The Neal Adams Appreciation Thread....with an update!

[Lago32]

Morning folks,

 

I really enjoyed the recent John Buscema/Barry Smith appreciation threads and thought it might be fun to start one for my favourite comic book artist, Neal Adams.

 

First, to kick it off, I am very excited to post to my CAF gallery a grail piece by Neal that frankly I never thought I would ever have a chance to see, let alone own. I am still pinching myself. Here's the link:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetail.asp?gcat=2490

 

Getting back to the appreciation part of this thread....would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the following:

 

What is your favourite period of Neal's work?

 

Who is your favourite inker on Neal and why?

 

Do you prefer his Marvel or DC work and why?

 

Looking forward to the responses!

 

Thanks,

Mike

[Weird Paper]

Great page! I'd have to say among the regular inkers I prefer Palmer first, then Giordano, then Adams himself, then anybody else. (This excludes Wrightson, since I think he only inked him on that one story.) Giordano, imho, had a lighter hand and a better line than Adams, and Palmer made anybody better.

[J.Sid]

Palmer and Neal was a really cool combo. One of those great pairings that allowed both artists' strengths to shine simultaneously.

 

Giordano was his definitive inker though IMO. My favorite story is the Superman/Muhammed Ali book.

[drdroom]

Great page! I'd have to say among the regular inkers I prefer Palmer first, then Giordano, then Adams himself, then anybody else. (This excludes Wrightson, since I think he only inked him on that one story.) Giordano, imho, had a lighter hand and a better line than Adams, and Palmer made anybody better.

 

Not me. Adams over Adams trumps anyone else over Adams during his great period ('68-'75? Anyone got an argument for longer?) IMHO. I think Giordano & Palmer are pretty equal, though I have more fondness for the Marvel work. That's probably more to do with the scripting than the inking though.

 

Interestingly, Adams is my top artist that I have never gotten an example of. I find it very hard to find the just-right Adams page, without going into the medium stratosphere of price.

[alxjhnsn]

If you folks are on Facebook, check out the Neal Adams Almanack page. Lots of examples and discussions.

[alxjhnsn]

Interesting story about this art and why it's not inked by Neal's granddaughter on the FB page.

[Koa]

I should preface this by letting you all know I came to Adam's work in the 1990's through reprints of his classic marvel and dc work. The paper stock was different and some of it was even recolored and altered by then so it may affect my opinion's of some of the work. My opinion's are being made from the latest reprints of the work like The Dc Archives which are not as the books originally appeared, especially in the case of the Batman Archives which were recolored and at least in half of the first volume partially re-inked.

 

What is your favorite period of Neal's work?

 

I still think his X-men run is some of the best comic art I've ever seen. That would be a high point for me along with green lantern/green arrow.

 

I know this is sacrilege but when he's giving it his all I'm really into 21st century Neal. There is a lot to be said about the dynamic energy with some of his best modern work. Every now and then I see cover art like All Star batman and Robin 9 and his best work in Batman Odyessy and think Neal would just blow everyone away if he would just show some restraint with the structure of his pages and put some thought into the composition of his panels like he did in his younger days and combine it with his current chaotic drawing style.Unfortunately he cranks out a lot of rushed cringe worthy art..

 

Who is your favorite inker on Neal and why?

 

Neal Adams. His penciling at the height of his career was so carefully composed and structured but his inks has a very wild feel to them. I wish he inked more during his heyday. Giordano and tom Palmer were great as well.

 

Do you prefer his Marvel or DC work and why?

 

Another tough question. As I get older i really have come to appreciate the DC stuff even though the stories were for the most part throwaway due to the format of Dc imposed during that time that just didn't allow characters (or the creative people who made them) to progress and develop. Adam's also had the writer's pacing and storytelling choices imposed on him as well and frankly he was not working with writers who were near his caliber.

 

Except for Deadman which Neal wrote most of his DC work was pretty conventional and it almost like watching neal adam's work inside a box or prison cell. His talent exceed the format Dc imposed and the ability the writers he worked with.

