Synopses & Reviews
Neil Gaiman's inimitable sleuths from
The Sandman: Season of Mists star in their own Manga Digest.
The Dead Boy Detectives, guest-starring Death of the Endless, is brought to life by award-winning artist Jill Thompson (The Sandman: Brief Lives, Scary Godmother). Based on the overwhelming success of her first Manga Digest, Death: At Death's Door, Thompson has crafted an amazing original mystery that will appeal to both Sandman fans and shojou Manga enthusiasts.
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.
Secret passages, food fights, and far too many fashionistas abound as the Dead Boy Detectives solve the case and learn a lot about life from the precocious daughters of international ambassadors and famous rock stars.
As a bonus, this digest also features a free 8-page excerpt from Death: At Death's Door.
Review
"Thompson's cute art...fits a story full of well-written over-the-top screwball comedy....Sandman series fans may be a little disappointed (it's too cute), but manga mavens will be in heaven." Booklist
Review
"The girls engage in lots of entertaining banter, and Thompson shows that she knows the shojo manga style very well: the cuteness, the expressionistic backgrounds, the mixture of sweet, serious, and silly moments." Library Journal
Review
"Jill Thompson has a knack for bringing fun, innocent but weird characters to life, and she does so again [here]....Even those who generally don't care for manga-style storytelling...will delight in this original graphic novel. (Rating: 9/10)" Don MacPherson, TheFourthRail.com