With DC Comics finishing up The Sandman: Overture late this year, they’re also getting things into motion for a deluxe edition that will land in November 2015. The release looks to be pretty solid as it will be including the spectacular gatefold featured in the first issue as well as extra exclusive material including pages from the Special Editions, script pages, among others.
The hardcover release features a cover by JH Williams III and will be available November 11, in comic stores, November 17, 2015 everywhere books are sold.
In addition to that, they’ll be bringing out another Gaiman fan favorite with Free Country: A Tale of the Children’s Crusade, which is important since it’s the first time that the two issues of it, written by Neil Gaiman, Alisa Kwitney and Jamie Delano, will be collected since their initial release in 1997. In addition to the original stories, the collection will include a new chapter completing this compelling tale of ancient history, stolen dreams and lost children, in the way Gaiman originally envisioned. The new chapter will be written by Toby Litt (DEAD BOY DETECTIVES) and drawn by Peter Gross (THE BOOKS OF MAGIC).
“A long time ago, I wrote the first part of a story, and waited to find out how it middled, then worked with Jamie Delano and Alisa Kwitney on the end. For years people have asked how and when they could read all the story of the Children’s Crusade,” stated writer Neil Gaiman. “I’m glad to say that it’s now been retooled and refinished, and is something both old and new — a forgotten jewel and a new delight.”
This edition will arrive on September 23rd in comic stores and September 29th everywhere else and will be priced at $24.99. The collection will also feature an introduction by Gaiman, and exquisite new cover art by Mark Buckingham.
Plot concept: The two-issue miniseries follows the Dead Boy Detectives who are on the case when several children go missing in a small English town. A series of strange and unexpected twists take them to Free Country, a place that dates back a millennia, where children never grow old and are free from the abuse and tyranny of adults. But Free Country is failing, and what it needs is the strength of five innately powerful children – including the young sorcerer Timothy Hunter – to restore their uncanny world to what it once was.
I really, really want to read Sandman Overture but I’ll wait for that story arc to finish and then grab the collected deluxe edition. I had the luxury of discovering Gaiman’s Sandman trade paperbacks a bit later than had been published so I could binge-read them and have that emotional continuity as the story progressed that I think you lose when you only get chunks of a story metered out monthly (or irregularly as Overture is currently – 1 1/2 years, four issues?!)