Neil Gaiman's Sandman became a cultural
touchstone during its original 75 issue
run from 1989 to 1996. It launched DC's
Vertigo imprint, brought Dave McKean's
beautiful artwork to a much-deserved
audience and helped pull comics into the
more sophisticated and respectable realm
of the graphic novel. Neil's contract
allowed him to close the door behind him
as he left. Ensuring the Sandman world
would not be tarnished, but leaving
readers craving more of Gaiman's unique
blend of history, mythology and a
dysfunctional family.
The Sandman was one of the first comics
to have a high-quality collectible
statue created for it. Released in 1991,
this statue was also one of sculptor
Randy Bowen's most notable early statues.
The edition was limited to 1800 pieces.
As part of the 25th anniversary of The
Sandman, Neil Gaiman announced that he
would write a new Sandman story entitled Sandman Overture. The Sandman Overture is
a six issue prequel and tells the story of
how Dream came to be captured by a mere
mortal.  To commemorate Overture DC
created a Sandman statue that was
available in two versions. One is a full
color painted statue. The other, we're
taking a look at here, is a patina
version. According to Diamond
Distribution, the colored edition of the
statue was limited to 5,200 pieces.
Although some DC statues have been
seeing additional rounds of manufacture
of late. Like the Sandman and Death bookends and the Vertigo Cover Girl's Death
Statute which debuted in February of 2013
and then had a second edition in October
2014. The patina version of the Overture
statue has a strictly limited edition of
100 pieces. This statute is designed by
JH Williams III who was also the
illustrator of the Overture prequel.
Williams is best known for his early
work with Alan Moore on Promethea and
in 2010 for his work on Detective Comics.
The sculptor is Dave Cortes.
Cortes does both hand sculpted and digital
models.
He got his start with McFarlane Toys and
eventually branched out on his own and
now has partnerships with Marvel, DC and
Disney. He based his models off the
Sandman overture artwork by JH Williams
III. You can see how the statue's
very similar to this drawing by Williams
which was an alternate version of the
cover of Overture #1. This was
also used to create a 3-D lenticular
color version that was an exclusive at a
comic book convention. Here you can see
the mockup for the sculpture. When the
statue was first announced. This is the
image DC used to market the patina
statute. The actual version is more
bronze, gold metallic look with the Ruby
bright red as opposed to violet. Both
versions of the statute stand eleven and a
half inches tall and weigh a little
over two pounds. The statue is cold cast
porcelain but I think the cape is made
of plastic, it's too flexible to be porcelain.
The statue comes with a Certificate
of Authenticity signed by Neil Gaiman.
This statue happens to me number four
of 100. That's also written on the
bottom of the statue. The statue's very
detailed. The fabric is flowing. The flames
lick it Morpheus's heels as he descends
the stairs.  He does have a bit of a
despondent look to him though. Perhaps
they were trying to capture the fact that
he was about to be incarcerated for 75
years. Then again dream never was much of
a smiler. When the Overture series first
came out they made a commercial and
aired it in Times Square on the jumbotron.
Here's a link to that video that will
open in new tab. And when the statue came
out DC collectibles made this cool
video to get everyone excited about it.
This patina edition limited to just one
hundred is a little difficult to find,
but the painted version is online at
several stores for just over $100. For
Sandman fans that want a little bit more
dream in their lives that may be worth
the price. We hope you enjoyed this
Unboxit of the Sandman Overture Patina
Statue. Please click our little green
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And feel free to leave us a comment. We'd
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unbox next.
