#'and ANOTHER THING- are you still listening hob gadling- yes good so-'

[wyvernquill]

Today I offer you the following headcanon/scenario: Hob dislikes Shakespeare and criticises him, but not because he's jealous of Dream walking off with him in 1589... no, it's because he genuinely thinks the man was a talentless hack.

Let me elaborate.

Hob does like Shakespeare's plays, and grudgingly admits they're the work of a "half-decent playwright", judging from the 1789 scene. He does appreciate the craftsmanship.

The only trouble: Hob is of the opinion that it's not technically Will's work at all. It's His Stranger who had... well, some hand, at least, in the creation of those masterpieces, and Hob hates that Shakespeare gets the sole credit.

(Now, to be clear, I do think that all Dream did was lend Shakespeare support and inspiration and the power to put his own dreams and imaginations into words. It's absolutely still William Shakespeare's work at the core, and Dream's involvement is hardly much more than in any other story ever written - but Hob doesn't know exactly how this works, does he?)

Imagine his frustration. Imagine people praising Shakespeare as a genius in front of him, and Hob bursting to say "actually, he was total shite until he sold his soul or something to the maybe-devil in exchange for talent". He thinks he's the only human in the world who knows The Truth About Will Shaxberd, and it drives him mad that any attempt to explain it would make him sound like some conspiracy nut.

It's the sort of thing that could drive a man to irrationally hate a playwright and his ill-gotten gains, it really could.

(Which is highly hypocritical of him, seeing as he himself enjoys the boon of that very same maybe-devil - well, his sister’s, actually, not that Hob knows that - but it's aBOUT THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING-)

And that's how Hob ends up as his university's #1 Shakespeare Hater.

.

And perhaps, Dream eventually explains to him who he is and how his boons work, and Hob suddenly realises he has to revise his entire spiteful opinion of William Shakespeare, who may have had a certain spark of talent of his own, after all...

And then, groping desperately for some reason to cling on to his increasingly irrational dislike of the man, Hob recalls how Will stole his date back in 1589, and breathes a sigh of relief at the realisation that he can carry on hating Shakespeare just as much as before, only now for a different reason.

(Not that saying "I hate Shakespeare because he stole my boyfriend" will make him sound any less like a nutter than insisting his talent came from magical intervention... but, well, it's a step in the right direction, isn’t it.)

[murphyoftheendless]

IMPORTANT

So me and @ofclownsandcorvids are planning to do a podcast!

The twist? It would be an in-character podcast!

DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO EITHER GOOD OMENS OR SANDMAN OR THESE CHARACTERS. GOOD OMENS IS OWNED BY TERRY PRATCHETT AND NEIL GAIMAN. SANDMAN IS OWNED BY NEIL GAIMAN. THINK OF THIS AS MORE SO IMPROVISED FANFICTION WITHIN A PODCAST FORMAT.

THESE CHARACTERS AND STORIES DO NOT BELONG TO US.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

We have some pairings that would be the main focal point of this podcast. Each pairings have their own lore, but ultimately it's these characters just chatting, laughing and bantering! It's very drama filled with a lot of improv, storytelling and plots. These plots and backstories are written and created by us!

PAIRINGS INVOLVED:

Ineffable Husbands

Dreamling (Hob Gadling x Dream)

DreamingStar (Dream x Lucifer)

And any other pairings we can think of!

Logistics:

We are thinking of releasing an episode a week. We are still considering whether or not people should vote on the pairing they wish to tune into.

Episodes would probably be released on Spotify or any other software we can find that allows remote podcasting.

EXTRA NOTES:

Ultimately, we don't really mind if this becomes popular or not. It's simply for fun and we love storytelling and drama filled lore.

We're thinking, once we've released an episode or two of each pairing, people could have the chance to vote on the pairing they would like to hear more from, do a fun little Q&A with the characters, we might take to live streaming one day when we're in close proximity to one another but that's more of a future thing. Unless there some way to do a live recording thing. Maybe insta or tiktok??

Any suggestions and ideas are welcome in the comments!

We would obviously start by introducing it as ourselves, but maybe we could let you all choose the first pairing to kick it off!

