Sandman Mystery Theatre - Art

Art

The first artist was Guy Davis, who defined the visual look of the character. Davis changed Dodds from the traditional portrayal as a tall, square-jawed figure, making him shorter, round-faced and slightly overweight. He also gave Dodds a pair of round spectacles, visually echoing the round eyepieces of the gas mask he wore as the Sandman.

Davis also redesigned the Sandman costume. In the original 1930s comics, the Sandman wore a green suit, purple cape, orange fedora and blue-and-yellow gas mask. For Sandman Mystery Theatre, the color palette was toned down to gray, olive green and brown. The super-heroic trappings were downplayed in favor of a "real-world" sensibility, such as a trench coat instead of the cape.

For the second and third story arcs, The Face and The Brute, art was provided by John Watkiss and R.G. Taylor respectively.

A minor controversy developed around the second storyline, "The Face." A coloring error resulted in Asian characters being portrayed with bright yellow skin. The editor apologized for the error in the letter column of a subsequent issue.

Guy Davis returned for the fourth arc and the remainder of the series with occasional additional work from Vince Locke and Warren Pleece.