'The Sandman': Landmark Comic Series Gets A Rigidly Faithful Audio Drama Adaptation
The moment it arrived on comics shelves in 1988, The Sandman was already its own distinct, idiosyncratic — and wholly weird — thing. Which is probably one reason it's resisted adaptation to any other medium for over three decades, despite repeated attempts.
The series, which ran for 75 issues, was written by Neil Gaiman and featured a series of artists including Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, Chris Bachalo, Kelley Jones and many more.
It's the story of Morpheus, immortal Lord of Dreams — informally referred to as "Dream" — who is one of a group of siblings tasked to watch over various aspects of reality; conveniently, their names all happen to begin with the same voiced, aspirated stop-consonant: Death, Desire, Destiny, Despair, etc.
When we meet Dream #1, he has been trapped by a mortal occultist. Stripped of his power and far from his home — an infinite, ever-shifting realm we mortals visit while we sleep — Dream waits and watches for his opportunity to escape. When he does, he sets about reclaiming his tools of office and rebuilding his kingdom. Over the course of the series' run, Dream rubbed his bony, alabaster-white shoulders with gods and monsters from the myths and folklore of many cultures. It grew into a epic, intricately plotted tale that gifted its hero with the one thing comic book characters like him only rarely get to experience — a definitive ending.
