| Neal Adams |
Adams at the Big Apple Con, November 15, 2008. |
| Born |
June 15, 1941
Governors Island, Manhattan, New York City |
| Nationality |
American |
| Area(s) |
Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Publisher |
| Notable works |
Batman
Brave and the Bold
Detective Comics
Green Lantern/Green Arrow
Strange Adventures (Deadman)
Superman vs. Muhammad Ali
X-Men |
| Awards |
Alley Awards
- Best Cover (1967)
- Best Full-Length Story (1968, with Bob Haney)
- Best Pencil Artist (1969)
Shazam Awards
- Best Individual Story (1970 and 1971, with Dennis O'Neil)
- Best Pencil Artist (Dramatic Division) (1970)
|
| Official website |
Neal Adams (born June 15, 1941)[1][2] is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Adams was inducted into the Eisner Award's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.
Neal Adams was born on Governors Island, New York City, New York,[2] and attended the School of Industrial Art high school in Manhattan.[3][4] After graduation in 1959, he unsuccessfully attempted to find freelance work at DC Comics,[5] 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.[6] 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.'[6]
That panel ran in Adventures of the Fly #4 (Jan. 1960).[6] Afterward, Adams began writing, penciling, inking, and lettering[3] humorous full-page and half-page gag fillers for Archie's Joke Book Magazine.[6] In a 1976 interview, he recalled earning "[a]bout $16.00 per half page and $32.00 for a full page. That may not seem like a great deal of money, but at the time it meant a great deal to myself as well as my mothers ... as we were not in a wealthy state. It was manna from heaven, so to speak". A recommendation led him to artist Howard Nostrand, who was beginning the Bat Masterson syndicated newspaper comic strip, and worked as Nostrand's assistant for three months, primarily drawing backgrounds at what Adams recalled as $9 a week and "a great experience".[3]
Having "not left Archie Comics under the best of circumstances",[3] Adams turned to commercial art for the advertising industry. After a rocky start freelancing, he began landing regular work at the Johnstone and Cushing agency, which specialized in comic-book styled advertising.[7] Helped by artist Elmer Wexler, who critiqued the young Adams' samples, Adams brought his portfolio to the agency, which initially "didn't believe I had done those particular samples since they looked so much like Elmer Wexler's work. But they gave me a chance and ... I stayed there for about a year".[8]
[edit] Ben Casey
In 1962, Adams began his comics career in earnest at the NEA newspaper syndicated. From a recommendation, writer Jerry Caplin, a.k.a. Jerry Capp, brother of Li'l Abner creator Al Capp, invited Adams to draw samples for Capp's proposed Ben Casey comic strip, based on the popular television medical-drama series.[6] On the strength of his samples and of his "Chip Martin, College Reporter" AT&T advertising comic-strip pages in Boys' Life magazine, and of his similar Goodyear Tire ads,[9] Adams landed the assignment.[6] The first daily strip, which carried Adams' signature, appeared November 26, 1962; a color Sunday strip was added September 20, 1964.[10] Adams continued to do Johnston & Cushing assignments during Ben Casey's 3 1/2-year run.[11]
Comics historian Maurice Horn said the strip "did not shrink from tackling controversial problems, such as heroin addiction, illegitimate pregnancy, and attempted suicide. These were usually treated in soap opera fashion ... but there was also a touch of toughness to the proceedings, well rendered by Adams in a forceful, direct style that exuded realism and tension and accorded well with the overall tone of the strip".[10]
In addition to Capp, Jerry Brondfield also wrote for the strip, with Adams stepping in occasionally.[12]
The ABC series, which ran five seasons, ended March 21, 1966, with the final comic strip appearing Sunday, July 31, 1966.[10] Despite the end of the series, Adams has said the strip, which he claimed at different points to have appeared in 365 newspapers,[8] 265 newspapers,[13] and 165 newspapers,[14] ended "for no other reason that it was an unhappy situation":
We ended the strip under mutual agreement. I wasn't happy working on the strip nor was I happy giving up a third of the money to [the TV series' producer,]
Bing Crosby Productions. The strip I should have been making twelve hundred [dollars] a week from was making me three hundred to three-fifty a week. On top of that, I was not able to express myself artistically when I wanted to. But we left under very fine conditions. I was even offered a deal in which I would be paid so much a month if I would agree not to do any syndicated strip for anyone else, in order that I might save myself for anything they have for me to do.
