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Dead Boy Detectives #1-6
Dead Boy Detectives
The Sandman Universe grows as two of its most beloved characters return to the spotlight! Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine have been detectives for decades—and dead best friends even longer.
But their investigation into a Thai American girl’s disappearance from her Los Angeles home puts them on a collision course with new and terrifying ghosts that could give even a dead boy nightmares—including a bloodthirsty krasue. Even scarier than the ghosts?
Though neither wants to admit it, the boys might be growing apart. And perilously close by to the boys’ adventure, Thessaly the witch finds herself held hostage by dangerous magics—both a threat to her life and an insult to her ego that simply will not go unanswered…
Eisner Award-winning writer Pornsak Pichetshote (The Good Asian, Infidel) is joined by celebrated artist Jeff Stokely to take the Dead Boys to the scariest place of all: the heart of Hollywood!
Collects The Sandman Universe: Dead Boy Detectives #1-6.
But their investigation into a Thai American girl’s disappearance from her Los Angeles home puts them on a collision course with new and terrifying ghosts that could give even a dead boy nightmares—including a bloodthirsty krasue. Even scarier than the ghosts?
Though neither wants to admit it, the boys might be growing apart. And perilously close by to the boys’ adventure, Thessaly the witch finds herself held hostage by dangerous magics—both a threat to her life and an insult to her ego that simply will not go unanswered…
Eisner Award-winning writer Pornsak Pichetshote (The Good Asian, Infidel) is joined by celebrated artist Jeff Stokely to take the Dead Boys to the scariest place of all: the heart of Hollywood!
Collects The Sandman Universe: Dead Boy Detectives #1-6.
168 pages, Paperback
First published November 7, 2023
About the author
Pornsak Pichetshote
53 books94 followersPornsak Pichetshote was a Thai-American rising star editor at DC’s Vertigo imprint where he worked on such comics perennials as The Sandman and Swamp Thing. His books have been nominated for dozens of Eisner awards—be it the award-winning Daytripper, the New York Times bestseller The Unwritten, or critical darlings like Sweet Tooth and Unknown Soldier. He left Vertigo to become an executive in DC Entertainment’s media team, where he started and oversaw DC TV’s department. Infidel marks his first major comics work as a writer.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
December 5, 2023
A fun, brutal, and somewhat depressing story of the two boy Detectives and their friendly ghost friends having to survive a new threat.
The negative here would probably be the fact the story goes a little weird at the end. Trying to understand what exactly happened can be confusing, had to re-read a few pages a couple of times.
But besides that I really dug this. The two leads are great, they feel like friends which is nice, and their other friends that join them are great. From different time periods from 80s and 90s, it makes for a nice group mix. The deaths of those characters and how they became ghost is really sad sometimes but you get more attached to them. The love story is simple but cute. And the imagery behind a lot of nasty monsters is sickening but in the best way.
A nice little horror tale you should check out!
The negative here would probably be the fact the story goes a little weird at the end. Trying to understand what exactly happened can be confusing, had to re-read a few pages a couple of times.
But besides that I really dug this. The two leads are great, they feel like friends which is nice, and their other friends that join them are great. From different time periods from 80s and 90s, it makes for a nice group mix. The deaths of those characters and how they became ghost is really sad sometimes but you get more attached to them. The love story is simple but cute. And the imagery behind a lot of nasty monsters is sickening but in the best way.
A nice little horror tale you should check out!
June 9, 2024
Thai occult traditions was a good angle for the story, giving the Boy Detectives rich ground to explore, but the story was herky-jerky and disjointed as it stretched out a plot that would have worked better in maybe half or one-third the number of pages.
I only picked this up because I recently watched and enjoyed the Netflix TV series so much. Alas, the two are not very much alike.
I only picked this up because I recently watched and enjoyed the Netflix TV series so much. Alas, the two are not very much alike.
June 17, 2024
Lots of terrifying Thai ghosts and heartbreak for dead ghosts Charles and Edwin as they traverse Los Angeles.
Well written and a little better than I was expecting.
Don't come to this with expectations from the TV series..
Well written and a little better than I was expecting.
Don't come to this with expectations from the TV series..
May 9, 2024
What an amazing concept this is. I will definitely read more of it. Hopefully starting at the beginning, but since this is a complete story (and I watched the series before reading this), it was a thoroughly likeable read that I could understand without having read the things that came before.
