The covers had this dimly-lit, spectral quality that makes those comics look like they contain the greatest campfire ghost stories ever.
He got to show off yet another side of his technical proficiency–his mastery of light and shadow. And when Adams became DC’s cover heavyweight, he found a real sweet spot on horror titles, with my personal favorites being those Phantom Stranger covers. HD: DC was a company that firmly believed that covers sold comics, which is why they made Carmine Infantino–their most popular cover artist–the editorial director for the entire DC comics line. And the lion’s share of the credit for that must be laid at the feet of Neal Adams. By the time the Seventies dawned, DC was back to being a co-leader in the industry. But with Marvel weakened by the departure of Steve Ditko in 1966 and Jack Kirby himself after 1969, the balance of power shifted in a seismic way.
Both are drawn exquisitely, but it’s the Deadman issue that truly brings out Batman’s detective skills as an integral part of a semi-supernatural plot line.Ĭollaborating with writer Denny O’Neil and inker Dick Giordano, Adams managed to vault DC back into the game against the Marvel behemoth-a game it hadn’t really been in since 1962. But that was enough for the DC braintrust to knight Adams as chief cover artist for the prestigious Batman and Detective Comics titles as well.įor this article I reread two of the Adams teamup issues I remember buying in 1969– Brave & Bold 86 with Deadman and Detective 404 (a tribute to Joe Kubert’s wonderful Enemy Ace). Those Batman teamup issues ranged from the sublime-The Spectre, Deadman, Phantom Stranger, Green Arrow-to the occasionally eye-rolling (Metal Men?). That was where his transformation of Batman into THE Batman first took place. Beginning in 1967 his dramatic covers breathed new life into moribund franchises ranging from Action Comics to Worlds Finest to House of Mystery/House of Secrets.īut the rebirth of DC really began when Adams was assigned the teamup title The Brave and the Bold. MB: Just as Jack Kirby served as the gateway drug to the entire Marvel line in the first half of the Sixties, DC quickly learned that Neal Adams was just too good not to deploy universally as their primary cover artist. HD: I feel like Adams would still be a comic book legend even if Deadman was the only thing he did. The whole thing is loaded with atmosphere and gorgeously drawn, and the layouts are still ingenious even to this day–I would love to know where Adams got the ideas to set up his pages like that. The story is the now-familiar tale of a murdered man whose ghost is trying to track down his killer–and the ghost has the super power of being able to enter people’s corporeal forms and control them-just like in that movie, what was its name? Yeah, ‘Ghost.’ The concept is fine and dandy, but it all takes place in that wonderful world of tough guys, gun-toting goons, and dangerous dames, the broken-streetlight alleys leading to pool halls, mob dens, and other stops on the road to nowhere.
The phantom fellows series#
HD: I’ll go first: I’ve gushed about Deadman in the past, but it’s a jaw-dropping achievement, and more of a series of pulpy crime short stories than a typical superhero comic. Since Michael Barson and Hector DeJean were among the throngs who consider Adams to be as talented as he was prolific, they thought they’d share some of our favorite career highlights of his. The passing of comic book maestro Neal Adams is a real fist-to-the-gut for his many fans-and if you bought a super-hero comic anytime between 19, you were a fan.
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