 

I think the marvel method produced much more exciting and dynamic commercial superhero comic art all the way around and with Neal even more so. I think the Marvel method was the only time we saw Neal being challenged and the marvel method was really the only way this could happen because there weren't any writer's in comics that were superior to Neal's visual storytelling abilities. The marvel characters at the time were also much more interesting and well rounded, the concepts fresher so that even when i discovered the stories 20-25 years later at their core they felt contemporary.

 

 

 

 

[drdroom]

What is your favorite period of Neal's work?

 

I still think his X-men run is some of the best comic art I've ever seen. That would be a high point for me along with green lantern/green arrow.

 

I know this is sacrilege but when he's giving it his all I'm really into 21st century Neal. There is a lot to be said about the dynamic energy with some of his best modern work. Every now and then I see cover art like All Star batman and Robin 9 and his best work in Batman Odyessy and think Neal would just blow everyone away if he would just show some restraint with the structure of his pages and put some thought into the composition of his panels like he did in his younger days and combine it with his current chaotic drawing style.Unfortunately he cranks out a lot of rushed cringe worthy art..

 

Who is your favorite inker on Neal and why?

 

Neal Adams. His penciling at the height of his career was so carefully composed and structured but his inks has a very wild feel to them. I wish he inked more during his heyday. Giordano and tom Palmer were great as well.

 

Do you prefer his Marvel or DC work and why?

 

Another tough question. As I get older i really have come to appreciate the DC stuff even though the stories were for the most part throwaway due to the format of Dc imposed during that time that just didn't allow characters (or the creative people who made them) to progress and develop. Adam's also had the writer's pacing and storytelling choices imposed on him as well and frankly he was not working with writers who were near his caliber.

 

Except for Deadman which Neal wrote most of his DC work was pretty conventional and it almost like watching neal adam's work inside a box or prison cell. His talent exceed the format Dc imposed and the ability the writers he worked with.

 

I think the marvel method produced much more exciting and dynamic commercial superhero comic art all the way around and with Neal even more so. I think the Marvel method was the only time we saw Neal being challenged and the marvel method was really the only way this could happen because there weren't any writer's in comics that were superior to Neal's visual storytelling abilities. The marvel characters at the time were also much more interesting and well rounded, the concepts fresher so that even when i discovered the stories 20-25 years later at their core they felt contemporary.

 

 

 

 

This is all so exactly spot-on right that I have nothing more to add.

[Koa]

Thank you Aaron.

 

Mike, that page is amazing. Congrats. I had no idea that was pencils only, what a great example of Neal Adam's in his prime, unfiltered. It's an exceptional page and the technique gave the published version a pretty unique look but I bet the editor was really sweating how those pages would reproduce printing in comics being what it was back then.

[AKA Rick]

 

What is your favourite period of Neal's work?

 

Who is your favourite inker on Neal and why?

 

Do you prefer his Marvel or DC work and why?

 

 

My favorite period of Neal Adams work is the late 1960's early 1970's, his Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Strange Adventures Deadman, and work on Batman (The Brave and The Bold; Detective; and Batman) and work at Marvel on Avengers and X-Men.

 

My favorite inker is Tom Palmer on his Marvel work, but liked when Neal inked his own stuff too,

 

Overall, I liked the work on Marvel maybe due to implied or perceived scarcity, having more work at DC. I really liked the Marvel based on Tom Palmer's inks and the stories by Roy Thomas. I liked the Kree-Skrull War as well as the Sentinel's / Savage Land issues, so they seem more epic to me, 'tho it's hard to beat the legendary GL/GA issues written by Denny O'Neil.

 

 

[jick]

My opinions are weird but here it is:

 

Neal is his own best inker.

 

My favorite period is the 1980's when he did his Continuity Comics stuff (Ms. Mystic and Megalith and Armor). It was just a pity he was drawing his own characters who were not really good.

 

If Neal was working with DC or Marvel heroes during this time, he would have really knocked it out of the park and he would be in such demand that perhaps the greats like John Byrne and George Perez would not come to the forefront as much.

 

Everything happens for a reason I guess, and Neal had to draw all these "crappy" characters for a company that wasn't really selling well.