Netflix pick up Dead Boy Detectives by Southampton author

Dead Boy Detectives is an eight-episode series based on the original DC Comics of the same name, written by Toby Litt, Associate Professor in Creative Writing, and illustrator Mark Buckingham.

The Dead Boy Detectives are a fictional duo, Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne, first created in 1991 by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner in the DC comic book series The Sandman. Toby took these characters and added more – including central character Crystal Palace – to write the Dead Boy Detectives comics.

“The boys are the ghosts of two dead children who investigate supernatural crimes,” explained Toby. “Crystal Palace is able to see the boys and, in the comic, it’s because she has had a near-death experience and, when she was at the point of being neither dead nor alive, she was able to meet them. I invented a place called The Neitherlands, where people aren’t dead or alive, which is where Crystal met the two boys.”

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The Dead Boy Detectives series was 12 comics in total, produced by Toby and Mark Buckingham in 2013 and 2014.

The new Netflix series was filmed in 2022 and 2023 in Canada. It features rising stars George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri as the Dead Boy Detectives, with Kassius Nelson, who won two British Soap Awards during her time in Hollyoaks, playing Crystal Palace.

The launch date for Dead Boy Detectives is not yet confirmed. But you can watch the Netflix teaser trailer at here.

Toby said: “I had a message from Neil Gaiman saying the television series is very much based on what Mark and I did in the comics.

"I expect some of the characters and storylines will look very familiar to me.

“It’s like having something come back to life.

"It feels fantastic that something that I did ten years ago is coming back to life with bright shiny colours and with other people putting lots of energy into it. I can’t wait to see it.”