June 8, 2024
O.K. story--pretty heavy-handed toward the end. I wasn't in love with the artwork, but that may have had more to do with all the gore. I did really like a couple of the variant covers in the back, especially the art by Gabriel Rodriguez, Kathy Kwan, and Jill Thompson.
July 1, 2024
Tras ver la serie de Netflix me animé a leer todos los cómics de Dead Boy Detectives. Este es el último publicado (de momento) y también el que más me ha gustado. Al igual que sucede en las series anteriores creadas por otros autores, la trama en algunos casos es difícil de seguir. En este volumen, sin embargo, la aparición de fantasmas del folklore tailandés (el guionista es de Tailandia) le da un giro de tuerca espectacular con el que da un poco igual que no sepas lo que está pasando y no puedes parar de leer.
April 26, 2024
A fun adventure with my new fav ghost detectives. The artwork in this series was amazing and the story was very interesting. Excited to see how it connects to Nightmare Country and now I need even more Dead Boy Detectives since I don’t think the tv show is gonna follow this adventure but we’ll see.
September 15, 2023
Not sure what I was expecting from a book about dead children solving mysteries. But it was way less cutesy than I was thinking. The krasue is absolutely terrifying. The reveal of it and even the later uses of this monster are so creepy. Pichetshote is really good at blending mystery and Asian themes. Would love to see more of what his horror talents could bring in another story
December 27, 2023
Quite visceral. I like the concept of ghosts trying to solve problems in the world of the living. The team is in 'mortal' danger for most of the mystery.
April 19, 2024
Of all the Dead Boy Detectives comics I've read, this has probably been my favorite so far.
May 28, 2024
If it wasn’t for the Thessaly cameo, I’d give this dog one star.
January 1, 2025
At no point did I know what would happen next
May 23, 2024
I love the Dead Boy Detectives and had no idea this volume existed before stumbling across it in a comic book store. It's a nice read with some interesting mythology.
December 8, 2023
Antes del final de la mítica serie Sandman a comienzos de 1996, unas pocas miniseries spin-off habían servido para ampliar el mundo de los Eternos. Pero, una vez que Neil Gaiman dio por terminada su obra, llegó el momento de explotar a la gallina de los huevos de oro con múltiples series y miniseries que recogían conceptos y personajes de la serie de maneras más o menos afortunadas. Aquello terminó y, como el sello Vertigo, fue abandonado por DC... hasta que en los últimos estertores de dicho sello y el comienzo del sello Black Label dio lugar a una nueva hornada de series bajo la línea “Universo Sandman”. Y si bien todo apuntaba a una maniobra desesperada por parte de una DC bajo mínimos creativos, lo cierto es que todas las series que lanzaron fueron, como poco, interesantes. Una de sus últimas propuestas es esta
Dead Boy Detectives
, la recuperación de los Chicos Detectives fantasmales para este nuevo-viejo Universo Sandman.
Antiguo editor en la Vertigo sobrenatural de los primeros 2000, Pornsak Pichetshote se pasó hace unos años a guionizar cómics con Infiel, una historia de terror de casa encantada con fantasmas motivados por la xenofobia y el racismo post-11S. Y aunque aquella no hablaba específicamente de su propia experiencia, su condición de asiático-americano lo ha llevado a tratar, de un modo u otro, el choque cultural y racial en los USA en sus obras posteriores, como el noir chinoamericano de The Good Asian o la obra que nos ocupa, donde introduce sus raíces tailandesas en el mundo fantasmagórico de los Chicos Detectives.
Ampliando el elenco de la pareja de adolescentes clásica con cuatro fantasmas de la mitología thai, Pichetshote ofrece un cómic juvenil no exento de horrores explícitos y sangrientos con los que se recrea el dibujante Jeff Stokely (y el maestro Javier Rodríguez, invitado de lujo para rellenar un capítulo de la miniserie). La estética plástica y caricaturesca de Stokely (así como la imaginación narrativa y fluidez de Rodríguez) contrasta, con éxito, con los elementos más desagradables, ofreciendo al público joven (como tanto critican algunos que ya no ocurra) una atmósfera realmente terrorífica. Atmósfera que no sería tan efectiva de no ser por el trabajo de Miquel Muerto al color, con unos volúmenes que añaden fantasmagoría a las viñetas más vacías y que dan cuerpo y brillos de ultratumba con sus colores brillantes y sus tonos en fluor.
