Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1

Creators: Neil Gaiman, writer; Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Chris Bachalo, Michael Zulli, Kelley Jones, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, Malcolm Jones III and Steve Parkhouse, artists.
DC/Vertigo, oversize hardcover, color, 612 pages, $99

So? One of the reasons comics were so long considered cheap, disposable entertainment is that was the way they were made. The traditional comicbook — a 32-page saddle-stitched newsprint booklet with a glossy cover — came about because it fit the technology of the era that originated the comicbook, i.e. the 1930s.

Hardcover have been growing in popularity in recent years, offering oversize editions with DVD-style extras, but nothing comes close to the insane beauty of DC/Vertigo's release of The Absolute Sandman Vol. 1, a 612-page massive oversize hardcover volume reprinting the first 20 issues of Neil Gaiman's classic and ground-breaking fantasy series.

This volume — the first of four that will collect the entire series — is the comicbook readers' equivalent of watching a pristine, newly restored version of "The Godfather" or "Citizen Kane" from the best seat in the house on the largest screen in town. With 18 of the 20 issues herein recolored and printed on a lovely paper stock that's thick but not too thick; glossy but not too slick, flipping through this book is an irrestible invitation to revisit the dreaming no matter how many times you may have read these stories before. The book also is expertly bound. You can lay it flat on the table without cracking the spine and see the double-page spreads stretch uninterrupted across the gutter.

Content wise, the recolored stories and larger format gives these tales, which were good the first time around though perhaps not as good as later issues, is given new life. To make it truly compelling, there is more than 65 pages of bonus material. Most fascinating is the original proposal for the series that Gaiman wrote in 1987. The proposal's similarity to the series as it came to see print is fascinating and shows just how well-formed the concept was in Gaiman's head before any sketches were drawn. Also excellent is the full script and pencil art for issue 19, the Shakespeare story drawn by Charles Vess that won the World Fantasy Award for best short fiction in 1991. (The rules for the award were changed immediately after this event to prevent another comicbook from winning it again.) This also is new content. Collections of "Dream Country" (#17-20) included Gaiman's full script to issue 17, and DC could easily have just reprinted it again

The price is steep at $99, and while that may be too much for many to afford, it's not an unreasonable price. The cost of the three paperback editions that collect the stories presented in Absolute Sandman Vol. 1 would run about $45 new; the last hardcover editions sold for about $30 a piece.

This is arguably the finest of DC's Absolute editions, which have improved in quality from an already high level to the level of minievents for such recent volumes as Absolute Dark Knight and Absolute Kingdom Come. But Sandman is the state of the art; it's hard to imagine a more lovely volume being published by anyone. Grade: A+