The Sandman Remastered Announced by DC

DC is remastering one of The Sandman‘s most memorable issues. DC released its April 2024 solicitations this week, including a listing for From the DC Vault: The Sandman #19 Remastered, a reprint of The Sandman issue featuring the award-winning story “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” According to the solicitation, From the DC Vault: The Sandman #19 will reprint the story with pages “completely remastered” by Eisner-winning colorist Steve Oliff, who colored the original The Sandman #19 release. Oliff will be working from his original color guides for the issue. From the DC Vault: The Sandman #19 will also feature a new painted cover from The Sandman #19 artist Charles Vess.

The remastering or recoloring of classic comic books can often be controversial among fans. A publisher usually goes through the process to make a well-regarded but aging product appear more modern and enticing to newer readers. However, the results can be disastrous to the original art (Marvel’s modern recoloring of its original Star Wars comics is a good example, in my opinion), and even when the colors are good from a craft standpoint, they may not achieve the same artistic or aesthetic goals as the original colorist. At times, the recoloring can feel disrespectful to the original colorist’s work, but even having the original colorist return to rework their art can yield something entirely different in tone from the story fans first fell in love with (Brian Bolland’s recoloring of Batman: The Killing Joke being a prime example).

From the DC Vault: The Sandman #19 seems to be a work done in the best of faith as all of the original creators of The Sandman #19 seem to be involved (Neil Gaiman isn’t listed as contributing anything new to the reprint, but given how involved he remains with DC’s , it’s hard to imagine he didn’t, at the very least, give a passing thumbs up to the project). The Sandman has already had its share of recolorings, with The Absolute Sandman introducing versions of the series’ first 18 issues that had been recolored with modern technology to make them better match the look of the rest of The Sandman series, which already benefitted from many advancements in coloring technology, all overseen by one of the series’ original colorists. The From the DC Vault reprint will extend that recoloring process to the 19th issue of The Sandman, though whether Oliff’s remastered work better matches the rest of The Sandman or intentionally stands out remains to be seen.

In The Sandman #19’s story, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” readers see the premiere of William Shakespeare’s eponymous play as reimagined by Gaiman, Vess, and Oliff for the Sandman Universe. In the story, the premiere is attended by the very Faerie characters depicted in the play, who react with differing severity to how they’re presented on stage. Meanwhile, Titania attempts to tempt Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, to return to the realm of Faerie with them. The Sandman #19 is famously the only comic ever to win the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story/. It will likely keep that distinction forever as the awards’ organizers changed the rules the following year to prevent the inclusion of comics in the category.

From the DC Vault: The Sandman #19 Remastered goes on sale on April 2nd.

• FROM THE DC VAULT: THE SANDMAN #19 REMASTERED
• Written by NEIL GAIMAN
• Art and Cover by CHARLES VESS
• $4.99 | 32 Pages
• ON SALE 4/2/24
• New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman presents a depiction of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as you’ve never seen it before!
• In this fictional retelling set in the Sandman Universe, Auberon, Titania, and an entourage of Faerie characters leave their realm to attend the premiere of the Bard’s latest play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. How will they react to Shakespeare’s depictions of themselves, and will Titania succeed in tempting Will’s son, Hamnet, to join her in the realm of Faerie?
• Featuring completely remastered pages from Eisner Award-winning colorist Steve Oliff’s original hand-painted color guides, this edition of Sandman #19 also includes a foreword by Oliff discussing the remastering process and an all-new painted cover by acclaimed fantasy artist Charles Vess!