The Dead Boy Detectives

Jill Thompson's Sandman

by Jill Thompson

They'll do anything to solve the case.

Rowland and Paine, the dead British teenagers who first appeared in Neil Gaiman's THE SANDMAN: SEASON OF MISTS, travel stateside to investigate a strange missing-persons case at a posh International Academy for Girls.

Naturally, the inquisitive duo is forced to go undercover - in drag - if they're to have a hope in hell of solving the case. It's time for dark secrets, food fights and spies as the Dead Boy Detectives learn a lot about life from the precocious daughters of rich ambassadors and rebellious rock stars.

This manga digest also features an introduction to the SANDMAN library and an excerpt from DEATH: AT DEATH'S DOOR, Jill Thompson's first manga digest.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Manga, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Jill Thompson is an American comic book writer and illustrator. Probably best known for her work on Neil Gaiman's Sandman characters and her own Scary Godmother series, she has also worked on The Invisibles, Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman and more recently, Beasts of Burden.

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I'm being a wee bit generous here, because I like Jill Thompson. It's an odd idea, though: take two characters previously seen only in one issue of Sandman and spin them off into a shojo manga. It's an odd change of tone from their previous appearance. Especially since both have been given the bishonen treatment.

Ok, but is it good? To which I can only say, "Well..." The truth is that I enjoyed it out of my shameless affection for shojo. But if you don't like shojo manga in general, you might want to try Thompson's previous Sandman-themed manga, Death: At Death's Door. From my memory, it's better. Or better yet, read her Scary Godmother series, without any of the baggage of playing in Neil Gaiman's sandbox.

[John Elbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Final book in my Jill Thompson Sandman tour. Dig the style more now than I did when it first came out. Clever tale. They even Scooby-Doo'd things at the end in grand fashion. Good times!

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dead Boy Detectives

Rowland and Paine are called out to investigate the disappearance of a girl from an exclusive boarding school. The only problem is that they're dead.

Thompson has written a zany manga story featuring characters from 'Season of Mists'. It's fun, it's funny and it is quite a brilliant satire.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, good art, but not much there.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmm. When will I learn to ignore the lure of "from the pages of The Sandman" on the cover of a book?

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a go with this one. It wasn’t a long read, and there were some funny parts, but generally not my cup of tea. 3 stars as I managed to finish it and didn’t find it *awful* but not likely the sort of style thing that I would read again.

[Alex Sarll]

I'd forgotten quite how hard US comics were chasing manga fans in the noughties. Charles and Edwin, neither the most nor least likely Sandman spin-off stars, are at least a reasonably good fit for some familiar tropes, what with being perpetual schoolboys, but this still goes all-in by having them obliged, because of reasons, to go undercover and thus in drag at an all-girls school, where kids coded so as to suggest wildly different ages all seem to be in the same class because that's just how manga schools work, isn't it? Similarly, while Jill Thompson hasn't drawn much you couldn't call cute one way or another, here she's very obviously going for kawaii, with results which swing from endearing to queasy, sometimes within a single panel. As for the mystery on which it all supposedly hangs, well, you know the rule that the reader should have all the information to be able to guess the correct solution ahead of the fictional detective? Yeah, well you can forget about that.

[Wellington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, I found a new library to wander through her corridors searching for a literary gem. The Scottsdale library also boasts a much larger graphic novel section.

I thought this might be one of those gems. But alas no.

This book uses a couple minor characters from the Sandman Universe drawn in manga form. Two ghost boy detectives are asked by students from a girl school to investigate a murder. They zoom across the Atlantic and go under cover as girls.

It's aimed at a much younger crowd than the Sandman. Maybe if you really like the cutesy graphics ... lately, I have been more into storyline. Something more meaty. This is just more like a cupcake. It's not gem. But it's hardly a lump of coal either

[Lissa Fulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neil Gaiman's clever and witty writing adapted into an incredibly adorable Moe Manga? -- honestly, it's everything good in the world rolled into one story. I was a little skeptical I would "get" it since I never had a huge interest in the Sandman comics, but it works well as a quick, lighthearted standalone and was incredibly enjoyable despite my meager knowledge of the larger storyline it branches off from. I'm now interested to read Jill Thompson's other Sandman Manga adaptation as her style seems to make the series more palatable for me, personally.

