How do you pick your favorite issue of The Sandman, one of the most groundbreaking and critically acclaimed comic book series ever?
On paper, the comic — which was co-created by Neil Gaiman and is coming to Netflix as a drama series in August — follows the exploits of Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams and Nightmares. However, this lyrical and enchanting fantasy series unfolds in the most unexpected manner possible, as it spans hundreds of years, explores many different worlds and shape-shifts from issue to issue.
In one installment, you may find yourself in the perspective of a cat prowling the night, and in another, you could be following a Shakespeare troupe’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream or watching a DC Comics villain terrorize diner patrons over the course of 24 hours in one of the scariest comics ever. In other words, The Sandman has quite a range — and it may seem nearly impossible to choose a favorite issue. Yet host Felicia Day challenged Gaiman, star Tom Sturridge and showrunner Allan Heinberg to do just that in this exclusive video from The Sandman’s Geeked Week panel. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but none of the men could pick just one story.
“My favorite Sandman out of 3,000 pages is really hard. I’m incredibly fond still of The Sandman No. 8, ‘The Sound of Her Wings,’ the first meeting of Death, because that is the first time I felt like I sounded like me,” said Gaiman. “I loved Sandman No. 13, ‘Men of Good Fortune,’ meeting Hob Gadling in a pub over the years; and ‘Dream of a Thousand Cats,’ No.18, I thought I’d done something very clever. And Sandman No. 50, there we go, I’ll throw one [in] that isn’t one that we’ve shot. It’s called ‘Ramadan,’ and it was the Arabian Nights issue of Sandman. Still so incredibly proud of what we did on that one.”
Sturridge, who plays Morpheus in the fantasy drama, also shares Gaiman’s love for The Sandman No. 8. “ ‘The Sound of Her Wings’ is very important to me because it’s the first time that you see this complex, melancholic character interact with who he would regard as his equal, if not his superior, his sister [Death]. There’s a beautiful relationship there that was really exciting to explore,” said the star, who also named the frightening ‘24 Hours,’ ‘Hope and Hell’ and several others.
Watch the video below to hear more of The Sandman crew’s picks. And happy reading!
Also starring Jenna Coleman, Gwendoline Christie, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and more, The Sandman premieres Aug. 5 on Netflix.
Geeked Week is a celebration of Netflix’s immersive slate of storytelling across sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, anime and more. Check out Tudum’s full coverage of Geeked Week here, and follow Netflix Geeked on Twitter for the latest updates.
