NEIL GAIMAN’S THE SANDMAN IS COMING!
NEIL GAIMAN’S THE SANDMAN IS COMING!
NEIL GAIMAN'S THE SANDMAN IS COMING TO NETFLIX!
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is coming to Netflix on Friday, August 5th and I’m so excited! And I want to share that excitement with you, like a highly contagious virus! Too soon?
I absolutely fell in love with this iconic version of The Sandman while working at Clay’s Comics in Hayward in the 1990’s. My older brother, Ross, had worked there for several years so I knew the owner, Clay and had even submitted an application to work there.
One day while walking home from high school I saw Clay walking down the street and he asked me if I wanted a job for the holiday season. I said absolutely and he ended up keeping me on after the holidays were over. As far as first job’s go, it was pretty awesome! We got to check out the new comics as soon as they came out, meet artists, go to conventions and I even got to go to San Diego Comic Con for the first time in 1997.
There were so many fun comics and zines, some of my favorites were Bone, Madman, Love and Rockets, Ghost World, Cometbus, Red Rocket 7, THB and more (but more on that another day). I really want to tell you about my all-time favorite comic and why I think you might want to check out Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comics and why I’m excited for the Netflix show.
Settle in because I’m going to give you a brief history and overview of the main characters, the settings and just enough about the comics and why I think you’ll love them too! Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything, we’re just setting the scene here. Alright, grab a beverage and a snack and let’s start at the beginning!
DC COMICS' ORIGINAL SANDMAN
Long before Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman was the original DC Comics character. He has had several iterations over the decades. Originally showing up in April 1939 (yeah dude, he’s old AF) in issue #1 of New York World’s Fair Comics wearing a green business suit, a fedora (m’lady) and a World War I era gas mask. The character, Wesley Bernard “Wes” Dodds had prophetic dreams of crimes and carried a gun that emitted a sleeping gas which he used to sedate criminals. He made the bad guys go night-night!
I haven’t laid my hands on any of these old ones yet but I’ll get around to it at some point. Amazon has them available for Kindle for $1.99 and just for transparency’s sake, there are some affiliate links in this post and if you purchase from any of them I get a small commission at no extra cost to you and it helps me keep this site up and running. So thanks!
THE FIRST REBOOT
After falling into obscurity in the 40’s, the character was picked up once again for a series that ran from 1974–1976 and was written by Joe Simon and Michael Fleisher and illustrated by the legendary Jack Kirby and Ernie Chua. Now sporting a unitard and a big flowing red super hero cape, The Sandman (now named Garrett Sanford) was accompanied by his sidekicks; two living nightmares named Brute and Glob. I haven’t read them but apparently this version of The Sandman released his pals from prison using a magic whistle. Doodle-oot-doot! Instead of the sleeping gas gun, he used a pouch filled with dream dust to put people to sleep, induce dreams or nightmares as he saw fit.
ENTER NEIL GAIMAN'S THE SANDMAN
And now we get to Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. In 1989, fantasy writer Neil Gaiman is given (makes? takes?) the opportunity to reimagine The Sandman and that’s when we get Morpheus, also known as Dream. And Oneiros. And Kai’ckul. And the Shaper of Form. And the Lord of the Dreaming. In the 75 issue series for Vertigo, a very cool and now defunct division of DC Comics, we see the Dream King in his realm which is aptly called The Dreaming. He has a helm (a more stylized version of the gas mask), he still has his pouch of sand but now he also has an amulet known as the Dreamstone. He’s dark and broody and his eyes are pools of black with white, shining pupils like distant stars. He’s very broody and he’s very, very goth.
The story starts with Morpheus escaping a waking world prison he had been held in for over 80 years. He had been trapped by a magician named Roderick Burgess that was angry and grief stricken over the loss of his son in World War I and he concocted a plan to trap and imprison Death but he got Dream (aka Morpheus) instead. Once free from his prison Morpheus goes on a quest to recover his three artifacts, mentioned above. And he might want a word with his sister since that prison had her name on it, after all.
