RIP Neal Adams

Taking a moment to recognise the incredible work, and sad passing, of a legend of the comic book industry at age 80. While the accolades and tributes will be (and already are) pouring in from all over, over the next few days, in words more eloquent and with examples far better than I can give, I can just sad that, even as a casual comic reader and fan, I knew an Adams' book before I even knew or understood to follow an artist's run, or that these things which gave such entertainment and fantasy even had creative minds behind them working hard to make these visions a reality. His style and execution just immediately seized you and brought the story to life. I know that sounds a bit cheesy or overused, but that way he had with what later came to be termed "photorealistic style", though I am not sure that really captures it, was everything that embodied what comics were about portraying. It's no surprise at all that his work was the seed which birthed a second generation of comic artists that followed on and adapted this into their own characteritic artwork, including Jim Lee, Wilce Portacio, and Marc Silvestri, and then a third with Alex Ross and Ethan Van Sciver, among others.

I think it is easy to point towards his seminal work on Batman titles and Green Arrow'Lantern, and certainly that is merited in every degree. But I would also highlight some of the lesser known contributions here, that really captured the range of his incredible talent and body of work. The covers he did for Tarzan, as an example, or on the Conan series, are right up there with names like Frazetta and Vallejo:





And of course, that classic dramatic framing



RIP Neal Adams. Truly one of the greats.