The extras are substantial, interviews with the artist, the guy who does the words, covers, colours and some more quite fantastic art. The Sandman: Overture is the prelude to the entire Sandman saga. Ever wonder why some two-bit magician snared Dream in the 20's? This book takes the long way around but explains things pretty well. The plot gets going properly as we learn that a star has gone mad and is disrupting the balance of the universe. Furthermore, the reasons for this have to do with Morpheus and the decisions that he did and did not make. Once again the theme of duties and responsibilities take center stage. It also sheds much light on Morpheus’ dogged insistence on doing his duty later in the series. Decisions, consequences, and sacrifices - these ideas drive the characters of this big-canvas morality play. I re-entered the world of comics after a 30-year hiatus thanks to fellow FanLit reviewer Brad Hawley’s impassioned Why You Should Read Comics: A Manifesto! and his 10-part essay on Reading Comics. It was clear that Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN series was the gold standard for sophisticated, intelligent comics for adults. Having read Brad’s review of the entire series, Welcome to The Dreaming: An Introduction to THE SANDMAN, I embarked on the 76-volume epic. Overture (2014) was issued eighteen years after the final volume, The Wake, was published—more than twice the time it took to produce the entire original series. Perhaps Neil Gaiman waited a little too long.

And certainly one of the most memorable pieces developed here is “the father” of Dream. Priceless. Standing ovation. Really. It touched my heart. (And I am not referring about the character in the story but his real identity). I had high expectations from Neil Gaiman, following the excellent run of the original 75 issues of "Sandman", and I was not disappointed. There's nothing quite like it on the graphic novel firmament. It defies classification ( I might go for space opera with antropomorphic metaphysical concepts as actors) and it never fails to surprise, to challenge and to tug at the heartstrings. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. He, yet again, has produced a veritable piece of art. It works on many levels- superb artwork, wonderful plot and great dialogue are the cornerstones of this wonderful prelude to his epic classic Sandman series. He ends up in this weird area where all the forms of Sandman are. It's a bit like one of those Doctor Who specials where we get to see all the various Doctor Who incarnations at once. Actually, quite a bit of this felt like an ambitious Doctor Who episode. Lots of timey-wimey stuff and the decay of the universe is a common theme in Doctor Who - and Neil Gaiman has written for Doctor Who in the past.The artwork is done by JH Williams III, and he quite simply puts a world (or three) right in your lap and draws it like he's been there, astonishing, the perfect man to collaborate the creative genius that is The Sandman. I love how epic Overture is and yet weirdly small - sprawling with multiple connections to the series yet self-contained. Morpheus, along with a couple of new characters, traverse time and space doing impossible things in such a blase fashion, you’d think it would be nothing to Morpheus to stop a mad star and save existence itself, like your average "superhero punches supervillain" template!

Where do they come from? where they present at the birth of the Universe? Will they be present at the final battle? How did Dream manage to lose his powers and become imprisoned before the start of the original run of the series? and, if the Endless are a family, who are their progenitors and why were they send out to play havoc with reality? Who wrote the rules of the game? But I have to be honest with you: visually, I preferred volume 11. They are both gorgeous but that one had more chapters I not only loved but actually adored. This, in turn, had more story (the other was just 7 short ones giving us a closer look at the Endless after all). Overture tells the tale of the great cosmic event that weakened Dream of the Endless enough so that he was susceptible to capture by simple hedge magic in Sleep of the Just. When Morpheus made his original appearance in the first issue of Sandman, Gaiman alluded to some fantastical conflict that left the Lord of Dreams weakened and vulnerable. The series never explained what that conflict entailed, only that it left him weak and vulnerable. In The Sandman: Overture , Gaiman elected to explore the events which led up to the original series.That said, here Gaiman hits his stride. As you would expect, it's a strange story, full of subtleties and deception. Political intrigue abounds, and there is some moving pathos there, especially when the character Hope enters the picture, then exits, then reenters . . . changed, yet much the same. Sandman: Overture may go down as one of the best-drawn chapters in Sandman’s already legendary run.” —Newsarama But let's not kid ourselves. While you may forget all the intricacies of the story, one thing you will not forget is the art. At this point, this is the most beautiful graphic novel I have ever laid eyes on. I enjoyed a lot the reading of this, since it was an impressive work in all departments: Writing, Drawing, Coloring and Lettering.

