Neal Adams HE'S BACK!!!

How amazing is it that Neal Adams has returned to the company he transformed; DC Comics and the character he redefined; Batman? I’ll tell you; truly colossal, mammoth.  It is the most exciting and almost totally unexpected event in the field of comic illustration in many years.  

Neal had hinted at a return to comics  a  few years ago in a trade magazine saying “I’ll come back  and kick everybody’s ass…” this said with great affection and a sort of tossing down of the gauntlet. He is currently onboard at DC as the artist and writer of “Batman Odyssey” a major new release.

I have been a fan almost forever but not quite. When Neal came on the scene he was doing realistic stuff and that wasn’t suited to my adolescent taste and against all the norms of the time.  At the top of my   favorites were artists: Curt Swan, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert and Carmine Infantino.They were and remain great but they fit into what was expected at the time. Infantino had introduced with Editor Julie Schwartz the “New look Batman” and his work defined the character in the early “Silver Age.”Around 1967 a new character was introduced in one of the DC‘s marginal titles “Strange Adventures” a character named Deadman. The comic’s theme was a twist on the popular TV series “The Fugitive” and the character was; well…dead. Carmine bowed out after the first issue. Adams came on board with the next. It was to be among the greatest runs for a character and creator that the field would ever see. HIs style was perfect for this nontraditional character and storyline. Neal; always a phenomenal draftsman was messing with the whole idea of what a comic should look like and be.

He was doing entire pages as monochromes.  Things with the lighting that were increasingly dramatic. His nocturnes were true nocturnes. There was no question that a scene took place at night. He restructured the layouts of the book changing the very thing that comic design had been before. You never knew where you would find the panel flow as you turned from page to page. He stretched the story- telling from the top of one page across to the next. He turned the panels by odd degrees unlike the normal right angles and varied the sizes of panels to form unusual takes on perspective. He took other- wise unrelated individual panels and formed them puzzle-like into larger images. It was; to borrow from another company and a certain character from Billy Chrystal; marvelous!

Adams would go on to rescue Batman from the antics and hyperbole of the popular TV show. He returned the batman to “The Batman” while expanding on the mythology and lore of the character. He and writer Denny O’Neil set the bar for all others to follow. Others have have done glorious things since but the presence especially of Adams is always there. The team of O’Neil and Adams would reach another comic and cultural high with their updating and expansion of Green Lantern and Green Arrow.

The tough, transformational decade that had been the sixties would cross over into the comics with Green lantern issue #76.Green Arrow was added to the book and the two would be foils. It was the beginning of a new look and attitude change for the characters (a new costume for Green Arrow) and the first socially relevant comic book. This was something that came to me and many fans as if from nowhere. Comics had been insulated from the realities of the revolutionary times we lived in; the real world.

Comics were fantasy, they were escapism, and they were safe. When an elderly ; exquisitely rendered, poverty stricken  Black man steps up to Green lantern and asks  “what about me; Green Lantern…you work for the blue skins, you help the orange skins and every other…what about the black skins?” It was as if a fist had been driven into my stomach and then turned slowly. I realized the power of the medium and since that transformative issue reading  comics has never  been the same. Comics could be as moving and important as any art form. The series  went on to explore many questions   in the society during the early  seventies.  Comics were evolving and maturing as was the readership. Green Lantern / Green  Arrow was a hallmark for the team of O’Neil and Adams; a gift for us all.

Adams has moved on from DC to form his own comic and commercial arts company; Continuity Associates. His career has spanned almost ever creative endeavor. He has ranged from album covers to theatre set design from theme park attractions to movie story boards. He has won numerous awards and is recognized by his peers as a standard for excellence.  Bill Sienkiewiez, Dave Sims, Alex Ross and Jim lee all acknowledge the Adams influence. Adams has worked  to better the lives of all artist in the graphic design  field including Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. You might recognize them as the co-creators of Superman. They labored for years as company employees and were denighed  benefits  or retirement compensation.  Adams along with writer Harland Ellison lobbied and won for the pair benefits and recognition for their achievement which was no less than the founding of an industry and the creation of a national icon. Their creation Superman being  the original and the  basis of all super heroes  that followed. He is  currently   working  to grant  possession  of Holocaust artist  Dina Babbitt’s paintings to her from the government of Poland. Babbitt did the works in exchange for her life and the life of her mother.