[thenightling]

Differences between The Sandman graphic novels and The Sandman audio drama

Besides the obvious fact that one version of the story is told with pictures and written text while the other is told as an audio play here are some of the actual differences between The Sandman graphic novels and The Sandman audio drama.  

This list does not contain every difference between the comics and audio drama but it contains all the ones I can recall over a month later after having listened to The Sandman audio drama.

At this point I have listened to the whole thing all the way through once, Sleep of the Just (Chapter 1) twice, Imperfect Hosts (Chapter 2) three times, and bits and pieces of the rest over again.   

As we proceed, know that each chapter of the audio drama usually correlates with an issue of the original Sandman comics.   

I do not mind most of these changes but I did feel that they were worth noting.  

1.  (This one was apparently a mistake). Though the importance of the binding circle was described in the audio drama, as was Alex’s wheelchair, the description of Alex’s wheel accidentally breaching the binding circle around Morpheus’ crystalline cage was not described in the audio drama.  This impacts the story in that either we are to just assume the circle was broken at some point “off camera”, lost its power at Roderick’s death, or never really was part of what was containing Morpheus at all.  As I am a bit of a purist I choose to pretend it just happened “off camera.”  I wish a little narration was inserted to correct this though. I’m being petty...

2.    At least twice in the first chapter of The Sandman audio drama we are told that Alexander Burgess and Paul McGuire are lovers.  In the original comic this was only heavily implied and not out-right confirmed until The Sandman: The Kindly ones.  This is definitely a positive change.  

3.   The Sandman audio drama quite specifically tells us that Doctor Destiny (John Dee) is actually the son of Roderick Burgess and not Ruthven Sykes.  Sykes is listed as his father on the DC Wikia.  I always had a suspicion that he and Alexander Burgess may have been brothers but thought my math was poor.

4.    The story that introduces Hob Gadling (Men of Good fortune, issue 13 of the comics) is moved to Chapter 10 of the audio drama. This is another change I actually appreciate as I happen to love this story and like that now it stands alone instead of interrupting The Doll’s House.  I never minded the interruption but now it seems to flow better.

5.   The story of Elemental Girl (Facades) is issue 20 of the comics but moved to chapter 19 instead so that the audio drama could end on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Personally I was never a big fan of Facades, it’s probably my least favorite stand-alone Sandman story but I love A Midsummer Night’s Dream and I think that’s a much better spot to end on.   This was the right decision, in my opinion.

6.   Small details are changed at The Serial Killer convention.  Nothing that changes the story too drastically but make it slightly more palatable to modern readers / listeners.     

7.  There is a new scene of one of The Corinthian’s victims realizing that none of them can see (and they are still quite alive) and The Corinthian announces that he is eating their eyeballs.  It is sincerely disturbing, perhaps more so than any of the original illustrations.

8.   The T. S. Elliot line “I will show you terror in a handful of dust” that was used on original 1988 advertisements for The Sandman gets used seamlessly in the story as early as the first issue.  Needless to say, I liked this.  

9.   Virtually no one directly calls Morpheus The Sandman in the audio drama.  This is a little odd but not necessarily bad.  He is called Lord Morpheus or Dream of The Endless.  In fact the original scene of Alex finding Morpheus listed in the Paginarum Fulvarum (Yellow Pages) is altered to accommodate this change of using Lord Morpheus and Dream of The Endless in place of some other titles. In that scene in the comics he was originally “Kinge of Dremes.”     

10.  Some accidental subtle changes to Death’s characterization.  Death comes off as more distracted while Morpheus is trying to tell her what he has just done and been through.  I realize this was partly to describe to the reader that she was picking a flower and playing with it but it unfortunately impacted how her personality came out. It was like she just didn’t care.  And Death, herself, takes over the narration, including some rather cruel sarcastic narration commentary during the scene where the stand-up comedian dies.  This is a bit of a criticism but sometimes changes like that influence how you see a character.  Also why did she sound slightly disgusted when Morpheus asked where they were going next and her reply was New Jersey?  It’s a common joke for those of us who were raised in New York but it doesn’t really fit Death.

