The Audible "Sandman"

Radio plays and audio books aren't something that I usually have much interest in, but I'm a big fan of the Neil Gaiman "Sandman" comics, and the Audible audio adaptation is the first time the series has been officially dramatized.  With the Netflix live action series still far off in the future, beset by delays, I figured this would be a good way to revisit the material.  So, I signed up for my free Audible trial, and dove in.

The "Sandman" audio drama covers the first twenty issues of the comic and the first two major storylines.  It's roughly eleven hours long altogether, and is narrated by author Neil Gaiman.  The biggest hurdle the show has to overcome is that it's adapting comics, where a lot of the storytelling is done through the visuals.  There's a lot of additional narration and description provided by Gaiman to try and fill the gaps, which helps significantly, but sometimes falls short.  There's a section that pays homage to "Little Nemo in Slumberland," for instance, that doesn't come across at all.  I also found it curious that the audio series is so faithful to the comics, retaining the issue-by-issue structure, and even keeping in the odd cameos from "Justice League" characters that were meant to help tie the comic to the DC Universe.  The early days of the "Sandman" were very inconsistent and experimental, before Gaiman ahd really nailed down what the tone and major themes of the comic were going to be.  The only significant change I noticed in the audio versions, aside from the aforementioned narration, was updating a nonbinary character's pronouns.

Still, I enjoyed the whole eleven hour experience thoroughly.  It's been a long time since I've read some of these stories, and I got thoroughly caught up in many of the installments.  The era-hopping "Men of Good Fortune" one-shot worked so much better as an audio drama than I expected.  The African folktale "Tales in the Sand" is a standout for its excellent performances - and none of primary cast members even appear in it.  "Sandman" boasts an impressive roster of actors, directed by the venerable Dirk Maggs.  The headliner is James McAvoy as Morpheus, the King of Dreams, sounding exactly as broody and ancient and otherworldly as I hoped.  Kat Dennings' take on Death is a little on the bratty side, but she grew on me quickly.  However, the real fun is listening for all familiar voices that pop up in the smaller roles.  Michael Sheen voices Lucifer as David Bowie doing Lucifer.  Taron Edgerton totally steals the episode where he plays supernatural investigator John Constantine.  Andy Serkis does not get remotely enough airtime as Matthew the Raven.  Really, the only casting choice I take issue with is Justin Vivian Bond as Desire, who certainly has the right credentials for the role, but just doesn't exude enough danger or malice.

Still, I found myself missing the contributions of Mike Dringenberg, Sam Kieth, Michael Zulli, Dave McKean and the other artists who contributed so much to the "Sandman" comics.  From what I've seen from the reactions around the web, the best way to enjoy the audio drama may be to listen to it while reading along with the comics, if you've got them handy.  That way, you get the best of both worlds.  And yet, the audio drama is a perfectly good entry point into the "Sandman" universe, and I hope that we'll eventually get similar adaptations of the other fifty-plus issues of the comic.  I  want to hear Neil Gaiman narrate the ending of "A Game of You," and describe some of the sequences in "Season of the Mists."    

I also suspect that the Audible version of "Sandman" will end up being more to my taste than whatever Netflix is cooking up.  The cast alone would probably be impossible to match for a live-action adaptation.  Gaiman has also made it clear that there are plans to update and combine storylines from the comics - I don't expect they'd keep the one-shots like "Facade."  Still, I very badly do want to see the end result, and the Audible "Sandman" has only made that more obvious for me.    

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