He first appeared in Strange Adventures #205 (October 1967), and was created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Carmine Infantino.

[1] The character is depicted as an acrobat who was murdered by an unknown assailant, and then granted power by a Hindu deity to remain a disembodied spirit who can temporarily take possession of any living being in order to fight evil forces.

Arnold Drake spoke on the development of Deadman and revealed the 1966 original concept sketch of the character, which was initially a muscular skeleton.

"[3] Deadman's first appearance in Strange Adventures #205, written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Carmine Infantino,[4] included the first known depiction of narcotics in a story approved by the Comics Code Authority.

After this, he starred in the two-issue series Deadman: Love After Death, drawn by Kelley Jones and written by Mike Baron.

His cameo appearances also continued, including several issues of Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, and Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic.

DC Comics published a slipcased hardcover edition collecting the original Deadman stories in December 2001.

Deadman's retconned origin is revealed in Brightest Day #14 (2010), written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi.

Circus trapeze artist Boston Brand performs under the name Deadman, a stage persona that includes a red costume and white corpse makeup.

[1] At the end of the Neal Adams story line, Deadman seems to discover the truth behind his murder and the ultimate fate of Hook, who killed him as part of an initiation into a society of contract killers.

[11] In the Sins of Youth incident, Deadman is one of the dozens of heroes reduced to a preteen age by Klarion the Witch Boy and an alien machine owned by Doiby Dickles.

[13] Deadman manages to save Commissioner Gordon from the Black Lanterns by possessing the body of his daughter, spiriting them both to safety.

Deadman uses Etrigan's demon flame to hold back the Black Lanterns, but struggles to maintain control of his body and is forced out.

[15] He is later seen inside the Black Lantern Damage's ring, apparently having followed Jean Loring, Mera and the Atom when they shrank down to enter it.

The body, which the Stranger states is of "singular importance", is placed under the gatekeeper and Blue Devil's protection, and Deadman heads out, intent on sharing the information he gleaned while inside the Black Lanterns with Hal Jordan.

[28] In The New 52 continuity reboot, Deadman's origins are reimagined in the initial run of the anthology series DC Universe Presents.

After living a selfish life as Boston Brand, he is forced to possess people as Deadman following his assassination to solve their problems and avoid being sent to Hell.

However, their attempt fails as Deadman insists on carrying on their relationship forward using borrowed bodies, while Dove shows disdain and repulsion to the idea.

[30] As part of the DC Rebirth relaunch, a three-part miniseries, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love was released in October 2016.

[32] Deadman also appears in the Trinity book, focused on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, along with Justice League Dark teammates Zatanna and John Constantine.