Now you can own a piece of comic book movie history that never was, as Jill Thompson not only reveals never-before-seen concept art for a The Sandman movie pitch by Neil Gaiman, based on his massively popular Vertigo series about the King of Dreams, but makes it available to buy online. Linking to the images on Twitter, Gaiman explained that "Some years ago, I had to pitch/explain Sandman to [Warner Bros.]. [Thompson] illustrated the pitch. That art's for sale."

The art turns out to be twenty-seven watercolor images of characters and situations from the entire seventy-five issue run of the original series, including not only the expected Sandman aka Morpheus ala Dream and his sister Death, but also the Corinthian, Daniel, Hob Gadling and many, many more characters, with scenes familiar from the Doll's House, Brief Lives and The Kindly Ones arcs, amongst others.

Thompson's connection with The Sandman goes beyond her work on Gaiman's series; the Scary Godmother creator has also written and drawn numerous spin-off projects, including The Little Endless Storybook and its sequel Delirium's Party, Death: At Death's Door, and The Dead Boy Detectives. Her most recent comic book work has been the wonderful Beasts of Burden, written by Evan Dorkin.

You can view select images below (which we've placed in roughly narrative order), and browse -- and shop for -- the entire series of images here.