[The Local Spooky Hermit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh meh meh

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely one of my fave graphic novels of all time, only wish there had been more Dead Boy Detectives

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The balls to introduce a tremendously complicated story only to be like “lol. lmao.” So good. Amazing.

[Vail Chester · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's fascinating how attitudes towards manga have changed in the past 20 years.
Here, the art-style is mega-SD (ridiculously chibi!) and I suppose the higher ups at DC said because of that, to make the story as low-threat, low-stakes, & juvenile as possible. This would have more of an audience with kids who read Hello Kitty or other early readers.
But that's the thing: Dead Boy Detectives are part of the VERY Vertigo-labeled "Sandman" series. The entire setting does not, in any way, lend itself well to what I can only describe as "cyuuutsy wootsy."
The case itself these boys take up in this book shapes up to be promising but...the most aggravating thing would be thinking we were in for a murder case, with tones of pedophilia involved...and the end result is NOT that and perfectly tame reasoning was given to all the "damning evidence."

Another minor nitpick would have to be that despite the setting being an International all-girls school in Chicago...the English is HEAVILY Brit-based. I know that Neil Gaiman himself is very British, but even tho he's a consultant, the DC editors should have tried to make the actual Americans in the cast use the correct word choices!

Let's just be thankful that in 2024, the style of something doesn't have to determine the substance of the story. Perhaps it was too high hopes to have for something I found in the Teen section at the library, as well as the idea of a great Netflix series percolating in the back of my brain, but this wasn't for me chief.

[Declan O'Keeffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this at midnight, after a full day of ignoring anything actually on my currently reading list.

I love the Sandman universe, but only really know it through Locke and Key and the Netflix show. I tried and failed to get into the comics, so my Sandman Universe knowledge is limited.

I only learned of Dead Boy Detectives properly through the Netflix trailer this week and it got me intrigued, so I wanted to try to read atleast something of it.

This is a cute, quick manga read about the ghost boys, and it was a fun read as someone who is slowly learning about manga and the tropes and styles therein. For what this book is and with my limited knowledge of both the universe and the manga genre I enjoyed it.

[Lucie 🌞 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5 stars

Now I am really excited about this one because this is definitely more my style and my type of coloring, I am super excited for that manga style !

Charles falling in love again

Awww this was so adorable !! I loved the story, the girl gang looking for their missing friend.

I enjoyed this more than the other books, probably headaches if it’s style

The girls making them dress like girls to be able to stay at the dorm at their uni 😭😭

Edwin being like « it’s inappropriate » haha and Charles living his best life

I loved that we had a flashback of Charles’ death ( yes when I say it like that it seems weird) because I really enjoyed reading about it in the manga style

Now I just wished all of the rest of the comics was in that style I truly loved it !!!

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Thompson’s work on Beasts of Burden but her black and white manga style wasn’t for me. The story itself was okay but not great. I like seeing some of the Endless, especially at the end but overall this didn’t do much for me.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally read Death by Jill Thompson years ago. I never knew this existed so I decided to give it a shot. It was okay. The story seemed like it was a bit all over the place. The ending was rushed. It was okay.

[Tom Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Came in a graphic novel bundle I won in a raffle. I'm clearly not the target audience, but sheesh. Everything about this was excessively twee.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. How did this get published?

[Kristin Katsuye · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was mediocre but don’t take my rating that seriously as this isn’t the age range for me to read. Note though that I do still read some kids books & enjoy them. This one not as much.

[Izabela Melo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorei, leitura bem leve e com muitas referências engraçadas

[Mercury · Rating 1 out of 5]

If Death WASNT in here, I WOULDNT even give this thing a review.

[Raúl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jill Thompson siempre consigue convertir el universo Sandman en algo muy personal e irreverente. Muy divertido.

[Javier Alarcón · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un sainete de misterios de instituto en clave manga ligerito y bastante disfrutón. No te cambia la vida, pero solo por la cachonda resolución ya vale la pena.

(Traducido por Olga Marín)

[Jodi_ice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cawpile: 4.86 3*

[Jared Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

not on comicbookroundup

[Murphy Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.75

cute!

[Teresa Gonsoski]

If this doesn't appeal to you, either you don't like The Sandman... or you're dead.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t care much for the story at all.

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

its good, i mean is obviusly for young ages but it was short and fun so i kinda like it