Neil Gaiman‘s brilliant comic book series The Sandman should probably never be adapted into a movie.  Even a TV series would be difficult because the books are so intricately tied to the varied artwork, styles, and tones of the stories.  But back in the early 1990s, Warner Bros. wanted to turn The Sandman into a movie even though Gaiman said [via David Hughes' book Tales from Development Hell], it would be “like taking a baby and cutting off both of its arms and one its legs and nose and trying to cram it in this little box, and filling the rest of the box up with meat.” (He does have a way with words)  However, he did try to “pitch/explain” Sandman to the studio, and he and artist Jill Thompson drew up some concept art for their pitch.  Gaiman has now tweeted the concept art, which was part of a pitch for a Sandman trilogy.

I haven’t read Sandman in a decade, but I can tell from the images that this covers the first graphic novel, Preludes and Nocturnes and maybe some of the second book, The Doll’s House.  Hit the jump to check out the artwork, and if you want to read the whole torrid history of The Sandman movie, be sure to pick up Tales from Development Hell.