You didn’t really think we were going to sleep on JSApril, did you?!!
The long-awaited premiere episode of THE SANDMAN SLEPT HERE is finally here! Ryan Daly, Paul Kien, and Max Romero wake up to introduce this new semi-regular series on the Justice Society Presents feed. On this episode, the hosts share their introductions and their passion for the character, Wesley Dodds, aka The Sandman, and what drew them to the comic Sandman Mystery Theatre. Then they review the Sandman’s first published appearance back in 1939 in the pages of New York World’s Fair Comics #1. All that, plus the debut of a feature exclusive to The Sandman Slept Here called “The Dream Sequence”. What does that mean? Who created the Sandman? And what does the Sandman look like with his shirt off? You’ll have to tune in to find out!
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Music: “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” by Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra; “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra
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Regarding the pronunciation, I would vote for DEE-YAN.
My rationale? I believe her name was a reference to Dion & the Belmonts. Since Dick Clark pronounced his name as DEE-yon, Dian Belmont should be pronounced similarly.
I like the phonetic connection to Dion & the Belmonts… But Dian was created almost twenty years before the group.
*gasp* perhaps the band was named after the character?
I was unaware of her 1940 first appearance when I posted my comment; I honestly thought she first appeared in Sandman Mystery Theater as a callback to duos like Nick & Nora Charles , so Wesley would have someone to bounce off of in the stories.
Eager for the rest!
Oh well, just a coincidence. Apparently the name Belmonts came from Belmont Avenue in the Bronx, New York, where several of the group’s members resided or grew up..
Did I just get a new favorite show??? Brilliant, my friends!
Great show guys! I have always thought that Sandman had such a cool visual. I’ve threatened to cosplay as him multiple times. I didn’t pick up Mystery Theatre at the time because, well honestly, Guy Davis’ art turned me off. My appreciation for divergent styles has grown since then, so I need to follow along with you on DCU Infinite at least.
The history on Bert Christman was fascinating! I always wondered why you never saw him doing sketches, like later GA Sandman artist Craig Flessel. Kind of surprised I hadn’t heard of his heroic service before.
Oh, and not to go all Cliff Clavin on you guys, but it’s a little known fact that the purple/yellow Sandman and Sandy weren’t initiated by Simon and Kirby, but by Aquaman co-creator Paul Norris, who did a few strips before S&K took over. Simon and Kirby are so synonomous with this era (and kid sidekicks), everyone just assumes they changed the costume and added Sandy. I know I did until Roy Thomas told me about it in one of the All-Star Companion volumes. Hey, maybe HE made the change?
Either way, great start to this series. Loved the stories about falling asleep in weird places. I can relate to Max’s, and Paul’s in particular, with many car rides over my childhood years with a stack of comics, and no seatbelt! Ryan’s story…now that’s pretty unique! I can’t really think of an odd place or time I went to sleep. I rarely nap, so I almost always sleep in bed, and sometimes that’s a struggle…just like Wesely Dodd(s)!
Wow! Did not know that about Norris! Great factoid Norm!
As a cadet, I once fell asleep standing up. Our squadron was in formation. We had marched to our starting spot and were waiting our turn to march again during a Saturday morning parade. The parade was after a room and squadron common area inspection I’d been up all night for. When we started moving, the guy behind ran slap into me and woke me up. I expected to get yelled at by upperclassmen (once I realized where I was and what was happening), but they just wanted to get moving and get the parade over with. During resistance training, I fell asleep so deeply they couldn’t wake me up for a minute. Again, I thought I’d be in for it, but they had gone past the anger to the point of worrying they’d have to call medical, so they just put me in line with the other prisoners and moved on with the training.
Excellent contents – enjoyed it thoroughly… Wow – Never knew anything about this character. On the art – Does anyone else feel that there’s a Ditko-feel to the posing and the faces. Obviously long before Ditko was of age – but a few of the pages look like his pre-hero marvel efforts. Keep up the good work (and don’t nod off!)
Can y’all cover the one shot Sandman Midnight Theatre where he has a meeting with Morpheus?