...o lo daban en la versión digital y la grapa original en papel satinado, algo que no ocurre en su versión en tapa blanda con papel poroso, porque les editores no han supervisado corrección alguna para ajustar los tonos originales a un papel más amarillento. El resultado son páginas muertas, planas y con una pátina anaranjada que desluce el resultado final por completo. Una de tantas negligencias editoriales como la de que una miniserie de apenas 6 números precise de un artista invitado para cubrir al artista principal, o que en los capítulos internos hubiera dos "Capítulo Ocho" distintos en las grapas originales y nadie lo corrigiera para el tomo. Si alguien quiere leer esta historia, que lo haga en su edición digital, buscando las grapas o rezando para que ECC corrija el tema del color en su edición española.
Sea como fuere, Dead Boy Detectives es un misterio sin mucho ídem que resulta interesante por la amalgama con la mitología espiritual tailandesa, unos nuevos personajes con potencial para ser un equipo de detectives fantasmales bien majo y un apartado gráfico que se sale del estilo habitual de DC Comics para ofrecer algo más personal. Terror juvenil y conciencia cultural.
Antiguo editor en la Vertigo sobrenatural de los primeros 2000, Pornsak Pichetshote se pasó hace unos años a guionizar cómics con Infiel, una historia de terror de casa encantada con fantasmas motivados por la xenofobia y el racismo post-11S. Y aunque aquella no hablaba específicamente de su propia experiencia, su condición de asiático-americano lo ha llevado a tratar, de un modo u otro, el choque cultural y racial en los USA en sus obras posteriores, como el noir chinoamericano de The Good Asian o la obra que nos ocupa, donde introduce sus raíces tailandesas en el mundo fantasmagórico de los Chicos Detectives.
Ampliando el elenco de la pareja de adolescentes clásica con cuatro fantasmas de la mitología thai, Pichetshote ofrece un cómic juvenil no exento de horrores explícitos y sangrientos con los que se recrea el dibujante Jeff Stokely (y el maestro Javier Rodríguez, invitado de lujo para rellenar un capítulo de la miniserie). La estética plástica y caricaturesca de Stokely (así como la imaginación narrativa y fluidez de Rodríguez) contrasta, con éxito, con los elementos más desagradables, ofreciendo al público joven (como tanto critican algunos que ya no ocurra) una atmósfera realmente terrorífica. Atmósfera que no sería tan efectiva de no ser por el trabajo de Miquel Muerto al color, con unos volúmenes que añaden fantasmagoría a las viñetas más vacías y que dan cuerpo y brillos de ultratumba con sus colores brillantes y sus tonos en fluor.
...o lo daban en la versión digital y la grapa original en papel satinado, algo que no ocurre en su versión en tapa blanda con papel poroso, porque les editores no han supervisado corrección alguna para ajustar los tonos originales a un papel más amarillento. El resultado son páginas muertas, planas y con una pátina anaranjada que desluce el resultado final por completo. Una de tantas negligencias editoriales como la de que una miniserie de apenas 6 números precise de un artista invitado para cubrir al artista principal, o que en los capítulos internos hubiera dos "Capítulo Ocho" distintos en las grapas originales y nadie lo corrigiera para el tomo. Si alguien quiere leer esta historia, que lo haga en su edición digital, buscando las grapas o rezando para que ECC corrija el tema del color en su edición española.
Sea como fuere, Dead Boy Detectives es un misterio sin mucho ídem que resulta interesante por la amalgama con la mitología espiritual tailandesa, unos nuevos personajes con potencial para ser un equipo de detectives fantasmales bien majo y un apartado gráfico que se sale del estilo habitual de DC Comics para ofrecer algo más personal. Terror juvenil y conciencia cultural.
May 5, 2024
Despite having read and enjoyed The Sandman original series, I can’t remember anything about the Dead Boy Detectives. I also didn’t know they had several other series runs in the past couple decades. It was only over the last months —with the Netflix show teaser—- that I heard about it then picked up a series during my latest book fair visit.
As the name suggests, “Dead Boy Detectives” is a mix of horror, mystery, and also children’s adventure (with adult-rated grotesque art and themes), featuring Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, two British boys playing at detectives. They died sometime in the early then late 1900s, eventually coming together and becoming ghostly friends after some big Hell-emptying event in the main Sandman continuity. The 2022 6-part series features the two friends crossing over to LA, getting signed on to investigate a disappearing kid and the emergence of three Thai ghosts. Written by Pornsak Pichetshote, the series tackles Thai mythology, East versus West beliefs, and too-real insights on immigration and racism.
