Fun Fact: the serial killer The Family Man was the main antagonist of a Hellblazer story. He murdered Constantine's father and Constantine killed him back, hens why he couldn't make it as the guest of honor to the Cereal Convention.

Something I just realized from this retrospective is how Neil Gaimen actually gave us a counterpart to Vandel Savage through Hob. While Vandel is an immortal who has used his time on earth to try and conquer it, even going so far as to make his lifestyle like that of a king and is firmly set as a villain. Hob by contrast spent his years of immortality in awe of what achievements mankind has made every 100 years and, aside from his business ventures, has led a humbler life than that of Savage. Sure, Hob had his low points, but as we see he was able to work things out and continue on, never regretting his agreement, he is neither a heroic character nor a villain, he is simply Hob. it's a nice bit of Optimism.

"Trust me. I'm a doctor." "I would, but you're a dermatologist and you look like this." Maybe it's like in that riddle where the guy with the bad haircut is actually the good hairdresser because he has his hair cut by the bad one?

I remember when that real life sleeping virus hit Kazakhstan years ago everyone was joking that Freddy Kreuger was real, I thought "oh no the Sandman has been captured"

John Constantine. It's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove."

Incidentally, there are many centuries old pubs in the UK and Gaiman was probably inspired to write about Hob Gadling and Dream by one of such places. And as for Facade, it's not really a story about suicide. The Elemental Girl doesn't ask Ra to kill her, but to make her normal again. But Ra only takes away the powers he gave, which leads to her death. It demonstrates that although Death is sympathetic to the living, really the only service that she can give to them is helping them pass on.

The reminder about ANCIENT EGYPT on a retrospective makes me wonder about a future one on Moon Knight

I always assumed Lucien told Unity about her place and all the rules of the dreaming. After all, Unity was spending 20 hours a day sleeping and was the original vortex. She could walk through the barriers of the dreaming and even make friendships in all that time.

For a guy disinterested in John Constantine, Linkara definitely went through some of John’s biggest hits in the last few months.

44:30 There are so many little touches that I love about this series. That moment when John Dee realizes that he is standing on Morpheus' hand? Straight out of myth. Specifically, Journey to the West. Monkey (Sun Wukong) terrorizes the courts of Heaven until the Lords of the afterlife can no longer stand it anymore. The Buddha himself comes forward and challenges Monkey to a simple task. Beat me in a race to the end of creation and I will forfeit. Monkey accepts, flies the end of time and space, finding the Pillars of Eternity at the edge of creation, writes his name on one of them and, just because he can, and he has no respect for anything, urinates on one of the supports. Monkey flies back and claims that he has won. The Buddha then holds up his hand and shows Monkey's signature on one of his fingers. Sun Wukong is punished, and the wise powers of the universe return to harmony. Fittingly, something very similar happens with Dr Destiny and Morpheus. Once the matter is over and John returns to the real world, Dee all but crawls back under a rock to hide and lick his wounds. Just like Monkey. I love this comic.

First, Linkara takes on Hellblazer. Now, he's reviewing The Sandman. He's definitely boldly going where few have gone before.

The “you were in the palm of my hand the whole time “ revel is from “Journey to the West”

Fun fact, According to Gaiman they actually filmed and edited Alex’s comic punishment for the Netflix series but apparently test audiences reacted poorly to it so they took it out.

If Choronzon had used despair as a counter to hope, it would probably have brought in Despair of the endless to the battle. In other words, all of a sudden you just brought your opponent's sibling in to help him. That would probably have been a bad move.

The funny thing about Constantine's name is the pronunciation is addressed in a joke in the Arrowverse during Crisis on Infinite Earths. When they go to see Lucifer, he addresses John as "Constantine" like wine, but John frustratingly keeps telling him it's "Constanteen." They knew very well what the pronunciation was originally and had some fun with it.

I rearly laugh out loud over Linkaras jokes but the "Nice ladies but there going to be the death of me"got me. 😂

Even Lucipher in the live action version of Chrisis on Infinit Earths called him John Constantine John "corrected him" and the Devil said, "Is it? I don't care"

So, I did look it up. Silver Surfer is apparently British slang for an internet user. Maybe he also had a computer that was pawned. Also, if you haven't listened to it, the audible series is AMAZING! It's what brought me back to the series and made me want to read it again.

"24 Hours" is one of the most chilling stories I've ever read

Linkara: "Starfire is sleeping right next to me right now." Starfire dreaming: "No, me and my sister don't need to rule the world. We already rule our owners."

It's here! The 36 part Sandman series! Thank you future Linkara!

