Comics
Review: “Dead Boy Detectives Vol. 1 Schoolboy Terrors”
With two appealing protagonists, “Dead Boy Detectives Vol.1: Schoolboy Terrors” strikes the right balance between charming and frightening. After being introduced in the pages of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman,” the dead boys get their own series with all-new supernatural adventures. The dead boy detectives will learn there’s nothing scarier than going back to high school.
WRITTEN BY: Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham
ART BY: Mark Buckingham
PUBLISHER: Vertigo Comics
PRICE: $9.99
RELEASE: June 25, 2014
Reviewed By: Jorge Solis
Though Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland died, they decided to stick around as ghosts, solving mysteries in their spare time. How ironic that the two best friends only started living after they died. Now, Edwin and Charles will have to face something they have avoided for a very long time. They now have to solve the mystery behind their own deaths. When the duo returns back to their school, Edwin and Charles have to team-up with a living girl, Crystal Palace, who’s in way over her head.
In “Run Ragged,” Edwin and Charles have to solve the case of a missing cat. Charles’ infatuation with a pretty girl unfortunately leads him to a school run by a poltergeist. I really like how writers Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham establish the relationship between the main protagonists. It’s not like one of them is the brains and the other is the brawn. Litt and Buckingham have these two characters share the spotlight at the same time. These two never leave each other’s sights, especially when there’s danger.
In “Schoolboy Terrors,” Litt and Buckingham reminds readers that these two best friends, at their core, are really just naive kids. Edwin doesn’t want to go back to school because he is still afraid of being picked on by a bully. When Charles stand next to his tombstone, he is incredibly scared by the realization he has a long-lost relative. Though they are dead, they are still afraid of feeling pain and emotion.
Buckingham plays around the ghost story themes and twists the genre around. Edwin and Charles are more like snoopy voyeurs because they can phase through walls. Because they’re not fighters and have no muscles, they need Crystal Palace to make things edgy. She’s actually the one who saves the day toward the climax.
In a well-detailed two-pager, Buckingham delivers a surreal illustration of Crystal’s friend 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 is rising from a fiery pit of lava. As the demon attempts to take possession of her body, Hanna’s soul flies off towards the bright light.
“Dead Boy Detectives Vol. 1: Schoolboy Terrors” really stands out because of the bromance between Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next story arc of “Dead Boy Detectives.”
The supernatural world of Korean folk horror movie Exhuma grows larger with the arrival of prequel spinoff webtoon Maengjong this weekend, Variety reports today.
Naver Webtoon debuts Maengjong on May 30.
The series hails from Haemuri (Olgami) and will trace the high school origins of how shaman duo Hwarim and Bonggil, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun in the 2024 film, came together to face occultish threats.
The story is set to begin when “Hwarim, who has been concealing her identity following a childhood encounter with a snake spirit called Jin, crosses paths with Bonggil at their school.”
Variety notes that Exhuma director Jang Jae-hyun participated in the project’s early concept stage.
“We are presenting ‘Maengjong,’ a new series capturing the appeal of the horror-occult genre, ahead of the full summer season,” said Lee Jeong-geun, Naver Webtoon’s Korea webtoon content leader. “With the high school story of Hwarim and Bonggil, who left a strong impression in the film ‘Exhuma,’ enhanced by Haemuri’s characteristic tense direction, we expect it will be a welcome work for genre fans.”
“It is meaningful that the spin-off story of ‘Exhuma,’ loved by many audiences, expands by meeting the new grammar of webtoon,” said Lee Hyeon-jeong, managing director of the film business division at Showbox, which distributed the film. “We hope it will be a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers.”
Exhuma was a breakout hit in 2024, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million ticket buyers and the country’s highest-grossing film of the year. I wrote in my review that “the intricately woven Exhuma delivers one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror so far.”
The bond between Hwarim and Bonggil was one of the film’s highlights, making this prequel webtoon a must for fans.
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