I liked the art, though it did go a little too heavy on the monster/slasher horror for my sake (I prefer my fantasy a little more alive). And I’m always a sucker for afterlife and monster mythology (think Trese), especially ones that are new to me. The interplay of pantheons and gods has always been a key highlight of the sandbox that is The Sandman Universe, though the references to old characters and strict ghost laws did leave me sometimes more confused than entertained.
I appreciated the internal monologues of the two main leads that helped outline their character and relationship development more. It’s easy to accept that they are two old friends who may or may not be drifting apart. Despite all the narrative cues supporting their friendship, I still found myself still unfamiliar even after reading X number of pages… like who is Edwin and Charles as individuals, instead of just vehicles of a plot or friendship? Probably this is a function of the loaded comic series being an installment to an already-existing franchise and also being more plot-driven than introspective by genre; this might not be the best series for people who have zero baseline knowledge about the two characters. Still, it didn’t turn me away from my curiosity about them in old or future runs and in the Netflix series, so that’s good enough for me.
As the name suggests, “Dead Boy Detectives” is a mix of horror, mystery, and also children’s adventure (with adult-rated grotesque art and themes), featuring Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, two British boys playing at detectives. They died sometime in the early then late 1900s, eventually coming together and becoming ghostly friends after some big Hell-emptying event in the main Sandman continuity. The 2022 6-part series features the two friends crossing over to LA, getting signed on to investigate a disappearing kid and the emergence of three Thai ghosts. Written by Pornsak Pichetshote, the series tackles Thai mythology, East versus West beliefs, and too-real insights on immigration and racism.
I liked the art, though it did go a little too heavy on the monster/slasher horror for my sake (I prefer my fantasy a little more alive). And I’m always a sucker for afterlife and monster mythology (think Trese), especially ones that are new to me. The interplay of pantheons and gods has always been a key highlight of the sandbox that is The Sandman Universe, though the references to old characters and strict ghost laws did leave me sometimes more confused than entertained.
I appreciated the internal monologues of the two main leads that helped outline their character and relationship development more. It’s easy to accept that they are two old friends who may or may not be drifting apart. Despite all the narrative cues supporting their friendship, I still found myself still unfamiliar even after reading X number of pages… like who is Edwin and Charles as individuals, instead of just vehicles of a plot or friendship? Probably this is a function of the loaded comic series being an installment to an already-existing franchise and also being more plot-driven than introspective by genre; this might not be the best series for people who have zero baseline knowledge about the two characters. Still, it didn’t turn me away from my curiosity about them in old or future runs and in the Netflix series, so that’s good enough for me.
Read
January 17, 2024Depending what you count, I think this is the fourth or fifth Dead Boy Detectives comic, and while I'm pretty sure I've read most if not all of the others, I'm damned if I can remember anything about them beyond what was referenced in this one. Will it fare any better against the waves of oblivion? Ask me in a few years, I guess. But if not, that will at least prove apt given the bittersweet fascination with letting go on display here. Certainly there's much that deserves to be remembered; I especially liked the way Jeff Stokely draws Charles and Edwin as though they're from different genres*. Comics fandom being what it is, I imagine there were complaints from the usual suspects that Pornsak Pichetshote was using established characters as a fig leaf to tell another story about the Asian immigrant experience in America, despite a) those being worthwhile stories he tells well, b) part of the beauty of recurring detectives being the way you can use them to introduce the reader to different worlds, and most importantly c) it turns out Thai folklore includes loads of weird new varieties of ghost which are thereby made available to the story. Some of whom are so freaky that you don't need to get into questions of whether they can actually hurt our spectral protagonists - ghost or not, you would absolutely do a runner if one of these came at you. The frustrating thing, then, is that the story does nevertheless feel obliged to get into those questions, the rules governing ghosts and why they're changing, and does so in a way which to me felt at odds with the fundamentals of the parent series Sandman and even the other current Sandman Universe books, where a delight in the possibilities of mixing and matching mythologies has always been key to the appeal. Hell, even this comic itself is largely powered by that, notwithstanding the protests that Western and Thai ghosts shouldn't be mixing. But metaphysical quagmires aside, there's wit and heart here, as well as disturbing variant undead I'd not heard of before, so I'm mostly happy.
*The colours also contribute, but given it's a book about ghosts and the colourist's name is Muerto, I'm a little reluctant to think too hard about him.