Happy Easter. I’ll say more later.. cool episode also.
Awesome inaugural episode! I loved learning the fascinating history of the artist. From comic creator to pilot to hero. What a life!
I bought SMT off the shelf when it launched. I loved the art (the only way I can describe it is that it has a vibrato). Wesley and Dian (I say Diane like the waitress from a little known show called Cheers from the 1980s) were great characters from the start. I didn’t stick with the book long term (though I would later collect it all in back issues) because it was just so dark in its content. I later came to love that element of it, but initially, the realistic depiction of truly horrible acts were a bit too much for me. I guess I was too much the sensitive English major at the time.
So excited for the show!
The inaugural episode was as good as I could have dreamed of. I never knew any of that about the original artist. It’s really cool. Sandman has been a favorite of mine for a while even though my intro to him was through Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come. He was a character that kind of popped up here and there as I collected but I never knew too much about him for a long time. Then I got my hands on a copy of Sandman Mystery Theatre. It was a little more hard core than I was used to reading but I was drawn in. Definitely prefer the suit, fedora and gas mask over the Kirby designed costume. I even have a Sandman cosplay I have been putting together for a while. I really need to finish the mask. The garish yellow worked for Sandy but not for Wes. D-eye-an made a much better partner for Wes than Sandy did truly. The way she was drawn in SMT was a bit of a revelation to me. Her and Wes were drawn a little thicker and less muscular than traditional hero and “damsel”. It made them seem more real. They could have actually existed in the real world.
As for weirdest place I have fallen asleep? That would be my closet as a child. I was supposed to be at my grandmas house next door. I slipped home to play with my toys and passed out. I woke to my parents yelling my name while red and blue lights flashed outside my bedroom window. Oops. Got into a little bit of trouble for that one.
Gotta say again great first episode. I’m looking forward to all future episodes.
Thanks for writing in. Any time you fall asleep and wake up to the cops searching for you is a good story.
Fantastic intro episode!
First, I’m so excited for more content and more voices on the JSA PRESENTS podcast feed! Hooray! Especially about such a fantastic comic! I bought it as it was coming out, purchased both versions of the DC Direct figure of Sandman (SMT version, and green suit version), and I’ve got the SMT comic promotional poster somewhere around my house.
Second, now that you are covering SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE, you’ve saved me the trouble of doing a SPOTLIGHT episode about it on JSA IN THE 90s!! Thank you! Now if you could next do my laundry and mow my lawn, that would also save me some more effort. K. Thx.
Third, loved the way you all gelled on the episode. I can tell already your insights and discussions on subsequent episodes are going to be outstanding!
Fourth, weirdest place I ever fell asleep? I don’t care to share THE weirdest as the statute of limitations may not have lapsed yet. So instead I’ll share the 18th weirdest place I fell asleep, and possibly the most public for this audience. I fell asleep while recording a podcast. ♂️ It was an episode of STAR TREK MONTHLY MONDAY on the Two True Freaks Podcasting Network. Chris Honeywell and I were discussing STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT (which I love), but I was exhausted, it was late at night, and it was hot in my studio. Chris shared a long thought and asked for my input, and I was out. In fact, the recording even picked up the sounds of me snoring. So embarrassing.
Again, excellent zero episode!! Can’t wait for more! Sweet Dreams!!
Chris should cut you some slack. I fell asleep the first two times I tried to watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
This is the best story.
Finished the podcast, and reflecting on the lives of these artists and writers who’ve brought these characters to life. Fascinating to learn about their backgrounds and how these might’ve brought something to the table in terms of the characterization and plots of the comics!
Strangest place I’ve fallen asleep: in a hotel room at a gaming convention while 7 to 8 complete strangers were playing a rowdy RPG session beside me. Pacificon used to grant rooms to people who volunteered for enough security shifts, and I gladly took them up on that offer. My roomie was some dude I didn’t know and never saw again, but when I went in to grab some shuteye on the second night, there was wild game going on around my roomie’s bed. I climbed into my bed, fully clothed, put on my walkman headphones and wished the crew good luck before I fell asleep.
