James Tynion IV To Write ‘The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country’ Featuring The Corinthian
by Olly MacNamee
James Tynion IV thought he was done with DC Comics, but then he was contacted by DC Black Label’s head honcho, Chris Conroy, who made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, as seen from this interaction Tynion IV has just shared with subscribers of his Substack free edition newsletter:
As Tynion himself puts it:
“There is NO series more important to how I see myself as a writer and a creator. You can see its DNA in each of my comic projects. There’s an ambition to THE SANDMAN that has always inspired me, the way it weaves together all of these wildly disparate influences, deeply human characters, and deeply inhuman characters into a world that crawls into your mind and lives there. The platonic ideal of a comic book series is the Sandman-sized 75 issue epic that takes the time to go down all of the different fascinating little alleyways it can find. THE SANDMAN is what taught me the value of a one-shot comic issue. It’s what taught me how close horror and comedy can exist on the page to one another. It’s what made me want to build worlds in my mind that I could explore as a writer for years.”
And so a thousand wheels were turned and as a result we have the announcement of The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country, with art by Lisandro Estherren and Yanick Paquette.
Here’s the synopsis for the new DC Black Label ongoing series:
“The Corinthian walks the Earth again.
One of Dream’s greatest nightmares, and a proven serial killer when set free in the past, letting him loose on the world is a dangerous choice… but a necessary one, because there is another nightmare walking America that was not born in the Dreaming—a monster that Dream, lord of all nightmares, did not make. What follows is a dark cat and mouse game, a net of nightmares that catches not just dreams but the people who dream them, in a journey that crosses all the most terrifying corners of America: the collections of True Crime aficionados, white supremacist militia camps, galleries specializing in the art of horror, and more.”
The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country #1 will be available Tuesday April 12th with the promise of introducing two terrifying new characters to the Sandman Universe: Mr. Agony and Mr. Ecstasy, “a deadly duo of killers slipping along after the Corinthian’s quarry, killing anyone in their path—including, if they can, a certain toothy nightmare.”