Sandman, The: Endless Nights – Neil Gaiman
NF/NF

For sale: a Rare and Exceptional first edition, first printing hardcover copy of The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman in a Near Fine dust jacket. First Edition unstated, 2003 Vertigo. First Printing stated on copyright page.  Illustrated by Glenn Fabry, Milo Manara, Miguelanxo Prado, Frank Quitely, P. Craig Russell, Bill Sienkiewicz and Barron Storey.

The book is in Near Fine condition with clean illustrated boards with some dents on the back, strong title ink on the illustrated spine, clean page blocks, tight binding, no spine tilt, lightly rolled spine ends, mild edge wear, and rubbed corners.  The interior of the book is also in Near Fine condition with no other marks, inscriptions or other signs of ownership inside. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and bright, making it an excellent addition to any collection.

The dust jacket is in Near Fine condition with mild surface and edge wear, and no price on the front flap as issued.

Gaiman returns to the comics series that made his reputation with this new volume of seven gorgeously illustrated stories. In Sandman cosmology, “The Endless” are seven immortal siblings who personify abstract concepts: Dream, Death, Destiny and so on. This work devotes a story to each of them, drawn in distinctly different styles by an all-star lineup of American, British and European cartoonists and fine artists. Gaiman is famous for writing to his artists’ strengths, and he does so here. P. Craig Russell draws the surreal fantasia “Death and Venice” with the opulent brio of his opera adaptations. “What I’ve Tasted of Desire” is a darkly sexual fable, painted by Milo Manara in the style of his more X-rated work. A couple of the stories find Gaiman working in a more experimental mode than usual, notably “Fifteen Portraits of Despair,” a set of anecdotes and prose poems accompanied by Barron Storey’s tormented, abstract drawings and paintings. Longtime comics fans will notice plenty of inside jokes in “The Heart of a Star,” but most of this book is a red carpet-or perhaps a Persian rug-rolled out for Gaiman’s prose readers to see his visions turned into lush, dramatic images.