This is an argument that I don’t mind having with Combat Jack. While he leans towards JACK KIRBY and FRANK MILLER as his top tandem I am an unabashed stan of JOHN BYRNE and NEAL ADAMS.
NEAL ADAMS produced the earliest iconographic comic book artwork that I can remember. It was his work on the Batman that first drew (pun intended) me into comicbooks. Where KIRBY was an artist that was known for giving characters their hyper-musculature ADAMS was more proficient at drawing figures that appeared more lithe and sinewy. In some of the NEAL ADAMS covers Batman appears to be fit more like a swimmer or triathlete.
I also believe that ADAMS panel designs were the inspiration for rebel artists like FRANK MILLER. ADAMS drew off the page and across panel frames so that your eyes moved with the characters. MILLER would employ this technique later on during his stint at Daredevil especially when illustrating the movement of DD’s baton. ADAMS took great pride in how he helped move the comics forward from their campy place in culture they had been placed in during the 1960’s.
I caught up with NEAL ADAMS at the MarvelFest 2009 in-store event at Forbidden Planet. ADAMS was jovial and jocular. He wanted to know why I was calling him a GOAT on camera. I explained that it meant I considered him one of the greatest of all time. He was down with that.
I asked NEAL ADAMS what was his inspiration to illustrate characters in the manner he chose which seemed more appropriate for a mag like Heavy Metal than for comic books at the time. ADAMS explained how he felt that comics weren’t being given the serious artisitic consideration he thought they deserved. Part of this had to do with the campy programs like the 1960’s Batman TV series which reduced Batman and Robin to a comedy team from being a crime-fighting duo. ADAMS wanted to put that grit back into their stories.
The storylines he collaborated on for the Green Lantern Green Arrow series are by now legendary. Racism, drug abuse and the disenfranchisement of the poor were all part of those issues. His superheroes not only looked real, they acted real. Marvel gets a lot of credit for being the company that portrayed the humanity within their flawed heroes but much of the credit should be given to the artists who were also activists living through this country’s tumult.
I talked to ADAMS about his run on the X-Men right before the book went on hiatus. The X-Men comic had never seen artwork like his. ADAMS took us back into the Savage Land and also to do battle with Magneto and the Sentinels. The X-Men title had never had an artist as creative as ADAMS was. He made Marvel Girl the sexiest character in the Marvel pantheon. ADAMS artwork wasn’t enough to save the X-Men book though and he returned to DC Comics to work on Batman and the highly acclaimed GL/GA books.
My favorite part of my interview with ADAMS was when I asked him if Batman really “hit” Rhas Al’Ghul’s daughter Talia. NEAL’s reply was that “Batman definitely hit that, in a good way.” Amen to that NEAL ADAMS.
