DC Comics have announced “The Sandman Universe: Dead Boy Detectives,” a new series starring the eponymous ghostly children first introduced in Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner’s “Sandman” #25. Written by Pornsak Pichetshote (“The Good Asian”) with art by Jeff Stokely (“The Ludocrats”), the six-issue comic will see Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine head to Los Angeles to find a missing Thai-American girl named Jai, who they discover is also a ghost.
“This is definitely a horror book,” says Pichetshote, where “the boys discover Thai black magic’s getting more powerful in Los Angeles (the home of the largest Thai population outside Thailand), and it might even be changing the rules governing ghosts. All this, while Charles and Edwin, two ghost detectives, are secretly craving changes themselves—in a coming-of-age story starring two boys who can’t grow up.”
The book will also feature the witch Thessaly, also first introduced in “The Sandman,” and the horrifying creature known as the krasue in Thai folklore. “The genius of ‘Sandman’ is how seamlessly it fits different genres, histories, and folklores together, something that definitely inspired Jeff and I for ‘Dead Boy Detectives,'” Pichetshote explains. “As a Thai-American, I grew up around all this wonderful Thai folklore that’s never made it to American pop culture, so by introducing some of my favorite Neil Gaiman characters to the truly terrifying and bizarre world of Thai ghosts, we will give horror and ‘Sandman’ fans something new.”
Since their first appearance in 1991, the Dead Boy Detectives have headlined a crossover, a miniseries, an original graphic novel, and an ongoing that ran for 12 issues from 2014 to 2015. The new comic comes on the heels of their appearance in season three of Doom Patrol, where they were portrayed by Sebastian Croft and Ty Tennant; a pilot for a spin-off has been ordered by HBO Max, where the boys will now be played by Edwin Payne and George Rexstrew.
“The Sandman Universe: Dead Boy Detectives” #1 will be released on December 27, and feature coloring by Miquel Muerto, as well as lettering from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. It will have a main cover by Nimit Malavia, and variants from Alex Eckman-Lawn, Tyler Crook, Filipe Andrade (1:25) and Yoshitaka Amano (1:50). You can check most of these out, as well as an interior preview, at DC.com.
