All of us Neil Gaiman fans are used to hearing stories about missing deadlines, or just narrowly meeting them, and we laugh and say “well, we knew it was going to be good, so let us wait.” For those of you who may not be as diehard, just know that this is how he has described meeting deadlines in the past on his blog:

I’m still in Deadline World, which is getting old fast, and no nearer to seeing the end of it than I was a week ago. It feels like I’m clambering up a sandy cliff-face, of the kind where, when you’re half-way up, you realise that you’re going to have to keep climbing as fast as you can just to not end up sliding back down to the bottom.

‘The Sandman’ prequel, ‘Overture‘ , by Gaiman and J.H. Williams III was released last month at comic books stores to tremendous praise. The next issue was to be released December 31st, 2013, but it was announced yesterday that that date will have to be put on hold until February 14th, 2014.

So why the sudden delay? When a fan asked Gaiman on his tumblr, “Is there a way to express my disappointment over the delay for Sandman Overture #2 without earning a reply of You and JH Williams III are not my b*tches?”,  his response was this:

“I understand your disappointment and sympathise. [J.H. Williams III and I are] both really sorry about the delay. It’s unprofessional, and is mostly due to the giant signing tour I was on from June, and me not getting script written on the tour, with knock-on effects. We’re hoping it’ll be the only delay though.”

This reporter has had the pleasure of going to said book tour, and experienced Gaiman’s dedication to signing fans’ books. As it was said at the signing I attended, this book signing tour is to be his last, so it stands to reason that the exhausting schedule of staying up nearly to after midnight at every location to sign books for every fan that attended can cause a delay in other aspects of his projects. Because of this devotion, I think fans are inclined to give him a bit of a pass here.

Still, it’s bit of a disappointment that an extra two months have been added to the production schedule, but don’t fear! There shall be more!