Dead Boy Detectives, Volume 2: Ghost Snow

  

 Edwin and Charles, the greatest pair of sleuths under the age of 13 in the afterlife have become a trio with the addition of the living and breathing wild child, Crystal Palace! Together, the group meets Clementine, the half-sister of Charles, in hopes of solving the mystery behind his mother's murder. As they search for clues, they trio stumble upon a conspiracy so sinister that it affects the stability of the Neitherlands, a mystical annex between this world and the next. With love blooming between Crystal and one of the Dead Boy Detectives, will they be able to focus long enough to solve all of these mysteries and possibly save the life of someone close to Crystal who was presumed dead and buried?

   Volume 2 was riveting. However, this is one of those series that if you take too long in between reading volume 1 and 2, you may find yourself needing a refresher because there is just so much going on. The combined work of Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham is so perfectly crafted, that my memory gaps were not a bother. Litt does a good job keeping the reader abreast as to what's going on without being obsessively repetitive as Marvel was notorious for doing in the 80s.

   Plus, the Masterful pencil work of Fables artist Buckingham was so hauntingly beautiful that it almost made me want to see just what a 'Ghost Snow' looks like- almost but not quite. The covers are awesome too and you finally get to see the mosaic the Buckingham has been crafting as little puzzle pieces at the end of each issue. Wicked Awesome Stuff!

   Volume 2 marks the end of this series of Dead Boy Detectives. This is the third volume so hopefully this isn't the end of their story. With Vertigo rolling out almost 2 dozen new series over the next couple of months, the odds are good (but not great) that this trio of supernatural detectives will return someday soon.

   Worth Consuming.

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Dead Boy Detectives, Volume 1: Schoolboy Terrors

The Dead Boy Detectives have been around since 2001. They originated in the pages of Gaiman’s The Sandman family of books. I’ve read some Sandman stuff, such as a couple of volumes from the main series, some Death graphic novels, and Thessaly. But in my readings I’ve never come across these guys.

A few months ago, I became the Admin for the DC Comics and Vertigo new releases for stashmycomics.com. It was here in putting the newest releases up every week that I first came across the DBDs.

Meet Edwin and Charles. Edwin was murdered at his boarding school in 1913. Jump to 1990, where Charles was murdered at the same school. Somehow, the two meet and ended up rejected Death’s offer to find peace on the other side, hoping to become a sort of paranormal Encyclopedia Brown.

In this volume, the boys help a pair of girl ghosts find their missing cat. Then they go back to their old haunt (pun intended) in hopes of helping a sad girl stave off the very same faith that befell them years ago. Finally, live becomes topsy turvy when Edwin’s attempt to free a ghost from a broken mirror results in him being turned upside down and he gets stuck like that.

 Dead Boy Detectives was very interesting. I enjoyed the previews I had reading during my Admin work. So, the series was on my radar. Once again, my local library came through and I was about to snatch this up before it even hit the shelf. There’s a little demonic voodoo in this book. I don’t usually read those types of books. Thankfully, it wasn’t too scary. Other than a few swears and well, Death of course, it’s a fairly mild opening act.

Sometimes, it takes a little while before the true motives of a series becomes clear. I thought the first two volumes of Sandman weren’t so bad but volume 3 really freaked me out and I haven’t been back since. But I think the Death books are fantastic. So, I was willing to give this a try. I’m very pleased and I would give volume 2 a go once it becomes available.

There’s also at least 2 other Dead Boy Detective miniseries published about 10 years ago. I’m interested in them as well but I want to read volume 2 of this current series before my mind is made up about reading them.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.