The fantasy author Neil Gaiman made the dreams of thousands of nerds come true last week when he revealed in a recorded video message that he would return to comic books for a new story starring his most popular creation, Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, a k a the Sandman. At a Comic-Con International panel in San Diego, DC Comics and Mr. Gaiman announced that he would write a new Sandman mini-series, drawn by J. H. Williams III (Batwoman), to be published by the company’s Vertigo imprint in 2013. Upon its release it will be the first new Sandman story in nine years and will coincide with the original series’ 25th anniversary. That series, which Mr. Gaiman, above, wrote from 1988 to 1996, won numerous accolades, including a World Fantasy Award for best short fiction in 1991, the only comic book to receive that honor. Mr. Gaiman stopped writing comics full time to focus on fantasy novels, including “American Gods” and “Anansi Boys,” and children’s tales like “The Graveyard Book.” He has returned to the Sandman only twice since the series ended, most recently for “Endless Nights,” a graphic novel short-story collection, published in 2003. “I’m excited; this has been an incredibly long time coming,” Mr. Gaiman said in the video message played on Thursday. “It was one of the few stories that actually felt, when I finished Sandman, like I had failed because I had not told this story.”