In a recent  interview Adams was asked to describe  the character of Batman as he saw him. In his mind Batman was “first a superb  athelete  then a brilliant mind close to the  level of a  Sherlock Holmes. He has pushed himself  to the limits of human possibility, he is dedicated and deeply committed  to doing what is right and good.  Because he is the one super hero that is not super;  he is simply the ultimate  best  that he can be.”

When looking for the true ideals of a society or a culture  look to the mythology, the legends.  Also look to those who are the keepers of  those  legends . Sometimes you will find the lines between the two to be blurred . I think that is the case with Neal Adams.

So Grand

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? The three questions are also the title of the painting considered by many art historians and patrons to be Paul Gaugin’s opus. This mural like phenomenon is by all accounts inspired and the product of a master. Gaugin’s painting depicts Tahitians (mostly female as was his favorite subject) of different ages and different attitudes.  Some are alone with others in small groups of varying numbers. The surrounds are a sort of decorative imagined nature. Animals, birds and a carved idol complete this symbolic while somber scene.

 Gaugin is attempting to make sense and give meaning to a life and world which remains in totality just beyond human comprehension.   Like Gauguin many of us seek and look for the answers to the same questions. We can look to many places for the answers these questions poise. Religion, philosophy, art, nature, even work can be sources of meaning. 

There is one place that I can personally look that provides me with answers to all three questions.
The one place that is actually in six parts is my grandchildren.  I want to share illustrations of special times when each question’s answer is briefly but completely clear…

When Morgan greets me (too early in the morning) with her big as the sky smile. Her eyes beaming like two little suns with the optimism only a four year old can have.

When Little “E” breaks away from two or three would be tacklers, zipping by them like Kid Flash into the open field.

When I walk into a room and Jasmine is sitting quietly reading; absorbed, totally entranced in her book. 

When Tre’ while dancing leaps into the sky in a Michael Jackson move and lands softly, perfectly in a Ninja like pose.

When Baby Alex sighs while sleeping in that comfortable, warm, safe place that is a baby’s dreams.

When Madison calls out “Daddy James…Daddy James” and laughs with the sound of the purest most beautiful music.

At these times I see all of our past, all that we are and all that we will be.

Is it real? The question many artists ask of their own work and of the works of others. Painters as distinctive as Andrew Wyeth and Marc Chagall asked themselves the question and considered it critical to any piece they produced. Chagall would go as far as to put his hand in front of a painting if nothing else was available to see if his work stood up to something alive existing in the natural world. In our conscience and subconscious we judge works by that criteria every day. Does a particular work stand up to this rigid standard?  There are many artists that pass, succeed and in some ways go beyond. We generally think of them as The Masters. Rothko, DeKooning , and  Freud are examples of painters. Serra, Rodin, Puryear, and anyone named Smith (Kiki, David, Tony etc.) as sculptors. Films like Chaplin’s “City Lights”, Huston’s “The Misfits” and even Cameron’s “Avatar” make the cut. Countless examples are found throughout the universe of art, creativity and ideas.

What is real? Any work that exists as a thing unto itself. Paul Gauguin once said when looking at a painting by Van Gogh “This man owes nothing to anyone.” With no doubt Van Gogh stands without rival in his unique position. He dared to change the virtual language of painting and in doing so created a new reality.  A certain honesty is required and a strong element of truth is a must.  There must be the ring of truth  to be accepted.  As Chagall asked of himself; how does the work hold up when placed or compared with other things in reality? You be the judge. A painting always looks better with someone standing in front of it. Think of anything that you’ve truly enjoyed; a novel, a play or song and you will probably think of how real it was or is to you. Something about it spoke to you.

Does everything real remain real? Is virtual reality, reality TV and Coca Cola real? Will Rembrandt, Gainsboro and Picasso remain real? Is everything dictated by constants or is it a reflection of the fashion of a given time. In the age of Murakami, Koons and Hirst has reality changed or just our perceptions?