Strange Adventures #205
Strange Adventures #205 marks the debut of Deadman — Boston Brand — one of DC's most conceptually distinctive characters, a murdered circus aerialist who, rather than dying cleanly, is condemned to wander among the living as a ghost with the power to possess human bodies. The premise blended supernatural horror with a hard-boiled murder mystery in a way that had no real precedent at DC, helping push the publisher's Silver Age output away from pure science fiction and toward the darker genre territory that would define its late-1960s and 1970s renaissance. The issue also holds a unique place in Comics Code history: its origin story, involving narcotics smugglers operating out of a traveling circus, became the first Code-approved story known to contain a reference to drugs — years before Marvel's celebrated 1971 anti-drug arc forced an open confrontation with the Authority. The Deadman feature's run in Strange Adventures went on to serve as an early, critically acclaimed showcase for the revolutionary draftsmanship of Neal Adams, cementing the title's importance as a laboratory for creative risk-taking.
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Writer Arnold Drake conceived Deadman at the request of editor Jack Miller, who was looking for a recurring hero to revitalize Strange Adventures as the title pivoted from science fiction anthology toward supernatural fare beginning with issue #202. Drake drew on the cultural moment of Zen Buddhism — he later recalled being 'in the middle of a Zen-Buddhist movement' when shaping the character's philosophical underpinning — and fought internally to retain the name 'Deadman' over concerns it might run afoul of the Comics Code Authority. Carmine Infantino, who had just become DC's Art Director, collaborated with Drake on the character's visual design; Infantino softened Drake's original skull-like concept into a face capable of showing emotion, and his pencils for the debut story were inked by George Roussos. Drake and Infantino produced only this inaugural chapter together: starting with issue #206, Jack Miller took over scripting and the young Neal Adams stepped in on pencils, beginning an association with the character that would define both the run and Adams's early reputation.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and complete origin story of Deadman (Boston Brand), written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Carmine Infantino, published August 29, 1967 (cover-dated October 1967).
- First appearances of the entire core supporting cast introduced in this issue: Lorna Hill (Boston's girlfriend and co-owner of Hill Bros. Circus), Tiny (the circus strongman), Vashnu (a circus psychic), Rama Kushna (the Hindu spiritual entity who grants Boston his ghostly powers), and the Hook (the prosthetic-handed assassin who shoots Brand during his trapeze act).
- The 16-page lead story, 'Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?', is the first Comics Code Authority-approved story to contain a reference to narcotics — the drug is mentioned euphemistically as 'snow' in the context of a criminal smuggling operation, roughly three years before Marvel would famously defy the Code to publish an explicit anti-drug story.
- Arnold Drake conceived Deadman as a Zen-inflected character for a title that was struggling; Carmine Infantino, newly elevated to Art Director at DC, redesigned the character's face away from a skull-like look to allow emotional expression.
- Rama Kushna, the deity who empowers Brand, is a fictional construction loosely derived from the name Rama-Krishna; she serves as the moral arbiter who charges Deadman with finding his killer before he can pass on.
- The cover and interior art are both by Carmine Infantino (pencils) and George Roussos (inks); Neal Adams did not begin his landmark run on the feature until the very next issue, Strange Adventures #206.
- The story won two 1967 Alley Awards: Best Full-Length Story (for 'Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?' by Drake and Infantino) and Best New Strip (for the Deadman feature as a whole).
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times, including in The Brave and the Bold #97 (1971), Deadman #1 (the 1985 seven-issue reprint series), DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #5, and the 2011 Deadman Vol. 1 trade paperback collecting Strange Adventures #205–213.
Cast · 7 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Shot during a performance, trapeze artist Boston Brand dies, only to find that his spirit lives on with the ability to inhabit the bodies of others. By the will of Rama Kushna his spirit will walk among the living until his killer is found.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).