Ape Wake-Up Call!

Because some mornings...

...you just need to see Neal Adams draw a talking, shooting gorilla.

You're welcome.

From Kamandi Challenge #2 (2017)

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Toth Wheels!!

You know why I keep digging through quarter bins?

Education.

Because if I didn't spelunk through the refuse of comics that are too shoddy to bag & board, I never would have found this:

Yeah, yeah, so in 1970, DC had the Hot Wheels license. Big deal, right?

[BTW, where the hell are you, IDW? This license is just waiting there, fallow, keeping you from completing your quest to turn every childhood toy ever into a "connected universe." Get to work, people!!]

But perhaps you should look more closely at that cover, even though the signature is cut off...OK, how about from page 1?

Alex Freaking Toth wrote and drew Hot Wheels comic books.

And I never would have known that without the Quarter Bin.

Just watch Toth draw the living hell out of this car chase:

Dude.

There's a reason everyone is after this car...

Hot wheels, indeed.

This was the only story that Toth actually wrote, but he did do the art in the lead story for the first 5 issues of Hot Wheels. And most of the covers...

Neal Adams did one of the covers, too!!

And for the sixth and final issue, Adams got to do the art for the lead story. But perhaps more importantly, he did what just might be the greatest cover in the history of EVER:

Sweet Christmas!!!

Alex Toth and Neal Adams drawing the bejeesus out of Hot Wheels comic books...and I never would have known if it weren't for the Quarter Bin!!

The Best Cover You've Never Seen--Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu #1 (1974)

Because some mornings, you just need to see Neal Adams drawing Bruce Lee kicking everybody's ass.

'nuff said.

Saturday Sermon--Recompression

I know, I'm an old man shaking his fist at clouds.

But I remember the days before decompression.

Take, for example, Avengers #95 (1972).

It starts thusly...

And just look at the layout, the flow, the storytelling of the next page, as Triton tries to make his way to the Baxter Building:

More happens in that one page than in many an entire issue these days. If drawn in 2016, each panel would be enlarged to be "widescreen," full-page and horizontal, filled with self-narrating captions spelling out what the Inhuman was thinking and feeling, because the writers and editors didn't trust the art to tell the story.

Four pages or more would be dedicated to Triton escaping the dock workers. Hell, probably the entire issue, given the pace of recent books (6 issues spent on one long, boring fight with Doomsday, Action Comics? Really?)

 I'm just saying, pick up the pace, modern comics.

[SPOILER ALERT--Triton can't make it to the Fantastic Four, so he goes to the Avengers for help instead. Because in those days, that's all the Inhumans ever did--go to other people for help resolving their own squabbles...]

The Best Cover You've Never Seen--Avengers #94 (1971)

Can you believe 13 Marvel movies...

...and not a single appearance by the Mandroids?? Come on, now!

Mandroids--won't you?

Cover by Neal Adams and Tom Palmer (with "alterations" by John Romita Sr). Interior by Neal Adams and Tom Palmer.

Manic Memorial Day--Neal Adams Didn't Get The Memo!!

DC could certainly do worse things than give Neal Adams carte blanche with some of their characters.

I've made no secret of my love for what Mr. Adams has brought to the industry. 

And, hell, the man is going to be 75 next month, and he's still drawing!! And still drawing well!!

So good on DC for saying, "What the hell? Let's give Neal fee reign on an out-of-continuity Batman title!"

Of course, Batman Odyssey, while visually spectacular, was kinda nuts:

Yeah, Adams' Batman regularly used guns against criminal, and even fired at crowds of citizens to inspire them to move. So maybe off book a little bit...but still great fun in a totally insane sort of way.

So now we come to Superman: The Coming of The Supermen, where Neal gets to play around with the Man Of Steel, free of nu52/Rebirth constraints.

But once again, Adams hasn't quite grokked how his hero is "supposed" to behave.

Kalibak has kidnapped a young refugee child who was under Superman's care, in order to draw Kal-El to Apokolips.