Great episode!
It’s always been pronounced like Diane to me, mostly because of it reminded me of actress Dyan Cannon.
I didn’t know too much Sandman outside of the rare JSA/JLA crossover and some DCCP Whatever happened. But I always liked the look and the idea of a gas gun weapon.
I loved this series from its inception. As crazy as it sounds, I wasn’t reading Gaiman’s Sandman then. But I liked Wagner. I liked Film Noir. I liked The Shadow, The Crimson Avenger, and such. So this was a no brainer.
What was interesting was the art choices, especially Guy Davis. Even if not classically ‘pretty’, it certainly worked perfectly for the book.
Can’t wait to hear the discussion of the arcs and read along with you all!
It’s ironic, in an Alanis Morrisette kind of way, that Ryan discovered SMT the comic just as it was about to end, considering how many people probably have discovered his podcasts the same way.
This was a marvelous first episode–for whatever reason I am obsessed with the 1939 NY World’s Fair (I have a program book and ring from it), so it was really cool for you guys to start the show with this comic.
I remember when SMT came out, and I figured this would soon be my favorite ongoing comic–I’ve always loved the Sandman, and with all the gritty period flavor I thought how could this miss? And yet after a few issues it never quite grabbed me and I eventually gave it up. Maybe I’ll revisit it so I can be more informed for the show. Or maybe I’ll just listen.
Weirdest place i ever slept just a moving car . But I have a question does anyone else associate a certain place with either a certain TV episode or just something random because I always associate Albuquerque with the Doctor Who storyline Castrovala . I know it seems random. Best think of.
I found myself wondering when it was established that Sandy Hawkins was Dian’s nephew. I haven’t read the Adventure Comics #69 story that introduced both Sandy and Sandman’s new costume, but the synopsis I’ve read suggests that Sandy just showed up as a young fan of the Sandman who helps him out on a case and becomes his new partner. Apparently, the change between issues #68 and #69 was a clean break, with Dian being dropped completely along with all the other aspects of the “gas mask and suit” era, with no explanation of what happened to her.
A Roy Thomas story in All-Star Squadron #18 offered a retcon explanation for both Sandman’s costume change and Dian’s abrupt disappearance from the Sandman stories, by revealing that Dian had been killed in a car crash while working undercover and fighting bad guys in Wesley’s gas-mask costume, and that Wesley adopted a new costume that Dian had been designing, in her memory.
Years later, this retcon got retconned in turn when James Robinson had Jack Knight meet the elderly Dian Belmont in an issue of Starman; as I recall, Robinson didn’t bring up Dian’s supposed “death” at all, but it’s easy enough to reconcile the stories by saying that Dian was only badly injured in the crash and was recuperating off-panel throughout the “Sandman and Sandy” stories.
However, I don’t know whether the Dian-Sandy family connection was established by Roy in All-Star Squadron, or whether it was revealed in an earlier story.
Great first episode guys! I started picking up SMT with the first issue. As a Grendel fan, Matt Wagner writing it made getting it a no-brainer. I actually preferred Guy Davis’s art in the first arc over the work in the next two, so I was very happy when he came back as the regular penciler. This series quickly pushed Wesley into being my favorite of the JSA and one of my favorite DC characters overall. I’ve been thinking about rereading it so this comes out at the prefect time for me!
As for one of the weirdest places I have fallen asleep, that would be at a New Years Party in college. It was very late/early and most of the other guests had already claimed their places to pass out. In my drunken stupor I went to the kitchen and used the three stools in there. One went under my head, one under my backside and the third I put my feet on. Somehow I managed to sleep for several hours without falling off.
Hi, Ghostly Trio
I cast my vote for DI – Ann Belmont.
To put a word in for the Kirby Sandman, and the reason for Paul Norris’ design, later streamlined by Jack – I understand the new design was ordered by editor Mort Weisinger, who was watching the reception with the addition of sidekick Robin to Batman, and felt that the concept should be replicated. The Simon-Kirby stories are a lot of fun, but I agree, jarring compared with our favorite post-Depression gas mask and cloak look.
