The Sandman

I have been a fan of The Sandman comics since the age of 16. I was first introduced through my love of Tori Amos. A friend had lent me her copy of the graphic novel, Death: The High Cost of Living (as Tori had written the forward for it). I adored it,  then went on to read Death: Time of Your Life. Afterwards, I was left needing more -- not really realizing at the time that these Death comics were just spinoffs of something much larger. Then I found The Sandman, and I devoured it all.

I have never been an avid comic book reader, never been terribly into the idea of superheroes. They bored me. I've always liked the deeper and/or darker stories best. Even as a child, the only comics I had really liked were the horror EC Comics, stuff like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear. They were cute dark stories, but not terribly deep. With Sandman, though, I had finally found a comic that spoke my language.

The Sandman changed me at a time I was still forming the basic me-ness of me. I credited Sandman's creator, Neil Gaiman for a good chunk of my personality by the time I graduated high school -- not only him, of course. I mean... there were definitely some David Lynch and Stephen King influences in there, too. But Neil definitely contributed to my glorious weirdness, and I have since bonded with other weirdos over our shared love of Sandman. 

Many of the Sandman characters opened my mind to different sexual orientations and gender identities. The concept of being gender nonbinary was first introduced to me through Desire of the Endless -- my first brush with they/them. I really think that exposure has helped me to wrap my mind around it easier now, as some of my friends and family have since come out as nonbinary. I really don't know if I'm a more accepting person for reading Sandman, or if it was just my accepting nature and openness that made me enjoy reading it in the first place. Shrug.

So! I had a point I was planning to get to eventually, then I started babbling. My point: Netflix has just released a live action series of The Sandman this past Friday. Ten glorious episodes covering the first couple volumes of the graphic novels. I have been waiting years for this, hoping it would actually happen this time, praying they wouldn't ruin it. August 5 became a holiday for me. SANDMAN DAY. I've already watched the entire season and am relieved, impressed, excited for more, and worried that it could be canceled by Netflix before I get to see the rest of the story on screen. I need ALL OF IT. So if you're reading this, I highly suggest you watch it. More viewers means Netflix will (hopefully) renew it for another season and there will finally be good shit for me to look forward to and less of my bullshit self indulgent depression posts. 

Watch The Sandman and maybe I'll quit my incessant whining.