Q&A: 'The Annotated Sandman' Editor Leslie Klinger

Expert researcher and editor Leslie S. Klinger is best known for his Edgar-winning book "The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes" and the critically acclaimed "New Annotated Dracula." He was also a technical consultant on both of Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" movies. Klinger's latest project was putting together "The Annotated Sandman" for Vertigo Comics. I had the opportunity to talk to Klinger about his extensive work providing notes and commentary for the groundbreaking and legendary comic book series.

"The Sandman" was something different for you to take you out of the Victorian era. That's why you wanted to annotate the series?

"The Sandman" is just so wonderfully rich. People saw that almost from the beginning. I also like the historical aspect. One of the things I said in some interview recently was that the academics have discovered "The Sandman." Comic book fans love "The Sandman." The people who don't know "The Sandman" are what I would call normal literate readers.

I find that I'm doing a lot of explaining to people about what this is and why I'm doing it. I'm delighted to do that because I think "The Sandman" is great literature. I think it deserves attention in the mainstream well beyond the comic book world and people who see it as kind of a one trick pony. It's a comic book but it's really special. It's literature. It happens to be graphic but it's literature.

I see Neil Gaiman as one of the few authors who have risen above being considered just a comic book writer.

Neil tells a great story about going to a cocktail party years ago and being introduced to somebody as a comic book writer. The guy walked away. Hours later he came back to him and said, "I didn't know you wrote graphic novels."

I got "The Annotated Sandman" in the mail from DC and was extremely excited. I couldn't believe that everything I ever wanted was right here in one volume with footnotes and commentary. Then I opened it up and it wasn't in color. What's up with that?

It's a real easy answer: accessibility. There are the trade paperbacks and they cost around $16.00 to $17.00 each. It totals around $160.00 if you put together a set of those. It would be around $400.00 if you buy the "Absolute Sandman" editions. I'm talking retail. It would have taken the price up to maybe $125.00 a volume to do this with the notes in color. We didn't think it would be accessible and people would go for it.

Frankly, it was a price point thing. People would be saying, "Why didn't they put those into the 'Absolute' volumes." It was a cost decision. To be able to do these for $50.00 a volume meant it would be black and white. They look great. I would read them in color if you've never read the stories [before]. Some people have also said, "DC didn't want to compete with the 'Absolute' editions, which are still out there." I'm sure that was part of their thinking. It was very early in the process when we looked at each other and said, "This is going to have to be in black and white." Everybody was cool with it. Otherwise it would have just been ridiculously expensive.

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Eric Shirey is the founder and editor of Rondo Award nominated movie and comic book news websites MovieGeekFeed.com and TheSpectralRealm.com. His work has been featured on Yahoo!, DC Comics, StarWars.com, and other national entertainment websites. Besides his three decades long obsession with everything sci-fi, horror, and fantasy related in TV and movies, Eric has what some would call an unhealthy love for comic books. This has led him to interviewing and covering legendary writers and artists in the medium like Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder, Steve Niles, Bernie Wrightson, and Howard Chaykin.