[8]
Adams' goal at this point was to be a commercial illustrator.[6] While drawing Ben Casey, he had continued to do storyboards and other work for ad agencies,[6] and said in 1976 that after leaving the strip he had shopped around a portfolio for agencies and for men's magazines, "but my material was a little too realistic and not exactly right for most. I left my portolio in an advertising agency promising they were going to hold on to it. In the meantime I needed to make some money ... and I thought, 'Why don't I do some comics?'"[15] In a 2000s interview, he remembered the events slightly differently, saying "I took [my portfolio] to various advertising people. I left it at one place overnight and when I came back to get it the next morning it was gone. So six months worth of work down the drain...."[6]
He worked as a ghost artist for a few weeks in 1966 on the comic strip Peter Scratch (1965–1967), a hardboiled detective serial created by writer Elliot Caplin and artist Lou Fine.[16] Comics historians also credit Adams with ghosting two weeks of dailies for Stan Drake's The Heart of Juliet Jones, but are uncertain on dates; some sources give 1966, another 1968, and Adams himself 1963.[12] As well, Adams drew 18 sample dailies (three weeks' continuity) of a proposed dramatic serial, Tangent, about construction engineer Barnaby Peake, his college-student brother Jeff, and their teenaged sibling Chad, in 1965, but it was not syndicated.[17] Adams later said that writer Elliot Caplin, brother of Al Capp and Jerry Capp, offered Adams the job of drawing a comic strip based on author Robin Moore's The Green Berets, but that Adams, who opposed the war, suggested longtime DC Comics war-comics artist Joe Kubert, who landed that assignment.[14]
Turning to comic books, Adams found work at Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazines, under editor Archie Goodwin.[18] Adams debuted there as penciler and inker of writer Goodwin's eight-page anthological story "Curse of the Vampire" in Creepy #14 (April 1967). He and Goodwin quickly collaborated on two more stories, in Eerie #9 (May 1967) and Creepy #15 (June 1967), and Adams as well reapproached DC Comics.
With DC war comics stalwart Joe Kubert now concentrating on the comic strip The Green Berets, Adams saw an opening:
I really didn’t like most of the comics [at DC] but I did like war comics, ... so I thought, 'You know, now that Joe is not working there, they've got
Russ Heath and they are plugging other people in where Joe used to be. Maybe I could kind of shift into a Joe Kubert kind of thing and do some war comics, and kind of bash them out [quickly]'. ... So I went over to see [DC war-comics editor]
Bob Kanigher and I showed him my stuff, and I did have that feeling that they were missing Joe — a guy who could draw and do that rough, action stuff. So he gave me some work".
[14]
Adams made his DC debut as penciler-inker of the 8½-page story "It's My Turn to Die", written by Howard Liss, in the anthology series Our Army at War #182 (July 1967). He did a smattering of additional horror and war stories, respectively, for the two publishers, and then, after being turned down by DC's Batman editor Julius Schwartz, approached fellow DC editor Murray Boltinoff in the hopes of drawing for Boltinoff's Batman team-up title The Brave and the Bold.[14] Boltinoff instead assigned him to The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #101 (July-August 1967) and its full-length story "Jerry the Asto-Nut", written by Arnold Drake.[19][20] It became the first of a slew of stories and covers Adams would draw for that series and The Adventures of Bob Hope, two licensed titles starring fictional versions of the TV, film and nightclub comics.
During this period near the end of the industry revival historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Adams was soon assigned his first superhero covers, illustrating that of the Superman flagship Action Comics #356 (Nov. 1967) and the same month's Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #79 (Nov. 1967), featuring Superman and a mysterious new costumed character, Titanman. Also that month, Adams drew his first superhero story, teaming with writer Gardner Fox on the lighthearted backup feature "The Elongated Man" in Detective Comics #369, the flagship Batman title. Shortly afterward, he drew Batman himself, along with the supernatural superhero the Spectre, on the cover of The Brave and the Bold #75 (Jan. 1968) — the first published instance of Adams' work on what would become two of his signature comics characters. The first instance of Adams drawing Batman in an interior story was "The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads" in World's Finest Comics #175 (May 1968).[21]
Another, his breakout character, was the supernatural hero Deadman, who had debuted in DC's Strange Adventures #205 (Nov. 1967). Adams succeeded co-creator artist Carmine Infantino with the following issue's 17-page story "An Eye for an Eye",[22] written by Arnold Drake, with George Roussos inking Adams' pencils. Adams went on to draw both the covers and stories for issues 207-216 (Dec. 1967 - Feb. 1969), and taking over the scripting with #212 (June 1968). The series became a fan sensation,[23] winning many awards and being almost immediately inducted into the Alley Award Hall of Fame, with Adams himself receiving a special award "for the new perspective and dynamic vibrance he has brought to the field of comic art".