Morpheus makes his way to his realm, The Dreaming which is the realm of dreams for all living things, to try to get his bearings after almost a century away. There are many denizens of The Dreaming and I’m curious to see which ones will show up in the Netflix series. Lucien the Librarian, and occasional raven, oversees the Dreaming and a collection of every book ever imagined whether it was written or not. He’s got a lot on his plate and probably a few plants to water too. Lucien is going by Lucienne in the Netflix series and is played by Vivienne Acheampong.
Cain and Abel, yes that Cain and Abel, live in the Dreaming as well. After killing his brother, Abel, in the first ever murder Cain was given the Mark of Cain and banished to the Land of Nod where he became a storyteller and caretaker of the House of Mysteries. Abel, being the first person ever to be murdered, was offered a job by Dream to be the collector, storyteller and caretaker of the House of Secrets. It’s incidentally right next door to the House of Mysteries which makes him next door neighbors with his brother who likes to repeat his original sin from time to time. Y’know, just for funsies.
And then there’s Mervyn Pumpkinhead, The Dreaming’s janitor who is voiced by none other than Mark Hamill! In this clip, Morpheus runs into Mervyn when he makes it back to The Dreaming after his long absence.
The Dreaming isn’t the only realm we get to visit in the comics. The comics take us to Arkham Asylum (remember, it’s in the DC Comics universe!), France, Jamaica, San Francisco, London, Hell, Texas, Egypt, Hong Kong, The Garden of Forking Ways, New York City… so many places!
Without going into too much detail and spoiling anything for you, let’s move on to Dream’s family, the rest of the seven Endless.
THE ENDLESS
Morpheus and his six siblings are collectively called The Endless. They are the children of Time and Night is mother to at least Dream if not all of the others. The Endless are the anthropomorphic personifications, here they are in order of their age:
DESTINY
The first and eldest of The Endless, Destiny is both lord and personification of Destiny itself. Blind, stoic and wearing a hooded cloak of an indeterminate color, Destiny’s duty is to observe and read his book. The book of Destiny, which is shackled to his wrist, contains the story of everyone and everything. Things appear in his book before they happen, but sometimes they appear as they happen. Destiny is focused on his purpose and does not meddle in the lives of mortals or involve himself in the affairs of others, he
The Garden of Forking Ways (mentioned earlier) is Destiny’s realm. Destiny can be found here wandering through it’s maze-like paths with his big heavy book ever present. The garden has, as the name implies, many forking paths and the realm can be accessed though any labyrinth or maze. Each path represents all possible destinies of past, present and future. When the seven Endless convene for a meeting as a family, Destiny acts as host almost exclusively and they gather here in the garden. At the center of the garden sits Destiny’s castle with his silent retinue of attendants. His sigil is, of course, his book.
DEATH
Death is Dream’s older sister. She is the embodiment of both life and death and will be there until the very last living thing is dead. She is there at the birth, giving the breath of life and everyone from stars to gods see her once more as she escorts each soul to its destiny. Death’s sigil is an ankh that holds great and mysterious powers. Or maybe it doesn’t and she just thinks its cute.
THE MUSE: CINAMON HADLEY
Death’s character design was based off of a friend of DC Comics artist, Mike Dringenberg, named Cinamon Hadley. There’s and sweet and touching article about Cinamon that was published in The Salt Lake City Herald Tribune the month she died, you can check it out here. She passed away after a long battle with cancer on January 6th 2018.
It seems to me after reading the article that Mike and Neil incorporated more than Cinamon’s physical appearance into the character. Cinamon’s loved ones describe her as being particularly accepting of people as if she could see past the exterior and into the person beneath. To me, that’s how Death shows up in the comics, she is this entity of love and acceptance, ferrying people to their eternal rest.
"You get what everyone gets, you get a lifetime."
Death wasn’t always always sweet, warm and charming. Billions of years ago she was once cold and pragmatic. She found hers to be the hardest of all the jobs of her siblings and it made her sad. So sad in fact that she stopped performing her duties altogether which lead to chaos. She was implored to return to her realm and continue her work and so she did but became “hard and cold and brittle inside.”
Then one day she collected someone who asked her “How would you like it?” Death decided to live as a mortal to see how she, in fact, would like it. She realized that at the end of their time, everyone should have a friend and she decided that’s exactly what she’d be.