*The colours also contribute, but given it's a book about ghosts and the colourist's name is Muerto, I'm a little reluctant to think too hard about him.
April 7, 2024
Cuando llegué a Dead Boys Detectives y vi el libro, lo primero que pensé es "¿Quién es Pornsak Pichetshote"? Y después de leerlo... pues sigo sin saberlo, pero me ha gustado muchísimo lo que ha hecho en esta obra. "Los Detectives Muertos" son un dúo de niños procedentes del arco Estación de Nieblas en Sandman, dos niños fantasmas que murieron con varias décadas de diferencia en el mismo internado británico, y que debido al caos provocado por el abandono de Lucifer del infierno, se quedaron como fantasmas en nuestro mundo en vez de ir allá donde Muerte iba a llevarlos. Como casi todo lo que Gaiman hizo en Sandman, Colin y Charles han tenido apariciones aquí y allá, e incluso tuvieron su propia serie limitada allá por los 90, La Cruzada de los Niños creo recordar que era, y ahora, con serie propia de Netflix en ciernes (y tuvieron una aparición también en la serie de La Patrulla Condenada en HBO), ha llegado el momento de recuperarlos para el Universo Sandman.
Y en esta ocasión, los protagonistas se encuentran en Los Ángeles, donde han acudido para encontrar a una especie de compañera viva que tuvieron, pero que ha ido creciendo, al contrario que ellos, y ya tiene una vida adulta en la ciudad, pero realmente esto no aporta demasiado a la trama (más allá de un toque de angustia adolescente), ya que lo verdaderamente importante, es que con los Detectives Muertos por allí, lo que parece ser un intento de resurrección fallido ha comenzado a provocar la aparición de fantasmas tailandeses en la ciudad, y por lo que nos cuentan, esto es peligroso, ya que el mundo de los espíritus parece adaptarse a las condiciones culturales de cada región, y que estas fronteras se caigan... pues sería malo para todos. Así, Charles y Colin van a compartir protagonismo con Jai, Colin y Tanya, tres espectros tailandeses de diferentes tipos, que han muerto en diversos momentos en Los Ángeles... y que una vez que entras en la historia, tratan temas de lo más interesantes.
Y creo que ese el único motivo por el que no le he puesto la quinta estrella, creo que la entrada se hace un poco dura, y tarda en enganchar, pero cuando te pilla... te pilla. Bueno, quizá el principio y el final, que me ha parecido también un poco apresurado. Pero el viaje es una gozada.
Y en esta ocasión, los protagonistas se encuentran en Los Ángeles, donde han acudido para encontrar a una especie de compañera viva que tuvieron, pero que ha ido creciendo, al contrario que ellos, y ya tiene una vida adulta en la ciudad, pero realmente esto no aporta demasiado a la trama (más allá de un toque de angustia adolescente), ya que lo verdaderamente importante, es que con los Detectives Muertos por allí, lo que parece ser un intento de resurrección fallido ha comenzado a provocar la aparición de fantasmas tailandeses en la ciudad, y por lo que nos cuentan, esto es peligroso, ya que el mundo de los espíritus parece adaptarse a las condiciones culturales de cada región, y que estas fronteras se caigan... pues sería malo para todos. Así, Charles y Colin van a compartir protagonismo con Jai, Colin y Tanya, tres espectros tailandeses de diferentes tipos, que han muerto en diversos momentos en Los Ángeles... y que una vez que entras en la historia, tratan temas de lo más interesantes.
Y creo que ese el único motivo por el que no le he puesto la quinta estrella, creo que la entrada se hace un poco dura, y tarda en enganchar, pero cuando te pilla... te pilla. Bueno, quizá el principio y el final, que me ha parecido también un poco apresurado. Pero el viaje es una gozada.
July 3, 2024
I’m gonna be honest I expected a lot more from this book. It had such interesting concepts, but they were just not fleshed out enough and not explained thoroughly, which may leave the reader confused and feeling like the book is rushing everything. For example:
The entire idea of Edwin getting feelings for someone was incredibly badly executed to the point where I was confused about which character he even had feelings for. And even when I knew which character it was, I did not get the sense that he actually liked any of the characters in that way.
I also feel, as someone who read the older Dead Boy Detectives comics and even the Children’s Crusades before this, that there were a lot of moments where they really mischaracterized Edwin and Charles.
