Spotlight On: Neal Adams

Neal Adams - NOT from Phoenix, though

Karen: Over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I went to the Phoenix Comic Con and I had the chance to meet legendary comics artist Neal Adams. Everyone here knows of my fondness (OK, obsession) with the Kree-Skrull War and a big part of that was Adams' exceptional, dramatic artwork. As some of the earliest comics I was exposed to, it set a high bar for all that came to follow. I was lucky to come across Adams at a slow period; he was sketching and no one else was really around. They were running a pretty sweet deal at his booth: buy 3 prints for $50 and Neal would sign all of them. There were so many great prints to choose from, I had a hard time making up my mind; most were DC characters, a lot of Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern drawings. There were a handful of Marvel characters, but I didn't find them appealing. But I was almost knocked out by a couple of great Bruce Lee prints, especially one depicting the martial arts master from Enter the Dragon. I scooped up that one and a couple of Batman prints and went over to Adams. 

Karen: Adams was friendly. He shook my hand and we chatted a bit as he signed the prints. He even personalized them. I've added a photo of them to this post. I told him how much I enjoyed his work on Avengers and he said thanks, then said I should be reading Batman:Odyssey. I had to politely say I wasn't really reading new comics and he said I should be, because he was back. I laughed and smiled and thanked him again. Later, my husband and I ran into a friend and he saw the Adams prints and asked, "Oh boy, Adams, did he even smile at you?" He'd had a bad experience with Adams before and was surprised when I told him how pleasant he'd been. But he was fine with me and I was glad to have met the man and gotten some very nice prints signed by him. In my book, he's still one of the best comics artists of all time.

Karen: Adams is a controversial figure in many ways, partly for his role in trying to organize the industry, and also for his theories about the Earth,  but leaving that aside, let's just talk about the man's work: when I think of Adams, the words that come to mind are realistic, cinematic, stylistic, dramatic. Long before Alex Ross, Adams brought a sense of realism to comics. Not only his figures and faces but his backgrounds were firmly entrenched in the real world. His storytelling style embraced risk taking, with unusual angles and panel layouts, all done in order to achieve the most dramatic effect. He was actively involved in the plotting of most of the titles he worked on, and in some cases, came up with the stories himself.  He worked for DC and Marvel at the same time, something no one had done, openly, before. He's touched a lot of favorite characters: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, the X-Men, the Avengers. He's also taught a large number of artists who have been a part of the industry, and he's been emulated by countless numbers of pros and would-be pros. And of course, he's still active today.

Karen: Some of my own favorite work by Adams (besides the K-S War) would include his Batman efforts, particularly the Bat and the Demon (which we reviewed starting here), his X-Men work with Roy Thomas, and I'm also fond of his covers for Adventure Comics featuring the Legion back in the late 60s.

Karen: Now it's your turn. What do you have to say about the prolific Mr. Adams?