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Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: Translating the Graphic Novel to Film
The classic comic series has the potential to be a major flop or cinematic success; hopefully it’s the latter.

By Madeline Lumley

 
Dreams are inherently personal, yet the act of dreaming is a shared experience — images and ideas involuntarily enter the unconscious mind and, ideally, result in the guise of a storyline. Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel series The Sandman echoes that effect with changing artistic styles, featuring more than 10 illustrators. The plot is fluid, but the characters are depicted as if the reader is traveling through one person’s imagination to the next.

These evolving characters will soon be on the big screen. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt announced his plans to produce a film adaptation of the powerful cult classic. It’s the movie millions of dedicated readers have been waiting to see. For those around when the first issue was published in 1989, the wait has lasted more than 20 years.

To vastly oversimplify for those who haven’t read it yet, the series is about a powerful character named Dream (a.k.a. Morpheus); the Lord of the Dreaming and anything else separate from reality. Everything that sets The Sandman apart from other graphic novels could be compiled into a lengthy list, all things considered. But it’s the varying illustrations that make the series truly one of a kind. The use of multiple artists does more than help transport the reader into that dreamlike state — it also draws attention to Gaiman’s spectacular story telling.

Vincent Zurzolo — international comic book dealer, auctioneer and collector in New York City — noted the change in focus, from the visuals to written content, as one of the main reasons for the immense popularity of the series.

“Neil Gaiman became the big name behind this, in an art form where the artists are usually center stage, and the writers are off to the left or the right,” Zurzolo said. “With this series, the writer has really taken the reigns and has become analogous with the non-superhero experience in comic books.”

How (if at all) will the many different artists’ interpretations be incorporated into the film? Unfortunately, it’s too early to tell — not much information about the production has been made public at this point. Zurzolo, for one, said he just hopes the movie will match the dark, “otherworldly” tone he feels is pretty consistent throughout The Sandman.

Zurzolo isn’t the only one with high hopes for the film. Comic book historian and professor at Case Western Reserve University, Brad Ricca, realizes both the potential for greatness and the risk when it comes to adapting The Sandman to film.

“(The) Sandman presents a special set of circumstances. The series is so beloved — and at the same time so literary — how can it be adapted in a way that isn’t a dumbing-down of the material? And can such a property be expected to have mass appeal?” Ricca said. “Watchmen showed that these types of comics can be adapted, though perhaps not to commercial success. The real question — and perhaps the hope — is that (The) Sandman could be the first comics property to have critical success as a film, as opposed to just a good box office take.”

No matter what the details turn out to be, hoards of dedicated fans will flock to the nearest theater to catch a glimpse for themselves. As co-owner of Metropolis Collectibles, Inc. and ComicConnect.com, Zurzolo and his colleagues often sell out of Sandman comics and other merchandise. Zurzolo said, “Say that you talked to 10 different comic experts, and asked them for the top 10 titles of the last 25 years. I think (The Sandman) would definitely be on everybody’s list.”

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Photo courtesy of byper7pro

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