And Then I Read: THE SANDMAN OVERSIZE SPECIAL 1

Image © DC Entertainment. New Sandman stories by Dan Jurgens and Jon Bogdanove, and Steve Orlando, Rick Leonardi and Dan Green. Colors by Steve Buccellato and Roberto Flores.  Letters by Wille Schubert and Wes Abbott. Cover by Paul Pope and Lovern Kindzierski. And how annoying is it that the letterers aren’t credited on the Comixology credits page that begins all their offerings? Very.

I loved the first issue of Simon and Kirby’s 1970s SANDMAN, and liked the remaining issues pretty well. The characters are bombastic and silly, but both these stories capture the Kirby feel in the script and art, and are a fun, nostalgic revisit. Both stories are elevated a little above the average comics slugfest by their unique connections to Jack Kirby, each in its own way, but the most fun is in the art, really. Rounding out the book are short backup stories, “Tales of the DNA Project,” that Kirby did for his run on JIMMY OLSEN. This comic seems to hit all the marks for the Kirby 100 project and go just above them.

Recommended.