Best Neal Adams Batman

[Zevgoli]

Anything Adams after 1980 I avoid like the plaque

It seems many fans will agree with you.

It also seems to happen a lot with other artists of that era. A pattern.

Steranko

Wrightson

Jim Starlin

Barry Smith

Mike Kaluta

Howard Chaykin

Frank Brunner

Michael Golden

John Byrne

 

They set the 1960`s to 1980`s comic book`s world on fire, and now for the last 25 to 35 years haven`t done much in modern comics.

 

Either it`s the fans outgrew their styles or these artists themselves haven`t adapted to modern comic books storytelling.

 

 

It`s not just a comic book phenomenon though as the same thing happened in rock n roll.

 

Interesting.

 

 

It's called getting older.

 

Cheers, Howard

[Arkham]

Neal Adams Easily my favourite artist.

 

So many amazing covers across so many titles, especially Bats.

 

Not surprised to see 227 and 251 get so much love. Surprised to not see 395 get more love... I reckon that one is a ripper!

 

I hope everyone is proud of themselves.

I went and bought 9 Adams books on ebay.

 

LMAO. Love it.

 

A couple of other books that I really love are the treasury sized Limited Collectors Edition C-25 and C-51. C-25 introduced me to so many classic Batman stories including the amazing Adams drawn Tec 404. C-51 has one of the best original covers and the first book to reprint the Ras Al Ghul saga including Bats 232.

 

Ooooh nice. I've not been able to find the treasury sized limited collectors editions... Definitely have been looking.

 

For those who love collections, this is a STEAL:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Adams-Omnibus-Denny-ONeil/dp/1401255515

 

It says 604 pages, but there are actually over 1000 - stories, cover gallery, articles. Best $50 you'll fork out if you love Adams.

[kav]

[Ken Aldred]

The Spectre books contain some really nice Adams art. Definitely worth having in addition to his work on Batman.

[Number 6]

I don't know about "Best", but this is surely the "Purest", in the sense that it is 100% untrammeled Neal (plot, art, and dialogue), and thus embodies both his greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses:

 

I'm not sure about the first issues in the series, but I'm pretty sure that the later issues had ink assist by Bill Scienkiewicz and Michael Golden. I don't know if that disqualifies it from being '100% pure Neal Adams', but as for as it being his unique vision there's no doubt about that.

 

 

 

Even though I'm a huge Adams fan, I avoided this series like the plague when it first came out (memories of many terrible Continuity books linger). But I finally gave in last week when I found a cheap copy of the recent trade paperback.

 

And you know what? The plot (such that it is) may (ahem...) be Bat-mess crazy, but the whole thing is also energetic and exciting, and certainly not even remotely of a piece with what I've seen of today's modern cookie-cutter superhero drivel.

 

It doesn't always make a lot of sense, but it is NEVER boring, and close inspection of the panels reveals hidden depths.

 

Make no mistake: this is an incomprehensibly weird book.

 

On the other hand, and to its credit, it is clearly the product of a singular creative vision, and not some watered-down corporate BS. It is also equally clear that while Adams' style may have changed over the years, his imagination and dynamic visuals are as strong and occasionally breathtaking as ever. He is a master of the form to this day.

 

In some ways, this nutty book reminds me of Kirby's later '70s work: not everyone's cuppa, for sure, but very, very cool and also very entertaining when accepted on its own terms.

 

Or, to put it another way around: someone like Grant Morrison tries to be this weird; Adams is this weird, and I say bless him for it!

 

 

 

 

Out of my deep respect for Adams' talent as an artist and what he's accomplished in the industry, I really gave this series a shot when it came out but could only get to about issue #4 before dropping it.

 

From what I remember of what I read, the basic plot is that of Homer's The Odyssey just with Bat-family characters plugged into the story. Now, I can think of some other DC characters that might be well-suited for this, but what possessed Adams to think this would be a good fit for Batman I have no idea.

 

Here's what strikes me about this series: Adams gets a lot of credit for revitalizing Batman back in the early 70's. I read several interviews from him where he states that it was his idea to do things to darken the tone of the stories - set them at night instead of broad daylight, have Batman entering stealthily through windows instead of walking through doors, etc. - in an effort to bring the character back to his roots.

