Audible's The Sandman Reaction
Fri, Jan. 14th, 2022 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiraliciousWelcome to my slightly rambly, somewhat repetitive, reaction/review I keep rewriting. Hopefully, no spoilers.
I recently listened to Audible's adaptation of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman & Dirk Maggs. I haven't been sure what exactly to call it, as it has been listed as The Sandman, The Sandman, Book 1, The Sandman Act I, and The Sandman, Vol. 1, as it is the first part of a series. The adaptation is of the comics series The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, which ran for 75 issues from 1989 - 1996. This first book/volume/act covers the first three graphic novels; Preludes & Nocturnes, The Doll's House, and Dream Country, or the first twenty issues. The adaptation for Audible was done by Dirk Maggs. I have no idea how involved Neil Gaiman was in the process, but the two have worked together before.
Back when it was first being promoted, Neil Gaiman said this project was to be as close to the comics as possible, and I believe they achieved that. To be fair, it's been about ten years since the last time I have read the comics themselves, but this felt like an excellent/faithful adaptation.
For anyone that doesn't know, the main character, Morpheus aka Dream aka The Sandman aka a lot of things throughout the series, gets imprisoned by a summoning spell gone wrong for seventy years. He escapes into the modern day (1989) and, after avenging himself on what is left of the occult group that captured him, sets about retrieving his tools, which hold most of his power, and restoring the dream realm, which had fallen into disrepair in his absence. After this initial arc, the series goes into more “one-shot” arcs that take place in the present, past, the US, the UK, and various fantasy domains. And while they could seem like filler, they all have to do with change and how that can be difficult to deal with, especially for someone who is billions of years old, like Morpheus. At the end of the series it all comes together. For genre, I would call it horror-fantasy, leaning more on horror at the begging of the series and leaning more on fantasy by the end. Oh, and defiantly for mature audiences only.
Having it done as a radio show/dramatization instead of a straight up reading is probably what saves this adaptation. I cannot imagine the headache of adapting a comic book style story into a more traditionally written narrative, or really anything from a primarily visual format to a written one. Something would have undoubtedly been lost. Having Neil Gaiman narrate (or having a narrator in general) kept the same story structure feel as the comic. Each “chapter” seems to be an individual comic, like it would have been in the graphic novel, which I enjoyed, but it also makes for a less straightforward narrative story. But the comics were never a straightforward narrative. After Morpheus gets his tools back, it goes into small, stand alone stories. These stand alone stories do play a part in a larger narrative of addressing issues that happened because of Morpheus' imprisonment, general world building, and Morpheus' overall character arc over the course of the series as a whole. I can understand how this could be frustrating for people who were not familiar with the comics before they started listening though.
I was listening to a library owned copy of the CD version on my very old knock-off Discman that has some audio issues, so I am not going to talk about audio quality or the audio mixing.
When the casting was announced, I was overall excited, save two casting choices. I had some reservations about Micheal Sheen as Lucifer and Kat Dennings as Death. Not that I have an issue with Micheal Sheen being cast as Lucifer in general, just this particular version of Lucifer felt like an odd fit. After listening, I still have mixed feelings about this particular casting choice, but it's from my personal feelings about the character and about Micheal Sheen, not how he did, as he did do a good job. As for Kat Dennings as Death, she did an excellent job. Other standout performances for me were Micheal Roberts as Cain and Kerry Shale as Abel. They somehow sounded has I always imagined while reading The Sandman and issues of the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets. Also, James McAvoy as Morpheus, who sounds nothing like I ever imagined Morpheus sounding, yet is still perfect, Taron Egerton as John Constantine just works, and Bebe Neuwirth as The Siamese Cat gives the character a gravity and dignity she deserves. Bebe Neuwirth is supposed to be back in Act II as Bast.
I forgot that the Corinthian's story arc was this early in the series. It is my least favorite storyline, for a lot of reasons, the big ones being the Corinthian freaks me the fuck out in a very visceral way (which he is supposed to) and the storyline deals a lot with child abuse in various forms. But it's also an arc which brings me one of my favorite characters, and I had forgotten that was the same storyline.
It also reintroduced me to two arcs I had forgotten completely, so that was fun.
The first time I read the comics, it was my introduction to Neil Gaiman. Since then, I have read a lot of his work and listening to this, I recognize a lot of tropes and themes (and characters) he likes to use repeatedly that I couldn't have the first time. There were also a lot of DC comics references I should have gotten my first read through and didn't, but caught this time around.
I also saw a lot of people complain that the overall story was not resolved at the end. I am going to assume they didn't realize this is the first part of a series. There was something like twelve graphic novels and this only covers the first three. Audible has green lit acts II and III already though.
I do truly love this, but I do wonder how much of that is it's great and how much of it is nostalgia. Like, is this genuinely amazing or am I buying into the hype?
Final verdict: If the measure of an adaptation is its faithfulness to the source material, this is excellent. It retains most, if not all, of the original source material, and maintains the same feel as the original comics, even after jumping mediums. I might even like this better, as I have always been a fan of listening to a story before bed. But, if the measure of an adaptation is if it's enjoyable for new people coming in blind as well as the original fan base, that I don't know. I am coming at this as a long time fan and cannot come at it as someone who knows nothing about it. Most of the negative reviews I have seen are from people who are completely new and know nothing of the source material and most of the positive reviews I see are from fans of the comics. The main issue does seem to be people expecting a novel type format, not jumping around.
