Neal
Adams 1970
"Man
or Bat?" Story by Frank Robbins
Detective Comics #402, August 1970
Published by DC Comics
When
I was living in Greece and buying comic books in the 1970s,
a special find would be anything by Neal Adams. I would
hunt for other comic readers who might have older stashes
of comics, specifically in the hopes of finding Adams
stories that I could trade for or buy. There was nothing
like a real back-issue source for American comic books
in Athens, and the only possibility was with other aficionados.
With
Adams, I admired (and admire) his artwork for the precision
it has and for its theatrical qualities, perfectly suited
to superhero tales. Adams' page blacking is beautiful
stuff, and seeing his linework laden with 1970s era color
inks compares poorly to the sheer striking edge of his
art without that layer of interference.
Adam's
"new look" Batman art which began in the 1960s
is still reverberating through current art syles, even
a casual survey of the Marvel, DC and Image superhero
books show the telltale imprint of the influence Adams
has had, particularly in how fine-line crosshatching is
still done in Adams' manner, married to the hyper-delineated
musculature of the male body. Compared to what came before
in superhero comics, Adams treatment of the male figure
seems to connect backward over hundreds of years to Michelangelo's
obsessions with the same matters of glorifying the human
anatomy in action and repose.
There
is an official Neal Adams web site with a vast archive
of his artwork here.
Click
on the page thumbnails below to view 600 pixel-wide pop-up
window enlargements
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Written
by Erik Weems ©2005
Artwork is by Neal Adams, Copyright DC Comics 1970
http://www.eeweems.com/artandartifice/neal_adams.html |