Adams concurrently drew covers and stories for The Spectre #2-5 (Feb.-Aug. 1968), also writing the latter two issues, and became DC's primary cover artist well into the 1970s. Adams recalled that Infantino "was appointed art director, and decided I was going to be his spark plug. I also thought it was a good idea, and was promised a number of things which were never fulfilled. But I thought it would be an adventure anyway, so I knuckled down to things like "Deadman", The Spectre and whatever odd things would come my way. I was also doing large amounts of covers".[24]
Adams was called upon to rewrite and redraw a Teen Titans story which had been written by then-newcomers Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. The story, titled "Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho!", would have introduced DC's first African American superhero but was rejected by Publisher Carmine Infantino.[25] The revised story appeared in Teen Titans #20 (March-April 1969).
Adams' art style, honed in advertising and in the photorealistic school of dramatic-serial comics strips,[26] marked a signal change from most comics art to that time. Comics writer and columnist Steve Grant wrote in 2009 that,
Jim Steranko at
Marvel and Neal Adams were the most prominent new artists of the late '60s to enter a field that had been relatively hostile to new artists ... and breaths of modernism, referencing advertising art and
pop art as much as comics. Despite vastly different styles, both favored designs that drew on depth of focus and angularity that put the reader in the center of the action while slightly disorienting them to increase the tension, and placed special emphasis on lighting and body language as emotion cues. Not that these things were unknown in comics by any stretch, but publishers traditionally deemphasized them. [As well, b]oth were hugely influential on how a new generation of artists thought about what comics should look like, though Adams was arguably more influential; his approach was more visceral and, more importantly, he ran a studio in Manhattan [
Continuity Associates] where many young artists started their professional careers.
[27]
While continuing to freelance for DC, Adams in 1969 also began freelancing for Marvel Comics, where he penciled several issues of the mutant-superhero team title X-Men and one story for a horror anthology title. Such freelancing across the two leading companies was rare at the time; most DC creators who did so worked pseudonymously.[28] Adams recalled in 1976:
The first time I got away from DC was when I went to Marvel to do the X-Men. It didn't stop me from working at DC; they were a little annoyed at me, but that was a calculated plan. ... If people saw that I would do such a thing, then other people might do it. Beyond that, it seemed like working for Marvel might be an interesting thing to do. It was, as matter of fact. I enjoyed working on the X-Men. [The company was] more friendly, a lot more real and I found myself delighting in the company of
Herb Trimpe,
John Romita and
Marie Severin. I found them to be people who were not as oppressed as the people at
National [i.e., DC Comics] were.
[29]
He teamed with writer Roy Thomas on X-Men, then on the verge of cancellation,[30] starting with issue #56 (May 1969). Adams penciled and colored, paired for the first time with inker Tom Palmer, with whom he would collaborate on several acclaimed Marvel comics; the duo's work here netted them 1969 Alley Awards for Best Pencil Artist and Best Inking Artist, respectively. (Thomas won that year for Best Writer.) Though the team failed to save the title, which ended its initial run with #66 (March 1970), the collaboration here 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.[31] Adams also wrote and penciled the horror story "One Hungers" in Tower of Shadows #2 (Dec. 1969), and co-wrote with Thomas, but did not draw, another in Chamber of Darkness #2 (Dec. 1969).
[edit] Batman
Continuing to work for DC Comics during this sojourn, while also contributing the occasional story to Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazines (including the Don Glut-scripted "Goddess from the Sea" in Vampirella #1, Sept. 1969), Adams had his first collaboration on Batman with writer Dennis O'Neil.[32] The duo, under the direction of editor Julius Schwartz,[33] would revitalize the character with a series of noteworthy stories reestablishing Batman's dark, brooding nature and taking the books away from the campy look and feel of the 1966-68 ABC TV series.[34] Their first two stories were "The Secret of the Waiting Graves" in Detective Comics #395 (Jan. 1970) and "Paint a Picture of Peril" in issue #397 (March 1970), with a short Batman backup story, written by Mike Friedrich, coming in-between, in Batman #219 (Feb. 1970). Adams introduced new characters to the Batman mythos beginning with Man-Bat co-created with writer Frank Robbins in Detective Comics #400 (June 1970).[35] O'Neil and Adams' creation Ra's al Ghul was introduced in the story "Daughter of the Demon" in Batman #232 (June 1971)[36] and the character would later appear in the 2005 film Batman Begins and be portrayed by actor Liam Neeson. The Joker was revitalized in "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!" in Batman #251 (Sept. 1973), a landmark story bringing the character back to his roots as a homicidal maniac who murders people on a whim and delights in his mayhem.[37][38]
[edit] Green Lantern/Green Arrow and "relevant comics"
Batman's enduring makeover was contemporaneous[39] with Adams and O'Neil's celebrated and, for the time, controversial revamping of the longstanding DC characters Green Lantern and Green Arrow.
