Vertigo to Release Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition and Free Country: A Tale of the Children’s Crusade This Fall

Vertigo has announced that two Neil Gaiman hardcovers will be released in time for the holidays:  The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition, and Free Country: A Tale of the Children’s Crusade.

The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition features a new cover by series artist J. H. Williams III (Batwoman), and will be released November 11th in comic shops and November 17th in bookstores.  The hardcover will contain all six issues of the current Vertigo mini-series, including the gatefold from the first issue, and there will be extra features, including script pages and pages only seen in the special editions.  The Sandman: Overture returns to the hugely influential setting and characters of The Sandman to tell a story set before Dream became The Sandman, and it features many fan-favorite characters such as The Corinthian, Merv Pumpkinhead and, of course, the Dream King’s siblings: Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny.

Free Country: A Tale of the Children’s Crusade collects the 1997 two issue mini-series The Children’s Crusade, and will be released September 23rd in comic shops and September 29th in bookstores with new cover art by Mark Buckingham (Dead Boy Detectives).  In addition to The Children’s Crusade #1 and #2, a new chapter, written by Toby Litt (Dead Boy Detectives) and Peter Gross (The Books of Magic), will complete the story,  and Neil Gaiman will write a new introduction to the 200 page hardcover.

“A long time ago, I wrote the first part of a story, and waited to find out how it middled, then worked with Jamie Delano and Alisa Kwitney on the end. For years people have asked how and when they could read all the story of The Children’s Crusade,” stated writer Neil Gaiman. “I’m glad to say that it’s now been retooled and refinished, and is something both old and new — a forgotten jewel and a new delight.”