 

But in Batman: Odyssey it's like he's lost sight of all that. He's one of the artists that's most associated with Batman yet it's like he's completely forgotten what makes the character work, what the appeal of Batman is.

 

Granted, some of the art is very good. I've often debated about picking this series up just for the pretty pictures.

 

But even that's a bit of a rub for me. In the 70's Adams did the cover/art for about - what? - a couple dozen main Bat-books. And many of those are considered classic Batman issues from any era.

 

But with Batman: Odyssey have have 13 issues of wall-to-wall Adams artwork and yet I can't imagine any of those issues - or even their covers, something Adams was always a stand-out doing - ever being considered "classic".

[kav]

Nothing cheapens an iconic character like having him ride around on a pteradactyl.

[s14roller]

Really need to add an iconic Neil Adams

[Brian48]

I don't know about "Best", but this is surely the "Purest", in the sense that it is 100% untrammeled Neal (plot, art, and dialogue), and thus embodies both his greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses:

 

I'm not sure about the first issues in the series, but I'm pretty sure that the later issues had ink assist by Bill Scienkiewicz and Michael Golden. I don't know if that disqualifies it from being '100% pure Neal Adams', but as for as it being his unique vision there's no doubt about that.

 

 

 

Even though I'm a huge Adams fan, I avoided this series like the plague when it first came out (memories of many terrible Continuity books linger). But I finally gave in last week when I found a cheap copy of the recent trade paperback.

 

And you know what? The plot (such that it is) may (ahem...) be Bat-mess crazy, but the whole thing is also energetic and exciting, and certainly not even remotely of a piece with what I've seen of today's modern cookie-cutter superhero drivel.

 

It doesn't always make a lot of sense, but it is NEVER boring, and close inspection of the panels reveals hidden depths.

 

Make no mistake: this is an incomprehensibly weird book.

 

On the other hand, and to its credit, it is clearly the product of a singular creative vision, and not some watered-down corporate BS. It is also equally clear that while Adams' style may have changed over the years, his imagination and dynamic visuals are as strong and occasionally breathtaking as ever. He is a master of the form to this day.

 

In some ways, this nutty book reminds me of Kirby's later '70s work: not everyone's cuppa, for sure, but very, very cool and also very entertaining when accepted on its own terms.

 

Or, to put it another way around: someone like Grant Morrison tries to be this weird; Adams is this weird, and I say bless him for it!

 

 

 

 

Out of my deep respect for Adams' talent as an artist and what he's accomplished in the industry, I really gave this series a shot when it came out but could only get to about issue #4 before dropping it.

 

From what I remember of what I read, the basic plot is that of Homer's The Odyssey just with Bat-family characters plugged into the story. Now, I can think of some other DC characters that might be well-suited for this, but what possessed Adams to think this would be a good fit for Batman I have no idea.

 

Here's what strikes me about this series: Adams gets a lot of credit for revitalizing Batman back in the early 70's. I read several interviews from him where he states that it was his idea to do things to darken the tone of the stories - set them at night instead of broad daylight, have Batman entering stealthily through windows instead of walking through doors, etc. - in an effort to bring the character back to his roots.

 

But in Batman: Odyssey it's like he's lost sight of all that. He's one of the artists that's most associated with Batman yet it's like he's completely forgotten what makes the character work, what the appeal of Batman is.

 

Granted, some of the art is very good. I've often debated about picking this series up just for the pretty pictures.

 

But even that's a bit of a rub for me. In the 70's Adams did the cover/art for about - what? - a couple dozen main Bat-books. And many of those are considered classic Batman issues from any era.

 

But with Batman: Odyssey have have 13 issues of wall-to-wall Adams artwork and yet I can't imagine any of those issues - or even their covers, something Adams was always a stand-out doing - ever being considered "classic".

 

I actually don't think the artwork in Odyssey is all that good. You can recognize his style, but it just looks off and tired. I've read rumors that he had ghost inkers (maybe one of his sons) help him with some of the pages. If this was true, this would probably explain it.

 

I couldn't bring myself to finish this series as well. I stopped at issue 3, but picked up the HC when it came out to give it another shot. Still didn't like it (left my review over at Amazon).

