The Sandman Universe Nightmare Country (2023)

With the Corinthian loose in the waking world, it’s no surprise that people are turning up dead...although this time, they’re not the nightmare’s doing. (Well, most of them.) The Corinthian is following a trail of bodies to the mysterious Mr. Agony and Mr. Ecstasy...but what’s their game? And even more pressing—whose tracks are they trying to cover?

It’s not in the Corinthian’s nature to save a life—but if he wants to understand the nature of the Smiling Man, he’s going to have to protect one of the few people to have ever seen him. Unfortunately, considering the strict orders he’s been given by Dream, saving a life very much endangers his own...

The Corinthian’s hunt for answers about the Smiling Man transcends even his own self-preservation as he returns to the waking world—and his unlikely human partner—in defiance of Dream’s orders. But when he finds out just how many people have seen the Smiling Man? Then the bodies are going to start hitting the floor...

When Madison Flynn first crossed paths with the Corinthian, and saw his true nature, she reacted with astonishment and wonder, not fear. Across all his lifetimes, she was one of the only living things to ever see him that way. And now she will learn what a terrible mistake that was.

The ancient witch known as the Thessalian has survived millennia of human atrocity via her cunning and remorselessness. But for the last 30 years, she’s endured her greatest challenge yet: Los Angeles. Thessaly needs a change. A big one. And when she learns of the opportunity presented by the Corinthian's reappearance, may the old gods help anyone in her way! The horizons of the Nightmare Country open up in this standalone issue, as our tale grows ever larger and stranger...