quote:

The first of four beautifully designed slipcased volumes, THE ABSOLUTE SANDMAN VOL. 1 collects issues 1-20 of The Sandman and features completely new coloring, approved by the author, on the first 18 issues, as well as a host of never-before-seen extra material, including the complete original Sandman Proposal, a gallery of character designs from Gaiman and the artists who originated the look of the Sandman, and the original script to the World Fantasy Award-winning THE SANDMAN #19, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," together with reproductions of the issue’s original pencils by Charles Vess. Also included are a new introduction by DC’s president Paul Levitz and a new afterword by Gaiman.

quote:

Hi Neil,With the recents announcements about Absolute Sandman, I imagine materials will becompiled or created soon for these volumes. Considering that much of your readership (including myself) can probably consider themselves completists in that they seek out all your work, I figured I'd chime in to ask about possibly retaining the nifty extras (a full script of yours) & introductions from the various existing trade editions. Also any thoughts as to what extras you'd like to have included?Sincerly,Yair

[neil]I don't think the extras in the trade paperbacks wil be repeated in the Absolute Sandman volumes, mostly because I'd assume people probably have the books with the introductions in. We're looking at putting new stuff in, and we're not yet sure what it's going to be -- I'm going to try and find things like the original proposal and notes, perhaps the script to Sandman #1 for the first volume. Right now Danny Vozzo is recolouring the first 18 issues of Sandman to take advantage of modern printing techniques and to fix things we weren't happy with at the time.

It's going to be a four book set, by the way, of about 600 pages per book, and I believe they'll come out over a couple of years.[/neil]

quote:

Hey Neil,It's entirely possible I missed this, but I can't seem to find it, either on your site, or in any information from DC.Will the Absolute Sandman books also feature the 2 Death books, Dream Hunters, and Endless Nights (Dust Covers?), or will they be strictly the original series?Much thanks,-Kev.

[neil]Absolute Sandman won't include the things you've listed, but it may include stuff that hasn't been seen much before now. I suspect the Death books will wind up, along with some other content, like the Jeff Jones short story and the Death Gallery, in an Absolute Death, in a year or so.[/neil]