Rechristening Green Lantern vol. 2 as Green Lantern/Green Arrow with issue #76 (April 1970), O'Neil and Adams teamed these two very different superheroes in a long story arc in which the characters undertook a social-commentary journey across America.[40] A few months earlier, Adams updated Green Arrow's visual appearance by designing a new costume for the character in The Brave and the Bold #85 (Aug.-Sept 1969).[41] A major exemplar of what the industry and the public at the time called "relevant comics",[42] the landmark run began with the 23-page story "No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" and continued to " ...And through Him Save a World" in the series' finale, #89 (May 1972).[43] It was during this period that one of the best known O'Neil/Adams stories appeared, in Green Lantern #85-86, when it was revealed that Green Arrow's ward Speedy was addicted to heroin.[44][45] Wrote historian Ron Goulart,
These angry issues deal with
racism,
overpopulation,
pollution, and
drug addiction. The drug abuse problem was dramatized in an unusual and unprecedented way by showing Green Arrow's heretofore clean-cut boy companion Speedy turning into a heroin addict. All this endeared DC to the dedicated college readers of the period and won awards for both artist and writer. Sales, however, weren't especially influenced by the praise, and by 1973 the crusading had ceased. I remember dropping in on [editor] Julius Schwartz about this time and asking him how relevance was doing. 'Relevance is dead', he informed me, not too cheerfully.
[34]
After Green Lantern was cancelled, the adventures of both super-heroes continued on the pages of The Flash #217-219 and #226 (1972-74)
After Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Adams' contributions to DC, apart from his work on Batman, were sporadic, limiting to draw a Clark Kent back-up story in Superman #254 (1972) and sharing credits with Jim Aparo pencilling the Teen Titans in Brave and the Bold #102 (1972). Adams also drew a few stories for Weird Western Tales and House of Mystery and covers for Action Comics and Justice League of America titles as well. Adams worked on the first intercompany superhero crossover Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Several of the Superman figures were redrawn by him.[46]
The last complete story that Adams drew at DC before opening his own company, Continuity Associates, was the oversize Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (1978) which Adams has called a personal favorite.[47] After this, Adams' production for DC and Marvel was mainly limited to new covers for reprint editions of some of his work, such as Green Lantern/Green Arrow, The Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War, X-Men: Visionaries, Deadman Collection and The Saga of Ra's al Ghul, which were variously published as reprint miniseries or trade paperback collections. In 1990, he designed a new costume for DC's Robin character[48] and drew a miniposter included in the first issue of the Robin limited series.[49]
In 2005 Adams returned to Marvel (his last collaboration for this publisher had been in 1981 drawing a story for the Bizarre Adventures magazine) to draw a 8-page story for the Giant-Size X-Men #3.[50] The following year Adams (among other artists) provided art to Young Avengers Special #1.[51]
In 2010, DC Comics announced that Adams would return as writer and artist on the new miniseries Batman: Odyssey.[52] Originally conceived as a 12-issue story, the series ran for six issues,[53][54] and was relaunched with vol. 2, #1 in October 2011.[55] Adams penciled The New Avengers vol. 2, #16.1 (Nov. 2011), teaming again with inker Tom Palmer,[56] nearly 40 years since both artists had worked together on The Avengers #96 (Feb. 1972).[57][58]
Adams' pencil drawings on his later Batman stories were frequently inked by 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 director Stuart Gordon and playwright Lenny Kleinfeld under the pseudonym Bury St. Edmund.[59]
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.[60][61] 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.
Inker Bob McLeod recalled in the 2000s the unique place Adams held in the industry when McLeod broke into comics 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.
[62]
In 1978, Adams helped form the Comics Creators Guild, which over three dozen comic-book writers and artists joined.[63]
Also during the 1970s, Adams illustrated paperback novels in the Tarzan series for Ballantine Books.[64] With the independent-comic publishing boom of the early 1980s, he began working for Pacific Comics (where he produced the poorly-received Skateman) 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. He and fellow artist Michael Netzer entered into a dispute over intellectual property rights to Ms. Mystic, a character they had worked on jointly in 1977, which Adams had published under the Pacific Comics and Continuity Comics imprints, leading to a lawsuit against Adams in United States District Court in 1993.[65] The case was dismissed in 1997, citing the statute of limitations.[66]
In collaboration with Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, Adams has 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 Gypsy racial inferiority.[67] 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.[68] However, Adams deemphasizes any comparison between the Babbitt case and his struggle for creator rights, saying that her situation was "tragic" and "an atrocity."[67]
In 2010, Adams and Medoff teamed with Disney Educational Productions to produce They Spoke Out: American Voices Against the Holocaust, an online educational motion comics series that tells stories of Americans who protested Nazis or helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Each standalone episode, which runs from five to ten minutes, utilizes a combination of archival film footage and animatics drawn by Adams (who also narrates), and focus on a different person. The first episode, "La Guardia's War Against Hitler" was screened in April 2010 at a festival sponsored by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and tells the story of the forceful stand New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia took against Nazi Germany. La Guardia's actions stood in contrast to the relative passivity of President Franklin Roosevelt, who historians such as David S. Wyman believe did not do as much as he could have to save European Jewry,[69] a point underlined in the episode "Messenger from Hell". Other episodes include "Voyage of the Doomed", which focuses on the S.S. St. Louis, the ship that carried more than 900 German-Jewish refugees but was turned away by Cuban authorities and later the Roosevelt administration, and "Rescue Over the Mountains", which depicts Vivian Fry, the young journalist who led an underground rescue network that smuggled Jewish refugees out of Vichy France.[70][71]
Adams' first Deadman cover won the 1967 Alley Award for Best Cover. 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".
