Since no one mentioned, I was a bit confused. I had heard of the Sandman, had some awareness that it was an oldish popular and well-regarded comic leading to a popular graphic novel. I must have seen imagery of Sandman somewhere. But then I watched the series I was utterly confused by the goth imagery and a lot of other elements.
A little research revealed I was certainly confused. The Sandman I had in mind was the original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, a novel creation of Gardner Fox (writer) and Bert Christman (artist) for DC comics, and who's popularity languished in the 1940's, but must have come back into style for (I can find no reference to but have seen) the 1980's graphic novel, large format, grey cover featuring Dodds as the Sandman.
The dip in popularity in the 1940's led other creators to steal the name and ideas and use for other unrelated comic characters. But then those characters have been forgotten and Dodds returns, only for Gaiman (also for DC) to capitalize on the popularity of the original Sandman (Dodds) just a few years later by creating the god Sandman (Morpheus), and retconning Wesley Dodds as being given his powers by Morpheus.
Science fiction has always been a pioneering genre for fairly representing minorities. But Gaiman turned everything goth, maybe a little steampunk, and gratuitously gay. I don't think there is anything wrong with giving a little of this and a little of that for the various groups of viewers and consumers, especially minorities, but, with a ham fist, Gaiman overindulges, belabors and vastly over-represents alternative lifestyles, who happen to all be white but for a single exception, a black woman. No Finns, no Danes, no Pols, no Hindus, no Japanese, no Filipinos... mostly just gay white male characters, and a couple few black men and women.
I don't like to criticize a work in this way, because it is not all that matters, but I am nearly certain that Gaiman intended to shock, and I expect wants discussion on it. My feelings are that gay and lesbian characters were avant garde in the late 1960s, but now they're used kind of like too much ketchup. Everything is drowning in ketchup.