Only an hour after my last post, there came the stunning news that Neal Adams has died at age 80.
Jack Kirby was the most influential comic book artist of the 1960’s, and Neal Adams was certainly the most influential of the ’70’s.
After Gil Kane left DC to work for Marvel full-time, Adams took over drawing Green Lantern in a series reboot with Green Arrow.
About five years ago I was at a convention in Rhode Island with Joe Sinnott, his family, and a group of our friends. By then Joe needed a wheelchair to cover longer distances, and I enjoyed wheeling him around. (I was doing the same thing for my father in Arizona.)
Joe was scheduled to appear on a panel, and as we were heading to the end of the hall, Joe and Neal spotted each other. Joe wanted me to take him over to see Neal at his table, and once those two old pros got started talking, there was just no stopping them.
As reluctant as I was to break up their mutual admiration society, after I-don’t-know-how-long, I started to pull back on Joe’s chair to hint that we needed to go. Joe gave me the okay, he and Neal said their good-byes, and we were on our way to a late arrival at the panel discussion. As we entered the room everybody applauded and Joe waved to his fans. This is probably my all-time favorite fanboy memory.
Adams… was honored in the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2019.
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/neal-adams-dead-dies-comic-book-artist-1235254617/
All these guys did, that had such an effect on so many, was put pencil and ink on paper. Amazing!
a huge loss. i esp. like your kirby 60s, adams 70s. fox news quoted variety as saying”…creating the 2 most iconic characters of his career, batman and the spectre.” you could make that quote into one of those find all the mistakes puzzles. his work makes him immortal.peace out, man.