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).
He won an Inkpot Award in 1976, and was voted the "Favourite Comicbook Artist" at the 1977 and the 1978 Eagle Awards.
In 1985, DC Comics named Adams as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.[72]
Adams was inducted into the Eisner Award's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.
Adams promotes a version of the Expanding Earth hypothesis, which can be traced to Samuel Warren Carey.[73][74] While Carey did advocate an expanding Earth model in the mid-20th century, that model has been rejected by established scientists following the recognition of plate tectonics.[75][76][77] Adams rejects tectonics, particularly the theory of subduction, which he says has only been shown to exist in one place on Earth and that geologists have grabbed onto it to make their model work.[78] He claims that the Earth is not merely growing by increasing its volume, but rather growing by manufacturing new atomic mass in its core through pair production. In his Expanding Earth model the continental plates remain mostly unchanged while the earth grows in size; oceans expanding between and separating continents.[79] Adams attributes this matter creation from nonexistence to prime matter, a concept the Greek philosopher Aristotle proposed but had not clearly indicated if he believed in its existence.[80] Adams advocates his ideas in a DVD documentary he wrote and produced, clips of which he displays on his YouTube channel. [81][82]
Adams appeared on the radio show Coast to Coast AM several times to discuss his claims.[83] He was also interviewed by Dr. Steven Novella on a Skeptics Guide podcast in 2006, and afterward continued the debate on Novella's blog.[84] His work led to a 3-part magazine feature on Growing Earth and history of Earth sciences in the Japan Times in 2009.[85][86][87]
Adams has three sons, Jason, Joel and Josh Adams, who are also artists. Jason works in toy and fantasy sculpture, while Joel and Josh illustrate comics and do design work on TV shows.[88] Josh illustrated a pinup of Batman in the first issue of the 2010 miniseries Batman: Odyssey, which Neal wrote and illustrated.[89]
- ^ Miller, John Jackson. "Comics Industry Birthdays", Comics Buyer's Guide, June 10, 2005. WebCitation archive
- ^ a b Schepens, Beth (2003). "Army Brats Recall Island Paradise — Sidebar: Governors Island Factoids". NYC24.org. Archived from the original on January 21, 2009. http://www.nyc24.org/2003/islands/zone5/governorsfeature.html.
- ^ a b c d The Neal Adams Treasury (Pure Imagination: Detroit, Michigan, 1976; no ISBN), p. 3 (unnumbered)
- ^ Kimball, Kirk. "Gaspar Saladino — The Natural". Dial B for Blog Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "Neal Adams/Continuity Studios: Biography". NealAdamsEntertainment.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2011. http://www.nealadamsentertainment.com/pages/infocontact.html. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Neal Adams interview (undated). "Neal Adams: Renaissance Man Part I". ComicsBulletin.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2009. http://www.webcitation.org/5lJycKN5e.
- ^ Heintjes, Tom (undated). "Funny Business: The Rise and Fall of Johnstone and Cushing". Hogan's Alley (online magazine), via MSNBC.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100113152605/http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/features/johnstonecushing.asp. Additional Webcitation archive, November 16, 2009.
- ^ a b c The Neal Adams Treasury, p. 5 (unnumbered)
- ^ These would later include the one-page "Flash Farrell Gets the Picture at Goodyear Aerospace". See Harvey Comics' Richie Rich #39 (Nov. 1965) at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ a b c Horn, Maurice, ed. (1996). 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. New York City; Avenel: Gramercy Books. pp. 53–54, Ben Casey (entry). ISBN 978-0-517-12447-5.