It’s probably been twenty years since I read Sandman. But as soon you mentioned that moment in the Ruby storyline with the 911 operator breaking down in despair because the system is completely overwhelmed and people still need help I realized that I remember that one specific panel with perfect clarity. Yeah, that’s one that sticks with you.

I was wondering if Linkara knew/would mention but the character of Gilbert in this series is based on G.K Chesterton, a prolific Catholic writer, literary critic and one of Gaiman's influences. He's know for a few things like Chesterton's Fence-Basically, If you can tell me why we need this fence, then I'll let you tear it down. And the quote "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.” Although many of you are probably more familiar with Gaiman's paraphrased version "Fairy tales are true, not because they tell us dragons are real, but that dragons can be beaten"

The Element Girl story is about depression. Not the "I'm feeling a bit down" or even "I'm sad that a loved one died" type of thing, but actual depression where thoughts spiral down to become darker and darker, where any personal attempt at controlling it only serves to make the dark spiral of thoughts worse. It's a place where you need a combination of medication and professional help. And Element Girl apparently recieved neither.

With the Element Girl comic, i always read it as an ANTI-suicide tragedy. The hope she felt looking at Ra could've been used to pick her life back up, but by that point it was too late. Like someone falling off a bridge and changing their mind halfway through

Gaiman also did my favourite episode of Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife. Might not be in everybody's Top 10 lists, but I always loved it.

Fun fact: When Neil Gaiman originally pitched Black Orchid, Karen Berger at DC misheard him as saying "Blackhawk Kid" due to his British accent and was confused because DC doesn't have a character named Blackhawk Kid.

God. "The Sound of her Wings" is such an amazing story! Probably my favorite single issue in The Sandman's run (if we're talking about the bigger multi-issue arc, it would be "Brief Lives," the Destruction arc)

I like Sturridge’s voice for Dream personally. In particular the scenes where he punished the serial killers at Serial Killer Con and when he punished Richard Maddoc with ideas. He’s soft spoken but you can hear the power in his words. Or his disgust when he’s talking to Maddoc about what he did to Calliope.

Man, not only are we getting a retrospective of one of my favorite horror/fantasy series, but we also got a return of one of my favorite running gags on this show: “ANCIENT EGYPT!!!”

"What power have dreams in Hell?" I love this part. I Love the Comic. I love The episode. Don't care if some see it as corny or cheesy. I Love it

Despair does not defeat hope. Despair is the ABSENCE of hope. Big difference.

If you want a more pessimistic response to the “I am hope” move, I’d go with “I am experience.” As for the comments on the suicide story… it is a valid critique. I see what Gaiman was going for from a narrative bent, and I see why it could be viewed from his (or at least the story’s) side; but I have to say Linkara is right. A better ending for her would had been for her to have a life given back before Death came to make a final visit. But Linkara’s completely valid personal opinions on the covers are objectively wrong. ;) Also also... I'd love a Lucifer retrospective. That series was fantastic. (The TV series can burn.)

I do like them casting someone younger to play Dream, just because even in the comics he is portray as kind of young and stubborn. Honestly he mostly acts like a teenager in a lot of the early stuff. Low 20-s at most.

I do like how the series changed the Immortal story to go between Morpheus escaping his captivity and the dream vortex thing. A story about Morpheus remembering he has a human friend after being imprisoned by humans is just what he needs to wash away any hate he might have for humanity

I really like Hod Gadling's story. Has his life been better? Oh yes. But it's also been worse. And there's still so much he wants to see. Immortality is GREAT.

The impetus of DC’s Vertigo imprint, and one of the most impactful comics out there. The Midsommar Night’s Dream issue (#19) is one of my favorites. Men of good fortune and 3 Septembers & a January are other ones.

The first volume of Sandman was on the curriculum for one of the English literature courses I took at university, but I never got around to read beyond that first volume. Looking forward to this retrospective! :D

57:14 FYI, this is the first of two times that Morpheus laughs in the entire series. 1:15:45 Also, certain plot points in _A Dream of a Thousand Cats_ become much more relevant in the prequel series, _Sandman: Overture._

Sandman was my first comic book ever and has been a big inspiration to me since. Glad you’re finally covering it Linkara.

The retrospectives have always been some of my AT4W faves because moreso than majority of the other episodes, I really do learn a lot of new comic history. Sandman is a case where I've heard of its reputation and the character of Daniel, but not much else. Looking forward to this one!

42:27 The audiobook adaptation of 24 Hours is excellent & terrifying. Perhaps scarier because I can only imagine it versus seeing it in the comic

Sandman is the rare piece of media that emotionally broke me multiple times and i was forever grateful for it for doing so.

