

I've stopped buying 'monthly' floppy comics, I figure if it's any good, it'll be collected in an over-sized Deluxe Edition eventually. And I'm guessing this serie'll be collected sooner rather than later.

But for Gaiman and Williams' Sandman I'm making an exception and buying the (really expensive) floppies, even though I know they'll eventually be collected in a Deluxe Edition, which I'll buy, as well as an oversized Absolute Edition... which I'll buy as well.

Hey, I can afford to skip a couple of dozen meals for these,

right?

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn beautiful.

[Huicha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gráficamente impresionante, la forma en que se utilizan los recursos gráficos como elemento narrativo me recuerdan a los atrevimientos iniciales de Winsor Mckay.

[Jessica Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente, no podría resumir ni valorar porque soy incapaz, pero en la actualidad no hay algo también hecho como esta obra maestra. Si no has leído The sandman estas en un aprieto, te sentirás algo perdido pero solo espera algunas páginas en algunas ocasiones si se aclaran tus dudas. Excelente conjunción texto - dibujo. Neil -Williams excelente pareja.

[the_abinator · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot believe it's been a quarter of a century already since Gaiman's Morpheus strut, or rather, glided, metamorphosed, took shape across those glossy ad-filled pages. I was lucky enough to be still in blissful non-existence when they come out, meaning I could just buy the Absolute Sandman when I finally discovered them almost 5 years ago. No such luck this time-I am far too gone now into the world of Dream to ever think about not buying the issues one. by. one.

My disbelief comes from the fact that it feels exactly the same , like Gaiman has not changed as a writer and a human being and quickly dived back into the same world again; a testimony to the ontological meatiness of well-created narrative worlds if there ever was one.

Oh it's so good to see Morpheus again. So damned good.

[M Bonet · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can I add to other reviews? Reading this was like moving back into my own head-space in 1995. It was familiar, and all of the familiar things were there: The vaguely poetic writing, the sense of myth and fairy tale, the weird, the artwork that made you want to turn the comic around in your hands to see all of the things drawn along the borders. The last three panels left me feeling like Morpheous ("What?" indeed), but it's too early to pass judgement on the storyline. For now, I'm just glad that the words, "I bought a 'Sandman' comic" are back in my vocabulary.

[Anthony Bolton]

The story has all the potential breadth of the past but worryingly is a little too familiar and i missed a `real world` character like all the older stories had. Disappointed by the artwork ,I felt uninvited by the style and kept at a distance. Made me long for the sketchier, more humane art of earlier versions. Hopefully second issue will prove me wrong on all counts.

[Melissa Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book what a beginning can't wait until Volume 2. The art work is beautiful, and I do mean 'art work'. I am going research Mr Williams and see what else he has done. Of course the story...to get to find out about the beginning of the Sandman is going to be great and the start already has me on the edge of my chair. Thank you Mr. Gaiman.

[David Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book. Just stunning. And, bonus: Neil Gaiman is back writing his characters and his universe.

[Valeska · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm happy. I can't even explain how much I love The Sandman.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 5 out of 5]

E' arrivato il momento di tornare a parlare di Morfeo. Dopo 25 anni dall'inizio di una delle più belle saghe a fumetti di tutti i tempi. Overture è il prequel a Sandman. E in poche pagine Gaiman ci dimostra come si racconta una storia, riuscendo ad affascinare, ammaliare il lettore. La potenza iconica del personaggio dell'uomo dei sogni è incredibile, le pagine scorrono, piene di invenzioni narrative, che non vanno verso l'illeggibilità, ma anche graficamente superbe, grazie a Williams III che cesella le pagine come fossero sculture aliene. Davvero un lavoro notevole, e pazienza se le vignette traslucide, di cui orgogliosamente parla il responsabile del lettering originale, sono completamente scomparse per l'edizione italiana. SO rimane una cosa spettacolare. Tanto quanto l'ultima pagina tripla, in cui Oneiros incontra i suoi colleghi, scoprendo che non c'è un solo sogno, al limite c'è un solo Sogno degli Eterni.

[Chöw Josefin · Rating 3 out of 5]

El inicio de The Sandman, aunq lo leí después del #2, como fue publicado por Ovni en Argentina. Quedé maravillada en como Gaiman dió las explicaciones pertinentes, para, según entiendo y leí de algunos artículos, la lectura de los próximos, tendrá otra interpretación de la historia. Una maravilla. Increíbles dibujos, dimensiones, y los diálogos: impecables.

[Kerri Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sandman

Well I've been wanting to look this over for a while, not to mention all the others. This was a bit of a pet down but I do plan on continuing the series, hoping it will get better, like any series.

[Ulrike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weirder than the rest of the series, but what fun 😊
Although it's the prequel, I would recommend to read it last.
My favourite is definitely the gathering of so many different dreams and hats off to the amazing art throughout the whole issue

[Jose Granados · Rating 4 out of 5]

La precuela de Sandman es espectacular el Dibujo, la trama es demasiada compleja lo cual se debe leer con mucho detenimiento. Recomiendo mucho esta lectura

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Lots of background information as well.

[Persione · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Overture so much… sometimes I think it’s my favorite Sandman… then another one catches my attention until this one will again.

