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Echoes of Neal Adams

For some, novelty provides the essence of art, but this may limit the extent of possible aesthetic exploration, if one assumes a finite number of good things to produce. Much of what qualified as art throughout the history of man as a tool-user (and, by extension, an art-maker) did not necessarily involve great leaps of innovation. Most art followed a pattern, either imitating specific pieces or adhering to a canon of conventions.

One little-discussed aspect of art betrays innovation as the sole virtue in that many recognized and thoroughly idiosyncratic talents went through phases in which their output demonstrated the flourish of others. Whether we mean Paul McCartney borrowing from Little Richard or Salvador Dali borrowing from Picasso in their early days, we can't deny that many artists came from derivative backgrounds and established styles that do not owe in the same way to predecessors.

Often the tendency to borrow from other artists tells more about the imitated than the imitator. We have as a case in point the various talents who, in their early days, borrowed from the work of comics art guru Neal Adams. From perhaps 1975 to 1985, a number of cartoonists found Adams' idiosyncrasies and feel for composition and proportion as very worthy of emulation; and even in recent times the occasional borrowing shows up as a tribute to a man whose work once pushed the envelope of the medium.

Rich Buckler

Buckler, for better or worse, established himself as an artist willing and able to work in derivative styles. For Marvel, he did a few pieces in a Kirby style; for DC, he did a number of items, including countless covers, in a style that frequently suggested Adams' work.

In this page from Superman versus Shazam!, Buckler obviously borrows from Adams. Note the non-orthogonal layout, the use of foreshortened perspective, and even the panel where the villains emerge from mist. All owe to previously printed Adams work. Dick Giordano, a long-time Adams inker, also contributed to the effect with his inks on this piece.

Don Heck

Don Heck's normal style does not typically elicit comparison with Adams' work. Heck, after all, did belong among the Marvel-style stalwarts of the mid-sixties, with an approach well-suited to Iron Man or Avengers stories but not inclusive of the design elements or experimental idiosyncrasies that became the imitable signature features of an Adams art page.

Nonetheless, around the time of the classic Adams/Palmer/Thomas X-Men run, Heck came in to do a fill-in story, and, partially to maintain a consistent feel for the book, partially because Palmer's inks would keep the current tone going with a fill-in artists, and probably also because Heck thought he might have fun doing it, he incorporated a number of Adams techniques in the first appearance of the Japanese mutant Sunfire.

Note that this sample features aftermarket recoloring done for a Toy Biz CD-ROM reprinting this story, but the coloring remains consistent with the style of the sequence of Adams/Palmer/Thomas X-Men run, and overall contributes to the plausibility of the tribute.

Tom Grindberg

Tom Grindberg, whose resume includes a number of pieces for Superman books, Silver Surfer work, and other items in several styles, at one point worked for Adams at Continuity Studios. Continuity's house style, naturally enough, inclined towards Adams' style, and frequently the output of this publisher included items with Adams layouts and finishing done deliberately in a derivative style.

Grindberg's recent work for DC follows a different (and recognizably Grindberg) style. Some samples of this, including work with inker Tom Palmer, appear in this review of the "One-Man JLA" storyline in Superman titles.

John Byrne

From early in his Marvel Comics career, John Byrne peppered his work with tributes to Adams' style. The X-Men: The Hidden Years project must have served as a serious wish-fulfillment, since not only would Byrne work in a deliberately and openly derivative tone here, but would enjoy the consistently dense and excellent inks of Adams inking veteran Tom Palmer.

Note the Angel's expression in this piece. Byrne here puts a face on him that clearly owes more to a derivation of Adams' work than to Byrne's own style. Normally, after all, Byrne's style tends thematically to echo what he absorbed from careful study of Adams' work rather than literally after the fashion of copyists and persons of lesser talent.

The use of color in this piece also echoes another Adams trademark.

Bill Sienkiewicz

When Sienkiewicz first emerged in the comics scene of the late seventies, one noticed (immediately after trying to figure out how those letters could spell "sin-KEH-vitch") that his work, at times, strongly suggested Adams.

For Adam's bereaved fans, hopelessly awaiting for an impossible return by their idol to mainstream comics (and who could blame him for leaving?), Sienkiewicz at least provided a mild, if recognizable, fix.

This sample includes a number of elements that implicate Adams. The body language belongs to a particular period of Adams' work, either during or immediately after the classic Green Lantern / Green Arrow series. Even the clothing owes to a turn-of-the-seventies sensibility that helps date the period of Adams Sienkiewicz borrowed from here.

The point-of-view and perspective also reflect this kind of borrowing.

The Broader Picture

This sample by no means exhausts the list of artists or specimens in which comics of the seventies (and later) vintage borrowed from the same eminent talent. Long-time Adams inker Dick Giordano, for instance, has done a few pieces in which he borrowed stylistically from Adams; rumor has it that Texeira used or uses a derivative approach; and other specimens doubtless will continue to turn up as long as aspiring artists turn to material like Green Lantern/Green Arrow for inspiration.

Some imitation represents an editorial desire to maintain a continuous feel in a book when an artist leaves or requires a fill-in. We see the like in John Romita's Fantastic Four art in the immediate aftermath of Jack Kirby's departure from the title. Other imitation may represent the imposition of a house style; one sees this in early Image pieces that relied heavily on copycat artists, but also in the art standards of Continuity Comics, which, as the Grindberg specimen above demonstrates, used Adams as a template.

For many examples, however, neither commercial forces, nor internal consistency, nor the existence of a house style dictated the mimesis of the style of DC's foremost talent of the sixties. Instead, a genuine fondness for the material drove a number of artists to attempt to transform Adams' mainstream comics career from an episode to a tradition.

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Email the author at ouzomandias@mailexcite.com.

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