tl;dr - I created a spreadsheet to figure out what Sandman comic issues are contained in which collections: spreadsheet.

Those that know me know that I will consume anything created by Neil Gaiman. Books, comics, movies, tv shows, podcasts, BBC Symphony Orchestra performances… anything. Look at this guy’s bibliography on Wikipedia: Neil Gaiman bibliography.

My latest consumption is his comic book series: The Sandman. It vaguely circles around Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams. I started off reading the paperback editions from my local library and was later gifted some of the DC Absolute Editions for Christmas. While I’m not big into collecting, I decided I’d look into purchasing the rest of the series. It turns out that purchasing all of a comic series is no easy feat. Putting price and spinoffs aside, there is still the daunting task of navigating the multiple overlapping collections that have been published through the years. I really just wanted to understand what’s included in each collection. The Sandman seems to have the basic paperback series, the Absolute Editions, and the Omnibus collection. I figured that someone else on the internet would have posted an explanation or graphic to sort this out but I couldn’t find anything. Exhausting my options I decided to make a spreadsheet (natural instinct) to try and wrap my head around it all. Sharing it below in case others are interested in this series and would find it useful.

The Sandman Collections spreadsheet: