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Legendary Comic Book Artist Neal Adams Passes Away at Age 80
Legendary comic book artist Neal Adams who co-founded 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 has died at the age of 80.
During his career, Adams co-created the characters Ra's al Ghul, Man-Bat, and John Stewart for DC Comics and was inducted into the Eisner Award's 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.
After graduation in 1959, he unsuccessfully attempted to find freelance work at DC Comics, 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. Sympathetic staffers nonetheless asked Adams to draw samples for the Archie teen-humor comics themselves.
Adams eventually made his DC debut as penciler-inker of the 8 1⁄2-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. 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. 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 comedians.
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 (November, 1967), 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).
In 1969, Adams began freelancing for both DC and Marvel, where he drew the X-Men and the popular Kree-Skrull War storyline of the Avengers series. After collaborating with writer Dennis O'Neil on an X-Men run, where they brought Professor X back to life, Adams and O'Neil worked together most notably on the Batman series, where they revitalized the iconic character and brought the Caped Crusader back to his darker, broodier roots.
Adams helped bring to life some of Batman's most recognizable villains in new storylines, like Joker and Two-Face, and co-created Ra's Al Ghul and Man-Bat. O'Neil and Adams also teamed up on the successful “Green Lantern/Green Arrow” series, where they tackled real-world issues, like racism, drug addiction, pollution and more. They created Green Lantern John Stewart, who was one of the first leading Black superheroes in comics, and redesigned Green Arrow to give him his iconic goatee.
Adams passed away in New York on April 28th, 2022 following complications from sepsis. The Superman Super Site extends our deepest heartfelt condolences to the Adams family and loved ones during this difficult time of mourning.
Source: Variety
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