Neil Gaiman and Dead Boy Detectives

There has been a great deal of misinformation spread about Neil Gaiman's connection to Dead Boy Detectives recently, including a handful of widely parroted, frankly incorrect claims that it is his series, that he was heavily involved in producing it, and that the Dead Boy Detectives television show was canceled as a PR move because of the Gaiman scandal.To set the record straight once and for all, we've compiled an exhaustive deep-dive into these and other claims, getting to the truth behind Neil Gaiman's connection to Dead Boy Detectives.

The Many Writers of the Dead Boys

As is common with comic book series, Dead Boy Detectives has been passed frequently between authors throughout its history. Although the two main characters, Edwin and Charles, first appeared in Gaiman's Sandman issue 25 in 1991 and cameoed in the crossover miniseries Children's Crusade shortly thereafter, this was the full extent of Gaiman's involvement with the characters.Since then, an array of different authors have taken over Dead Boy Detectives, including well-known and award-winning writers such as Ed Brubaker, Jill Thompson, Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham, and Pornsak Pichetshote. Gaiman has not written about the characters for a full 30 years.

Not Gaiman's Comics

The Dead Boy Detectives show that aired on Netflix was based on the 2013 run of the comics by Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham. These comics introduced Crystal Palace, a primary character in the Netflix series, and Tragic Mick, an important supporting character. In acknowledgment of the authors who wrote the comics that were the basis for the series, two minor characters in the Netflix show are named after Litt and Buckingham.Everyone involved in the project has made it clear since Dead Boy Detectives debuted in April of 2024 that Litt and Buckingham wrote the comics that inspired the show.

Not Gaiman's Characters

In addition to the characters introduced in the Litt and Buckingham run of the comics, a huge portion of the characters of Dead Boy Detectives were created specifically for the show, including one of the leads, all of the antagonists, and almost the entirety of the supporting cast. The showrunner, Steve Yockey, was the creative mind behind Esther Finch, the Night Nurse, Jenny Green, the Cat King, Monty Finch, David the Demon, and Maxine. Niko Sasaki, one of the four leads of the show, was created by Yockey and Yuyu Kitamura, the actress who plays her.Gaiman has repeatedly and publicly made it known that he did not develop these characters, further underscoring that he joined the project late and had exceptionally little creative input on Dead Boy Detectives.

Gaiman Owns No Rights

Neil Gaiman does not own the copyright or trademark for Dead Boy Detectives. He also does not own the rights to any characters or their names. In the early 2000s, DC Comics wanted to expand on the characters and Gaiman did not. At that time, DC hired new writers and began publishing the title Dead Boy Detectives, officially severing Gaiman's connection to the comics.The US Copyright Database verifies that Neil Gaiman does not own anything related to Dead Boy Detectives. All rights are owned by Dead Boy Detectives showrunner Steve Yockey and the company WB.

An Unplanned Connection to Sandman

The Dead Boy Detectives made their first television appearance in season 3 of HBO's Doom Patrol. Dead Boy Detectives as a stand-alone series was initially conceived as a Doom Patrol spin-off and was slated to air on HBO MAX. The show was written, and six of eight episodes were filmed, with these plans in place.Late into the filming schedule, it came to light that HBO MAX could not air the finished series in a timely fashion. Netflix, which had been airing an adaptation of Gaiman's Sandman series, became interested in Dead Boy Detectives as a potential Sandman tie-in, instead. The show moved to Netflix, and three additional scenes were added to create a connection to the Sandman universe.

These three scenes, with a total runtime of ten minutes and fifty-eight seconds, just 2% of the full eight-hour season, comprise the full extent of Gaiman's work on the show. He contributed nothing else to the show's script and would have had no involvement if not for the last-minute decision to tie Dead Boy Detectives in with Sandman. In fact, he added so little that the WGA (Writers Guild of America), which tracks the work of television script authors, doesn't credit Gaiman as contributing to the first season of Dead Boy Detectives at all.

Gaiman's Name as Marketing

The only time Gaiman's name is officially used in connection with Dead Boy Detectives is when a reference is being made to Sandman. This is because Gaiman had no involvement with the show aside from the three Sandman-related scenes added after filming was nearly complete.When Netflix chose to market Dead Boy Detectives based on its connection to Sandman, it leaned into Sandman's popularity and audience familiarity with Gaiman's name. Although Gaiman has an executive producer credit on Dead Boy Detectives, the function of that particular role is notoriously unclear. Depending on the project, an executive producer can be extremely involved or contribute almost nothing at all. In Gaiman's case, due to how little he was involved in writing, casting, and production on Dead Boy Detectives, it was almost certainly a formality designed to allow Netflix better marketing opportunities.

Not Canceled Because of Gaiman

The cancellation of Dead Boy Detectives is unrelated to the Gaiman scandal. Netflix has claimed in interviews that it was canceled due to a lack of viewership. More tellingly, however, Netflix has continued with the production of Sandman, a series with which Gaiman is much more heavily involved. The cancellation couldn't have been a PR move intended to distance Netflix from Gaiman's poor reputation, because Netflix did not in fact distance itself from Gaiman. It continued to work with him on Sandman in order to release a second season.

Support For the Show

To recap, Gaiman had extremely little creative input into Dead Boy Detectives, he doesn't own the rights, and it wasn't based on the comics that he wrote.If you're wondering how people can still love and support Dead Boy Detectives as a series despite the accusations against Gaiman, the answer is simple: it's not his show.By continuously attaching Gaiman's name to Dead Boy Detectives, you're discrediting the actors, writers, showrunners, and crew who actually created it. They are the ones we continue to support, and they are the ones who will carry the series forward when it's renewed for a second season.

Still need more? Take it from Gaiman himself: