Scarce Original Packaging of Sandman
The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes & Dream Country
Publication: New York: DC Comics, 1991. First Edition.
Notes: The very uncommon original two-volume slipcased issue of the first two graphic novels in the acclaimed Sandman series. This is an unusual format for this graphic novel. It includes the first and third books in the series in a paper slipcase with a spacer so that the second volume can be added. The first three volumes are easily located with the slipcase—it's not clear if collectors assembled the sets themselves or if the publisher later issued all three together. Sandman revived a comic from the 1940s and turned it into one of the defining graphic novels of the 1990s.
"Sandman did not create the market for on-going graphic novel series... but it did demonstrate to readers, vendors, distributors, publishers, and writers that the future of comics lay not in monthly serials but in bound collections... Sandman shines as a highly original revision of familiar fantasy."—Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel. "The Sandman violates all the rules about what makes a character popular in the super-hero dominated comics industry"—quoted in The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel.
Originally published in comic-book form as Sandman #1 to 8 and #17 to 20. Beginning with volume 4 of the series, the graphic novels came out in hardcover.
Edition + Condition: First editions of both books. Fine in a fine slipcase and printed title sheet, still sealed in the publisher's original shrinkwrap.
Item No: #365031
Price: $125