Some "helpful" reviews, in case anyone is on the fence about watching The Sandman:
Here’s the thing. For everyone whining that they made the Sandman TV adaptation ‘extra gay for no reason.’
These comics were published around the same time (1988) that Section 28 came into effect in Britain - a truly dystopian law that forbade “the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship” or any kind of ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by any local authorities - it was deliberately vague in order to empower bigots and scare advocates.
This is the context in which Sandman was published. And it was still - beautifully, wonderfully and deliberately - queer as fuck.
They have not changed any character’s sexuality in the show. All they have done is honour them, in a time where it could not be more important to do so. When laws like section 28 are on the rise once more.
Sandman is a story about expectation and legacy and family. It’s a rejection of grand narratives and false ideals. It’s about confronting the darkest parts of the world to find the truest version of yourself.
Of course queer people are carrying this story. We always have.
I'd just done a comic, with Bryan Talbot and Mark Buckingham, for the Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia (AARGH!) fundraising comic.
From 35 years away it could have been a whole lot better, but yes. This was the world we were making Sandman in...



















