Monday, January 23, 2006

Dead Boy Detectives by Jill Thompson
Created by Neil Gaiman in his popular SANDMAN series

Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, the dead British teenagers who are always on the run from Death, travel stateside to solve a missing persons case. Our intrepid heroes have been contacted by young Annika Abernathy, a student at a posh International Academy in Chicago. It seems that Annika's best friend has vanished. For Rowland and Paine to investigate the case properly, they decide to enroll as students at the school. And since it's an all-girls academy, the duo is forced to go undercover — in drag.

It is an odd mix of Victorian style and manga. The illustrations change based on location and who is in the square. Not terribly original but interesting. I am curious to look at her previous work "Death, at Death's Door" and future items. I have not seen Gaiman's original comics that this volume was based on to know how it compares.

Death at Death's Door ~ Fills in the backstory of "Season of Mists," by Neil Gaiman. Lucifer has abandoned Hell, giving Morpheus the key to its gates and unleashing a host of troubles for the beleaguered Dream King. Thompson's story, while including enough references to "Mists" to bring everyone up to speed, focuses primarily on Dream's big sister, Death, whose apartment is overrun by the dead with no place to go now that Hell has closed up shop. So, acting on their own idea for coping with the legions of former damned, younger sisters Despair and Delerium host a party at Death's house.

I know that this has gotten a lot of positive write-ups because of the success Thompson has had recreating a Manga style but it just didn't do anything for me. I find most Manga really annoying with all the clutter and yelling and shouting that seems to go on endlessly.