At the age of 80, the American cartoonist passed away. Thanks to his elegant and incredibly energetic personality, he was able to bring to life a slew of iconic superheroes.
His manner was elegant, forceful, and launched, and it worked wonders for him. Neal Adams knew how to sketch movement and the energy that exudes from it better than anyone else, the whole thing presented with a natural brilliance that compared him to Jim Aparo, Gene Colan, or John Byrne’s approach (a of his great admirers).
With Jack Kirby and John Buscema, he will be remembered as one of the giants of American comics, the pioneers who created the current mythology of superheroes, a pop mythology that has been transferred to film with the acclaim that we have come to expect.
“Cinema has never produced the investigative Batman,” director Matt Reeves said recently in an interview with Le Figaro at the premiere of The Batman. For that, I looked to the work of a designer I admire, Neal Adams, who in the 1970s produced a skinny and sleuthing Batman.
Neal Adams’ Batman, beautiful, athletic, and thin in the 1960s and 1970s, emphasizes the “investigator” part of the character conceived by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. DC Comics is a publisher of comic books.
Today, Neal Adams is mentioned by a wide range of artists. Adams, a significant player in American comics’ “Bronze Age,” was instrumental in the resuscitation of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow, the “super-Robin Hood” whose character he had revived. world and deepened the personality, becoming more human and socially involved.
After being murdered by a mysterious employee, circus acrobat Boston Brand transforms into a vengeful superhero in the Deadman series… DC COMICS/Editions du Fromage/Neal Adams
It was at its peak in France throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In April 1978, Editions du Fromage (an Albin Michel company) released his character Deadman in a flexible black and white CD that became a collector’s item. Boston Brand is a character in this incomplete series. He is a circus acrobat who is brutally murdered by a circus employee. However, an oriental god offers him the opportunity to reincarnate as any human being. Then starts Deadman’s never-ending search to find his assassin, a phantom superhero clothed in a scarlet suit embroidered with a “D.”
The cartoonist had fun staging Superman with Superdupont in issue 80 of the journal Freezing Fluid (February 1983), signed Neal Adams/Lob/Gotlib, when he was invited to the Angoulême Festival in the 1980s.
For Fluide Glacial, Superman partners up with Superdupont, courtesy of Neal Adams and Gotlib. Lob/Gotlib/Fluide Glacial/Neal Adams
We also ask him to stage the legendary bout between Superman and Mohamed Ali. The poster was worth its weight in gold in 1978. In 1960, the Olympic boxing champion was the most popular athlete on the planet. “He flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee,” he says of his pugilistic skill. On the other side of the arena, the Man of Steel is an unrivaled superhero whose only weakness is kryptonite…
Under the magnificent pen of Neal Adams, Superman takes on Mohamed Ali in a titanic duel. We celebrate President Jimmy Carter on the cover, among a slew of other notables. DC Comics is a publisher of comic books.
Neal Adams will have the audacity to envision their meeting with scriptwriter Denny O’Neil. It is up to them to set up a battle between two titans. Adams, a line genius, renders this awful fight worthy of Achilles and Hector credible box after box. “To be absolutely honest, when I heard about the idea, I didn’t believe it,” Neal Adams remarked in a recent introduction for a reissue of the record. (…) Nonetheless, I believe it is one of the best graphic novels/comic books ever created. And I believe he was instrumental in making Muhammad Ali’s message heard around the world.»
He was born in New York on June 15, 1941, and acquired an early interest in drawing. He studied at the School of Industrial Arts in New York, where he received his license at the age of 18. He began his career in the comics industry as a member of a band, specializing in romance comics. He joined DC Comics in the mid-1960s and shown his enormous talent as a realistic draftsman.
He underlined his democratic political views in particular by creating the figure of Green Lantern with his friend Denny O’Neil in the 1970s. In one of Adams’ stories, a black man confronts Green Lantern, accusing him of supporting the black community so that “he works for blue-skinned men.”
An old black man apostrophizes Green Lantern, accusing him of being uninterested in the black community… DC Comics is a publisher of comic books.
Neal Adams’ life will have been divided into a number of fruitful seasons. He began his career with DC Comics, then moved on to Marvel, where he signed two Conan stories and one Dracula story, as well as several covers, before quitting to start his own firm, Continuity.
Finally, we shall honor Neal Adams, who never gave up his struggle for the respect of artists and authors. He was primarily involved in the battle at DC Comics between Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster over the acknowledgment of Superman’s rights. He comes out on top in this fight…