- ^ Mendez, Prof. Armando E.. "The Rules of Attraction: The Look of Love: The Rise and Fall of the Photo-Realistic Newspaper Strip, 1946-1970: 'The Boy Wonder: Neal Adams and Ben Casey'". Archived from the original on November 12, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061112224638/profmendez.tripod.com/html/casey.html. Retrieved January 1, 2009. Additional WebCitation archive, November 16, 2009.
- ^ a b Mendez, "The Rules of Attraction ... 'The Boy Wonder: Neal Adams and Ben Casey — Ghost Stories'". Archived from the original November 13, 2006. Additional WebCitation archive, November 16, 2009.
- ^ Neal Adams interview, The Comics Journal #43 (December 1978), p. 52
- ^ a b c d "Neal Adams: Renaissance Man Part II". ComicsBulletin.com. undated. Archived from the original on May 26, 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100526054454/http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/111091948245775.htm.
- ^ The Neal Adams Treasury, pp. 5–7 (unnumbered)
- ^ "Peter Scratch". ThrillingDetective.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-23. http://www.thrillingdetective.com/scratch.html. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ^ The Neal Adams Treasury, pp. 22–27 (unnumbered) and inside back cover
- ^ Arndt, Richard J. "The Warren Magazines" (2005 version with five interviews). Accessed 11 October 2009. Link updated 16 November 2009. WebCite archive.
- ^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1960s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. "Adams commandeered his first DC work as a penciler/inker with 'It's My Turn to Die' a nine-page back-up tale written by Howard Liss for Our Army at War #182 in July [1967]...The following month, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #101 perfectly illustrated how Adams was equally adept at delivering the art of laughter. In his first full-length story for DC, he provided writer Arnold Drake's space odyssey 'Jerry the Astro-Nut' with a photo-realistic flare not seen in comics."
- ^ Shutt, Craig (July 3, 2005). "Neal Adams and Jerry Lewis". Comics Buyer’s Guide. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64cwiEzCJ. Retrieved January 11, 2012. "Adams took over Jerry’s art (and covers) with #101."
- ^ McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 129: "1968 was the year when Neal Adams and Batman's fates became forever intertwined...Adams tackled his first interior with Batman on Leo Dorfman's script for 'The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads' story in World's Finest Comics #175."
- ^ McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 125: "In a story by scribe Arnold Drake and artist Carmine Infantino, circus aerialist Boston Brand learned there was much more to life after his death...In addition, Neal Adams, the artist who succeeded Infantino with the second issue, would soon become an industry legend."
- ^ Goulart, Ron, Comic Book Encyclopedia (Harper Entertainment, New York, 2004) ISBN 978-0-06-053816-3. "Adams, Neal (1941- )" entry, p. 5
- ^ The Neal Adams Treasury, p. 8 (unnumbered)
- ^ Cronin, Brian (2009). Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed. Plume. ISBN 045229532. http://books.google.com/books?id=SFgiXbVykSIC&pg=PT67&dq=Teen+Titans+Len+Wein+Marv+Wolfman+Joshua&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Dv4RT_a-Heb10gGU_8X7BQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Teen%20Titans%20Len%20Wein%20Marv%20Wolfman%20Joshua&f=false.
- ^ Mendez, "The Rules of Attraction ... Introduction". Archived from the original July 9, 2007. Additional WebCitation archive, July 16, 2009.
- ^ Grant, Steven (October 14, 2009). "Permanent Damage". (column) ComicBookResources.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2009. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23316.
- ^ Evanier, Mark (April 14, 2008). "An Incessantly Asked Question #5". P.O.V. Online (column). Archived from the original on 2009-11-24. http://povonline.com/iaq/IAQ05.htm.
- ^ The Neal Adams Treasury, p. 12 (unnumbered)
- ^ Stiles, Steve (undated). "The Groundbreaking Neal Adams". Archived from the original on November 16, 2009. http://stevestiles.com/adams.htm.
- ^ For example: Hill, Shawn, "Essential Avengers v4" (review), Comics Bulletin, February 15, 2006, re: the "Kree-Skrull War" arc: "This story set the standard for years to come, even if it has since been surpassed"; and Sanderson, Peter. Marvel Universe (Harry N. Abrams, 1998) ISBN 978-0-8109-8171-3, ISBN 978-0-8109-8171-3, p. 127: "Running nine issues, much of it spectacularly illustrated by Neal Adams, the Kree-Skrull War had no precedent in comics.... With this story The Avengers unquestionably established its reputation as one of Marvel's leading books"; and Stiles, Steve, "The Groundbreaking Neal Adams", re: X-Men: "Even knowing that the book was slated for the axe, Adams poured out some of the finest, most innovative work of his career". Archived 16 November 2009 at WebCite
- ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 143: "Artist Neal Adams and writer Denny O'Neil rescued Batman from the cozy, campy cul-de-sac he had been consigned to in the 1960s and returned the Dark Knight to his roots as a haunted crime fighter. The cover of their first collaboration, "The Secret of the Waiting Graves", was typical of Adams' edgy, spooky style."
