Comics
Review: ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ #3
With two appealing protagonists, “Dead Boy Detectives” #3 strikes the right balance between charming and frightening at the same time. After being introduced in the pages of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman,” the dead boys make their own mark with a new supernatural adventure. More alive in death, the boys are about to discover that there is nothing good about going back home.
WRITTEN BY: Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham
ART BY: Mark Buckingham
PUBLISHER: Vertigo Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: February 26, 2014
Though Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland died, they decided to stick around as ghosts, solving mysteries in their spare time. The irony is, the two best friends only started living after they died. Now, Edwin and Charles will have to face something terrible they have avoided for so very long. They have to solve the mystery behind their own deaths. When they return back to their school, Edwin and Charles unexpectedly uncover dangerous secrets in the hallways. Time hasn’t changed as their school is still overrun by bullies and bad teachers. There’s nothing worse than a bully who also happens to be a ghost.
I really like how writers Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham are exploring the back-stories of their main protagonists. In the opening pages, Charles unlocks a forgotten truth about his past. After staring at his tombstone, Charles panics after realizing he may have a living relative. There is someone else other than Edwin that remembers him. Charles experiences a sudden brush of hope, knowing that there is a brother or sister who cares about him.
Because Edwin and Charles are ghosts, you really don’t expect them to be afraid of anything. Litt and Buckingham remind readers that these two best friends, at their core, are just naive kids. Edwin doesn’t want to go back to school because he is still afraid of being picked on by a bully. In the afterlife, Edwin runs away from a physically imposing bully, who haunts him as a poltergeist.
In a well-detailed two-pager, Buckingham delivers a surreal illustration of an innocent girl passing between the living and the dead. Hanna is lying on a stretcher, covered in knives and locked in chains. On one side, a demon rises from a fiery pit of lava. As the demon attempts to take possession of her body, Hanna’s soul flies off towards a bright light. Buckingham illustrates dozens of skeletal arms reaching out to grab Hanna’s spirit.
Notice how the color scheme differentiates the perspectives between the living and the dead. When Crystal is walking across the school’s hallways, Charles and Edwin realize she is being followed by the ghost bullies. In Crystal’s point-of-view, colorist Lee Loughridge uses white tones to depict the ghostly figures. When Crystal suddenly sees the phantoms, Loughridge paints the backgrounds with a vibrant purple shade.
“Dead Boy Detectives” #3 manages to keep the mystery suspenseful, while revealing certain clues along the way. The bromance between Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland is what makes the “Dead Boy Detectives” series really stand out.
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Jorge Solis
Comics
‘Curse of the Where Wolf’ Bites Into August Release With Trio of Werewolf Theatrical Screenings [Exclusive Preview]
Larry Chaney‘s hairy misadventures are continuing in the sequel graphic novel Curse of the Where Wolf from creative team Rob Saucedo, Debora Lancianese, and Jack Morelli, and its author is celebrating with a trio of horror’s greatest werewolf films.
The Curse of the Where Wolf hits shelves on August 7 from Encyclopocalypse Publications.
That coincides with the launch of a theatrical screening event in Houston, Texas, featuring a trio of seminal werewolf flicks turning 45 this year: The Howling on August 7, Wolfen on August 14, and An American Werewolf in London on August 21.
Each screening features a “werewolf in film” presentation as well as a book signing from Where Wolf author and River Oaks Theatre artistic director Rob Saucedo.
In the new graphic novel, “Being a werewolf sucks. Reporter Larry Chaney wanted to be a hero. Instead, he became a werewolf. Now, caught between incredible new powers and a desire to eat everything (and everyone) in sight, Larry must find a cure for his curse. Or die trying.”
“With Where Wolf, I wanted to tell a whodunit set in a furry convention, so the story was pretty contained within a very specific setting and genre. With Curse of the Where Wolf, I wanted to celebrate everything I love about the possibility of comic books. Curse of the Where Wolf is a funny book, in every sense of the phrase, but it’s also an earnest look at a person’s struggle to become a better version of themselves, especially when the alternative is to become a literal monster,” Saucedo says of Curse.
The original graphic novel was previously serialized as the first webcomic hosted on Fangoria before being collected by Encyclopocalypse Publications in 2023 and has already been optioned for film, podcast, and television development ahead of launch by producers James Fino (“The Freak Brothers” for Tubi, “Rick and Morty” for Adult Swim) and Charles Horak (First Date for Magnolia Pictures).
Expect Larry to find himself in even weirder situations in the 362-page full color sequel; Saucedo has provided Bloody Disgusting with exclusive art pages from the upcoming graphic novel that showcase lupine humor.
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