11.  Between chapters 5 through 8 I could pretty much sense DC corporate overlords looming overhead and determining how certain canon characters must be described or not described.   Even in chapter 3 there is a change with John Constantine, a small one, but it’s there, nevertheless.   This is one scene that was changed for the audio drama.  The story ended with Morpheus agreeing to deal with Constantine’s nightmares for him in the comic but I guess since Constantine having nightmares became a thing in later comics by different writers they had to acknowledge that Morpheus couldn’t get rid of them forever somehow...     

12.   Morpheus is now given a little magick word to say when unlocking a door.  It’s used twice.  I believe it’s  "âpreté."  This is added for obvious reasons.

13.   This is one that bothers me a little bit.  Jed Walker’s foster parents are referred to as his “step parents.” This is a common mistake.  A step parent is someone who marries your biological or legal parent.  A foster family is not a step family.  Foster parents are often temporary and are paid by the government to look after the foster child.  Foster parents have not legally adopted the child.  Sometimes the lack of official adoption is solely because the birth parents are still alive and have not relinquished the rights as parents. Most foster parents do have good intentions.  Foster parents are often NOT evil abusers but much like the negative literary depictions of orphanages (which lead to America renaming most of them “Group homes” instead of actually improving the bad ones...) it has become a common trope in fiction writing.   

In misusing “Stepfather” I see this mistake often in comics, such as in Marvel where Odin has been called both Loki’s Foster Father and Step Father.   He’s Loki’s adoptive father.  Laufey wanted nothing to do with him. And Odin is not being paid by the government to look after him.  Nor has Odin married one of Loki’s birth parents.  He adopted him.  The distinction can be very important to many people.  

Similarly I got annoyed by the 1999 DVD and VHS re-release of Labyrinth because the back of the box called Toby Sarah’s step-brother.   Canonically Toby is her half-brother, not step-brother.  A half-brother means he is her brother by the genetic biology of one parent. A step-brother means he is her brother because his parent married her parent and there is no genetic connection.  It is an annoying and common mistake.  Yes, you can have a deep emotional bond with step-family but the terminology matters to many people.

  And there you go.  All the changes to The Sandman that I can recall from comic to audio drama.  Most are petty, some are good, some not so good.  But unlike the many articles claiming it’s a word for word transfer, I’m obsessive enough to have noticed the differences. 

[thenightling]

The Sandman audio drama (my review)

I just finished listening to The Sandman audio drama.  What complaints I have are small and petty.  In general I love it.

 I really love James Mcavoy as Morpheus.   Cain is great too. It sounds like Abel’s voice actor had a little trouble finding his footing because his brief appearance in The Doll’s House is a little better than Imperfect Hosts.  I love how they did Imperfect hosts, by the way.   The Harpsichord (or was it organ?) music while introducing the houses was perfect.  And the man voicing Cain does a delightful attempt at a Vincent Price impersonation. I love it.

 Death is... Not as good as I hoped.   The little bits of added dialogue for her about picking the flower makes her feel like she just doesn’t give a shit about what Morpheus went through.  She comes off a bit cold.  There’s a “motion comic” of Sound of her Wings on Youtube and though it’s an unknown voice actress in that I think she’s better than Kat Dennings. Here Death just rubbbed me the wrong way.  They probably should have used Jamie Chung (the actress from the Death animated short that appeared on the blue ray for Wonder Woman: Bloodlines).  Sometimes lesser known actresses are better.  

Everyone (for the most part) is great.   Gilbert is delightful.   I’m not sure about Andy Serkus as Matthew.  He kind of sounds how I imagine Merv would sound, to tell the truth.

Most of this is wonderful though.   I didn’t expect Morpheus to go “Hmm” so often.  It’s like he’s been hanging out with Geralt of Rivia.

I don’t know why people insist that the audio drama is “too slavishly faithful” to the original source material. There are some very distinct changes.

One change I don’t like (and this is petty) is Morpheus’ escape.   In the original Sleep of The Justice the circle around the cage had to be breached before he could even try to enter one of his guard’s dreams.  I don’t like that this was changed.  Alex’s wheelchair is mentioned  so why not leave the breach?