- ^ Greenberger, Robert; Manning, Matthew K. (2009). The Batman Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the Batcave. Running Press. p. 26. ISBN 0-7624-3663-8. "Editor Julius Schwartz had decided to darken the character's world to further distance him from the camp environment created by the 1966 ABC show. Bringing in the talented O'Neil as well as the innovative Frank Robbins and showcasing the art of rising star Neal Adams...Schwartz pointed Batman in a new and darker direction, a path the character still continues on to this day."
- ^ a b Goulart, Ron, Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic books (Contemporary Books, Chicago, 1986) ISBN 978-0-8092-5045-5, p. 297
- ^ Greenberger and Manning, p. 177 "Adams helped darken Gotham City in the 1970s [and] the scene was set for a new host of major villains. One of the first was Man-Bat, who debuted in the pages of 1970's Detective Comics #400."
- ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 145: "Writer Denny O'Neil once stated that he and artist Neal Adams 'set out to consciously and deliberately to create a villain...so exotic and mysterious that neither we nor Batman were sure what to expect.' Who they came up with was arguably Batman's most cunning adversary: the global eco-terrorist named Ra's al Ghul."
- ^ Greenberger and Manning, p. 161 and 163 "In 1973, O'Neil alongside frequent collaborator Neal Adams forged the landmark 'The Joker's Five-Way Revenge' in Batman #251, in which the Clown Prince of Crime returned to his murderous ways, killing his victims with his trademark Joker venom and taking much delight from their sufferings."
- ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 156: "After decades as an irritating prankster, Batman's greatest enemy re-established himself as a homicidal harlequin in this issue...this classic tale by writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams introduced a dynamic that remains to this day: the Joker's dependence on Batman as his only worthy opponent."
- ^ Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams collaborations at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 139: "Real-world politics have always gone hand-in-hand with comics and their creators' own personal perspectives. Yet this was never more creatively expressed than when writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams paired the liberal Green Arrow with the conservative Green Lantern."
- ^ McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 134: "Artist Neal Adams targeted the Emerald Archer for a radical redesign that ultimately evolved past the surface level...the most significant aspect of this issue was Adams' depiction of Oliver Queen's alter ego. He had rendered a modern-day Robin Hood, complete with goatee and mustache, plus threads that were more befitting an ace archer."
- ^ Delaney, Samuel R. (1994). Silent Interviews: On Language, Race, Sex, Science Fiction, and Some Comics. Wesleyan University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-8195-6280-7.
- ^ Issue #88 (March 1972) was a reprint issue with no new stories
- ^ Greenberger, Robert (2008). "Green Arrow". In Dougall, Alastair. The DC Comics Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 142–143. ISBN 0-7566-4119-5.
- ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 146: "It was taboo to depict drugs in comics, even in ways that openly condemned their use. However, writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams collaborated on an unforgettable two-part arc that brought the issue directly into Green Arrow's home, and demonstrated the power comics had to affect change and perception."
- ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 170: "Many talents from both Marvel and DC contributed to this landmark publication - in addition to inker Dick Giordano, Neal Adams provided several re-drawings of Superman while John Romita, Sr. worked on numerous Peter Parker/Spider-Man likenesses."
- ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 178: "Writer/artist Neal Adams proclaimed that Superman vs. Muhammad Ali was "the best comic book" he and co-writer Denny O'Neil had ever produced."
- ^ Manning, Matthew K. "1990s" in Dolan, p. 247: "When DC editorial made the decision to modify the classic costume of the iconic Boy Wonder, they called upon several artists to put their own spin on it. It was legendary artist Neal Adams who delivered the winning concept."
- ^ Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 248: "Complete with a Neal Adams poster stapled to its spine, the first issue [of Robin] featured an apprehensive Robin doubting his place by Batman's side."
- ^ Giant-Size X-Men at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Young Avengers Special #1 at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Segura, Alex (April 2, 2010). "It's Official: Neal Adams on Batman: Odyssey". DCComics.com. Archived from the original on August 21, 2010. http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/04/02/its-official-neal-adams-on-batman-odyssey/.
- ^ Phegley, Kiel (April 2, 2010). "Neal Adams talks about Odyssey". ComicBookResources.com. Archived from the original on April 20, 2010. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25519.
- ^ Batman: Odyssey at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Hudson, Laura (July 19, 2011). "Parting Shot: 'Batman: Odyssey' to Return in October with Vol. 2". ComicsAlliance.com. Archived from the original on November 30, 2011. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/07/19/batman-odyssey-volume-2/. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
- ^ New Avengers vol. 2, #16.1 at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Phegley, Kiel (April 22, 2011). "Neal Adams returns to 'Avengers' With Bendis". ComicBookResources.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=32007.
