Dead Boy Detectives Stars Reveal How The Comics Informed Their Performances

Dead Boy Detectives is a spinoff of The Sandman, and it is debuting on Netflix later this month. The new series is based on the comics by writer Neil Gaiman and artists Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones III. The Dead Boy Detectives made their first comics appearance in The Sandman #25 in 1991 before they got their own series. Naturally, comics fans are wondering how similar the show will be to the story on the page. In a recent chat with the show’s stars, George Rexstrew (Edwin Paine) and Jayden Revri (Charles Rowland), ComicBook.com asked if the comics informed their performances. 

“Do you know what? It was really great, because I think as an actor, normally your source material is the script and maybe a book if it’s an adaptation,” Rexstrew explained. “And we were really lucky that as soon as we were cast, DC Comics very kindly sent over the entire library of Dead Boy Detectives comics from the 1991 Sandman issue right through to the Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham
 2014-2015 version.”

“We were spoiled,” Revri added.

“We were really spoiled,” Rexstrew agreed. “I think we both took things from the comics and there are easter eggs in there anyway thanks to [showrunners Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz] and the team, but we tried to put our own ones in there, for sure.” 

“Yeah, we put our own little spin on the comic book versions and created this wild and wacky universe,” Revri shared.

You can watch our interview with the Dead Boy Detectives stars at the top of the page. 

Do You Need To Read Dead Boy Detectives Before Watching The Show?

ComicBook.com recently attended a meet and greet with Dead Boy Detective showrunners, Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz, and we asked if they recommend watching Sandman or reading the comics before starting the spinoff series. 

“Well, I think that you don’t need to do any homework for the show, and I feel like it’s more fun,” Schwartz explained. “I don’t know, everyone’s different, but I think it’s more fun not to do anything before you see it. So you can be surprised and then you can go back and watch Sandman and read the comics after.” 

“And we are true to the boys’ origins and how they started the detective agency and Crystal’s backstory,” Yockey added. “But the rest of it is us kind of taking things from the comic books and sort of re-appropriating them, re-imagining them so that people who are familiar with the comic books will get to have those kind of like, ‘Oh, I recognize this, moment.’ … But regular people can just watch the show.”

Dead Boy Detectives will debut exclusively on Netflix on Thursday, April 25th.