Author Neil Gaiman has revealed his plans to release a six-issue prequel series about Morpheus, The Lord of Dreams

Author Neil Gaiman became a household name in October 1988 when his Sandman comic first launched. The author hopes to recreate that feeling as he revealed his plans to release a six-issue prequel series about Morpheus, The Lord of Dreams, called Sandman: Overture.

The first issue of Sandman introduced Morpheus, or Dream, one of the immortal siblings known as the Endless. The ruler of a kingdom known as the Dreaming, the character was an instant hit, and when Gaiman introduced Dream's sister Death, it was an instant success.

The first issue of the new comic about Morpheus will be released this October. The plot of the story revolves around what happened to Morpheus before the events of the first ever comic, in which he was imprisoned by an Aleister Crowley-ish Satanist, Roderick Burgess, in the cellar of his tumbledown English mansion at Wych Cross.

"This is the one story that we never got to tell. In Sandman #1 Morpheus is captured somehow. Later on in the series, you learn he was returning from somewhere far, far away - but we never got to the story of what he was doing and what had happened," Gaiman said. "This is our chance to tell that story, and JH Williams III is drawing it. It's the most beautiful thing in the world."

DC Comics revealed that the want this "event" to last for at least a year and so have decided to release an issue of Sandman: Overture every two months. More details about the new series will be released at San Diego Comic Con, the biggest comics convention in the world, which takes place from July 18-21.