- ^ The Avengers #96 at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Miner, Michael (February 26, 2009). "Slow Torture in the Age of Speed". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/slow-torture-in-the-age-of-speed/Content?oid=1103068. Additional WebCitation archive.
- ^ "Marvel Returns Art to Kirby, Adams," The Comics Journal #116 (July 1987), p. 15.
- ^ "Neal Adams Receives Art Without Signing Marvel's Short Form," The Comics Journal #116 (July 1987), pp. 15–16.
- ^ BobMcLeod.com. WebCite archive
- ^ Groth, Gary. "Birth of the Guild: May 7, 1978," The Comics Journal #42 (October 1978), pp. 21–28.
- ^ "Interview with Neal Adams". Tarzan.cc. May 28, 2005. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64h6ipPO1. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ "Adams Sued for $20 Million in Libel/Trademark Suit". The Comics Journal (Fantagraphics Books) (162): 7–11. October 1993. http://www.tcj.com/archive-viewer-issue-162/?pid=16307. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ Netzer v. Continuity Graphic Associates, Inc., 963 F. Supp. 1308 (Dist. Court, SD New York 1997).
- ^ a b Gustines, George Gene (August 8, 2008). "Comic-Book Idols Rally to Aid a Holocaust Artist". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64gz0nq9a. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
- ^ "Story of Dina Gottliebova Babbitt" (PDF). Comics for a Cause. August 8, 2008. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64gzun8X9. Retrieved August 10, 2008.
- ^ Wyman, David S. (1998). The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. New Press. ISBN 1-56584-415-7.
- ^ Chandler, Doug. "A New Medium for Holocaust Studies", The New York Jewish Week, Vol. 222 No. 46, April 16, 2010
- ^ They Spoke Out: American Voices Against the Holocaust, accessed May 26, 2011
- ^ Marx, Barry, Cavalieri, Joey and Hill, Thomas (w), Petruccio, Steven (a), Marx, Barry (ed). "Neal Adams The Advent of Realism" Fifty Who Made DC Great: 38 (1985), DC Comics
- ^ O'Brien, Jeffrey M."Master of the Universe", Wired #9.03 (March 2001). WebCite archive
- ^ "The Skeptics Guide podcast: Episode 51, July 12, 2006". Theskepticsguide.org. http://www.theskepticsguide.org/skepticsguide/podcastinfo.asp?pid=51. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ^ Fowler (1990), pp 281 & 320-327; Duff (1993), pp 609-613; Stanley (1999), pp 223-226
- ^ Bucher, K. (2005), "Blueschists, eclogites, and decompression assemblages of the Zermatt-Saas ophiolite: High-pressure metamorphism of subducted Tethys lithosphere", American Mineralogist 90: 821, DOI:10.2138/am.2005.1718
- ^ Van Der Lee, Suzan; Nolet, Guust (1997), "Seismic image of the subducted trailing fragments of the Farallon plate", Nature 386 (6622): 266, DOI:10.1038/386266a0
- ^ Adams, Neal. "A Challenge to All Geologists on Earth". NealAdams.com. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64h0j6Y6h. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ [youtu.be/oJfBSc6e7QQ "Conspiracy of Science - Earth is in fact growing'"]. Neal Adams. 2007-03-02. youtu.be/oJfBSc6e7QQ. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
- ^ "Aristotle's Metaphysics'". plato.stanford.edu. 2008-06-09. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics. Retrieved 2012-04-11.
- ^ "NealAdamsDotCom". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/nealadamsdotcom. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ^ Adams, Neal. "New Model of the Universe". NealAdams.com. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64h1ZAM5e. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ "Coast to Coast with George Noory: Guests — Neal Adams". Coasttocoastam.com. http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/adams-neal/6690. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
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- ^ Ogrisseg, Jeff (November 22, 2009). "Top artist draws growing global conclusions". Japan Times. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64h3EfZAz. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ Ogrisseg, Jeff (November 22, 2009). "Dogmas May Blinker Mainstream Scientific Thinking". Japan Times. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64h3tlBrD. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ Ogrisseg, Jeff (November 22, 2009). "Our Growing Earth?". Japan Times. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. http://www.webcitation.org/64h4J9yyX. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ "Comic-Con 2010 Special Guest List". Comic-Con.org. Archived from the original on April 27, 2011. http://www.comic-con.org/cci2010/cci_guests.shtml#Adams_Josh. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
- ^ Batman: Odyssey #1 at the Grand Comics Database
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