Children of the ’90s rejoice. After a highly successful, company-wide relaunch of its mainline super hero titles in the fall of 2011, DC Comics is gearing up to expand its critically acclaimed Vertigo Comics imprint, with a new Sandman title leading the way.
Sandman Overture promo art
The Sandman: Overture, announced at last year’s Comic-Con, will spearhead the rebuilding initiative, which includes six other titles, according to an article published on Nytimes.com. The six-issue miniseries will act as a prequel to Neil Gaiman‘s cult classic series The Sandman, which quickly became Vertigo‘s flagship publication when the imprint launched in 1993. The Sandman: Overture will see Gaiman paired up with artist J.H. Williams III, known for his use of dark imagery and unique panel layouts.
Other titles planned for the new initiative include the post-apocalyptic Hinterkind, written by Ian Edginton, erotic-thriller The Discipline, written by Peter Milligan, and The Dead Boy Detectives, which centers around two ghostly schoolchildren introduced in 1991’s The Sandman #25.
The adult-oriented imprint has struggled to maintain its readership in recent years. New concepts have failed to attract the massive following that hit titles such as The Sandman, which was first published in 1989 and switched from DC to Vertigo at issue 47, and Preacher did in the 1990s. Many saw the departure of the label’s founding executive editor, Karen Berger, as a sign that the now-20-year-old imprint was close to folding.
With at least six new titles on the way, and May seeing some of the label’s highest monthly sales since 2000, reports of Vertigo‘s demise appear to be premature, at least for the moment. Only time will tell whether the mature-themed imprint can remain competitive in an environment dominated by DC‘s chief rival, Marvel Comics, and other kids-friendly companies.