In the epilogue, Desire reveals to Despair that the successful rescue of the universe was the result of Desire's third attempt to assist Dream. The first two attempts were thwarted by Dream's refusal to accept help, and Desire was able to start over by using Father Time's saeculum, symbolized in the story by a warped timepiece hidden in Mad Hettie's memories. At least you will know who the parents of the Endless are. That it’s kinda funny since I never thought that The Endless would have parents. Yes, they are call brothers and sisters between them, an implication of being a family, so, I guess that it was “normal”, as normal can be a family where the children are The Endless, that they have a father and a mother, hey even an aunt! I’m not kiddin’! Realizing that the source of the madness was his mishandling of a past Vortex, he embarks on a journey accompanied by a cat that seems to be another aspect of Dream. Over the course of their journey, they meet the three fates and an orphaned alien girl named Hope. After telling a story to pass the night, he confirms that his mission isn't to save the universe, as he has accepted it's too late for that. Instead, they journey to the domain of his father Time who refuses his request for aid, saying that he has already given him too much. As he leaves, he asks his father bitterly if he has spoken to his mother Night recently. Emerging out of his father's domain, he appears at the gate of the "City of Stars" and is granted entrance after a heated exchange with other stars. Entering the prison of the mad star, he tells the story of how his refusal to kill a vortex led to the madness spreading to an entire solar system. After having destroyed the entire planet, he spared the sun, reasoning that he had done enough killing on that day. Finishing his tale, he attempts to destroy the mad star but fails.

A meeting is held on a distant planet. Aspects of Dream from various sentient species are present and have been awaiting his arrival to investigate. After consulting the oldest Aspect of Dream and another figure known as "Glory of the First Circle" he learns that the cause of the wrongness is the insanity of a star which will spread until the universe itself is destroyed. Glory claims that Dream is at fault for the insanity. It’s taken two years for Neil Gaiman and his art team to complete the six issue limited series prequel, The Sandman: Overture, but they finally did it! It’s easy to see why it took them so long when the results are so utterly impressive - high quality work takes time but it’s always worth the wait. J.H. Williams III displayed such stunning work of art that you can’t do anything else than to be amazed by those images. Dream and the other Endless are children of TIME and DARKNESS - once lovers and now enstranged and largely disinterested whether their offspring survives or not the current crisis. A new favorite character introduced in this prequel is HOPE, not a "D" type Endless, but a feeble, delicate and vulnerable alien creature trying to survive in a universe gone crazy. Aren't we all?

The Sandman: Overture is an accounting of events in the world of the Sandman mythos that led up to this imprisonment. I hate to use the term "prequel," as that term is tainted by a couple of really bad examples of retroactive storytelling wherein the original (which occurs later, chronologically) is demeaned by the "prequel". Two movies should clearly demonstrate this: Phantom Menace, and The Hobbit. But I digress. I've now read three of the five nominees for Graphic Novel Hugos for this year, and barring some grand upset through Full Frontal Nerdity or The Devine, Sandman is easily on its own merits and not even touching upon any of the rest of the grand series, the best choice, and well worth any other accolades and word of mouth thrillers out there. :) This is considered volume 0 as it comes before the very first Sandman comic Gaiman ever published. But it was written, designed and published AFTER the series was over. There are about four hundred billion cells in the human brain - all it takes is for one to misfire and start a reaction where a cancer forms and kills the human. There are about four hundred billion galaxies in the universe - one star has gone mad and the madness is spreading like cancer. The whole of creation is at stake. It’s up to Morpheus the Dream King to save the universe. The Sandman: Overture was a six-issue miniseries that served as a prequel to the classic series. Written by Neil Gaiman with art by J.H. Williams III, the series was published to coincide with The Sandman's 25th anniversary.The Bad Ol' Days -- Sam Keith's terrible art*{See Footnote Below} from the first collected edition: And while it sounds complex, and it is trippy at times, Gaiman’s written it in an accessible way that you can follow and make sense of. The ending especially is kinda brilliant as Gaiman almost defines Dream as the most powerful being of the Endless. After all, what can you achieve in dreams - everything? And Morpheus controls all the dreams everywhere… Neil Gaiman done a game of words such delicious to read that you can’t do anything else than to be amazed by those sentences.