Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022)[1][2][3] was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. During his career, Adams co-created the characters John Stewart, Man-Bat, and Ra's al Ghul for DC Comics.
After drawing the comic strip based on the television drama Ben Casey in the early 1960s, Adams was hired as a freelancer by DC Comics in 1967. Later that year, he became the artist for the superhero character Deadman in the science fiction comic book Strange Adventures. Adams and writer Dennis O'Neil collaborated on influential runs on Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow in the early 1970s. For Batman, the duo returned the Batman character to his gothic roots as a contrast to the Batman television series of the 1960s.[4] During their Green Lantern/Green Arrow run, O'Neil and Adams introduced a mature, realistic tone through stories such as "Snowbirds Don't Fly", in which Green Arrow's ward Roy Harper is revealed to have become addicted to drugs.[3] The duo created and introduced the Green Lantern character John Stewart in 1971.
Following his runs on Batman and Green Lantern, Adams drew other books for DC such as Superman vs. Muhammad Ali in 1978. In addition to his work with DC, Adams simultaneously freelanced for Marvel Comics on books such as Uncanny X-Men and The Avengers. In 1971, Adams established the art and illustration studio Continuity Associates with Dick Giordano. In 1984, Adams founded his own comic book company Continuity Comics, which was in business until 1994.
Adams was inducted into the Eisner Awards' Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998, the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2019.
Early life
Neal Adams was born June 15, 1941, on Governors Island, New York City,[2][5][6] to Frank Adams, a writer for the military, and Lilian, who ran a boardinghouse.[7] Raised in a military family, he grew up in a series of army bases, ranging from Brooklyn to Germany.[8] His father was largely absent from his life.[7] Adams attended the School of Industrial Art high school in Manhattan,[9]
Career
Early work
After graduation in 1959, he unsuccessfully attempted to find freelance work at DC Comics,[11] and turned then to Archie Comics, where he wanted to work on the publisher's fledgling superhero line, edited by Joe Simon. At the suggestion of staffers, Adams drew "three or four pages of [the superhero] the Fly", but did not receive encouragement from Simon.[12] Sympathetic staffers nonetheless asked Adams to draw samples for the Archie teen-humor comics themselves. While he did so, Adams said in a 2000s interview, he unknowingly broke into comics:
"I started to do samples for Archie and I left my Fly samples there. A couple weeks later when I came in to show my Archie samples, I noticed that the pages were still there, but the bottom panel was cut off of one of my pages. I said, 'What happened?' They said, 'One of the artists did this transition where Tommy Troy turns into the Fly and it's not very good. You did this real nice piece so we'll use that, if it's OK.' I said, 'That's great. That's terrific.'[12]
Film, TV and theater
Adams' pencil drawings on his later Batman stories were frequently inked by Dick Giordano, with whom Adams formed Continuity Associates,[89] a company that supplied storyboards for motion pictures and interior artwork for comics publishers.
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 director Stuart Gordon and playwright Lenny Kleinfeld under the pseudonym Bury St. Edmund.[90]
In 1980, Neal Adams directed and starred in Nannaz, later released by Troma under the title Death to the Pee Wee Squad. The film co-starred Adams' children Jason and Zeea as well as fellow comics professionals Denys Cowan, Ralph Reese, Larry Hama, and Gray Morrow
Creators' rights
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. He won his battle in 1987, when Marvel returned original artwork to him and industry legend Jack Kirby, among others.[93][94] Adams helped lead lobbying efforts that resulted in Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster receiving decades-overdue credit and financial remuneration.[95]
Inker Bob McLeod recalled in the 2000s the unique place Adams held in the industry when McLeod entered the comics industry in 1973:
"Pat [Broderick] told me I really ought to meet Neal Adams, whom he had met at DC. ... At that time, Neal held a position of respect in the industry that no one in comics since then has achieved. He was the single most respected artist in the business. ... Neal looked at one of my samples and asked me what kind of work I was looking for. I said, 'Anything that pays.' (By that time, I was down to my last $10. ... ) He just picked up the phone and called the production manager at Marvel and said, 'I've got a guy here who has some potential as, well, some potential as an artist, but I think he has a lot of potential as a letterer.' I was immediately hired at Marvel in the production department on Neal's recommendation, and they still didn't even want to see my portfolio. If I was good enough for Neal, I was good enough for them.
Dina Babbitt and work related to the Holocaust
In collaboration with Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, Adams championed an effort to get the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which is operated by the government of Poland, to return the original artwork of Dina Babbitt. In exchange for his sparing her mother and herself from the gas chambers, Babbitt worked as an illustrator for Nazi death camp doctor Josef Mengele, who wanted detailed paintings to demonstrate his pseudoscientific theories about Romani racial inferiority.[102] Using text from Medoff, Adams illustrated a six-page graphic documentary about Babbitt that was inked by Joe Kubert and contains an introduction by Stan Lee.[103] However, Adams deemphasized any comparison between the Babbitt case and his struggle for creator rights, saying that her situation was "tragic" and "an atrocity."[102]
In 2010, Adams and Medoff teamed with
Awards and honors
Adams' first Deadman cover won the 1967 Alley Award for Best Cover.[107] A Batman/Deadman team-up in The Brave and the Bold #79 (Sept. 1968), by Adams and writer Bob Haney, tied with another comic for the 1968 Alley Award for Best Full-Length Story; and in 1969, Adams won the Alley Award for Best Pencil Artist, the feature "Deadman" was elected to the Alley Award Hall of Fame, and Adams received a special award "for the new perspective and dynamic vibrance he has brought to the field of comic art".[108]
He also won Shazam Awards in 1970 for Best Individual Story ("No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" in Green Lantern vol. 2, #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 vol. 2, #85, with O'Neil).[109][110]
Advocacy of expanding Earth hypothesis
Adams believed the Earth is growing[119] through a process called pair production.[120] Adams held the work of Australian geologist Samuel Warren Carey in high esteem, but considered the term "Expanding Earth" a misnomer.[121][122] While Carey did advocate an expanding Earth in the mid-20th century, his model was rejected following the development of the theory of plate tectonics.[123][124][125]
Personal life and death
Adams' first wife was comics colorist Cory Adams. Their children are Kristine (Neal's business right hand), Joel (artist and character designer on King of the Hill), Jason (works in toy and fantasy sculpture), and Zeea (colorist, painter, digital artist and animator).
Adams and his second wife Marilyn[92] lived in New York.[135] Together they had one son, Josh.[136] Josh illustrated a pinup of Batman in Batman: Odyssey #1 (Sept. 2010).[137]
Adams died in New York on April 28, 2022, at the age of 80. Marilyn, his wife of 45 years, told The Hollywood Reporter that Adams had died from complications of sepsis.[3]
Bibliography
See also
- Crusty Bunkers
External links
- "DC Profiles #20: Neal Adams" at the Grand Comics Database
- Continuity Studios
- Neal Adams at the Lambiek Comiclopedia
- Internet Broadway Database: Warp
- Neal Adams bibliography at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
- Neal Adams at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
- Podcast Interview with Neal Adams
References
- John Jackson Miller. Comics Industry Birthdays Comics Buyer's Guide, June 10, 2005^
- Beth Schepens. Army Brats Recall Island Paradise – Sidebar: Governors Island Factoids NYC24.org, 2003^
- Borys Kit. Neal Adams, comic book artist who revitalized Batman and fought for creators' rights, dies at 80