Writ of birthday-ing

Happy birthday to kalinara, as she continues onward towards lawyerdom. Which if television has taught me anything will involve lots of sex and wacky judges...

Sunday Trade: The Dead Boy Detectives

by Jill Thompson

The Dead Boy Detectives, Charles Rowland and Edward Paine, are a pair of young boys who are ghosts. The two first showed up in Gaiman's "Season of Mists" arc of Sandman, where they refused to go back with Death when Hell was re-opened...

Here the pair respond to a letter asking for help from one Annika Abernathy, a girl at a private school worried about the disappearance of one of her friends. So the two ghosts travel to Chicago and help Annika and her gang investigate the missing Elizabeth...

The big appeal here is Thompson's shoujo style of art and story-telling. The characters are exuberant and fun. And the story maintains a light and humorous tone throughout. Hell, the book has an excerpt from another Thompson created Vertigo manga where she makes Despair of the Endless cute. Thats no small feat indeed...