In The Sandman comics, a library of impossible books is guarded by a librarian named Lucien. Over 30-plus years, author Neil Gaiman (American Gods, Good Omens) played Lucien to his own title, pitching script ideas to bewildered studios while batting off poor attempts to adapt the comic. "I really have thrown myself in front of a truck so many times over 30 years," Gaiman tells Total Film in the new issue, featuring Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on the cover.
In fairness, attempting to distill The Sandman’s mutable sweep is like trying to nail down a sandstorm. On paper, it goes a little like this. Launched in 1988, Gaiman’s series radically re-authored a vintage DC character. Lord of a realm known as the Dreaming, Morpheus (aka Dream) is a tall, thin, starry-eyed figure who, after a century of imprisonment by occultists, sets about rebuilding his kingdom. And himself. A dark horror-fantasy ensues, before increasingly ambitious developments. As Morpheus undergoes humbling changes in his encounters with complex human foibles, a vast cosmology involving Dream’s family the Endless, sundry demons, voluble ravens, occult investigators, and more unfolds.
Brimming with wit and wonder, heart and horror, literacy, and leaps of imagination, The Sandman sidelined superheroes to emphasize stories comics had not seen enough of. "There had never been gay people in comics," says showrunner Allan Heinberg. "Suddenly there were gay people and trans people and non-binary people and people of color. It was a very inclusive and loving and non-judgemental world. It captivated me and held me through to the end of its run and beyond."
Almost 30 years on, Heinberg is helping to put The Sandman’s first two collections, Preludes And Nocturnes and The Doll’s House, on screens in a 10-part Netflix adaptation, and it looks fantastic. See an exclusive image from the series below.
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Read more from the cast and crew behind the series in the new issue of Total Film, featuring our huge TV preview on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, House of the Dragon, Andor, The Mandalorian season 3, and so much more.
The magazine reaches shelves on July 26 and will be available to order through this link. Or subscribe and never miss an issue again and receive magazines with exclusive cover images and insider secrets. Prey is on Netflix from August 5.
