The Sandman (Vertigo) - Spin-offs

Spin-offs

Due to critical acclaim and commercial success (at the time of its conclusion, it was DC’s best-selling series), The Sandman spawned a number of spin-off volumes. Subsidiary works include:

• Death: The High Cost of Living (1993): A three-issue, Gaiman-penned limited series starring Morpheus’ older sister Death. Takes place roughly nine months after A Game of You.
• Sandman Mystery Theatre (1993–1999): A 70-issue series written by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle featuring the Golden Age Sandman Wesley Dodds in a film-noir like setting. The character, who appeared three times in Gaiman's series, was revived due to the popularity of Gaiman's series. The two Sandmen met in Sandman Midnight Theatre (1995), and Dream made a few cameos in Mystery Theatre.
• The Children's Crusade (1993–1994): A seven-part Vertigo crossover starring Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, the Dead Boy Detectives, which ran through the annuals of the then-Vertigo titles Black Orchid, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and Arcana: The Books of Magic.
• Sandman Midnight Theatre (1995): Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman, meets Lord Morpheus of the Endless, the Modern Age Sandman. It was published between issues #71 and #72 (but took place during the span of issue #1), the latter of which showed Dodds out of costume.
• Death: The Time of Your Life (1996): Another three-issue, Gaiman-penned Death limited series, also featuring supporting characters from A Game of You. This one takes place after the end of the series.
• The Sandman: Book of Dreams (1996): An original anthology of prose short stories co-edited with Ed Kramer, featuring the world of The Sandman in some way. It contains work from some notable contributors, among them Caitlin R. Kiernan, Tad Williams, Gene Wolfe, Tori Amos, and Colin Greenland. Publisher DC Comics imposed restrictive copyright terms on contributing authors, causing a few to withdraw their stories.
• Mythos: The Final Tour (1996): A three-issue mini-series featuring Pain, written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Gary Amaro and Peter Gross, Peter Snejbjerg, and Teddy Kristiansen.
• The Dreaming (1996–2001): A monthly series set in Morpheus’s realm, but revolving around the supporting characters with little interaction from the Endless and focused largely on Cain and Abel, who have been DC stalwarts since the late 1960s. It was written and illustrated by a variety of writers and artists; Caitlin R. Kiernan wrote the largest number of scripts for the series.
• Vertigo: Winter's Edge (1997–1999): An annual one-shot issue featuring short stories from multiple Vertigo series, including short stories featuring Desire (twice) and Death by Gaiman with Bolton, Jones, and Zulli respectively.
• The Girl Who Would Be Death (1998–1999): A four-issue mini-series about a girl who challenges death, written by Caitlín R. Kiernan and illustrated by Dean Ormston with Sean Phillips. Death speaks in the series, but is never seen. The title character is the lover of a recurring character in The Dreaming.
• The Sandman Presents (1999–2004): A collection of limited series by various authors and illustrators featuring secondary characters from The Sandman.
  • Lucifer (1999, 3 issues)
  • Love Street (1999, 3 issues, featuring John Constantine)
  • Petrefax (2000, 4 issues)
  • Merv Pumpkinhead, Agent of Dream (2000, 1 issue)
  • Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dreams...But Were Afraid to Ask (2001, 1 issue)
  • Dead Boy Detectives (2001, 4 issues)
  • The Corinthian: Death in Venice (2001–2002, 3 issues)
  • The Thessaliad (2002, 4 issues)
  • The Furies (2002, 2 issues)
  • Bast (2003, 3 issues)
  • Thessaly: Witch for Hire (2004, 4 issues)
  • Marquee Moon (written in 1997, published online in 2007)
• Taller Tales (2003): A reprint trade paperback collecting most of Bill Willingham's Sandman work including Merv Pumpkinhead, The Thessaliad, and his contribution to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dreams....
• Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold (1997) by Alisa Kwitney and Kent Williams.
• The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (1999): A prose novella that incorporates a so-called Japanese folk tale into the Sandman mythos, written by Gaiman and featuring illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. It is not actually based on any existing Japanese folklore, but rather incorporates elements of Chinese and Japanese folklore and mythology into a new "myth". It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Related Book in 2000. Neil Gaiman announced at Comic-Con 2007 that P. Craig Russell will adapt the story into comics form.
• The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender (2000): A non-fiction work providing extra information about the series. Its first section discusses the ten Sandman collections sequentially, analyzing their meaning, explaining some of Gaiman's myriad references and sometimes providing information on the writing of the comics. It also features a lengthy interview about the series with Gaiman himself.
• The Little Endless Storybook (2001): A one-shot comic/story book which depicts the Endless as toddlers and follows Delirium's dog Barnabas as he attempts to find the missing Delirium, written and illustrated by Jill Thompson.
• Lucifer (2001–2006): A monthly series written by Mike Carey continuing the story of Lucifer following the events of the series. Evolved into a highly successful series paralleling the 75-issue structure of The Sandman.
• The Sandman: Endless Nights (2003): A graphic novel with one story for each of the Endless. They are set throughout history, but two take place after the final events of the monthly series. It was written by Gaiman and featured a different illustrator for each story. This collection is notable as it is the first hardcover graphic novel ever to appear on the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller list.
• Death: At Death’s Door (2003): A manga-style graphic novel, written and illustrated by Jill Thompson, showcasing Death’s activities during Season of Mists.
• The Dead Boy Detectives (2005): A sequel to Death: At Death's Door, also by Jill Thompson, featuring the two young ghosts from Season of Mists. (The title was previously used for a The Sandman Presents limited series about the same characters by Ed Brubaker.)
• The Brave and the Bold: The Lords of Luck and The Brave and the Bold: The Book of Destiny (2007–2008): Written by Mark Waid, various DC superheroes try to recapture Destiny's book. Destiny himself makes only minor appearances in the stories (specifically, in issues #4 and #12); although, obviously, he is (behind the scenes) the driving force of the stories. The Lords of Luck collects the first six issues of the series, and The Book of Destiny collects issues #7–12.
• The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (2008–2009): A series of 4 comics based on the novel of the same name. Adapted by P. Craig Russell.
• House of Mystery (2008–2011)
• Delirium's Party (2011)
• Untitled Sandman Project (2013): Neil Gaiman announced via video in the San Diego Comic Con 2012 that he and JH Williams III would collaborate to produce the story that was previously hinted in Gaiman's introduction to Season of Mists and in Brief Lives of Dream's adventure prior to Preludes and Nocturnes which had exhausted him so much that it made Burgess' actions capable of capturing him.