Neal Adams

 

Neal Adams was born on the 6th of June, 1941, on Governor's Island in New York. After studies at the School of Industrial Arts, Adams broke into both the comic book and syndicated strip fields in 1959. He began his carrer with drawing features for various Archie Comics titles and also working three months on the Bat Masterson strip.

His first major comic work came in 1962 when Newspaper Enterprise hired him to draw the Ben Casey medical strip. Based on the then-popular television series, Adams drew the strip from its start in November 1962 to its demise in 1966.

Adams then drew Lou Fine's Scratch for a month before becoming an artist on DC Comics Deadman in November 1967. Deadman was written by veteran Jack Miller, the strip dealt with circus preformer Boston Brand who could not achieve eternal rest until he avenged his own murder. To his disposal Deadman had a variety of spiritual powers. Although the strip was far-fetched Miller's hard hitting realistic dialogue kept the series plausible, and Adams work made Deadman a popular strip. His drawings were highly realistic and beautifully detailed, and he constantly experimented with page layout and composition.

When Deadman ended in 1969 Adams began to branch out: he drew highly acclaimed stories for Marvel's X-Men, DC's Teen Titans ans Superman, and helped return The Batman tom its original "creature in the night" theme.

In 1970, he and writer Denny O'Neil combined to produce the first issue in a new series for DC, the highly publicized Green Lantern/Green Arrow feature. The strip broke away from standard comic book fare to tackle the serious issues of the day. O'Neil's stories were hailed as the most advanced in comic books, and Adams raw realism was rarely seen previously in comic book art. Unfortunately, Adams began missing deadlines, sales didn't match the critics' raves and it was finally cancelled in 1972 after 13 stories.

Since the demise of Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Adams has become a powerful and respected force in the comic book industry. His work has appeared in many DC, Marvel and Warren Comics titles, and he has done considerable advertising work, designed the costumes for the science fiction play Warp, ghosted works for several syndicated strips, and been president of the Academy of Comic Book Arts.