Basically, if you are a fan of the comics and like dramatized audio stories, you will like this. If you like Neil Gaiman, you will like this. If you need your stories to be a straightforward narrative, you will hate this.
I recently listened to Audible's adaptation of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman & Dirk Maggs. I haven't been sure what exactly to call it, as it has been listed as The Sandman, The Sandman, Book 1, The Sandman Act I, and The Sandman, Vol. 1, as it is the first part of a series. The adaptation is of the comics series The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, which ran for 75 issues from 1989 - 1996. This first book/volume/act covers the first three graphic novels; Preludes & Nocturnes, The Doll's House, and Dream Country, or the first twenty issues. The adaptation for Audible was done by Dirk Maggs. I have no idea how involved Neil Gaiman was in the process, but the two have worked together before.
Back when it was first being promoted, Neil Gaiman said this project was to be as close to the comics as possible, and I believe they achieved that. To be fair, it's been about ten years since the last time I have read the comics themselves, but this felt like an excellent/faithful adaptation.
For anyone that doesn't know, the main character, Morpheus aka Dream aka The Sandman aka a lot of things throughout the series, gets imprisoned by a summoning spell gone wrong for seventy years. He escapes into the modern day (1989) and, after avenging himself on what is left of the occult group that captured him, sets about retrieving his tools, which hold most of his power, and restoring the dream realm, which had fallen into disrepair in his absence. After this initial arc, the series goes into more “one-shot” arcs that take place in the present, past, the US, the UK, and various fantasy domains. And while they could seem like filler, they all have to do with change and how that can be difficult to deal with, especially for someone who is billions of years old, like Morpheus. At the end of the series it all comes together. For genre, I would call it horror-fantasy, leaning more on horror at the begging of the series and leaning more on fantasy by the end. Oh, and defiantly for mature audiences only.
Having it done as a radio show/dramatization instead of a straight up reading is probably what saves this adaptation. I cannot imagine the headache of adapting a comic book style story into a more traditionally written narrative, or really anything from a primarily visual format to a written one. Something would have undoubtedly been lost. Having Neil Gaiman narrate (or having a narrator in general) kept the same story structure feel as the comic. Each “chapter” seems to be an individual comic, like it would have been in the graphic novel, which I enjoyed, but it also makes for a less straightforward narrative story. But the comics were never a straightforward narrative. After Morpheus gets his tools back, it goes into small, stand alone stories. These stand alone stories do play a part in a larger narrative of addressing issues that happened because of Morpheus' imprisonment, general world building, and Morpheus' overall character arc over the course of the series as a whole. I can understand how this could be frustrating for people who were not familiar with the comics before they started listening though.
I was listening to a library owned copy of the CD version on my very old knock-off Discman that has some audio issues, so I am not going to talk about audio quality or the audio mixing.
When the casting was announced, I was overall excited, save two casting choices. I had some reservations about Micheal Sheen as Lucifer and Kat Dennings as Death. Not that I have an issue with Micheal Sheen being cast as Lucifer in general, just this particular version of Lucifer felt like an odd fit. After listening, I still have mixed feelings about this particular casting choice, but it's from my personal feelings about the character and about Micheal Sheen, not how he did, as he did do a good job. As for Kat Dennings as Death, she did an excellent job. Other standout performances for me were Micheal Roberts as Cain and Kerry Shale as Abel. They somehow sounded has I always imagined while reading The Sandman and issues of the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets. Also, James McAvoy as Morpheus, who sounds nothing like I ever imagined Morpheus sounding, yet is still perfect, Taron Egerton as John Constantine just works, and Bebe Neuwirth as The Siamese Cat gives the character a gravity and dignity she deserves. Bebe Neuwirth is supposed to be back in Act II as Bast.
I forgot that the Corinthian's story arc was this early in the series. It is my least favorite storyline, for a lot of reasons, the big ones being the Corinthian freaks me the fuck out in a very visceral way (which he is supposed to) and the storyline deals a lot with child abuse in various forms. But it's also an arc which brings me one of my favorite characters, and I had forgotten that was the same storyline.
It also reintroduced me to two arcs I had forgotten completely, so that was fun.
The first time I read the comics, it was my introduction to Neil Gaiman. Since then, I have read a lot of his work and listening to this, I recognize a lot of tropes and themes (and characters) he likes to use repeatedly that I couldn't have the first time. There were also a lot of DC comics references I should have gotten my first read through and didn't, but caught this time around.
I also saw a lot of people complain that the overall story was not resolved at the end. I am going to assume they didn't realize this is the first part of a series. There was something like twelve graphic novels and this only covers the first three. Audible has green lit acts II and III already though.
I do truly love this, but I do wonder how much of that is it's great and how much of it is nostalgia. Like, is this genuinely amazing or am I buying into the hype?
Final verdict: If the measure of an adaptation is its faithfulness to the source material, this is excellent. It retains most, if not all, of the original source material, and maintains the same feel as the original comics, even after jumping mediums. I might even like this better, as I have always been a fan of listening to a story before bed. But, if the measure of an adaptation is if it's enjoyable for new people coming in blind as well as the original fan base, that I don't know. I am coming at this as a long time fan and cannot come at it as someone who knows nothing about it. Most of the negative reviews I have seen are from people who are completely new and know nothing of the source material and most of the positive reviews I see are from fans of the comics. The main issue does seem to be people expecting a novel type format, not jumping around.
Basically, if you are a fan of the comics and like dramatized audio stories, you will like this. If you like Neil Gaiman, you will like this. If you need your stories to be a straightforward narrative, you will hate this.