There are other changes too, not bad, just different.   I mentioned the added dialogue from Death. Other added things are twice confirming that Alex and Paul are lovers.  

Ironically the Polygon review of The Sandman audio drama claimed Neil killed the first LGBTQ+ character in the story and that this is something they should have changed. (Judy in 24 Hour Diner) but we’re literally told Alexander and Paul are lovers twice in this thing, it’s literally spelt out.  I argued in the comments that Paul and Alex are lovers and got a reply of “Yes, but that isn’t confirmed until The Kindly Ones.”  Umm...  In this audio drama (which that review was for) we are told they are lovers twice.  It’s spelt out.

Another change (and this confirmed a theory I had but then recanted because I thought my math was poor) is Doctor Destiny and Alexander Burgess are brothers.   Maybe I missed it in the comics but I don’t remember that being in there.  I know (from the grapevine) that the new Netflix show will have Alex be the younger brother of a deceased heir to Roderick, so maybe this is a baby step toward expanding the Burgess family tree.  

Poor Alex, I do pity him. I keep hoping some version of the story will have Morpheus show mercy on him faster, before Daniel becomes the new aspect of Dream.

One change that I don’t mind is the story that introduces Hob Gadling comes earlier.  It’s chapter 10 in the audio drama and issue 13 in the comics. I understand why this change was made and it fits fine where it is now.  It was a pleasant surprise to get it early.

One change that I was actually hoping for (and got) is A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I felt that should be the story to go out on.  I was never fond of the Elemental Girl story. And to my relief they did as I had hoped.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a great spot to serve as the finale.  

I also like how they managed to insert the T. S. Elliot “terror in a handful of dust” line.    

Some name pronounciations caught me by surprise.   I thought for sure Choronzon was pronounced Chore-on-zon.   Turns out the “CH’ makes a “Kah” sound like Cthulhu.  One name pronounciation that I actually am a little bothered by is Lyta.  It’s being pronounced here as Lee-ta.   Her name is supposed to be short for Hippolyta as (in her original continuity) she was named after Wonder Woman’s mother.  There was even a silly pun about Lyta the Lighter. Oh, well.

Some people are surprised by Constan-tyne being the pronounciation of Constantine (Often pronounced now as Constan-teen in DC properties) but I know T”I”ne (Tyne) is the original British pronounciation so I’m not at all bothered by this.

The extra dialogue between The Corinthian and his already blinded victims was incredibly disturbing.

Most of it I enjoy very much.

One complaint I have is Jed’s “Stepfather.”   I REALLY, really, really, really hate when people confuse stepfather, foster father, and adoptive father.  That man and wife who were raising Jed were FOSTER parents, not step-parents.   A step-parent is someone who marries one of your biological parents.  A foster parent is paid by the government to look after you.  There is a considerable diffrence.   

So many reviews complaining about the faithfulness don’t seem to realize there are a lot of changes in this and it really should be faithful whenever possible. There are small changes. Not excessive, but they are there.  

James does a great job as Morpheus. Goldie is unavoidably adorable.   Lucien is great.  Cain is great.  Abel took a little time to find his footing.  He sounded dopey at first but by the time he appears in The Doll’s House he seems a bit better.  I’m not thrilled with Death but Morpheus is great.  Alex was great.  Cain is perfect.   Lucien is great.  Matthew took some getting used to since he sounds like he chain smokes and probably should be Merv’s voice but I still like him.   The Corinthian is chilling and disturbing, which means he’s great.  

I had a fun time listening.  The only ones that felt like they dragged a bit were chapters 6 and 7, which is odd because so many people love those two in comic form, but maybe I got spoilt by a very well made 24 Hour Diner fan film.  

So yes, The Sandman audio drama is wonderful.  My only petty complaints are the lack of breaking of the binding circle before Morpheus entered his guard’s dream and the annoyingly common mistake of using “Stepfather” to man “Foster father.”  There is a difference. It might not seem important but it is.

Otherewise it’s pretty much perfect.