Given Death's personality it's pretty fitting that she likes Marry Poppins. After all, a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down. Oh and considering this released after Sage did his review of Death Note I just want to see what would have happened if Dream did his whole "remove delusions from serial killers" thing on Light.

The hob and Circe chapters made me realize that Morpheus being trapped for all that time was actually good for him since it humbled him and made him more easily empathetic, he’s still not that good at it but he comes across less cruel and more socially clueless

Captain Crunch, "killing during wartime isnt really the same." That's a good one.

1:11:00 Man after seeing all the stories that say being immortal would suck, this kind of story is a very refreshing thing to see

13:59 - 15:24 There's probably only a couple of seconds where Dream in the show looks like his comic counterpart, after he escapes and confronts Alex over his imprisonment.

1:09:55 while I can't speak for England their next door neighbour Ireland has some pubs that date back to the 1200s and some that are 1000 years old so it's not that farfetched an idea

The silver surfers were popular punk band at the time in Britain

1:14:40 - GODDAMN Linkara, I didn't expect to see you *murder* someone on camera! 👏👏

Apparently somewhere there’s a comic accurate costume test for the Netflix show that they decided was too silly

I absolutely love the opening credits for this! The criminally underrated channel @ProperBird has a video called "The Sandman: Morpheus, Why We Love Fictional Characters" that I think compliments this quite well. Also, Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions described the tv version as an adaptation that treated the source material as a first draft in a good way, in that Gaiman had 30 years of hindsight and the DC serial numbers being filed off due to copyright helped with the overall story and its structure, especially given how they adapted the first two storylines for season 1 and needed connective tissue between the two. The biggest problem I had when I originally had when reading Sandman was the number of subplots that contributed little or nothing to the larger story.

Tbh, I liked the show version of Lyta's story a bit more since they combined hers with Rose walker's more closely. Lyta isn't entirely alone. Morphous's tone looks like he's regrets to tell her this

Definitely agree with you about the show turning down the horror to its own detriment.

"They all start with the letter D because-" The Will of D.

As someone that has never seen or read the Sandman, that custom intro has me excited. Let's go!

This was a review so good that I immediately bought the Sandman box set off of Amazon after watching this.

My favorite quote from this is Death talking about how she'll be the last thing left in the universe.

I remember hearing that Neil Gaiman wrote issue 20 to clap back on an issue of Captain Atom where he met the Balck Racer, Nekron, and even Death of the Endless as various aspects of death. The problem was that it portrayed her as just a part of death and not the whole concept, which was the idea. So he wrote this comic to clarify that she is capital D Death, there at the first sunrise and the last one to leave the party at the end

Honestly John Dee is a good show of a good villain doesn't always need a sad or justifable backstory to be good. Just solid writing. Also because unfortunately in the real world there are people who are horrible just because they could be regardless of their childhoods. On the flipside Hobs is such a refeshing look on immortality. There is always somethng to learn and live for, and with immortality you get to see life from so many perspectives it's really cool to see someone realise that.

I actually don't love to revisit issue #20 myself, even if the story is great. But I think the reason for it is [SPOILER!] It's meant to mirror Dream's situation and how the only choices are you change or die. And like Morpheus, she, ironically, refused to change and think of herself like anything but a monster. Death tried to convince her to change, but she wouldn't, so Death helped her change in the only way Element Lass would allow herself to.

"Also, all their names start with the letter D." Oh man, I can't wait to meet Deez Nuts of the Endless!

Another bit of the show I like better is the implications that Lucifer needed hope too, and wouldn't destroy it even if they knew how.

A great little bit about A Midsummer Night's Dream is a little line Puck has in it, while watching the play: "This is Magnificent -- and it is True! It never happened; yet it is still true. What magic art is this?" Just a little clue about what the meta narrative regarding the power and importance of Stories is going to be.

Just so you know Lewis, we Brits actually have many pubs that several hundreds of years old. There's even one that has been kept in the same family for over 300 years.

Quite possibly my favorite piece of literature in existence. Gaiman is a luminary, and his praises can't be sung enough.

The funny thing about that Constantine pronunciation and Matt Ryan's Arrowverse version is they somewhat make fun of this in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event where Lucifer pronounced it correctly... even though it was done too service of portraying the dick who mispronounces another character's name wrong. And then Matt Ryan incorrectly corrects Lucifer. 😅

What's interesting is that the sleeping sickness in this story is actually a real, historical epidemic that isn't fully understood even to this day, though it seems to have had something to do with the aftereffects of the Spanish Flu.

