Want more ‘Sandman?’ You'll get a lot more if you read the books

'The Sandman's first season appears to be a hit, so there likely will be more to come. If you can’t wait and want to dive into the books, here are a few things to know going in. – Photos: Vertigo/DC Comics

If you’ve found the new Netflix series The Sandman to be the stuff of dreams and/or nightmares, you should know that you’ll get lot more of both in the source material.

Neil Gaiman’s sweeping fantasy series, first published in monthly comic-book form between 1989 and 1996, was long considered unfilmable. That wasn’t just because it would require so much imagination and special-effects wizardry to bring its magic to life: Month by month the series added up to a staggeringly complex work, with interlaced storylines that take ages to pay off. You get the impact of Greek tragedy as the short stories form an epic whole. The core story spans 10 collected volumes, not counting additional prequels and spinoffs.