The captions were also quite messy. As anyone who read the other Dead Boy Detectives comics would know, the captions are usually written from the perspective of Edwin or Charles and occasionally just a normal caption, which fits in very naturally. In this comic, you can see they tried to do that, but it just doesn’t work. Charles’s normal way of speaking and the way he speaks in the captions just do not match. The captions in which neither of them speak really feel like a narrator, which makes no sense for the comic. These captions without it being from their perspective, also happen too much, which makes you wonder what the point is of having captions from their perspectives.
There’s one chapter where the captions are from the perspective of another character, but unlike with Charles and Edwin, we are not told that it is from the character’s perspective. This breaks the system that they had set up for themselves since this is only done once.
At the end, the answer just seemed to be handed to them on a platter, which was not what I hoped for after reading an entire comic book about DETECTIVES.
In the end, the book was quite disappointing in my humble opinion.
The entire idea of Edwin getting feelings for someone was incredibly badly executed to the point where I was confused about which character he even had feelings for. And even when I knew which character it was, I did not get the sense that he actually liked any of the characters in that way.
I also feel, as someone who read the older Dead Boy Detectives comics and even the Children’s Crusades before this, that there were a lot of moments where they really mischaracterized Edwin and Charles.
The captions were also quite messy. As anyone who read the other Dead Boy Detectives comics would know, the captions are usually written from the perspective of Edwin or Charles and occasionally just a normal caption, which fits in very naturally. In this comic, you can see they tried to do that, but it just doesn’t work. Charles’s normal way of speaking and the way he speaks in the captions just do not match. The captions in which neither of them speak really feel like a narrator, which makes no sense for the comic. These captions without it being from their perspective, also happen too much, which makes you wonder what the point is of having captions from their perspectives.
There’s one chapter where the captions are from the perspective of another character, but unlike with Charles and Edwin, we are not told that it is from the character’s perspective. This breaks the system that they had set up for themselves since this is only done once.
At the end, the answer just seemed to be handed to them on a platter, which was not what I hoped for after reading an entire comic book about DETECTIVES.
In the end, the book was quite disappointing in my humble opinion.
January 10, 2024
Zwei Internatsschüler werden im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert ermordet, tun sich zusammen und machen sich nun als Geisterdetektive auf Verbrecherjagd bzw. auf die Suche nach Kriminalfällen. Wie z.B. das Verschwinden von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Kalifornien.
Dieser Background klingt erstmal harmlos, aber der Panini-Verlag gibt nicht umsonst eine Empfehlung für das Lesealter von 16 Jahren an. Denn schon bald betreten die Hexe Thessaly und andere Monster die Bühne und erwecken den Horror in diesem Buch. Die Story kann sich durchaus sehen lassen und wartet mit mancher Überraschung auf. Mehr verrate ich an dieser Stelle nicht. Was mir allerdings nicht klar ist, ist der Bezug zur Sandman-Reihe von Neil Gaiman. Es wird zwar hier und da die Ewige »Death« erwähnt, aber einen richtigen Bezug schaffe ich nicht herzustellen. Es scheint wohl eine reine Verstärkerfunktion zu sein, damit sich die Graphic Novel besser verkauft.
Die Zeichnung fand ich relativ “comichaft” und weniger künstlerisch anspruchsvoll, wenn ich dies so formulieren kann, um zu beschreiben, was den Leser erwartet. Die Sandman-Reihe wurde von vielen unterschiedlichen Künstlern gezeichnet und war demnach entsprechend geprägt, aber hier konnte vor allem Jeff Stokely mich nicht wirklich überzeugen, während Javier Rodriguez eher meinem Geschmack entspricht. Aber wie immer liegt diese Einschätzung ganz individuell im Auge des Betrachters.
Fazit
Ich fand die Geschichte sehr gut erzählt und auch spannend, selbst wenn ich keinen Bezug zur Sandman-Reihe herstellen konnte. Die Zeichnungen haben nicht immer meinen Nerv getroffen, aber die Story macht hier einiges wieder wett. Nicht, wer die Sandman-Reihe mag, wird hier eine gute Graphic-Novel finden, sondern wer gerne Horror-Graphic-Novels in einem Geisteruniversum liest.
