Sandman: Overture

I first discovered the Sandman comics during me senior year in high school. It took my a while to collect all ten, and in the meantime I re-read the ones I had. Then I hauled them all to college with me and read them again and again. Comics were about the only "for fun" reading I could eke out for a few years, and this series was my go-to. Suffice to say that, even though it's now been years since I revisited the series, I know it pretty well. It's one of those foundational works for me, the series that opened up all sorts of other possibilities for me and determined the sorts of stories I continue to gravitate towards.

I actually remember when Overture was first announced and then released years ago. But then I decided to wait for the trade to be released and then I more or less forgot about it. There were so many other books to read. Until I saw this by chance on a shelf of a brand new indie bookstore that was only 1/4 unpacked at the time. I snatched it up.

It was a pleasure to dive back into this world. Overture picks up some loose threads from the original story and ties them off. It answers a handful of questions, and shades in areas that I didn't even know were lacking. The epigraph had me looking for echoes of the themes and arcs that appear in the main series, and I was not disappointed.

I loved returning to this early incarnation of Dream, learning more about his family and his history, and seeing how that informs his eventual actions. More than anything I want to revisit the rest of the series now. It's been six years, and I think it's time to return to the Dreaming.

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