Back to your questions:
Brian Foss gathers no moss with
“I’m a big fan of the DC comics charecter Deadman.
I first read a story of his in one of those DC Best Of The Year digests and have been fascinated ever since – cause he’s DEAD!
My question is what are your thoughts on good old Boston Brand?
And yes, I’m cheating because I wonder if in your years of funny book retailing do you run into Deadman collecting dudes at all?
Or am I just the weirdo?”
Yup, you sure are, absolutely. Welcome to the club! We’re all weirdos about something.
Now you and I, we like Deadman at face value — guy killed before his time, given the power to possess the living as he searches for his killer and/or redresses the balance of good vs. evil or whathaveyou — but he was ripe for parody, for certain. Most notably by Neal Adams, the artist most associated with DC’s Deadman, on this spoof that appeared in National Lampoon. And I briefly discussed Dave Sim’s parody of Deadman as it appeared in Cerebus way back when.
So there were folks who were all “a dead guy? As a superhero?” but I think Deadman is visually interesting enough, and a fascinating enough concept, to be taken on its own merits. I mean, it’s no sillier than the Silver Surfer, a silver guy who surfs. Through space. On a surfboard.
I am not 100% sure when I first encountered Boston “Deadman” Brand. I mean, of course, he would pop up a lot in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run, but I was reading stories with the character way before that. I’m pretty sure the first one I read was this issue of DC Comics Presents from 1980:
…which was later reprinted in Best of DC Digest #11, their best stories of the year special, so maybe that was the one you read, Brian! Anyway, that issue was by Len Wein and José Luis García-López, so it was, of course, a good’un.
Pretty sure I next came across Deadman in Detective Comics #500 (1981), one of my favorite anniversary issues of all time:
…in a story titled “What Happens When a Batman Dies?” by Cary Bates, Carmine Infantino, and Bob Smith, and come on, how can anyone pass up a story like that? (And this was just one story in this monster-sized mag filled cover to cover with “bangers,” as the kids say.)
And then somewhere along the line, once I started collecting Swamp Thing appearances in earnest, and I started finding these oddball issues of Challengers of the Unknown with Swampy and Deadman.
And from then on I just kinda picked up Deadman comics and appearances as they showed up…like that seven issue run reprinting all the original stories drawn by Neal Adams (with the first appearance in Strange Adventures drawn by Infantino and written by Arnold Drake), the four issue mini drawn by García-López, the prestige format minis drawn by Kelley Jones…pretty much anything titled Deadman got a look, and usually a purchase, from me.
I remember particularly enjoying the serialized Deadman stories in Action Comics Weekly, especially the one written by Mike Baron where Deadman goes to hell and runs into D.B. Cooper. That was certainly peculiar.
I do get collectors looking for Deadman, especially his first appearance in Strange Adventures #205 and any of the Neal Adams-drawn appearances. And he still remains one of the more popular second/third stringer characters out there, though it really depends on whether or not anything new is being done with him currently. When new Deadman comics come out, folks look for for his older less-expensive appearances, but once he’s out of the public eye, demand dies down. Which, come to think of it, isn’t too much different from any character, so I’m not sure if that adds anything.
Regardless, even after all this time the character maintains some small level of mystique and appeal. So, no, Brian, you’re not really that much of a weirdo. Let your Deadman flag fly, friend!
I’m pretty sure my first encounter with Boston Brand was in the Brave and the Bold team-ups with Batman — not sure if it was Neal Adams or Jim Aparo art, but I THINK it was Adams.
In any event, even as a tender hatchling, I had enough familiarity with the character to recognize that his inclusion in THE FOREVER PEOPLE was Extremely Awkward and to the detriment of both Deadman and the Kids from Supertown.
Oh, and I remember seeing the National Lampoon parody at some point, probably when it was new. It didn’t click at the time that it was NEAL BLEEPING ADAMS HIMSELF doing the art, even though Neal was one of a handful of artists whose work I instantly recognized at that young age.
The DCCP issue was my first exposure to Deadman as well. I had just started buying comics in earnest a couple of months previous; I owned maybe 25 comic books in total, so you’d better believe I read that issue many, many times.
@Athelind Llewellyn Long
There was one Batman/Deadman team up in Brave and the Bold drawn by Neal Adams, and also several later stories drawn Jim Aparo.