And Superman is none too happy:

Hoo boy. Let's look at that again:

It's good to see the red tights back. But "Nothing requires you"? "Your life is forfeit"? "I'll beat it oput of (him)"?

See, maybe that's what the mix-up was...maybe Zach Snyder was (through time-travel or whatever) reading this series when he crafted his version of Superman for the DC Cinematic Murderverse!!

Anyway, stay off model as long as you want, Mr. Adams. You've earned it, and we're enjoying the ride. Happy Birthday, sir!!

From Superman: The Coming Of The Supermen #4 (2016)

Friday Morning Freak-Out--Jean Grey Goes Mental!!

You can take the old-fashioned portrayal of Jean's mental powers...

Or you can go full Neal Adams/Tom Palmer on telepathy!

SUPER FREAK-OUT!!!!!

From X-Men #54 & #56 (1969)

Neal Adams, The X-Men, And The Revolution!

I've sung the praises of Neal Adams before...but I think that many of us just can't conceive what an earthquake, what a thunderclap his arrival on the scene was.

Take, for example, X-Men #55 (1969).

Granted it looks as if deadlines or some such made a bit of a dog's breakfast out of this. Layouts by Don Heck, pencils by Werner Roth, inks by Vince Colletta....

I'm not harshing on the art here--I've made no secret that I'm a fan of Don Heck's 60s work, and while this isn't Kirby, the many hands produced perfectly serviceable super-hero fare.

Pay special note to the layouts, the portrayal of emotion and power and speed.

Then, imagine yourself reading that in the day, and then, exactly one month later, being presented with this:

That "introducing" is a bit misleading...X-Men #56 wasn't even Adams' first Marvel work, let alone his first super-hero joint.

But here we have the same characters, same costumes, same powers...and it's like this comic book is coming from a different universe than last issue:

Obviously Tom Palmer was a big help here, too (Adams did his own colors during most of his X-Men run, so he gets extra credit there.). But Adams' experience in the advertising world, having to draw realistic characters for ads, blossomed into this incredibly different looking "photo-realism" that grabbed your adrenal gland and didn't let go!

Adams had already been making waves with the Deadman strip and other books at DC. But good gosh, just picture having read #55 four weeks earlier, and then reading this!!

Of course, it seems that not too many did pick it up, because despite some great stories and mind-blowing art, the Thomas/Adams run was insufficient to save the book from cancellation.

Soon enough, Neal would join up with Denny O'Neil for their famous Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow runs.

But these X-Men books, where the solid-but-staid-and-maybe-even-boring style was replaced, without warning or transition by a new, incredibly dynamic and kinetic style? That's where the revolution was, brother. And comics woulds never be the same again.

The Best Covers You've Never Seen--Neal Adams' Superboy Covers!

Back in the 1960s, Superboy covers were a lot of...well, same old same old.

Don't get me wrong--I love the wonky Silver Age covers.

But viewed in aggregate, there was a certain staid quality to them.

Again, not a knock on Curt Swan, who was the usual cover artist...

But there's very little action. Just a medium shot, presenting Superboy's dilemma du jour. Not a lot of excitement, not a lot of emotion...

But then, at the end of 1967, something happened:

Wow.

Creative angles. Close-ups on characters. Actual emotions. Neal Adams changed the game.

Mostly, the covers still featured some of the same insane premises. But Adams presented them in a more compelling, attention-getting way.

Compare, for example, these two covers, with the same set-up:

Neal Adams was like an earthquake. For the next 4 years, he did most of the Superboy covers (occasionally with Dick Giordano inking). And he Hitchcocked up the joint, bringing an energy and dynamism that the covers of "The Adventures Of Superman When He Was A Teen" had never known.

Adams never did any of the interiors, which sadly were rarely as good as the covers. Still, it must have been something of a shock to DC fans, seeing something like this on the newsstands.

Enjoy this sampling of Neal Adams' Superboy covers: