Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Video
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $3.99 shipping
98% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
94% positive over last 12 months
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
Follow the Authors
OK
The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1 Hardcover – November 1, 2006
Purchase options and add-ons
A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman is also widely considered one of the most original and artistically ambitious series of the modern age. By the time it concluded in 1996, it had made significant contributions to the artistic maturity of comic books and become a pop culture phenomenon in its own right. Now, DC Comics is proud to present this comics classic in an all-new Absolute Edition format.
The first of four beautifully designed slipcased volumes, The Absolute Sandman Vol. 1 collects issues #1-20 of The Sandman and features completely new coloring, approved by the author on the first 18 issues, as well as a host of never-before-seen extra material including the complete original Sandman proposal, a gallery of character designs from Gaiman and the artists who originated the look of the Sandman, and the original script for the World Fantasy Award-winning THE SANDMAN #19, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," together with reproductions of the issue's original pencils by Charles Vess. Also included are a new introduction by DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz and an afterword by Gaiman.
- Print length612 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVertigo
- Publication dateNovember 1, 2006
- Dimensions9 x 2.21 x 15.1 inches
- ISBN-101401210821
- ISBN-13978-1401210823
Kindle Comics & Graphic Novel Deals
Browse the latest deals and special offers on digital comics and graphic novels from Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse, Image, and many more. See more
Frequently bought together

Similar items that may ship from close to you
From the Publisher
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes 30th Anniversary Edition | Absolute Sandman Vol. 1 | The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1 | Annotated Sandman Vol. 1 | |
| SRP | 19.99 | 125.00 | 150.00 | 49.99 |
| Collects | Issues #1-8 | Issues #1-20 | Issues #1-37 | Issues #1-20 |
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Sam Kieth was born in 1963 and started his professional career when he was seventeen. Later on he sold some work to DC Comics and Marvel, where he illustrated Wolverine. In 1987 Kieth drew the first five issues of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and went on to create his own comic series called The Maxx, which was published by Image comics from 1993 until 1998. The success of the series spawned an award-winning cartoon on MTV, trading cards, a toy, and even some statues. This work is currently in print as graphic novels from DC's WildStorm imprint. Keith's recent work includes Wolverine/Hulk for Marvel Comics and Batman: Secrets and Scratch for DC Comics. He has also created several other creator-owned properties that have been published by WildStorm including Epicurus The Sage and Zero Girl.
Product details
- Publisher : Vertigo; Illustrated edition (November 1, 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 612 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1401210821
- ISBN-13 : 978-1401210823
- Item Weight : 7.5 pounds
- Dimensions : 9 x 2.21 x 15.1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #166,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #195 in Censorship & Politics
- #396 in DC Comics & Graphic Novels
- #466 in Fantasy Graphic Novels (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Important information
To report an issue with this product, click here.
About the authors

Neil Gaiman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including Norse Mythology, Neverwhere, and The Graveyard Book. Among his numerous literary awards are the Newbery and Carnegie medals, and the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner awards. He is a Professor in the Arts at Bard College.

Colleen Doran is a New York Times bestselling cartoonist whose professional career began when she was a young teen. She illustrated work for the Eisner Award winning The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, as well as their graphic novel adaptations of his novels and short stories American Gods, Troll Bridge, and Norse Mythology. She also illustrated Stan Lee's New York Times bestselling autobiography Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible Stan Lee.
For Neil Gaiman’s Snow Glass Apples, which she adapted and illustrated, she won the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation, the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel from the Horror Writers Association, and the Ringo Award for Best Graphic Novel. Snow, Glass, Apples was also nominated for the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for Best Graphic Novel, The Tripwire Award, and received an Honorable Mention at the Rondo Hattan Classic Horror Awards for Best Graphic Novel, as well as Eisner and Ringo Award nominations for Best Penciler/Inker and Best Artist.
She was inducted into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2007, and the Wizard World Hall of Legends in 2017.
Other books she has illustrated have won Eisner and Harvey Awards, and the International Horror Guild Award. Her essays appeared in the Hugo nominated Chicks Dig Comics. Art from the Troll Bridge graphic novel was selected for the Spectrum annual collection featuring the best science fiction and fantasy art of the year. She was Artist in Residence at the Smithsonian Institute and has lectured at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design and the Australian Writers Association. Her work has been featured in numerous galleries and museum exhibits worldwide, including a solo exhibit this year at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco featuring the original art from Neil Gaiman's Chivalry.
Doran’s A Distant Soil, which she created and published as a teenager, is now published by Image Comic’s Shadowline imprint. Vector: The Journal of the British Science Fiction Association declared it “groundbreaking science fiction comics…ahead of its time.”
She worked with Alan Moore on an experimental animated webcomic Big Nemo based on the classic Winsor McCay comic strip. On The Vampire Diaries she contributed as writer and artist for the comic based on the hit television show. She wrote and/or drew stories for various Wonder Woman titles from DC Comics. She’s also illustrated the works of Margaret Atwood, Anne Rice, J Michael Straczynski, Clive Barker, and official graphic novel works for legendary rock band The Doors, as well as Blondie, Melissa Etheridge, and Tori Amos.