And there was at least one Bronze Age issue of Phantom Stranger that guest starred Deadman.
Then there was a Bronze Age DC Special that featured Deadman, and several other characters–I think Phantom Stranger and Sgt. Rock.
And there were several issues of Adventure Comics when it went Dollar Sized that had Deadman stories drAwn by Jim Aparo, or was it Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez?
García-López and Aparo both drew the Deadman feature in Adventure.
I would have gotten it anyway, but the MAIN reason I got the Deadman omni was for those Adventure issues and the mini drawn by García-López.
Nice – thanks for this!
FYI – the actual first Deadman story I read was in “Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest (1979) #5”
It reprinted “Never Say Die!” by Len Wein and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez from Adventure Comics #466 – still a favorite of mine!
And even though I own all of the floppies, I’m starngly excited about the upcoming Worlds Finest Deadman collection since it includes his appearances in Forever People – those Kirbys were never included in previous Deadman collections, so yeah I plan on adding that volume to my bookshelf.
And here’s hoping the current run of Justice League Red does him good.
Comics – they’re good for your health!
I was thinking my first encounter with Deadman was in Phantom Stranger#40-#41 by Levitz & Carrillo but then I remembered the first Deadman appearance I read was actually in World’s Finest Comics#223 which featured a Deadman reprint drawn by Neal Adams AND a new team up with Superman & Batman, the infamous “Bruce Wayne has a brain damaged brother nobody knew about” story by Bob Haney. The issue ends with Deadman using Thomas Jr’s body to experience life again. (It’s not like Tom Jr was doing anything with it.) Boston’s excursion among the living borrowing Thomas’ body ended with Deadman’s next appearance in WFC#227. That was some weird stuff from the reliably weird Bob Haney.
My favorite Deadman stories were by Len Wein with art by Jim Aparo and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez in Adventure Comics which lead to the Superman team up in DCCP.
Bob Haney: “Continuity? What’s THAT?”
@ Snark Shark
Bob Haney is one of the most original writers of the Silver and early Bronze Age –and his “continuity be damned” stories are still fun reads, decades later! Also, DC Comics has had a “continuity be damned” policy for about fifteen years now, so Haney was prescient!
Bring back the original Super Sons!
He was creative, I’ll agree! It was probably him who wrote a Sgt. Rock/Batman story I remember fondly.
@Snark Shark
Well, Bob Haney did write quite a few Batman/Sgt. Rock team ups in the Brave and the Bold: no. 84–with art by Neal Adams/Joe Kubert; no. 96–with art by Nick Cardy; no. 108–with art by Jim Aparo; no. 117–with art by Jim Aparo; no. 124–with art by Jim Aparo, and featuring cameo appearances in the story by Bob Haney, Jim Aparo, and Murray Boltinoff.
There was one final Batman/Sgt. Rock team up Brave and the Bold story, no. 162, attributed to a writer named Bill Kelley (could it be Bob Haney writing under a
pseudonym?), with art by Jim Aparo. Interestingly, this story features the Golden Age, Earth-Two Batman, which would indicate that Sgt. Rock and Easy Company existed on both Earth-One and Earth-Two.
However, in the first Brave and the Bold Batman/Sgt. Rock team up story (no.84) published in 1969, Haney has Batman and Sgt. Rock meeting during WW II on Earth-One (or on “Earth-Haney”?). So, assuming Earth-One Bruce Wayne was about twenty in 1945, that would make him about 44 years old in 1969. But I always though that the Silver Age iterations of Batman, Superman, etc. were around 30 years old. Anyway, Bob Haney wasn’t known to adhere to continuity…
In addition to B & B no. 162, B & B 146 (Batman/Unknown Soldier), no. 167 (Batman/Blackhawk), no. 197 (Batman/Catwoman), and no. 200 (Batman/Batman) all feature the Golden Age Earth-Two Batman–making for 5 appearances in total; although it is also possible that Earth-Two Batman appears in a flashback scene in B & B no. 182 (Earth-One Batman/Earth-Two Robin–along with cameos by Earth-Two Batwoman, and Starman), and/or in B & B no. 184 (Earth-One Batman/Earth-Two Huntress).