Wednesday, December 23, 2015

The Sandman: Overture

The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III, 224 pages

Twenty years after the publication of the original Sandman comics series, The Sandman: Overture is a prequel of sorts. In this six-chapter volume, Dream attempts to rectify a past mistake that is now tearing apart the universe. Along the way, he meets all other aspects of himself (which makes for an entertaining spread) and interacts with his previously unseen parents.

Like the previous incarnation of Sandman, this is wonderful. As much as I love Gaiman's stories (in this, and just about everything else I've read by him), what really blew me away was Williams' artwork. It is PHENOMENAL. Each environment has its own style, making it innately clear where you are and who you're with as the story progresses, and each of them is exquisitely done. Particularly good is the fourth chapter, which involves Time (Dream's dad) and a city of stars.

I loved this, it was awesome, and I'll even give a shout-out to the extra features at the end of the deluxe edition (the one we have in our collection), which has interviews with Gaiman and Williams, and includes walkthroughs of the artistic process, including coloring and lettering.

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