The time George R.R. Martin rejected Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman

Few comic books are as beloved as Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. His epic, enchanting series is considered a defining work of the medium, telling the story of the Lord of Dreams, Morpheus, as he goes about his duties as one of the Endless.

But before The Sandman became a smash hit, the premise was initially deemed too risky for publication. Even acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin rejected an early version of it from Gaiman.

Martin laid out the story to MTV way back in 2012, when Martin’s profile was starting to rise thanks to the recent premiere of Game of Thrones. As Martin told it, back in 1987, Gaiman pitched him a story about “a guy who lives in dream” to be included in an upcoming collection of Martin’s long-running Wild Cards series. Gaiman wasn’t an established author at the time and his pitch didn’t make the cut, but only a year later Gaiman would take his basic idea and turn it into “Sleep of the Just,” the first issue of the epic that would become The Sandman. In hindsight, the rejection worked out marvelously!

Incidentally, Martin’s Wild Cards books are currently being adapted as a TV show at Hulu. And of course, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is being adapted into a Netflix series, and it looks absolutely glorious. Take a look:

Patton Oswalt talks playing Matthew the Raven in Netflix’s The Sandman

Netflix’s adaptation of The Sandman has a star-studded cast. There’s Stephen Fry (Gilbert), David Thewlis (John Dee), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Death), and Patton Oswalt (Matthew the Raven), just to name a few. The latter recently spoke to Cracked about what it means to him, as a long-time Sandman fan, to be in the adaptation:

"Back in 1992, I had just moved to San Francisco. Couple months after I moved there, Neil Gaiman came to town to do a signing at a store called Comics Experience. I stood in a line that snaked around the block like twice and waited for hours. Me and Blaine Capatch. I had my hardback “Season of Mists,” and I brought it to him. He signed it for me and drew a picture of Dream, and then Matt Wagner added buck teeth to him and Kelly Jones put glasses on the drawing. And I said that I mentioned two of your demons, Squatterbloat and Muttlecraunch, in one of my bits because I love making those connections."

“And then years later, literally 30 years later, I’m Matthew the Raven,” Oswalt added.

The Sandman really is being made by people who love the source material. There’s a special atmosphere building around the show. The series doesn’t have a release date yet, but with Netflix’s Geeked Week event beginning next week, we should expect a lot more info soon.

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h/t Screenrant