Glad to see the Ancient Egypt running joke return. I thought Element Girl's story was anti-suicide. Right after she died, there was a call from that aid she thought wasn't talking to her, and if she had waited just a little longer, she would have noticed it.

I am so happy that you talked about the Sandman's history in Infinity Inc because I think that series is extremely underrated and important to Neil Gaiman's mythos

I loved that you called out Paul for being an idiot. I felt the same way the first time I read it and it said Paul didn't believe in magick.

There is a pub in Athlone, called Sean's Bar, that has been operating since the start of the 10th century. The structure itself has been rebuilt several times over the centuries, but the business has remained.

Okay. As someone who is almost finished reading the Sandman comics, currently in the middle of “The Kindly Ones”, knowing Lyta’s history and what happens to her later in Sandman… Damn. Just, uh… Ouch.

I hate how I could not watch this on the premier because i love watching and rewatching longer episodes and retrospectives. Great job as usual from our man Linkara, keep up the good work and thank you for all your time.

My favorite part is when he said "It's Mophin time" and Morphed all over those guys. Really spoke to me.

I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream before I even read Tolkien, & so I think it could be credited with instilling the love of fantasy in me. Afaik it has the first use of Titania & Oberon as queen & king respectively of the fae-folk/elves.

Watched the Netflix series and I started reading the comic in anticipation for this retrospective. It’s really damn good and it’s interesting to see how the DC universe elements were integrated into the story. Although I think I still prefer the Netflix version in some ways. Felt like it refined a lot of elements and they were able to expand on certain characters - like the Corinthian and John Dee. Also just prefer their version of 24/7 to the comic version. Feels like it’s much more character focused and expands on the themes of the moral.

As someone who very much genuinely wants to live forever, I absolutely love Hob Gadling’s story. Much better than the usual affair.

Super surprised you dont like Facade actually. That one was really resonant for me when I read it at first. I sorta get the discomfort at assisted suicide, but personally I don't think there's a problem. She took comfort in death. It was well and truly what she wanted, and it plays into the characterization of Death of the Endless as gentle and welcoming. It was a kind thing for Death to do, even if the story itself was sad.

I can imagine Dream screaming like a maniac to Lucien, Cain and Abel: I HAVE TO HAVE MY TOOLS! I never imagined I could make a Sandman and It's Always Sunny comparison but here we are.

24:43, hi Greek myth nerd here. There’s another Greek myth reference on this page as the women are called the Hecateae, which seems to be either a mistranslation or play on words on Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic who is depicted with three heads, like the witches here. One of the witches is also named Cynthia, which is apparently another name for Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon went by. Not only only is Artemis a key inspiration for Wonder Woman, she was also heavily associated with Hecate as both have connections to the moon

When you hit the line on "do you know how many spinoff series there are?!" I felt that. I love Simon Spurrier's work and 'The Dreaming' I let slide but man does DC know how to milk a franchise. "Sandman Presents:" is the new "Crisis."

I see dream is a firm believer in the gold experience requiem school of just punishments.

Now that I think about it, the whole debate about how Constantine is pronounced reminds me of the eternal debates over whether it's Raysh al Ghul or Raz al Ghul. In both cases, the world may never come to a consensus.

Retrospective time BABY! It's like a holiday! For DORKS.

I actually got into this series with the audio book. It's so amazing and James Macavoy is Dream to me. I think you'd like it!

1:10:01 you’d be surprised at some of the pubs in my hometown. One pub called the Nag’s head proudly claim to a 14th century pub which is still good.

If Dream was called Drama instead, I imagine King of Drama wouldn't sound as cool. It fits him though... he's definitely a lot of Drama

23:10 God who remembers the Justice League episode involving Doctor Destiny? 26:10 Americans tend to forget that they didn't invent the English language and most of their words, word spellings, and word pronunciations are changed from the original British English. Hence why they drop the u in worlds like colour. 38:44 Some of them want to use you, some of them want to get used by you, some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused.... 1:17:27 I've seen Comedy of Errors myself in my home Province of Saskatchewan :D It was v ery funny and the this version of the comedy used a Indiana Jones modern theme to it. :D 1:19:06 It's great to see that gag again

This has the first time that I've already read the comic before the review, so this is absolutely awesome to watch, thank you for doing this and actually getting me into comics in the first place!

