Charles Rowland & Edwin Paine (The Dead Boy Detectives)

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Created by Neil Gaiman & Matt Wagner

Originally created by Neil Gaiman in his popular Sandman series from DC/Vertigo back in the nineties, EDWIN PAINE (died 1916) and CHARLES ROWLAND (died 1990) are two British schoolboys who have shuffled off this mortal coil–but that hasn’t stopped them from making like the would-be Hardy Boys of the afterlife, investigating cases that involve the supernatural.

The obligatory origin story? Evidently Charles and Edwin refused to head off with Death to the afterworld, and instead spent years together haunting assorted theatres and libraries learning how to become first-rate detectives. Trapped for eternity in between worlds, locked in perpetual youth, with Death always on their case, they can’t really be seen by mortal adults, although children can see them.

Get it? Me neither, or at least not exactly, but then, truth to tell, I never quite got Sandman either.

Fortunately, for Charles and Edwin, there definitely was life after Sandman. After making their debut in the five-part story arc “Season of Mists” (Sandman #21-25) in 1990, they reappeared in a short story in Winter’s Edge #3 (1991), written by Peter Gross, and then in a couple of Sandman annuals in 1993-94.

The spectral Sherlocks returned seven years later in In The Dead Boy Detectives and the Secret of Immortality (2001), a four-issue mini-series written by Ed Brubaker (a man who knows his way around crime comics) and drawn by Bryan Talbot and Steve Leialoha. This one had the ghostly gumshoes–who are operating their detective agency out of a tree house–investigating the macabre case of bodies of homeless children washing up on the shores of the Thames.

It was this version that convinced me that the Dead Boys were actually pretty fun. Definitely for adults, although older kids will probably get a kick out of this light-hearted boys’ adventure tale with its supernatural overtones and easy-going humour, despite the macabre trappings–sorta like the Harry Potter gang as P.I.s.

And that’s a notion that must have crossed the minds of the good folks at DC/Vertigo, because in the summer of 2005, the boys returned in their own manga digest, The Secret of Immortality, with text and art by artist Jill Thompson. In it, the boys travel to Chicago on a missing persons case, where they’re forced to go undercover at an all-girl’s school.

Charles and Edwin survived that indignity and returned in 2012, in three one-shots, as part of the Vertigo Anthology series.which revived several of DC’s anthology series. The boys introduced new audiences to Ghosts, Time Warp, and The Witching Hour.

A proposed series never quite caught on, but in 2014, Vertigo decided to try again, this time with a monthly series, which lasted twelve issues.

And at the tail end of 2022, DC tried yet again, as part of a concerted expansion of the Sandman universe which already included several other Sandman-related comic titles, a TV adaptation of Sandman and… a Dead Boys Detective television series from HBO (later Netflix) slotted to debut late in 2023 or possibly early 2024.

It bounced around a while, but eventually it saw the light, premiering on Netflix in April 2024.

A sort of “backdoor” pilot, “Dead Patrol,” had already aired on September 23, 2021, as part of the third season of the HBO television series Doom Patrol, albeit with different actors playing Charles and Edwin. Jayden Revri played Charles and George Rexstrew was Edwin, and it was , and it was about as weird and wonderful as you’d hope. Possibly too weird and wonderful, in fact. It only lasted eight episodes, and was not renewed.

 

COMICS

  • SANDMAN
    (1989-96, DC/Vertigo)
    Monthly series
    Created and written by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner

    • “Season of Mists: A Prologue” (December 1990, #21)
    • “Season of Mists: Chapter 1” (January 1991, #22)
    • “Season of Mists: Chapter 2” (February 1991, #23)
    • “Season of Mists: Chapter 3” (March 1991, #24)
    • “Season of Mists: Chapter 4” (April 1991, #25)
      The Boys’ official first appearance.
    • “Season of Mists: Episode 5” (May 1991, #26)
  • THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE
    (1993-94, DC/Vertigo)
    Written by Neil Gaiman
    Art by John Totleben

    • “The Children’s Crusade” (December 1993, #1)
    • “The Children’s Crusade” (January 1994, #2)
      Gaiman brought back Charles and Edwin for the opening and closing volumes of a series of Vertigo annuals.
  • SWAMP THING ANNUAL #7
    (1993, DC Comics)

    • “A Child’s Garden Revisited” (December 1993)
      Part of The Children’s Crusade storyline.
  • DOOM PATROL ANNUAL #2
    (1994, DC Comics)

    • “The Wild, The Good, And The Grown-Up” (January 1994, #2)
      Part of The Children’s Crusade storyline.
  • SANDMAN PRESENTS: THE DEAD BOY DETECTIVES
    (2001, DC/Vertigo)
    4-issue mini-series
    Created by Neil Gaiman
    Writer: Ed Brubaker
    Art: Bryan Talbot, Steve Leialoha

    • “The Secret of Immortality (Part One)”
    • “The Secret of Immortality (Part Two)”
    • “The Secret of Immortality (Part Three)”
    • “The Secret of Immortality (Part Four)”
  • THE DEAD BOY DETECTIVE DIGEST | Buy this book | Kindle/ComiXology it!
    (2005, DC/Vertigo)
    144 pages, digest-size
    Created by Neil Gaiman
    Written and drawn by Jill Thompson
  • THE VERTIGO ANTHOLOGY SERIES: GHOSTS
    (2012, DC Comics)
    Dead Boys story by Toby Litt, Mark Buckingham
    Art by Victor Santos
  • THE VERTIGO ANTHOLOGY SERIES: TIME WARP
    (2013, DC Comics)
    Dead Boys story by Toby Litt, Mark Buckingham
    Art by Victor Santos
  • THE VERTIGO ANTHOLOGY SERIES: THE WITCHING HOUR
    (2013, DC Comics)
    Dead Boys story by Toby Litt, Mark Buckingham
    Art by Victor Santos
  • THE DEAD BOY DETECTIVES
    (2014-15, DC/Vertigo)
    12 issues
    Monthly
    Based on characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner
    Written by Toby Litt, Mark Buckingham
    Art by Ryan Kelly, Lee Loughridge, Gary Erskine

