I Interviewed Neal Adams in 1978

 

It was back in 2013 when I first shared with the world the above drawing of Neal Adams and some of his characters that I drew back in 1978. That blog post is over here if you'd like another look. That post ended with me saying that I would share the Adams article itself at a later date, and that day has arrived. (Condolences to the family of Mr. Adams on his passing.) Down below you can see an image of the double-page spread of the article as it was printed on newsprint in 1978; you won't be able to read the too-small print however so I am transcribing the text. Please enjoy.

 

Neal Adams: The man behind the fight of the century

by Brian Hayes

It was the fight of the century.

Some say they thought it would never happen, others that it was bound to happen. Well, the time for speculation has passed.

The fight was none other than the most significant match in the history of boxing, namely Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. It was televised, although only by Metropolis station WGBS.

Don't fret because you missed all the action though, because in truth you haven't. The entire match has been reproduced for your convenience in illustrated form by Neal Adams. As soon as it was announced that no cameras would be allowed in the arena (except those of that irrepressible TV station WGBS) steps had to be taken to locate the person talented enough to re-create the match graphically for those who could not afford the rocketship fare to the planet of Scrubb, the site of the confrontation.

Hold on one universe-hopping minute! Just who is this Neal Adams and what are his credentials that he should be the one to present this decidedly momentous Big Fight to the world at large?

Neal Adams attended the High School of Art & Design, then called the School of Industrial Art, in New York City. He started cartooning to the extent it was offered by the school, which Adams admits was sorely limited. 

"I was interested in drawing comic books because I viewed them as a possible stepping stone to illustration work. My teachers, however, were not well-versed in this area and were unwilling to impart to me what knowledge they did possess. For the most part I taught myself how to draw comics by studying the work being published at that time," Adams said.

In 1959, shortly after graduation, 18-year-old Adams landed a job drawing for Archie Comics. Later that same year, he left Archie to be an assistant on the Bat Masterson newspaper strip, which he worked on for three months.

From there he moved on to Johnstone & Cushing, an art service, where he did advertising art as well as a handful of promotional comics, such as "Adventures in Leather" for the Tandy Leather Company.

"I wanted to do more than merely draw pictures. Doing advertising art, I learned how to draw technically well and became familiar with a variety of different techniques," Adams said.

 In 1962, Adams got his Big Break. At the age of 21 he took over the art on the Ben Casey newspaper strip, which made him the youngest artist ever to have had a syndicated strip. He stayed on it for 3 1/2 years, collaborating with writer Jerry Capp (brother of Al Capp), but then decided to move on once again.

In 1965, after a six-year hiatus, Adams returned to comic books. He did a little work for James Warren, publisher of Creepy and Eerie, but it was at DC Comics that he really made his mark. To be safe, he started out with some lackluster assignments (Bob Hope Comics and Jerry Lewis Comics, for example), but before long he graduated to the big time, becoming a regular artist on The Spectre, and doing a number of covers.

The quality of Adams' efforts on The Spectre guaranteed him as much work as he could handle. He was given Strange Adventures, starring Deadman, as well as The Brave and The Bold, featuring the Batman with guest-star superheroes.

Around this time there was an unwritten law in the comics industry stating that an artist was the property of the company he worked for; no artist, for example, could work for DC Comics and Marvel simultaneously. On a whim, Adams set out to challenge the unspoken threat. He picked up The X-Men at Marvel while still doing work for DC. And that was the end of that rule.

By 1970, though, Adams no longer had a regular series. He had left The Brave and The Bold and The Spectre, the Deadman strip had been cancelled, and The X-Men had gone into reprint. But then came Green Lantern-Green Arrow.

Green Lantern, a long-running DC comic, was not selling well and was about to be cancelled. Adams heard of the comic's plight and expressed to its editor, Julius Schwartz, an interest in drawing it. Schwartz agreed. The comic would get a facelift in its few remaining months, with art by Adams and writing by Denny O'Neil.

Green Lantern was to have only four more issues and the overwhelming sentiment of the creative team was 'it's going to get cancelled anyway, so let's go all the way and do something that's never been done before' (a philosophy that, as all comics fans know, had spawned the character Spider-Man in the last issue of Amazing Fantasy years earlier). Green Arrow was added to the book, and as Adams recalled, "We changed the direction to reality. I was a realistic artist and Denny was a realistic writer, and together we tackled realistic problems, covering areas like religion and politics."

Green Lantern-Green Arrow was ultimately canceled, but not before the originally-scheduled four issues had stretched into 13. The team of O'Neil and Adams remained intact, though, on Batman stories, giving the hero a much-needed facelift. O'Neil and Adams continued to work together until late 1972, when Adams stopped working for comics regularly. 

More recently, Adams has drawn a series of 12 Tarzan paperback book covers for Ballantine Books. 

"Ballantine was looking for an artist who could do Frazetta, yet not Frazetta. They saw some of the work I had done for comics and, after looking at some original samples, were impressed enough to give me the job," Adams said. He also handles a comics assignment from time to time. As he put it, "I have the freedom to choose comics I want to do, rather than being told what comics I have to do. I enjoy doing comics more now, and most comics fans feel that my work is worth waiting for."

Neal Adams' art credentials are not, however, the extent of his fame and personality. He once extended his talents into theater.

In 1974, Adams designed the costumes, sets and promotional materials for Warp, a science fiction epic adventure play. The play had opened at a theater in Chicago a yea before and had been meeting the theater's 300-person capacity for almost every performance. After that year, though, the play's producer, obviously overcome with the taste of success, moved the production to New York City and put it on Broadway, in the Ambassador Theater.

