Regarding Neil Gaiman’s Association With Dead Boy Detectives

The purpose of this page is to clarify Neil Gaiman’s involvement with the show. Although some have claimed it was his series, in fact his contribution was minimal.

How It Started

As is often the case with comic book series, Dead Boy Detectives has been written by many authors during its lifespan. Although Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner introduced us to lead characters Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland in The Sandman #25 and revived the characters to feature in the the mini-series The Children’s Crusade several years later, this is the full extent of Gaiman’s history with the characters. He has not written about them for a full thirty years, and he no longer owns the rights to the title or the characters.

Since, the boys have appeared in their own comic book series with no contribution or involvement from Gaiman, with comic arcs written by well-known authors such as Ed Brubaker, Jill Thompson, and Pornsak Pichetshote. The Dead Boy Detectives comic series that began in 2013, by Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham, is the basis for the Netflix series, a fact that Litt and Gaiman have acknowledged repeatedly in interviews and online. In honor of the creators of the comics that sparked the series, two characters in the Netflix show are named after Litt and Buckingham.

On September 23 2021, the Dead Boy Detectives made their first television appearance in season 3 episode 3 of Doom Patrol, aptly named Dead Patrol. Work on the Dead Boy Detectives pilot began around the same time in 2021. By this point, Steve Yockey had purchased the rights to the Dead Boy Detectives brand, and Dead Boy Detectives was planned to be a spin-off of the HBO Max series Doom Patrol. The show was written, and six episodes were filmed, with these plans in place.

Charles and Edwin in the first panel from their very first appearance in The Sandman Season of Mists #25.

Throughout the production of Dead Boy Detectives, Gaiman has been clear that his contribution on the series was minimal. Although he is credited as an executive producer, the title is notoriously ambiguous in Hollywood circles, with executive producers sometimes having extremely low involvement. Immediately after the show’s launch, Gaiman repeatedly set the record straight on his Tumblr account, noting that Dead Boy Detectives is strictly Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz’s show.

Yockey is the one who approached Warner Bros and DC about creating a Dead Boy Detectives show and bought the rights to the series. Gaiman holds no rights to the characters or title Dead Boy Detectives. The show is entirely owned by Warner Bros, with Yockey an employee, according to a deal that began in 2022.

Most of the characters that appear in the Dead Boy Detectives television series were not Gaiman’s creations. Crystal Palace and Tragic Mick, two prominent characters in the television series, first appeared in Litt and Buckingham’s 2013 comic run. Aside from Edwin and Charles, the rest, including one of the leads and most of the side characters, were the work of showrunner Steve Yockey.

In an interview by CBR, actor George Rexstrew reveals that there were only three scenes written by Gaiman in the whole show. "There's the final scene of episode eight, which he wrote,” said Rexstrew. “And then he wrote the two scenes that feature The Sandman characters." If those scenes are added up, the full extent of Gaiman’s work on the show totals ten minutes and fifty-eight seconds, just 2% of the full eight hour season. His contribution is so minor that that the WGA (Writers Guild of America), which logs the work of television script writers, doesn't credit Gaiman for the series at all.

Initially, even this minimal involvement had not been planned. Dead Boy Detectives was originally envisioned as a Doom Patrol tie-in, but late into filming, after six episodes were complete, the decision was made to move the show to Netflix and tie it in with Sandman, instead. At that point, Gaiman stepped in to contribute the portions of the script that tied the show directly to Sandman. If the show were to be renewed at a different streaming platform, removing the tie-in, Gaiman’s minor contribution would be eliminated for future seasons.

In conclusion, Gaiman’s involvement with Dead Boy Detectives as a whole has always been minimal, which Gaiman has admitted on multiple occasions. Many articles have incorrectly speculated that Gaiman’s involvement had an effect on the show’s cancellation, but interviews with the cast and crew confirm that Dead Boy Detectives’ early demise was the result of watch numbers. It had nothing to do with the Gaiman scandal.

Gaiman’s Written Scene Involvement Breakdown

Season 1 Episode 1 (5:14-7:10) : 1 Minute 56 Seconds

Season 1 Episode 7 (22:59-25:13) : 2 Minutes 14 Seconds

Season 1 Episode 8 (45:51-52:39) : 6 Minutes 48 Seconds

Total: 10 Minutes 58 Seconds

If you would like more information about Neil Gaiman’s involvement with Dead Boy Detectives, click the button below to go to a Tumblr post that details the situation more thoroughly.