When I watched this sneak peek that Neil Gaiman posted the other day, I was struck by how much Kirby Howell-Baptiste absolutely nails Death’s warmth, compassion and sense of purpose. If this is what we’re in for, I am so stoked!
ONLINE BACKLASH OVER KIRBY'S CASTING AS DEATH
I’d like to point out that it has always been canon that most of The Endless are shape-shifters and can change their size, appearance and clothing at will. Anyone complaining that the actor playing Death “needs” to be pale, white and goth (as if being white is a requisite to being goth) are patently incorrect. Which was also stated by Neil Gaiman himself. And Mike Dringenberg. Also, see the ‘Tales in the Sand’ comic panel posted under the Dream entry. He’s African in that story and Nada and her family name him Kai’ckul so there is clear precedent that they appear differently depending on who they are with, how they feel etc.
Listen, I get it, you’re a fan and you want to see one of your favorite characters exactly as you know her but I’m a fan too and have been for over 25 years. I’m even working on a collection of clothing and accessories called Nox Eternal that is heavily inspired by my love for Death (as well others). I understand the attachment, truly I do, but some of the comments I’ve been seeing on social media go way beyond a feeling of disappointment or loyalty to the original vision and it’s toxic and gross. Anyway, moving right along…
DREAM
You already know Dream by his many names (The Sandman, Morpheus, The Dream King, Kai’ckul, etc.) and that he’s the personification and lord of dreams, stories and all that is not in reality. And you already know that his sigil is his helm, his realm is called The Dreaming and you know about some of its inhabitants. So let me tell you about his personality.
Where Death is compassionate, charismatic and fun, Dream is aloof, insensitive, self-obsessed and doesn’t have much of a sense of humor to speak of. He’s a romantic but as you can imagine things don’t typically go well in his relationships and he tends not to take his breakups very well. Mervyn Pumpkinhead once commented: “He’s gotta be the tragic figure standing out in the rain, mournin’ the loss of his beloved. So down comes the rain, right on cue. In the meantime everybody gets dreams fulla existential angst and wakes up feeling like hell. And we all get wet.”
While he may be self-absorbed he is exacting in carrying out his duties and responsibilities. He’s got a close relationship with his older sister, Death, and an antagonistic and hostile one with his sibling, Desire.
DESTRUCTION
Destruction is the fourth eldest of The Endless. He is the only one of the Endless to abandon his realm and responsibilities and so is often referred to as The Prodigal. His sigil is a sword and he’s often depicted as gruff and broody.
DESIRE
Desire is the third youngest of The Endless and the twin of Despair. They are the personification of Desire and very fittingly lives inside the heart of a massive flesh-and-blood statue of themselves called the Threshold. Desire’s sigil is a heart of cut glass and is said to smell faintly of summer peaches. They are androgynous and gender-fluid, sometimes identifying as female, male or neither.
Desire’s sigil is a heart but don’t let that fool you…
DESPAIR
Despair is the twin sister of Desire and is the second youngest of The Endless. Despair’s sigil is a hooked ring she wears on her left hand which she uses to tear into her flesh. As one does. Her realm is a gray, foggy space filled with rats and mirrors, which she uses to look upon people in their despair.
DELIRIUM (FORMERLY DELIGHT)
Delirium, formerly known as Delight, is the youngest of all of The Endless. Once the personification of pleasure and joy, she somehow evolved in to Delirium long before the onset of the story for reasons unknown and unexplained. To the ancient Greeks, she was known as Mania.
Delirium’s sigil is a funny little swirl, but I’ve seen it represented as a flying fish.
MORE COMICS!
As far as newer titles go, I’m pretty out of the loop! I definitely want to make more time for checking out new comics and reading the ones on my list that I haven’t read yet. I’m really interested in checking out Paper Girls, have any of you guys read it? Let me know what you think or if you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them!
Alright, that’s what I have for you today! Let me know if you’re as excited as I am about watching Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman on Netflix, I hope I helped stir some curiosity and interest for any newcomers because the world that Neil Gaiman and gang created is truly fascinating.
-S.
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