With the move to New York, the producer decided to give the whole production a facelift; it was at this point that Adams was brought in to do the surgery. To stay open on Broadway, though, the play needed an audience of 1200 at each performance, which, for various reason (not the least of which was bad reviews), it could not pull off. Warp closed at The Ambassador only a few nights after it had opened, in spite of Adams' contributions. He says, "I felt an incredible sadness and that I had been dealt with unfairly by the critics."

Adams is also very dedicated to his ideals. Several years ago, he boycotted the comics industry because original drawing were being stockpiled in warehouses rather than being returned to the artists. Adams' one-man strike was considered a joke by many, but it did cause people to talk. Finally, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics gave in, and DC Comics followed suit not long after.

If there's one word to describe Adams it's "enterprising." He enjoys drawing comics, but he had also enjoyed doing advertising art. Comics allowed him the artistic freedom of drawing to his imagination's consent, while wages in advertising art were considerably more attractive.

"I decided that no artist should have to choose between the two fields," Adams said. 

So seven years ago, he established a studio, now known as Continuity Associates. Artists who join the studio get as much work as they want, in both advertising and comics; in return, they pay Adams an agent's fee of 25 percent of each job's salary.

"Establishing the studio was also my way of preparing for the future, insuring that I can make enough money to support my family and still be able to afford an occasional foray into comics," he explained.

Adams has kept up with other activities in the last few years also. In 1975, he helped his colleague Jerry Siegel in a legal battle against DC Comics for the right to royalties. In the 1930s Siegel, along with Joe Shuster, created the character Superman. A decade afterward, DC Comics (then National) bought all rights to the character and neither Siegel nor Shuster had received any royalties since. Siegel took the case to court, but the results were inconclusive.

So Siegel began fighting his battle with different weapons. He wrote and sent out notices explaining the matter, and Adams happened to receive one. Adams vowed to clear up the matter. When Adams offered his help,Siegel accepted it, placing everything in his hands. 

"I initiated a newspaper and TV campaign in an attempt to put before the public the question of whether the creators of Superman ought to be living in poverty while the higher-ups at DC Comics were living luxuriously off of Jerry and Joe's creation'" Adams recalled.

By then DC Comics was owned by Warner Communications, a reportedly fair-minded corporation. After some conferences with Jay Emmett of Warner, Adams secure a $20,000 a year pension for each of Superman's two creators. (Shuster and Adams are now collaborating on the artwork of a comic featuring Superman; the comic, to be inserted in a tabloid-sized reprint of Superman No. 1, is due out later this year, Superman's fortieth anniversary.)

So these are the credentials of the person who would recount the exciting story of the fight of the century to the world; Neal Adams would both write and draw Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. Ironically though, he was not originally slated to do either. Yes, dear reader, there is a story behind the story.

About two years ago when Muhammad Ali was in New York City and while the legendary Superman vs. Spider-Man tabloid comic was still on sale, Julius Schwartz is reputed to have jokingly put the two together, saying "Hah ha, Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. Now that's a good one." The comment was taken seriously, though, and that was that. At first the Ali people would not come to reasonable terms but, after a couple of months they gave in, requiring total approval of the project.

Having received the go-ahead, the cogs at DC started turning. The creative team was set: Schwartz would edit, Denny O'Neil would write, and veteran illustrator Joe Kubert would draw. O'Neil went off to write a plot synopsis for the seventy-two page extravaganza and Kubert went off to draw the cover.

As soon as the cover was completed it was shown to the Ali people, who did not like Kubert's style. Ali was too lanky, they said. Kubert started reworking his cover. The higher-ups at DC realized though, that if art had to be checked and re-checked continually, the 72 pages would take forever to complete. Better to choose an artist with whose style the Ali people will feel comfortable, DC said. Neal Adams was commissioned to draw a few sample confrontations between Superman and Ali, and Ali's faction was impressed. The creative team was altered to Schwartz, O'Neil, and Adams.

O'Neil submitted his synopsis and it was approved. Easily. That was unfortunate because he was practically obligated to follow his synopsis to the letter, even though there were difficulties with it. O'Neil fully scripted the 72 pages from his synopsis and it was given, a few pages at a time, to Adams to illustrate. Before he had completed five pages, though, Adams was told by editor Schwartz to stop; there were problems with the script that had to be worked out. 

It was decided that they would start the project all over. This time the story would be executed in Marvel style (that is, Adams would draw directly from the plot and O'Neil would add the dialogue afterward). The creative team met and revised the plot, which was given to Adams, who began drawing.

When the time came to write the dialogue though, O'Neil was on vacation. Schwartz suggested a number of possible successor's for O'Neil, to which Adams counter-suggested that since nobody was as close to the project as O'Neil and himself, he be allowed to write the dialogue. Schwartz agreed, and the results are yours to peruse in the tabloid comic.

And what a beauty it is to peruse! Take Adams' wraparound cover, for example. Based on Joe Kubert's original layout, Superman and Ali are in the ring slugging it out, with over 170 likenesses of real-life celebrities and comics personalities watching from around the ringside. And that's just the cover. Every page of this blockbuster is as richly detailed. 

What's more, the premise behind the story is competent. Unlike some heroes at some comics companies, Superman and Ali fight for a legitimate reason, namely to save the world. For more about the plot than that though, you'll have to take a look at the book for yourself.

As Adams said, "I enjoyed working on Superman vs. Muhammad Ali as much as anything I've worked on. It was a good, satisfying experience." The book, Adams said, is an important step in the American comics field. "I think it will have a positive and uplifting effect on the comics industry."