New SANDMAN trade dress revealed

I want so much to read ABSOLUTE SADMAN.

Wasn’t that a Jolly Jack Kirby creation?

I feel like they bring out new covers every two years. My collection is hopelessly mismatched. (Not for lack of trying or replacement rate.)

Good to hear that the re-coloring job will be available to people who can’t afford Absolute Sandman. But why, oh why, did the cover designer make it so difficult to see the “Sandman” title on those covers? It’s fine (and a good idea) to have “Neil Gaiman” be the most noticeable thing on there, but the title of the book doesn’t exactly jump off the page. Bad design choice, if you ask me.

Looking forward to upgrading some of my early paperback editions where the coloring is truly distracting due to the difference in gloss between the black ink and the other colors.

“It’s fine (and a good idea) to have “Neil Gaiman” be the most noticeable thing on there, but the title of the book doesn’t exactly jump off the page.”

If you try to make everything jump off the page nothing will.

I wasn’t saying have everything jump off the page. But the title of the book surely deserves to do that, don’t you agree?

For those keeping track, these volumes will have new EANs.

Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes
978-1-4012-2575-9 $19.99 TPB
will pub around April 2010.

The ten trades cost $199.90 in paperback. The four slipcased hardcovers of the Absolute Sandman, with supplemental material, costs $396, or about twice the cost of the trades.

As for the trade dress, I suspect the spine will be more legible. The cover image grabs your attention, but most stores will spine the one copy they keep in stock.

From what I remember of the Absolutes… only the first volume had awful coloring. The rest required minimal restoration.

And with these new covers, will DC reissue The Collected Sandman Covers?

I like the esoteric quality of printing gafs myself. I think it adds an interesting dimension to Brief Lives that Delirium’s eyes are often not how they are described by her peers or a supposedly omniscient narrator.

Would love to see a fifth absolute volume collecting the subsequent Gaiman Sandman material. In particular Endless nights, and both versions of the Dream Hunters.

does anyone else hate the re-coloring and paper stock of the new sandmans?

i wouldn’t be shocked if if i was the only one who preferred the old coloring and toothy newspint, but it’s still how i feel

… Goddamn. They’re making the recolored versions available to the common folk? That’s… something that might actually get me to rebuy this series.

I love older comics, I do, but I’m spoiled by today’s colorists, so sue me.

Does anyone know how many of the volumes they needed to recolor? By the end of the series, it looked really good and didn’t really need it, so I suspect they didn’t do the whole thing.

Those are gorgeous, and I appreciate that Neil Gaiman is the big draw for these. At the same time, the artists’ names on those covers are so much less prominent, shuffled down to the bottom, even fading into the background a little on that Doll’s House cover.

These are *comics* – the artists are vital contributors to these works, not an afterthought.

I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who finds the color in the glossy trades garish and distracting. The original newsprint editions are far superior in achieving the tone the book was aiming for.
But it’s enough with the changing trade dress every few years. And they’ve missed the mark with every attempt. The first thing one’s eye should be drawn to on every cover is the SANDMAN logo.
A very lovely fail, but a fail nonetheless.

Anyone who thinks the Sandman character is a bigger draw than Neil Gaiman should not be allowed with a marketing job, is all.

Am I the only person who finds these covers overdesigned and hideously unappealing?

No, Sandman is not a “bigger draw” than Gaiman, but the logos are lost. The eye is drawn first to Gaiman’s name, then to the volume’s title. The series’ title is lost. (It’s particularly lost on “A Doll’s House”)Placing Gaiman’s name above the Sandman logo might have been a better choice. Actually, a bolder logo -perhaps in a black box- might have helped. Logo size would be less of an issue then.

Hello i just got a alert from my antivirus when i opened your website do you happen to know how come this occured? Could it maybe from your advertising or something? Thanks, really odd i pray it was harmless?