Sandman is my favourite comic (maybe my favourite book) of all time. I own every issue of the first printing plus some multiples of the key issues. But I actually think the ultimate form of the story so far is the Audible adaptation. Unlike the Netflix adaptation or reprints or newer books based on Sandman its 100% true to the source material. Stays true to the horror material. Yes you miss out on the art work but Neil Gaiman does such brilliant narration, he contextualises and describes every visual element in such detail and like all good books you build on that with your own imagination (which is so perfect for the theme of dreaming) to build up your own unique depiction of the characters and events (it works especially well in "24 hours", the screams become real and cuts to black get replaced with vivid descriptions) l. And the cast is so perfect. I mean Kat Dennings would have been amazing as a live action Death if the time had been right. Same for Taron Egerton as JOHN Constantine (never liked Jenna Coleman in anything and i know it was a rights issue but ugh)... James McAvoy as Morpheus... Then Riz Ahmed, Andy Serkis, Martin Sheen, William Hope, David Tennant, Bill Nighy, Johana Lumley, Miriam Margolyes... Even people like Wil Wheaton and Kevin Smith making small appearances. That's casting far and beyond any Netfix show could imagine. Best audiobook ever.

The Anne Rice book, The Body Thief, is a good subversion of the "regretful immortal" trope, too. The vampire, Lestat, is offered a chance ot be human again for a short time by a mystic who has developed the ability to switch minds with someone else. The mystic will vacation as a vampire in Lestat's body, while Lestat will become human for a time in his. Lestat quickly learns to hate being human again. Hot food burns his mouth. He has to piss and poop. And he has lost all the invulnerabilities of his vampiric body. Even being out in the daylight quickly loses its novelty. Then, he has to spend the rest of the book hunting down the mystic, who wanted immortality and never intended to switch back with Lestat.

Gaiman also did a wonderful book about Norse Mythology that I recommend. He also did the magnificent "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" that gives a complete and satisfying possible conclusion to Batman's adventures that any Bat-fan should go read.

I say "Magus" the way its said on Disney's Gargoyles same for Mage, Archmage and so on. Its like the other day when I heard some one pronounce Gholdengo as "Go Diego" every now and then some one says a word in a very weird way

Sandman was what got me into comics as a whole, superhero and otherwise. The goth and punk kids I hung with in high school (99-02) and were huge fans so I checked it out. The literary tone is what first perked my interest, was big stuff like Vonnegut and Robinson along with dozens of others, and it had that kind of voice that spoke to me. As I slowly devoured the series over the course of about two years (I was a broke high school student who would be able to afford a trade maybe every two or three months and read it over and over) I became fascinated with how it fit into the mainstream DC universe. Diving into all those continuity snarls and the like made me fall in love with how comics generally create their worlds and give them life. And from that point on I was hooked, basically devoting my college years to the medium as a whole.

1:10:00 Linkara, you may be thinking of this from too much of an American perspective. Pubs are generally the longest-lasting businesses in Europe, so having one stick around for hundreds of years is not remotely surprising. That's likely why Gaiman chose a pub, in fact.

Respect for the strong foot forward. You actually riled me up a bit with your opinion on Dave McKean's covers. I find them absolutely perfect for the series, but I have a deep admiration for all of his work so I obviously have a bias (I'm also a big Gaiman fan). But like I said, respect for the open opinion. You gave it its due while fully explaining your dislike.

28:05 it's not lupus Lewis. If house has taught me anything, it's never lupus.

Great to see Linkara doing Sandman, one of the best and one of my favorite comics ever made; if anyone thinks that comic books can't be art; show them Sandman. Also mad props to Gaiman for having so much representation in these comics back then; even if not all of it has aged super well. Constanteen would be the correct pronunciation if you are an American, and ConstantIne if you are British; and since the character was created by a Brit and an American, I'd say ether is fine; and I did ask a former English professor about this and he said about the same thing and that we can never actually know how it should be pronounced since we don't know how people pronounced things back in the Byzantine days, which would be closer to what it should be than the Latin origin of the name. In short the English language is absurd and the pronunciation of the name of a fictional character is an absurd thing to get upset about. Also as much as I love the show, I don't think the actress for Constantine works. I'm fine with the gender swap, but she just doesn't give off the arrogance and attitude that Constantine has, Matt Ryan fucking nailed it though. People will also say Johanna isn't John in the show; and that's just not true, she says the same things as him, functions as him in the story, has the same backstory as the one from the comics, and even has the same nightmares. God I wish Etrigan was in the show, he's so much fun. I love Death in these comics, she's such a fun character and I love this interpretation. I love the reversal of tropes in these comics, an immortal man who always loves life because it beats the hell out of being dead is so hopeful and its one of my favorite parts of the comic and the show. That Joss Whedon joke was good.