They have The Absolute Sandman up and listed at the Vertigo website. $99. I looked at Amazon to see what they were going to be selling it for and noticed it has a different cover than the one up at the Vertigo site. Anyone know anything about this? Are there going to be two different covers depending on where you buy it?

Absolute Sandman at Vertigo

Absolute Sandman at Amazon

I just ordered my copy from Amazon which ended up beong much cheaper than if I'd bought it from any of the comic stores near me, even once postage and currency conversion was taken into account. Amazon cost me just unger $100AU where as the cheapest I could buy it here was for $175AU plus whatever the stores shipping cost was, so say $195 all up! What a saveing!

I only had the first Sandman TP when the Absolute Edition was announced so I decided to wait and get them. I've borrowed a number of the other TPs from the library and I am very pumped for these collections. The regular TPs are brilliant, these things are going to be amazing - and it'll be my first Absolute edition of anything! YAY.

Only problem is Amazon tells me it'll take them until November 17th to get it to me - about 2 months after it's released! Still, worth the wait - but the last couple of things I've bought from them came a while before the expected arival date they gave me.

Got an update from Dreamhaven Books. They are accepting preorders for Absolute Sandman at US$99. They can get Neil to sign it for you.

$99? That's insane.

(said the guy who paid $150 for the signed "Lost Girls")

I'd pay $99 for those books if the chapters where the art itself was rushed (like the middle chapter of "A Game of You" or the last chapter of "The Season of Mists") were completely redrawn.

But really, at least 40% of the Sandman saga has art that's so rushed that it cannot possibly be saved by any kind of recoloring. A Deluxe edition containing that kind of art doesn't make sense to me.

They have it for preorder much cheaper on Amazon.

Well, I got my Abslute Sandman vol 1 yesterday, and I think it is well worth it. Beautiful recolorings, amazing special features, and a production level that is phenominal.

I more have a question. It is issues 1-20. So is that like the first three volumes (Preludes- Dream Country? Are these entirely different stories?

I started with the Kindly Ones and then got the Absolute Sandman as an early Christmas present and didn't know if I had started at the beginning of the whole series.

Yup, it's the first three volumes.