 

FYI. Adams was quite prolific with Batman. From the checklist I made for myself:

 

1. There were two books in which he did interior artwork for, but not the cover.

2. There were 30 books in which he did both the cover and interior work.

3. There were 76 books in which he did just the cover. This would include a few, but not all, JLA and one-shots where Batman was prominently on the cover along side the other JLA'ers.

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

Kind of interesting numbers. 30 Bat books reminds me of Byrne and his 35 issue X-Men run (110 being a fill-in). Miller did the art on a similar amount of Daredevil.

[jools&jim]

 

I actually don't think the artwork in Odyssey is all that good. You can recognize his style, but it just looks off and tired.

I'd say it looks "off" only if you're comparing it to the lean, smooth, "realistic", illustration and commercial-art-inspired style which Adams perfected during the 1970s, the bookends of which (for me) are Detective 395 in 1969 through to Supes vs. Muhammad Ali in 1978 -- roughly 10 years out of a career which spans more than 50.

 

In that case, I agree: Adams' art today is NOT in that style. But it is clearly an evolution of it, in the same way that his peak years during the (late) 1960s and 1970s were an evolution of his earlier '60s newspaper strip work.

 

But isn't this sort of stylistic evolution what we want (and should expect) from a master artist, whose creativity also extends to the forms which are used to express it?

 

Not surprisingly, nearly ALL of the Olympian-level comic art greats experienced this same sort of stylistic evolution during similarly long careers: in particular (and to name just a few), compare the later-period work of Alex Raymond, Will Eisner, and Jack Kirby to their earlier stuff.

 

Does Raymond's "Rip Kirby" look "tired" compared to "Flash Gordon"?

 

Kirby's 1970s "Captain America" will never be confused with his "Fantastic Four" 50-100, but is it really "off" because of that?

 

Similar things could be said of the work of many "2nd/3rd Generation" comics artists as well, e.g.: Barry Smith, Wrightson, Kaluta, Simonson, Miller, Byrne etc., all of whose later output differs (in some cases drastically) from the work they produced during the height of their popularity.

 

Can this all be put down to age and diminishing levels of skill or dedication? Or is it possible that something else is going on, and that it's not unusual at all for a truly great artistic imagination to continue expressing itself in new and unexpected ways? (In the meantime, of course, Rob Liefeld's work is eternally consistent…conclude from that what you will.)

 

The later work of a great artist may lose its appeal for many fans, which is perfectly understandable. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the artist has lost it, and that the newer work is entirely without merit.

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

Kubert got more spare over the decades but his later work was still awesome to me. So I agree with you.

[Brian48]

Old master or not, I just can't get over Robin's mouth.

 

 

Funny article on Batman Odyssey.

 

http://comicsalliance.com/batman-odyssey-neal-adams-insane/

[comix4fun]

Old master or not, I just can't get over Robin's mouth.

 

 

Funny article on Batman Odyssey.

 

http://comicsalliance.com/batman-odyssey-neal-adams-insane/

 

 

 

The first Robin did warn us...in the text box...as to what was coming.

[jools&jim]

Old master or not, I just can't get over Robin's mouth.

 

 

Well, yeah! I mean, isn't that what an evolved-dinosaur version of Robin is supposed to look like?

 

Seriously...

 

Like I said...this is a nutty book...

 

 

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

From the article:

 

“I have simply wandered along this trail, like a deer stalker you might say, and retrieved all these bits and pieces that have been left lying around.”

 

David: I don’t think that’s what deer stalkers do. I’m pretty sure that deer stalkers shoot deer, right?Laura: I think he might be confusing them with hobos. Oh man, how hard would I read Batman: Hobo by Neal Adams?

 

David: Can you imagine the amazing things he would carry in his bindlestiff?

 

Laura: I think you mean his Bat-Bindlestiff.

 

David: And the Batmobile would just be… a passing train. And Robin would be one of those punky teenagers that I used to have to kick out of that headshop I worked at in college.

 

 

Read More: Deconstructing the Complete and Utter Insanity of ‘Batman: Odyssey’ | http://comicsalliance.com/batman-odyssey-neal-adams-insane/?trackback=tsmclip

[kav]

Please keep Neal Adams away from all writing implements. He makes Jack Kirby look like Shakespeare.

this is what happens when someone is a legend. they step out of their field of expertise and no one can say 'Neal - dude - this is idiotic.'