In college, I volunteered at a local crisis hotline. One of the guys there mentioned Sandman multiple times to me based on whatever we were talking about between calls (books, movies, graphic novels, whatever), and I never tried it. He kept asking me, and I never got an issue to try as it sounded weirder and more bizzaro than my cup of tea. One day I ran into him at the comic store; he handed me the latest issue (he just slid it into the pile of stuff in my hands) and said it’s the start of a new storyline; give it a chance. It had this strange cover and didn’t look appealing at all, but he was right there, so I gave it a try.
It’s 30 years later, as this was late July 1992, and the start of Brief Lives was something I’ll always look back fondly on. I was completely hooked.
That weird cover was by Dave McKean, and I grew to love his art. At some point later, I realized the Black Orchid poster I already had on the wall in my dorm room was drawn by him. Many years later, I special ordered some Mythical Creature stamps he drew for the UK (stamps for mailing letters); each had a synopsis written for each stamp. Guess who wrote the intro for each of the stamps? Neil Gaiman, who I realize at this point that I didn’t mention, is the author of Sandman. And coincidentally, the Black Orchid comic (that I just mentioned) was written by Neil Gaiman…
So at that point in time, they had started reprinting the earlier Sandman issue in trade paperbacks with each storyline, so I was getting those and catching up with earlier issues. Three decades later, I still believe that was the best starting point for this storyline. Everything was all flushed out, things had been set up to happen, and now they were happening, and I could go back to the earlier issues and get some of the blanks filled in. Honestly, if I had started reading from the first issue, I don’t know if I would have stuck with it; it was weird stuff and had no context. But I loved the way that I was exposed to it.
So why am I talking about this now? Netflix just released Sandman season 1, and it’s lovely. I’ve been thinking about (the above) all week waiting for this, and it’s fantastic. I’m sure there are some parts I won’t like, but I’m only a few episodes in, and I’ve already gotten my $20 out of signing up for Netflix for the month.
As the end credits rolled at the end of the first episode, I flipped out as the animated graphics for the credits were by Dave McKeon, who Neil coaxed out of retirement to do this (thanks, Google).
So give a few episodes a try if it looks interesting, even if it is a bit weird. If you were a fan, they did change a few things, but it does seem very true to the feels & ideals of the original so far.
I’d give my friend a shoutout, but we did things at the crisis line pretty anonymously; I was just “Gary L” to everyone, so I’m not even sure of his last name, but the anonymity we kept back then makes me not want to put a first name.
Be warned, huge spoilers follow: The short version is that Doctor Octopus was dying and he managed to swap his mind for Peter Parker’s mind (you do know that PP is the secret identity of Spider-Man?) but here’s the problem: before Peter could figure out how to swap back minds, Doc Ock’s body dies and Otto Octavious’s mind is in Peter Parker’s body (in Spider-man’s body). He is the new Spider-man and no one knows it! 