Other credits include Amazing Spider-Man, The Teen Titans, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jessica Jones for Netflix, Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and various Star Wars and Lord of the Rings projects.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
Submit a report
- Harassment, profanity
- Spam, advertisement, promotions
- Given in exchange for cash, discounts
Sorry, there was an error
Please try again later.-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- The title pages for each "volume" don't have the text on them (which I miss).
- Not all the spreads line up the way they do in the paperback versions, but all the spreads that were meant to be together are likely intact.
- The absolute sandman contains the recolored art which I thought would be awesome but I'm weirdly loyal to the original coloring now that I see them together. In the original coloring, Dream's hair and clothes have blue shadows, but in the recolor his hair has gray shadows which just doesn't look the same.
It's not an easy book to physically read because it's huge and heavy, but it's beautiful and appears to be well made. It's nice to have the extra page space for all the beautiful art.
Until now I've been borrowing the paperbacks volume by volume from the library and got tired of waiting. This seemed like the best balance between the most economical and most high quality way to experience the full series.
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2022
- The title pages for each "volume" don't have the text on them (which I miss).
- Not all the spreads line up the way they do in the paperback versions, but all the spreads that were meant to be together are likely intact.
- The absolute sandman contains the recolored art which I thought would be awesome but I'm weirdly loyal to the original coloring now that I see them together. In the original coloring, Dream's hair and clothes have blue shadows, but in the recolor his hair has gray shadows which just doesn't look the same.
It's not an easy book to physically read because it's huge and heavy, but it's beautiful and appears to be well made. It's nice to have the extra page space for all the beautiful art.
Until now I've been borrowing the paperbacks volume by volume from the library and got tired of waiting. This seemed like the best balance between the most economical and most high quality way to experience the full series.
Anyway...Anything I have read of Neil Gaiman(a little of his production by now) shows how profound is his knowledge of mithology.
In "Sandman" (but quite the same can be said about American Gods, one of his novels) he founds a new Pantheon that comprehends gods from various and distant cultures.
"Sandman" is the tale of Dream (the Sandman, Morpheus, Oneiros...he has actually quite a few names!), one of the Endless. Dream is a principle, but he is also anthropomorphic, and for this reason he loves, hates and feels the passion of the humans.
The other Endless are Destiny, Death, the twins Desire and Desperation, Delirium and Destruction. They are more than Gods, and they have always been and will be there till the end of time.
As the story of Dream develops, he grows more conscious of his function and learns from his sister Death how indissolubly he and the other Endless are linked with the ones they rule, being both their kings and their servants.
This is the main theme of the comic, but there are a lot of stories inside it, all linked magistrally by the author. We understand why cats are our pets and not vice versa, we are spectator of the Midsummer Night Dream with Oberon and Titania, and we understand how great is the power of dreams, them being able to change the world we live in.
Sandman is really much more than this, but I have some difficulties with English (I am Italian, had to buy it in English 'cause in my country it is absolutely impossible to find), so I find it hard to explain all of the infinite implications this wonderful story has and I doubt I have understood them all, either! My apologies...
Hope I've convinced you enough to read it and then let me know what you think about it. :)
How times have changed!
This gorgeous, 7 pound slip-cased volume, showcasing extraordinary artwork and storyline, will absolutely enthrall you to the last page.
Be prepared to enter The Dreaming and the world of Lord Morpheus - like a dream you’ll never want to awaken from.
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2022
How times have changed!
This gorgeous, 7 pound slip-cased volume, showcasing extraordinary artwork and storyline, will absolutely enthrall you to the last page.
Be prepared to enter The Dreaming and the world of Lord Morpheus - like a dream you’ll never want to awaken from.
Top reviews from other countries
In an afterword to one of the later volumes, Neil Gaiman admits that he began work on the Sandman as a regular gig that would bring in a monthly pay cheque. It didn't take him long to turn it into something far more than just another job. In this, he was encouraged by his editor, Karen Berger, who seems not only to have given him an amazing amount of freedom but positively demanded that he take it and run with it wherever the fancy took him. Hence what begins as an apparently straightforward horror comic quickly breaks through the confining straps of the genre and takes flight, going to places few if any comics had explored before.
Even the early stories that most resemble horror comics are remarkably well-written, reflecting the fact that Gaiman is remarkably well-read. The first issue references the notorious 20th century occultist, Aleister Crowley and features a brief appearance by Wesley Dodds, the first DC character to bear the Sandman name. The third issue features DC's very own English master of the occult arts, Mr. John Constantine. Having the whole DC universe at his disposal, Gaiman introduces various alumni of the Justice League and characters from Jack Kirby's awesome Fourth World saga. Later in this volume, Gaiman folds his own flight of fancy into Will Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' a perfect choice of play for a book whose central character is Dream, a.k.a. the Dream Lord, the Changer, or the Sandman. The Midsummer Night's Dream issue is illustrated by the great Charles Vess, the perfect choice of illustrator. This issue is the only comic book ever to have won the prestigious World Fantasy Award for a short work of fiction.
