Silver Age splash Neal Adams

strange adventures #207 (dec. 1967): 1 of adams earliest dc comics covers, , first signature character deadman, shows mature style , design innovation time. won 1967 alley award best cover.

turning comic books, adams found work @ warren publishing s black-and-white horror-comics magazines, under editor archie goodwin. adams debuted there penciler , inker of writer goodwin s eight-page anthological story curse of vampire in creepy #14 (april 1967). , goodwin collaborated on 2 more stories, in eerie #9 (may 1967) , creepy #15 (june 1967), , adams reapproached dc comics.

with dc war comics stalwart joe kubert concentrating on comic strip green berets, adams, despite opposition then-current u.s. military involvement in vietnam, saw opening:

i didn’t of comics [at dc] did war comics, ... thought, know, joe not working there, ve got russ heath , plugging other people in joe used be. maybe kind of shift joe kubert kind of thing , war comics, , kind of bash them out [quickly] . ... went on see [dc war-comics editor] bob kanigher , showed him stuff, , did have feeling missing joe — guy draw , rough, action stuff. gave me work .

adams made dc debut penciler-inker of 8½-page story s turn die , written howard liss, in anthology series our army @ war #182 (july 1967). did smattering of additional horror , war stories, respectively, 2 publishers, , then, after being turned down dc s batman editor julius schwartz, approached fellow dc editor murray boltinoff in hopes of drawing boltinoff s batman team-up title brave , bold. boltinoff instead assigned him adventures of jerry lewis #101 (july–august 1967) , full-length story jerry asto-nut , written arnold drake. became first of slew of stories , covers adams draw series , adventures of bob hope, 2 licensed titles starring fictional versions of tv, film , nightclub comedians.

during period near end of industry revival historians call silver age of comic books, adams assigned first superhero covers, illustrating of superman flagship action comics #356 (nov. 1967) , same month s superman s girl friend, lois lane #79 (nov. 1967), featuring superman , mysterious new costumed character, titanman. month, adams drew first superhero story, teaming writer gardner fox on lighthearted backup feature elongated man in detective comics #369, flagship batman title. shortly afterward, drew batman himself, along supernatural superhero spectre, on cover of brave , bold #75 (jan. 1968) — first published instance of adams work on become 2 of signature comics characters. first instance of adams drawing batman in interior story superman-batman revenge squads in world s finest comics #175 (may 1968).

another signature character, in prove adams breakout series, supernatural hero deadman, had debuted in dc s strange adventures #205 (nov. 1967). adams succeeded co-creator artist carmine infantino following issue s 17-page story eye eye , written arnold drake, george roussos inking adams pencils. adams went on draw both covers , stories issues 207-216 (dec. 1967 - feb. 1969), , taking on scripting #212 (june 1968). series became fan sensation, winning many awards , being inducted alley award hall of fame, adams himself receiving special award new perspective , dynamic vibrance has brought field of comic art .

adams concurrently drew covers , stories spectre #2-5 (feb.-aug. 1968), writing latter 2 issues, , became dc s primary cover artist 1970s. adams recalled infantino appointed art director, , decided going spark plug. thought idea, , promised number of things never fulfilled. thought adventure anyway, knuckled down things deadman , spectre , whatever odd things come way. doing large amounts of covers .

adams called upon rewrite , redraw teen titans story had been written then-newcomers len wein , marv wolfman. story, titled titans fit battle of jericho! , have introduced dc s first african american superhero rejected publisher carmine infantino. revised story appeared in teen titans #20 (march–april 1969).

adams art style, honed in advertising , in photorealistic school of dramatic-serial comics strips, marked signal change comics art time. comics writer , columnist steven grant wrote in 2009 that,

jim steranko @ marvel , neal adams prominent new artists of late 60s enter field had been relatively hostile new artists ... , breaths of modernism, referencing advertising art , pop art as comics. despite vastly different styles, both favored designs drew on depth of focus , angularity put reader in center of action while disorienting them increase tension, , placed special emphasis on lighting , body language emotion cues. not these things unknown in comics stretch, publishers traditionally deemphasized them. [as well, b]oth hugely influential on how new generation of artists thought comics should like, though adams arguably more influential; approach more visceral and, more importantly, ran studio in manhattan [continuity associates] many young artists started professional careers.