The Sandman audiobook is about “one sixth” of what we’re going to get

Audible has adapted the first few volumes of The Sandman as an audiobook. With its resounding success, we can expect the whole thing to come out way.

There has never been a better time to get into Neil Gaiman’s seminal DC/Vertigo comic book series, The Sandman. The first volume was published way back in 1989 and eventually spanned 10 enduring volumes, plus various other stories attached to the wider Sandman Universe.

Over the years, the show never had much luck with adaptations. However, Audible’s recent audiobook version of the first three volumes became a New York Times bestseller, and there’s a live-action Netflix adaptation on the way, so things are changing.

The Audible dramatization boasts an impressive cast, including James McAvoy (Dream), Kat Dennings (Death), Michael Sheen (Lucifer), Riz Ahmed (The Corinthian), and Andy Serkis (Matthew the Raven). It’s narrated by Neil Gaiman himself, and produced by acclaimed audiobook director Dirk Maggs, whose previous credits include audiobook adaptations of Alien: Out of the Shadows and an audio dramatization of Gaiman’s other book Stardust. The list goes on.

Last week, Gaiman took part in a virtual Sandman panel at New York Comic-Con, alongside McAvoy, writer Dirk Maggs and audiobook composer James Hannigan, with Kevin Smith on board as host! We learned that the current audiobook offering is only one sixth of what we’ll have when the whole thing is complete.

Maggs simply said that they’ll be adapting “all of it.” What we have at the moment only covers the first three volumes of The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, A Doll’s House and Dream Country.

Gaiman also explained why they decided to make an audiobook in the first place: “People who are visually impaired, or what I’ll call comics impaired — people whose brains don’t get comics — don’t get Sandman . . . we were making this thing that, yes, people who love audiobooks will get, but also the people who are visually impaired will be able to get Sandman.”

At another point, just for fun, each panelist picked the character they relate to most. Dirk Maggs likes Fiddler’s Green, while McAvoy is a fan of John Constantine. Strangely, Gaiman likes to think he relates to Merv Pumpkinhead, the sarcastic janitor of the Dreaming.

With a Netflix TV show on the horizon, the comics and audiobook both represent a fantastic way to get into the wonderful world of The Sandman. You can buy the audiobook here on Audible.

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h/t Polygon