Dieser Background klingt erstmal harmlos, aber der Panini-Verlag gibt nicht umsonst eine Empfehlung für das Lesealter von 16 Jahren an. Denn schon bald betreten die Hexe Thessaly und andere Monster die Bühne und erwecken den Horror in diesem Buch. Die Story kann sich durchaus sehen lassen und wartet mit mancher Überraschung auf. Mehr verrate ich an dieser Stelle nicht. Was mir allerdings nicht klar ist, ist der Bezug zur Sandman-Reihe von Neil Gaiman. Es wird zwar hier und da die Ewige »Death« erwähnt, aber einen richtigen Bezug schaffe ich nicht herzustellen. Es scheint wohl eine reine Verstärkerfunktion zu sein, damit sich die Graphic Novel besser verkauft.
Die Zeichnung fand ich relativ “comichaft” und weniger künstlerisch anspruchsvoll, wenn ich dies so formulieren kann, um zu beschreiben, was den Leser erwartet. Die Sandman-Reihe wurde von vielen unterschiedlichen Künstlern gezeichnet und war demnach entsprechend geprägt, aber hier konnte vor allem Jeff Stokely mich nicht wirklich überzeugen, während Javier Rodriguez eher meinem Geschmack entspricht. Aber wie immer liegt diese Einschätzung ganz individuell im Auge des Betrachters.
Fazit
Ich fand die Geschichte sehr gut erzählt und auch spannend, selbst wenn ich keinen Bezug zur Sandman-Reihe herstellen konnte. Die Zeichnungen haben nicht immer meinen Nerv getroffen, aber die Story macht hier einiges wieder wett. Nicht, wer die Sandman-Reihe mag, wird hier eine gute Graphic-Novel finden, sondern wer gerne Horror-Graphic-Novels in einem Geisteruniversum liest.
January 13, 2025
3.2/5
I was all for the concept, but the execution didn't work for me. The plot felt meandering and kinda just wandered about, with nothing interesting stemming from the "mystery" side of things, if you could call it that. The main messages were straight spelled out in plain text at random times; just sort of crammed in there as if they were added in post. It was cool to see Thai ghosts, but the delivery on that front felt a bit arbitrary as well, they'd just sort of show up, or the characters would start narrating about the difficulties of being Thai at random regardless of what's happening at the moment. I think the author wanted to share with us their experiences of being Thai in America, but didn't put anything into the plot or characters that would allow space for this kind of monologuing to make sense. If there as a sequel I'd still be willing to give it a look, only because the concept is so up my alley.
I was all for the concept, but the execution didn't work for me. The plot felt meandering and kinda just wandered about, with nothing interesting stemming from the "mystery" side of things, if you could call it that. The main messages were straight spelled out in plain text at random times; just sort of crammed in there as if they were added in post. It was cool to see Thai ghosts, but the delivery on that front felt a bit arbitrary as well, they'd just sort of show up, or the characters would start narrating about the difficulties of being Thai at random regardless of what's happening at the moment. I think the author wanted to share with us their experiences of being Thai in America, but didn't put anything into the plot or characters that would allow space for this kind of monologuing to make sense. If there as a sequel I'd still be willing to give it a look, only because the concept is so up my alley.
November 4, 2023
The latest Sandman Universe book brings Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland back into the spotlight, along with some Thai ghost friends as they attempt to solve a murder that links back to the Nightmare Country storyline.
I hate saying 'this was okay', but it really was just okay. It's just a ghost story, and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table for our main two characters. The Thai angle is neat, but it does often come across as exposition dumps rather than integral to the story. In fact, the most interesting things to happen relate to Thessaly, and those are just set-up points for Nightmare Country's sequel series.
There wasn't anything particularly impressive about Dead Boy Detectives, unlike all of the other Sandman Universe books, and that's probably the worst thing about it. Lacking in that Sandman Universe magic.
I hate saying 'this was okay', but it really was just okay. It's just a ghost story, and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table for our main two characters. The Thai angle is neat, but it does often come across as exposition dumps rather than integral to the story. In fact, the most interesting things to happen relate to Thessaly, and those are just set-up points for Nightmare Country's sequel series.
There wasn't anything particularly impressive about Dead Boy Detectives, unlike all of the other Sandman Universe books, and that's probably the worst thing about it. Lacking in that Sandman Universe magic.