    • “Schoolboy Terrors: The New Girl” (February 2014, #1)
    • “Schoolboy Terrors: Ghost Knives” (March 2014, #2)
    • “Schoolboy Terrors: Soul-Stripped” (April 2014, #3)
    • “Schoolboy Terrors: School Blazers” (May 2014, #4)
    • “Halfway House: Topsy-Turvy” (June 2014, #5)
    • “Ghost Snow: Higgedy-Piggedy (July 2014, #6)
    • “Ghost Snow: Flakes” (September 2014, #7)
    • “Ghost Snow: Twirls” (October 2014, #8)
    • “Ghost Snow: Swirls” (November 2014, #9)
    • “Ghost Snow: Drifts” (December 2014; #10)
    • “Ghost Snow: Drifts” (January 2015, #11)
    • “Yonda” (February 2015, #12)
  • THE SANDMAN UNIVERSE PRESENTS: DEAD BOY DETECTIVES
    (20223, DC/Vertigo)
    6 issues
    Based on characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner
    Written by Pornsak Pichetshote
    Art by Jeff Stokely

    • “Chapter One: Swords of Arkhane” (February 2023, #1)
    • “Chapter Two: The Client” (February 2023, #1)
    • “Chapter Three: *(The Bigger Boat)” (February 2023, #1)
    • “Chapter Four: “Oh.” (February 2023, #1)
    • “Chapter Five: Who Says?” (March 2023; #2)
    • “Chapter Six: The Pink House” (March 2023; #2)
    • “Chapter Seven This Black Magic Shit” (March 2023; #2)
    • “Chapter Eight: The Brainstorm” (March 2023; #2)
    •  “Chapter Eight: Little Golden Boys” (April 2023, #3)
    • “Chapter Nine: Pim” (April 2023, #3)
    • “Chapter 10: Chapter Ten: The Second Death of Jai Sirikul” (May 2023, #4)
    • “Chapter Eleven: Approaching the Palace” (June 2023; #5)
    • “Chapter Twelve: Kids” (June 2023; #5)
    • “Chapter Thirteen: The Plan” (July 2023; #6)
    • “Chapter Fourteen: Kids (Part II)” (July 2023; #6)
    • “Chapter FIfteen: The End?” (July 2023; #6)

COLLECTIONS

  • Dead Boy Detectives Vol. 1: Schoolboy Terrors (2014) | Buy this book  | Kindle/ComiXology it!
  • Collects Dead Boy Detectives #1-6
  • Dead Boy Detectives Vol. 2: Ghost Snow (2015) | Buy this book  | Kindle/ComiXology it!
    Collects Dead Boy Detectives #7-12
  • Dead Boy Detectives Omnibus (2023)| Buy the graphic novel
    A whomping big, 800-page, hardcover chunk of Dead Boy detectives, that finally collects  all the bits and pieces over the years, includingThe Dead Boy Detectives #1-12, Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives #1-4, The Sandman #25, The Children’s Crusade #1-2, Ghosts#1, The Witching Hour #1, Time Warp #1, Doom Patrol Annual #2, and Swamp Thing Annual #7. Part of the The Sandman Universe Classics series.

TELEVISION

  • DEAD BOY DETECTIVES
    (2024, Netflix)
    8 episodes
    Premiere: April 25, 2025
    Based on characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner
    Developed for television by Steve Yockey
    Writers: Shoshana Sachi, Ian Weinreich, Kristy Lowrey, Joshua Conkel, Kristin Layne Tucker, Kelli Breslin, Jeremy Kaufman, Beth Schwartz, Oscar Balderrama, Steve Yockey, Ross Maxwell
    Directors: Lee Toland Krieger, Andi Armaganian, Pete Chatmon, Glen Winter, Amanda Tapping
    Starring Jayden Revri as CHARLES ROWLAND
    and George Rexstrew as EDWIN PAINE
    With Max Jenkins as Kingham
    And Caitlin Reilly as Litty
    Also starring Lauren K. Robek, Lukas Gag, Michael Beach, Lindsey Gort, Ruth Connell, Briana Cuoco, Alix West Lefler, Jenn Lyon, Joshua Colley, Rochelle Okoye, Kassius Nelson, Yuyu Kitamura, Gabriel Drake, Robbie Segulam, Amanda Marier, Harpal Khabra, David Iacono

    • “The Case of Crystal Palace” (April 25, 2024)
    • “The Case of the Dandelion Shrine” (April 25, 2024)
    • “The Case of the Devlin House” (April 25, 2024)
    • “The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers” (April 25, 2024)
    • “The Case of the Two Dead Dragons” (April 25, 2024)
    • “The Case of the Creeping Forest” (April 25, 2024)
    • “The Case of the Very Long Stairway” (April 25, 2024)
    • “The Case of the Hungry Snake” (April 25, 2024)

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

Published

2 thoughts on “Charles Rowland & Edwin Paine (The Dead Boy Detectives)”

  1. The Dead Boy Detectives also appeared on TV in season 3, episode 3 of DOOM PATROL. Not quite the same as in the comics, but the basic concept was there.

    Reply

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