Written by comics legend Matt Wagner and illustrated by acclaimed artists Guy Davis, John Watkiss and R.G. Taylor, this first volume is of the complete SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE classic Vertigo series and features an insightful introduction by author and pop culture historian Dave Marsh. The year is 1938, and the world is holding its breath-mesmerized by the onrushing storm that will soon engulf it in fire and steel. In New York City, one man's sleep is filled with tormenting visions of the evils that mankind visits upon itself, compelling him to act. And so, by night, Wesley Dodds lays aside the trappings of his inherited wealth to roam the shadows as the Sandman, armed with a tranquilizing gas gun and driven by an unrelenting sense of justice. Haunted and obsessed, the Sandman moves through a decadent, post-Depression landscape, stalking the predators who hide themselves beneath society's callous indifference to the weak and vulnerable. No one sees him at his work until he chooses to reveal himself-no one, that is, except the woman who is destined to be the light to his darkness.