This brings us back to Karen Berger, since I'm assuming she was largely responsible for teaming Gaiman up with the various artists who bring his stories to life on the page. The first few issues are drawn by Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg, of whom I'd not previously heard but who do an excellent job. After Sam Kieth drops out, the equally skilled Malcolm Jones III takes over. Chris Bachalo then steps in for an issue, followed by Mike Zulli before Mike Dringenberg returns with the most horrific tale in the entire run, where we meet the deeply unpleasant character known as the Corinthian. Move over Dracula, there's a new murderous menace in town with teeth to put your pointy canines to shame. Often in comics, when artists chop and change the changes in style are jarring and off-putting. With Sandman, they aren't. In fact, you get the impression that artists are being auditioned and selected for the roles they are to play and the stories they have to tell. Gaiman writes in another of his afterwords of the joy that he had in working with artists he trusted to pick up his words and run with them, often with minimal instruction from him in terms of breakdown or layout. The artists clearly loved to have such literate, entertaining scripts to work from.
Speaking of artists, it's impossible to talk about the Sandman series for long without mentioning Dave McKean. His extraordinary photo-montage covers gave each issue of the Sandman its highly individualistic look, making it impossible to miss on the stands. Some of these covers, all faithfully reproduced here, appear almost abstract until you look closely into them, when you find weird hidden imagery floating into or out of focus. They are genuine works of art. McKean has also designed the covers and slip cases of these Absolute editions and they too are a wonder to behold, dark, mysterious, enticing.
As so many others have said, the quality of the writing is what initially raised these stories high above the standard normally expected of a comic book. Add to that the editorial freedom the writer was given and the quality of the artists he was given to collaborate with and you have a nigh on perfect package. There are a few signs in the early issues of a writer finding his feet and discovering his characters, but even these are handled with such panache, wit and intelligence as to be instantly engaging. Then, with issue 19 and the Dream King's encounter with Shakespeare, it becomes obvious that this is a work destined to go beyond any previously recognised comic book genre and become a fully-fledged literary gem that repays frequent re-reading. A triumph for all concerned. And that includes the oft-overlooked letterer, Todd Klein, who goes above and beyond the call of duty, creating entire new fonts to differentiate major characters from one another or to match the style of a particular tale. Just brilliant.
Last to be congratulated are the DC design and production team and the printers who physically put the thing together. These are books as works of art. The thick, sturdy slip case, bearing beautiful Dave McKean designs front and back, looks as though it'll last a lifetime. The book itself, again graced by Dave McKean designs, is bound in jet black faux leather, stamped with silver lettering and an impressed design of a lock and key. The book is about 50% larger in area than the original comic book size, which really enhances the often incredibly detailed artwork. The print quality is excellent throughout, the blacks clear and crisp, the colours perfectly balanced.
I'd read all these stories before in paperback editions, but it has been a huge pleasure re-reading them in this sumptuous format. If you're going to read the Sandman, this is definitely the way to do it. Pick up these volumes while you can. Pass them on to your children and grandchildren (but not until they're at least sixteen unless you want to give them nightmares for life!). These are stories to last the ages in a form to do them justice. Well done, DC!
Hey, I nearly forgot, just to top things off there are 66 pages of extras including the full script and original pencil art for the 'Midsummer Night's Dream' episode. Yeah!
Per i collezionisti segnalo che ovviamente quella spedita e la "nuova" ristampa, cioè quella (purtroppo) senza l'etichetta Vertigo ma con quella DC
It's a fantastic piece to add to your collection, highly recommended.
Note: some people are complaining about the binding not being great. I would agree - however, I would also note that because it's such a huge book you're best reading it on a surface, and not treating it roughly as you would a cheap paperback.
To review all the Absolute Sandman volumes and Absolute Death first in terms of their quality, these are every bit as well made and high quality as you'd expect from the price. Bound in faux leather and with glossy pages, bookmark ribbons and beautifully designed hardcover slipcases, these are tomes the quality of which would make wizards and priests envious. Not only that, the artwork has been re-coloured to make it the best that it can be.
Absolute Sandman Volume 1 contains the first twenty issues as well as many, many pages of wonderful miscellany. I know each volume contains something extra that the ten standard collections do not, so this is surely the ultimate treasure for any fan of The Endless.
I read the first story arc (which would be volume 1 of the standard collections) with the same awe and reverence that I have described hearing from others. Captivating, spellbinding, shocking and amazing - it has already entranced me into an avid fan. There's now something of a new ritual in my life. Each day I pick up a slipcase, tip out an absolute edition, sit down on the bed and read no more, no less than one chapter, put the volume back in the slipcase and stand it back with the others in its pride of place on a very sturdy shelf.



