[Bob Learned · Rating 5 out of 5]

J.H. Williams art is the perfect accompaniment to Gaiman's Sandman stories.

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a little nervous about this book. Don't get me wrong, I was filled with anticipation and expected great things, but ... I was really worried that I was going to experience that let-down. I hold Sandman up as one of the finest comic books series I've ever read, but it's been a while since I read it. I wondered if maybe it wasn't as amazing as I remembered, or maybe I've grown and changed and I won't like it now, or maybe Gaiman just doesn't "have it" any longer, or this will feel like a forced return, or or or ...

So. I read it.

It was AMAZING. ENTRANCING. MAGICAL. CREEPY. BEAUTIFUL. TWISTED. GORGEOUS. VAST. MYTHOPOEIC.

And I gotta say, I always had a thing for The Corinithian. Can't say how silly excited I was to see him again.

Background: I recently finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which actually is the first grown-up novel I've read by Gaiman, and I was disappointed. It felt small and depressing and distant. It was the opposite of engaging. It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't fantastic either. That's when all my "maybe Sandman WASN'T that great ... maybe I've changed ... maybe Gaiman doesn't have it any longer" thoughts popped into my head.

I approached Overture with great trepidation.

And, you know in one page: it's good. It's weird. It's different. The Corinthian shows up. And then I turn the page to Destiny.

Imagine a BOOK. ...

The only EYES that read the book are BLIND. They see only darkness and the contents of the book.

The book is the UNIVERSE, and only blind Destiny sees how the universe shapes itself into STORIES. Perhaps he is the only one who reads all the stories the universe forms.

It is CHAINED to him, whether for PROTECTION, or to prevent him ESCAPING from it, or to indicate that Destiny and the book are one and the same, not even HE knows, and not even he can say.

DESTINY carries the UNIVERSE.

And then I knew. The Sandman IS BACK.

My only concern now: when can I get my paws on Overture #2??

[Danijel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Koliko god bili pristaša raznih integrala ili pak možda protivnik mjesečnih malih američkih sveščica, mislim da se slažemo kad kažem da postoje neki stripovi koje jednostavno ne možete dočekati da izađu u vama pogodnijem formatu. Jedan od takvih stripova za mene je definitivno Sandman. Dijelom strip, dijelom umjetničko djelo, konstrukt začinjen Gaimanovim spretnim umijećem izgradnje fantastičnih svjetova i svevremenih likova. Dodatno ulje na vatru dolijeva sam Neil Gaiman, pržeći fanove na laganoj vatrici odugovlačenjem izbacivanja novih nastavaka. Primjerice, vrijeme koje je prošlo između prvog i drugog nastavka je 6 mjeseci, odnosno pola godine. A planirana frekvencija izbacivanja je dvomjesečno! No, opraštamo mu, jer je on ipak Neil Gaiman, a savršenstvo ne treba požurivati (koja sam ja ulizica ;))

Vidimo na svakom koraku da se Gaiman srcem i dušom vraća svome omiljenom čedu, Sandmanu, i da ga nikad zapravo nije prestao pisati. On je tu, slikom i prilikom, postojan kao i uvijek u svom univerzumu. Kao i svi elementi tog univerzuma. S jedne strane ovo je prednastavak, ali i rekapitulacija cijelog univerzuma. Prvo poglavlje donosi tek mrvicu priče, uvod, nagovještaj zapleta i misteriju; kao i cameo pojave omiljenih likova serijala. Corinthiana, živuću Noćnu moru, koji umjesto očiju ima zube, a obožava jesti očne jabučice svojih ljubavnika. Pričljivog Marva Pumpkinheada (koji je u stvarnom svijetu sigurno bio Groucho Marx) i Luciena, knjižničara knjižnice snova. Slijepog Sudbinu, najstarijeg od braće Beskrajnika; i Smrt, stariju sestru Sna.

Sandmanov grafički izričaj uvijek je bio nekonvencionalne prirode, od izgleda samih naslovnica do crteža unutar stripa. Izrazito mi je drago što je za crtača postavljen J. H. Williams III., koji osim svog osobnog crtačkog pečata čitateljima prikazuje i dobar osjećaj za estetiku u crtežu, što nije bio uvijek slučaj kod Sandmanovih crtača.

S nestrpljenjem očekujem nove nastavke...

I tell myself, I am Dream of the Endless. I am Dream. And I am prepared for whatever awaits me.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

witty, beautiful, stunning


Neil Gaiman is a master of words and imagination and returns after almost 17 years flawless to his Morpheus. The first issue focus more on the visuals as the text but it is clearly Neil. I would wish for some more unique dialogue but am fine with the quo.
In this issue the pieces are SET for a greater story I'm excited to see unfold. It begins with a death that confuse a bit, especially if you turn the page but this confusion will eventually unwind and give you a hint of the magnitude as you reach the last pages. Alone this insane 4-pages spread at the end gave me a thrill of anticipation.


Well I got my hands on the Special edition if the first Sandman Overture.
In differance to the standard edition this one is almost eternally Black & White which underlines the mood and visualize the stand-out performance of JH Williams III as an artist and the phenomenal mastery of different styles. The sole point the standard edition could be superior will be the scene at the office where according to the script a shift from gray to color would take place. Where the Sandman was always knows for its art and beauty this one will stand-out even among the already magnificent series.