As far as one of my many post Morpheus occasions, I can recall a 17 year old cowpunk who spent too much time at a dance celebrating the annual rodeo. The daylight of Sunday morn, found me on the tailgate of my own 1971 Ford pick-up – no blanket, no pillow, not even my hat. Fortunately, I was dressed. But the pick-up was among the corrals holding the cattle and horses for the rodeo event. I do assume that I parked it there BEFORE the rodeo dance.
There are other stories regarding this pick-up and a wake up call, but I should leave that to the people riding with me.
Great show, looking forward to zzzzzzzzzzz…..
Ranger Gord
Prairie Justice: The Greg Sanders Vigilante Podcast.
Fantastic first episode. I always appreciated how simple The Sandman operated compared to others on the JSA. I just like the visual motif of a man in a gas mask and suit. I never cared for the Yellow and Purple super heroic era. It’s not a bad costume. It just isn’t Sandman.
In regards to the Diann debate, I throw my vote behind DIE-Anne pronunciation. I love how she was more actively involved in his early adventures. It was indeed a breath of fresh air compared to the Lois Lane archetype most female love interests end up playing.
As for the weirdest place I have ever fell asleep, It has to be the MRI machine. I have had to have several MRI over the years and each time I fall into a deep sleep. This is in spite of the machine sounding like a dryer with a cinderblock inside.
Anyway, looking forward to your coverage of the Tarantula.
Wonderful job on episode 0! The three of you make a great team, and the show was so much fun to listen to. I’m definitely on board, and now have an excuse to give SMT a try. I completely missed the Gaiman Sandman bandwagon in the day, but did buy half of the trades later, and only finished reading the rest of the story during the pandemic. So I’m looking forward to following along on a new-to-me series.
My first Wesley Sandman story would have been the Christmas with the Superheroes Treasury. So I honestly have a soft spot for his spandex look, admitting that the gas mask version is far superior. And I was amazed doing a read-thru of the Golden Age All-Star Comics to see Sandman having dreams of crimes. I had no idea that was part of his adventures back then. It strengthens the throughline between all of DC’s Sand—Men? Sand-Mans? You know what I mean.
Boy, the artwork in Sandman’s debut story is pretty great! Thanks for posting it.
I guess the weirdest place I ever fell asleep was a doctor’s waiting room. It was shortly after my wife and I had gotten married. We’d adopted a puppy, and he was a handful, keeping us up at night. Then Mary got sick, so I was doing all of the overnight work myself. But eventually, Mary needed to go see a doctor, and I drove her and stayed in the waiting room, and being so sleep deprived, I nodded off right after she left and only woke up when she was came back out saying “I’m ready to go”. I only hope I wasn’t snoring.
I’m about half way through this wonderful episode and had to make one important comment before I forgot.
The Green Hornet radio show began in 1936. Sandman premiered in 1938. So Wesley Dodds having a green suit, gas mask and a gas gun was clearly Gardner Fox’s attempt to draw in fans of the Green Hornet. There is evidence that at some point Gardner Fox was a fan of juvenile adventure radio shows because later on, he wrote most issues of the Straight Arrow comic book.
The Green Hornet comic book didn’t premiere until two years later in 1940, so Wesley didn’t have any competition in the comics until then.
Can’t wait for the episode entitled “Shut Up, Wesley!”.
This show sounds terrific! The hosts are terrific, and I especially love the music. I never followed the book. It was a busy time in my life and I wasn’t picking up new characters much. I picked up the one with Blackhawk and enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the review of a couple issues on the “Funny! They Don’t Look Jewish” podcast.
I might give the comic a try now just for this show, but it might be too much for my delicate middle-aged man sensibilities. I was more interested in darkness when I was young. I think I’ll enjoy this show regardless, though.
Great show guys. This is the best three-man booth since Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and ‘Don Meredith! Never paid that much attention to Sandman before but this is a cool introduction. I always felt like the gas mask/suit combo would get really hot in the summer, but now that I see he has beach wear, it makes more sense! Looking forward to more of this!