Neal Adams

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Neal Adams (born June 6, 1941, Governors Island, Manhattan, New York City) is an American comic book and commercial artist best known for his highly naturalistic style of illustration. He has helped create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Batman, Green Arrow, and others. Adams has named artists Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, and Mort Drucker as his influences. Other influences include Jack Kirby, Stan Drake, and Jim Steranko.

Contents

Biography

Superman vs Ali
Superman vs Ali

Early life and career

Adams attended the High School of Industrial Art in Manhattan, and shortly after graduation began working in the advertising industry. Interested in comic books, he unsuccessfully submitted art samples to DC Comics, but did find uncredited freelance work drawing Bat Masterson and Archie Comics.[1] In 1962, Adams began his comics career in earnest at the NEA newspaper syndicated, working as an anonymous assistant on such comic strips as Peter Scratch, Rip Kirby, and The Heart of Juliet Jones before being given his own strip, Ben Casey, based on the medical drama TV series. This comic strip ran from 1962 through 1965.


Silver Age splash

Cover art by Neal Adams.
Cover art by Neal Adams.

After Archie Goodwin, editor of Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazines began running his work, Adams reapproached DC. In 1968, nearing the end of what historians call the Silver Age of comic books, but an exciting time for the industry, Adams made an immediate splash with the feature "Deadman" in Strange Adventures, and quickly became the company's premiere cover artist.

This led to a stint at Marvel Comics, where Adams teamed with writer Roy Thomas on X-Men, then on the verge of cancellation. Though the duo failed to save the title (which ended its initial run with #66), their collaboration on issues #56-63 (May-Dec. 1969) — and on the "Kree-Skrull War" arc of The Avengers #93-97 (Nov. 1971 - May 1972) — produced what comics historians regard as some of Marvel's creative highlights of the era. He also collaborated with Stan Lee on two issues of The Mighty Thor.


Continuity and creators' rights

In the early 1970s, Adams and frequent writing collaborator Dennis O'Neil did a celebrated and, for the time, controversial revamping of the longstanding DC characters Green Lantern and Green Arrow, teaming them in a long story arc in the former's title in which the two undertook a social-commentary journey across America. Adams and O'Neil revitalized Batman with a series of noteworthy stories reestablishing the character's dark, brooding nature and taking the books away from the campy look and feel of the 1966-69 TV series. Adams' pencil drawings were frequently inked by artist Dick Giordano, with whom Adams formed Continuity Associates, a company that primarily supplied storyboards for motion pictures. In the early 1970s, Adams was the art director, costume designer, as well as the poster/Playbill illustrator for Warp, a science fiction stage play by Bury St. Edmund and Stuart Gordon that had had some cult success in Chicago, and which played on Broadway from Feb. 14-18, 1973, at the original Ambasasador Theatre.

During the 1970s, Adams was politically active in the industry, and attempted to unionize its creative community. His efforts, along with precedents set by Atlas/Seaboard Comics' creator-friendly policies and other factors, helped lead to the modern industry's standard practice of returning original artwork to the artist, who can earn additional income from art sales to collectors. Adams notably and vocally helped lead the lobbying efforts that resulted in Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster receiving decades-overdue credit and some financial remuneration from DC.

Also during the 1970s, Adams illustrated paperback novels in the Tarzan series and did some film work. With the independent-comic publishing boom of the early 1980s, he began working for Pacific Comics and other publishers, and founded his own Continuity Comics as an off-shoot of Continuity Associates. His comic-book company's characters include Megalith, Bucky O'Hare, Skeleton Warriors, CyberRad, and Ms. Mystic.


Awards

Adams won Alley Awards in 1967 for Best Cover (Strange Adventures #207); in 1968 for Best Full-Length Story ("Track of the Hook" in The Brave and the Bold #79, with writer Bob Haney); and in 1969 for Best Pencil Artist. He was inducted into the Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969.

He also won Shazam Awards in 1970 for Best Individual Story ("No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" in Green Lantern #76, with writer Dennis O'Neil), and Best Pencil Artist (Dramatic Division); and in 1971 for Best Individual Story ("Snowbirds Don't Fly" in Green Lantern #85, with O'Neil).

Adams was a finalist for induction into the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990 and 1991, and was inducted in 1999.

Selected bibliography

Comic books

National Periodical / DC

Marvel

Covers only

National Periodical / DC

Collections

Softcover collections

  • X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams - 208 pages - 2000
  • The Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War - 208 pages - 2000
  • Green Lantern/Green Arrow Collection Volume One: Hard-Traveling Heroes - 1992
  • Green Lantern/Green Arrow Collection Volume Two: More Hard-Traveling Heroes - 1993
  • Green Lantern/Green Arrow Volume One - 176 pages - 2004
  • Green Lantern/Green Arrow Volume Two - 200 pages - 2004
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