Niccolò Polo (illustrated by Mike DeCarlo)

Niccolò Polo was a merchant traveler from Italy, who travelled with his son, Marco, throughout Asia and is believed to be responsible for establishing a trade route to Constantinople and the Mongolian Empire, where he met Kubilai Khan.

In Sandman # 38, we learn that Marco Polo is lost in the desert on one of their trips to Asia. At the end of the story, Niccolò and Maffeo find Marco in the sand, still alive.

While he makes only a brief appearance in Sandman, Niccolò Polo was very influential in helping form trade routes.

Niccolò appears a few times briefly in Soft Places, most notably on page 24, when he finds his son. >P> Mike did an awesome job with this character, especially given that this character is not the focus of this story. I like that he brought significantly more detail to the character than his appearance in the published comic.