Neal Adams was the co-founder of 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.
48 Facts About Neal Adams
2.
In 1984, Neal Adams founded his own comic book company Continuity Comics, which was in business until 1994.
3.
Neal Adams was inducted into the Eisner Awards' 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.
4.
Neal Adams was born June 15,1941 on Governors Island, New York City, to Frank Adams, a writer for the military, and Lilian, who ran a boardinghouse.
5.
Neal Adams attended the School of Industrial Art high school in Manhattan, graduating in 1959.
6.
At the suggestion of staffers, Neal Adams drew "three or four pages of [the superhero] the Fly", but did not receive encouragement from Simon.
7.
Sympathetic staffers nonetheless asked Neal Adams to draw samples for the Archie teen-humor comics themselves.
8.
In 1962, Neal Adams began his comics career in earnest at the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicate.
9.
Jerry Capp, brother of Li'l Abner creator Al Capp, invited Neal Adams to draw samples for Capp's proposed Ben Casey comic strip, based on the popular television medical-drama series.
10.
The first daily strip, which carried Neal Adams' signature, appeared November 26,1962; a color Sunday strip was added September 20,1964.
11.
Neal Adams worked as a ghost artist for a few weeks in 1966 on the comic strip Peter Scratch, a Hardboiled detective serial created by writer Elliot Caplin, brother of Al Capp and Jerry Capp, and artist Lou Fine.
12.
Neal Adams 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.
13.
Neal Adams succeeded co-creator artist Carmine Infantino with the following issue's 17-page story "An Eye for an Eye", written by Arnold Drake, with George Roussos inking Neal Adams' pencils.
14.
The series became a fan sensation, winning many awards and being almost immediately inducted into the Alley Award Hall of Fame, with Neal Adams himself receiving a special award "for the new perspective and dynamic vibrance he has brought to the field of comic art".
15.
Neal Adams was called upon to rewrite and redraw a Teen Titans story which had been written by then-newcomers Len Wein and Marv Wolfman.
16.
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.
17.
Thomas and Neal Adams collaborated again along with scripter Gerry Conway and penciler Howard Chaykin to introduce the series "The War of the Worlds" and its central character, Killraven, in Amazing Adventures vol.
18.
Neal Adams drew a few stories for Weird Western Tales and House of Mystery and covers for Action Comics and Justice League of America as well.
19.
Neal Adams worked on the first intercompany superhero crossover Superman vs the Amazing Spider-Man.
20.
The last complete story that Neal Adams drew at DC before opening his own company, Continuity Associates, was the oversize Superman vs Muhammad Ali which Neal Adams has called a personal favorite.
21.
In 2010, Neal Adams returned to DC Comics as writer and artist on the miniseries Batman: Odyssey.
22.
Apart from those assignments for DC, Neal Adams penciled The New Avengers vol.
23.
Neal Adams produced short stories for Batman Black and White vol.
24.
In February 2016, Neal Adams revisited some of his most notable covers done for DC Comics in the 1960s and 1970s, replacing the original characters with some of the New 52 ones.
25.
Later that same year, Neal Adams wrote and drew the six-part Superman: Coming of the Supermen miniseries.
26.
In 2017, Neal Adams wrote and drew a Deadman limited series.
27.
Neal Adams drew a new five-page story titled "The Game", which was written by Paul Levitz, for the Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman hardcover collection.
28.
In 1980, Neal Adams directed and starred in Nannaz, later released by Troma under the title Death to the Pee Wee Squad.
29.
In late 2013 Neal Adams appeared in the PBS TV documentary Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle.
30.
Neal Adams won his battle in 1987, when Marvel returned original artwork to him and industry legend Jack Kirby, among others.
31.
Inker Bob McLeod recalled in the 2000s the unique place Neal Adams held in the industry when McLeod entered the comics industry in 1973:.
32.
At that time, Neal Adams held a position of respect in the industry that no one in comics since then has achieved.
33.
Neal Adams was the single most respected artist in the business.
34.
Neal Adams looked at one of my samples and asked me what kind of work I was looking for.
35.
In 1978, Neal Adams helped form the Comics Creators Guild, which over three dozen comic-book writers and artists joined.
36.
Also during the 1970s, Neal Adams illustrated paperback novels in the Tarzan series for Ballantine Books.
37.
Mystic, a character they had worked on jointly in 1977, which Neal Adams had published under the Pacific Comics and Continuity Comics imprints, leading to a lawsuit against Neal Adams in United States District Court in 1993.
38.
In collaboration with Rafael Medoff, director of the David S Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, Adams 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.
39.
Each standalone episode, which runs from five to ten minutes, utilizes a combination of archival film footage and animatics drawn by Neal Adams, and focus on a different person.
40.
Neal Adams won an Inkpot Award in 1976 and was voted the "Favourite Comicbook Artist" at the 1977 and the 1978 Eagle Awards.
41.
Neal Adams was inducted into the Eisner Awards' Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.
42.
In 2019, Neal Adams was inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame for his lifetime achievement and outstanding accomplishments.
43.
Neal Adams believed the Earth is growing through a process called pair production.
44.
Neal Adams held the work of Australian geologist Samuel Warren Carey in high esteem, but considered the term "Expanding Earth" a misnomer.
45.
Neal Adams advocated his ideas in a DVD documentary he wrote and produced, clips of which are available on his YouTube channel.
46.
Neal Adams appeared on the radio show Coast to Coast AM several times to discuss his claims.
47.
Neal Adams was interviewed by Steven Novella on a Skeptics Guide podcast in 2006, and afterward continued the debate on Novella's blog.
48.
Neal Adams died in New York on April 28,2022, at the age of 80.