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Neil Gaiman's The Sandman ran for 75 issues; there was one "special" issue which told Orpheus' story, but it's not numbered. According to Neil Gaiman in The Sandman Companion, he was intending to end the series at some point, but it's not clear whether he intended the series to run for exactly 75 issues

Mike Carey's Lucifer - which uses the character created in The Sandman and shares the same continuity - also ran for 75 issues; it had a 3-issue comic The Sandman Presents: Lucifer - The Morningstar Option, a one-shot Lucifer: Nirvana, but those are, again, not numbered.

Both comics were published monthly, so I understand that they ran for the same amount of time (~6 years) - but what is the reason for that?

Is it purely a coincidence that the two series ran for exactly 75 issues? Was it a homage from Mike Carey to Neil Gaiman, and the series Lucifer originally was a spin-off from?

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There's not much evidence I could find, but it would be one hell of a coincidence

The number 75 is pretty specific. For two comics to stop on that number would be some coincidence, especially because it is quite a small amount of issues.

The only thing I could find which may indicate something was from the following interview:

Interviewer: How far do you plan on expanding the story arc to Lucifer?

Carey: Actually, we're coming to the end now. Issue 75 is going to be the big climax. Actually, that's not true. The real climax comes in issue 69, the end of Morningstar, but then there are repercussions from that which take it forward to 75 and then at 75 we stop.

This seems to indicate it was planned to stop on the number 75, though Carey doesn't mention why. It could just have easily ended slightly before if the climax was a few issues before hand, the repercussions didn't have to continue for so long.

It could have been planned just to end on 75 because that is quite a nice number, but I doubt that is the case.

It is most likely that Carey had noticed this and decided to likewise end on 75. The fact it was planned in advance to end on the same number seems to infer that it was intentional.

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  • That's good to know. What about so there isn't anything about a connection to Sandman?
    – Gallifreyan
    May 12, 2017 at 17:53
  • @Gallifreyan do you mean a connection in the ending or in general?
    – Beastly Gerbil
    May 12, 2017 at 18:00
  • No, I mean a deliberate decision to have exactly the same number of issues as Sandman.
    – Gallifreyan
    May 12, 2017 at 18:04
  • @Gallifreyan I can't find evidence either way, but like I've said it would be a big coincidence
    – Beastly Gerbil
    May 12, 2017 at 18:39
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    Indeed, I'm satisfied with this answer as it is - I'll keep looking myself and ping you if I find anything.
    – Gallifreyan
    May 12, 2017 at 18:41

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