Neal Adams Resurrects Deadman To Finish What He Started

09/22/2017 09:00 am EDT

Coming in November, comic book legend Neal Adams will revisit a character with whom he is closely associated: Deadman.

The character of Boston Brand, a circus performer killed during his act and forced to walk the earth as a ghost, is one that Adams helped to make a household name among comic book fans during his run on the character with Dennis O'Neil. While O'Neil is returning for a new Batman story this winter, Adams will return to Deadman -- and really, who would have thought Boston Brand would be at the top of the veteran artist's wish list?

"Deadman is, in a weird kind of way, number one," Adams told ComicBook.com. "Deadman, I didn't get to finish the story. When I did Deadman...I didn't tell anybody the rest of the story. all we did was introduce the character. Nobody knows who Deadman is and what his relationships are and what's going on with him and his real story. You just got to see the beginning. So when I ended, other people picked it up. They started to do 'The Adventures of Deadman,' like any other comic book superhero…but no, that's not what it's about It's about Deadman. He's got a story to tell, and he's dead."

Listening to Adams talk about the series, he gets passionate -- and a little meta -- as he rattles off the elements of Boston Brand's story that he feels have been generally missed in the years since he left the title.

"It's a life story, but it's a death story. You've never seen story like this, because the guy's dead. What happens after he's dead is the story," Adams teased.

While the original Deadman came during a time when Adams's art and page layouts were seen as revolutionary in mainstream comics, Adams acknowledges that at this point, it would feel old hat. He explained that the new series will take advantage of modern coloring techniques and use a more cinematic language, with widescreen shots and close-ups dominating the look of the story.

The series will feature a gimmick cover on each issue -- #1 glows in the dark, and #2 has a hidden image, for instance -- but Adams was adamant that they weren't just a flimsy excuse to hike up the cover price.

"All six covers are going to have a gimmick that's a storytelling gimmick," Adams explained. "Not just a gimmick for the sake of doing a gimmick."

As for Boston Brand himself, Adams plans to explore the mystery that drove him in the '70s as well as the backstory surrounding his death.

"I never told anybody that he had another brother and sister that are still alive and that one of them might belong to the League of Assassins," Adams explained. "I didn't tell people that his parents are both still alive, and they run a small circus and that there's friction between Boston Brand and his parents. Why? You'll find out in the story. I didn't tell anybody that, no, he wasn't killed as a test for an assassin. He was killed for another reason, and that reason is very important in the DC Universe."

"I didn't tell anyone that the Sensei, the League of Assassins, Ra's al Ghul, and Deadman are all interrelated," the artist added. "Nobody knew, so they've just been doing Deadman stories.

Adams said that he hopes to make the new series look and feel so different that in spite of being a continuation of the old narrative, the new Deadman will leave the old feeling rudimentary by comparison. When asked whether he would compare it to the ever-changing technological and special effects needs of the Star Wars franchise, he took the analogy a step further.

"It's more like Star Wars compared to Forbidden Planet," Adams said. "When Star Wars came out, they were doing typical things that seemed revolutionary. What I'm doing is typical things that feel revolutionary."

You can hear the full interview below.

Deadman #1 is in stores on November 1. You can pre-order a copy through your local comic book retailer now.

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