Comic-Con 2012: Neil Gaiman Returning to 'Sandman'

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Neil Gaiman is returning to The Sandman.

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Gaiman made his name in the early 1990s by writing 75 issues of the fantasy comic, winning Eisners, Harveys and other awards, and turning the title into not only the flagship title of DC’s Vertigo imprint but also creating a comic that crossed over from the the comic book world and embraced by the mainstream; collected works appeared on the New York Times best-seller lists before the newspaper had a dedicated comic chart.

Now the author, who has since gone on to win awards for his novels and children’s books such as Coraline and The Graveyard Book, is writing a Sandman mini-series that will be published in 2013 and act as a prequel to the acclaimed series.

J.H. Williams, the illustrator who worked with Alan Moore and more recently pushed gender boundaries (and winning a GLAAD Award in the process) with a lesbian version of Batwoman, will handle the art.

"When I finished writing The Sandman, there was one tale still untold,” said Gaiman via a video announcement Friday at DC’s Vertigo panel. “The story of what had happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in The Sandman #1, and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining, and dressed for war. It was a story that we discussed telling for Sandman’s 20th anniversary... but the time got away from us. And now, with Sandman’s 25th anniversary year coming up, I'm delighted, and nervous, that that story is finally going to be told.”

DC didn’t disclose the length of the mini-series nor a title but did say the comic would be published day-and-date digitally.