Dead Boy Detectives - Concept History

Concept History

The characters were created by Gaiman and Wagner during the "Season of Mists" storyline in Sandman #25. In this story their origin is given as the two characters meet for the first time.

The story and characters are clearly a macabre spin on two genres of British children's fiction - boarding school literature and teenage detective stories.

Gaiman revived the characters in the Children's Crusade Vertigo's first and only crossover event which ran through all that year's Vertigo annuals that were published between December 1993 and January 1994. Gaiman wrote the two Children's Crusade bookend annuals which prominently featured both characters and first gave them the official title the "Dead Boy Detectives". The characters also appeared in a The Books of Magic short story in Winter's Edge #3, written by the then current writer Peter Gross.

In 2001 they received their own four-issue mini-series Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives by writer Ed Brubaker and penciller Bryan Talbot. They have also made appearances in the Books of Magic ongoing series, which was also based on a Neil Gaiman work.

Jill Thompson briefly depicted the characters in her Death: At Death's Door (2003) graphic novel which retold the events of "Season of Mists" from Death's perspective. The writer/artist later produced a manga-style graphic novel starring the characters, titled The Dead Boy Detectives (2005, ISBN 1-4012-0313-2).

Although the characters are children and their stories often involve other children and child-related themes, the The Dead Boy Detectives carry the "suggested for mature readers" label.