January 11, 2025
Me gustó mucho más que el primer volumen que leí. Cada panel es absolutamente hermoso (y asqueroso y terrorífico). La verdad tenía miedo de encontrar la historia algo confusa por lo que decía la gente en las reseñas, pero para mi fue todo lo contrario. Desde el momento en que lo empecé no pude parar de leer. Me encariñé tanto con los nuevos personajes que solo quería saber más y más de ellos (mis favoritos obviamente fueron Jai y Melvin). También me encantó poder ver a Edwin abrirse más con otros niños/fantasmas y lo fuertes que son sus sentimientos por Charles y lo mucho que le importa y se preocupa. Me parece de los personajes mejor construidos y me hace muy feliz por fin tener una historia que explore a profundidad estos aspectos de él y se le dé el enfoque que merece.
Le doy cinco estrellas porque la verdad si lo amé muchísimo y lo volvería a leer.
Le doy cinco estrellas porque la verdad si lo amé muchísimo y lo volvería a leer.
December 2, 2023
This continues the style of the Sandman Universe, expanding the mythology in unexpected ways. The introduction of Thai ghosts and their many variations makes for a good foil for Charles and Edward, to the point that they take a back seat for most of the book, but that actually serves them well - they're characters that it's very easy to get too much of.
The art is beautiful and the complexity of the mythology is fascinating. The third character borrowed from Sandman is less well utilized, serving as a bit of deus ex machina that doesn't get enough page time to really earn their impact. But that's my only real complaint. Another nice addition to the Sandman Universe.
The art is beautiful and the complexity of the mythology is fascinating. The third character borrowed from Sandman is less well utilized, serving as a bit of deus ex machina that doesn't get enough page time to really earn their impact. But that's my only real complaint. Another nice addition to the Sandman Universe.
May 11, 2024
i have no real opinion honestly...the biggest issue with these two is that they’re very forgettable. they were fun in the original sandman bc they parodied the brit boarding school genre + teenage private eyes. once you remove that, they’re boring...trite...usual. this trade was good bc of the LA atmosphere (pink streetlights, palm trees) and how that interlocked w the thai immigrant experience, not bc of the main characters, both of whom cld be cut. the narrative here wld be a lot better outside the confines of the dc sandman universe imo, so...two stars.
March 13, 2024
This is the first I read of these boys and that caused me to struggle to get through this book. There wasn't enough for me to latch onto them completely. The world was alright, but filled with much more sadness then I want.
The art was fantastic. Every panel so thought out and designed. The letters especially were great. Balloons and bubbles using new shapes and ways to convey sounds and tell the story. The art really brought the book up for me.
The art was fantastic. Every panel so thought out and designed. The letters especially were great. Balloons and bubbles using new shapes and ways to convey sounds and tell the story. The art really brought the book up for me.
April 14, 2024
Enjoyed the first half more than the second. I like Charles and Edwin and Thessaly is my favorite, however I did not find the snake ghost likeable. I understand that not all kids are pleasant, but his excessive use of mother effer at one point was even more awful than his referring to the girls’ chest.
I liked Jai’s message about trying, I love Thessay being a badass (wanted more of her), and Charles letting go, his message about how we transform when we fall out of love, and maturing.
I liked Jai’s message about trying, I love Thessay being a badass (wanted more of her), and Charles letting go, his message about how we transform when we fall out of love, and maturing.
July 3, 2024
A really enjoyable read filled with teenage Thai ghosts, interesting writing, and good storytelling. I had a fun time reading, and I’m sure other fans of the extended universe of The Sandman would enjoy this too. The only negative I would probably say is that I’m not a huge fan of the art style itself as I felt there were some pages where it wasn’t very clean. Overall though the art didn’t deter me, and I had a good time.
November 20, 2023
Did not like this at ALL. I had a hard time following what little story there was. And the Dead Boys are meant to be English; felt they were written pretty American. I’m not even sure we needed another series based on these two minor characters; loved them in sandman but not here. Boring and confusing for this reader.
December 1, 2023
There is some real creativity here. The ghosts, creatures called the Krasue that are essentially heads with spines attached that rip you apart from limb to limb, and main characters each with their own storied death are all fun to look at. That being written, it was all over the place and hard to follow. Underlying bullying PSAs and some unfinished characters kind of kept me in the dark.
April 26, 2024
I stumbled across this in a comic book store and since I really liked the Sandman, I decided to check it out.
I had a lot of fun reading it and found it really interesting to learn about ghosts from Thai culture. I now got the Dead Boy Detectives Omnibus edition and am looking forward to reading it!
I had a lot of fun reading it and found it really interesting to learn about ghosts from Thai culture. I now got the Dead Boy Detectives Omnibus edition and am looking forward to reading it!
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