Meeting Neal Adams

[Silver Shocker]

So I got to meet Neal Adams today at my local comic store (in St. Catharine's, Ontario).  He was there to do autographs and because he was going to be at a Niagara Falls convention later in the week. The place was busy as all heck, people lined up to the door, I was probably in line for upwards of an hour. But he was telling anecdotes that insured that the experience was anything but boring.

Now, in Neal's own words, he was a "little bit crass". However he came off as very jovial and friendly, and when he swore at people you got the impression he was just having fun. He fully acknowledged he had a bit of an ego, but was happy to indulge a fan's encouragement to stroke his ego. He owned the room, keeping everyone laughing and hanging on his every word. He told a few stories:

-When asked who his favorite character to draw was, he said that if he's being professional, he'd say it's whoever he's drawing at the time, but that would be a boring, BS answer. He then said the better answer is "Batman, because you get to draw two characters: Batman, and Batman's Cape!"

-He talked about the Arrow Tv Show, and how, in his words, it had become "The Neal Adams Show" in the second season, referring to

Spoiler

Oliver no longer killing people, Ra's Al Ghul, who he co-created, being involved in the plot, and as one fan pointed out, Roy Harper being on a kind of drug as a reference to his drug addiction in the comics.

-He mentioned that his next gig is a Superman and New Gods book for DC comics, and that DC "will get behind whatever he's working on". (or something to that effect). I honestly have no idea if this project was announced yet, I don't pay much attention to the Superman comics these days so I don't remember anything like that, but if not, then you heard it here first.

-Someone asked him what his first gig in comics was. He replied that his first gig was one he didn't even know he was doing. A sketch he did for Archie Comics of their character The Fly ended up inserted into a comic in place of a drawing by Jack Kirby, whom he said was the nicest guy you'd ever met. Everyone seemed to laugh at the idea of a newcomer's art being used in place of the King.

-He gave a very long and very funny anecdote about pitching John Stewart to DC editor Julie Schwartz, saying that instead of the "blond-haired, white high school phys-ed teacher" Guy Gardner, they should have an Asian or black character as the next GL (comparing this to the diversity in the Olympics). According to him someone involved (it was either Schwartz, Denny O'neal or a marketing guy, I can't remember) came up with the name "Lincoln Washington" which Adams said sounded like a slave name. He then, when prompted to name the character instead, pulled "John Stewart" out of the air as a real name. He made a quick joke that he had no idea that would later be the name of a late night comedian. He also took a shot at Hal Jordon being the GL in the movie instead of John Stewart, referencing children's familiarity with the character from the Justice League cartoon (though he didn't mention the cartoon by name).

-After that he asked for more questions, and I held up my copy of the first issue of the 2012 miniseries "First X-Men", which he worked on, and asked him what it was like to work on X-Men. He said "It sucked". I asked if he meant this book or the run in the 60s. He said the run in the 60s was fine but working on First X-Men sucked, because of the editor on the book [which was Nick Lowe, the editor of the X-Books at the time, though he didn't mention him by name]. Adams said he planned to have a mutant character in the book who had grey skin be mistaken for a grey alien, but was told by the editor "no aliens in X-Men. That's the Avengers' thing". This got a big laugh. He then said he wanted the 18-year-old Xavier in the book to have hair, but was told Xavier would be bald because that's what fans of X-Men know the character for. Adams pointed out that he had hair in the movie [X-Men First Class, which this comic came out around the same time as and had a similar premise as] and was told to not worry about the movie.

So all in all, I was very glad to have met the man and listened to his stories; he was far more entertaining than I was expecting.

[BentonGrey]

Neat SS!  That sounds like a cool experience!

[Bloodshadow]

I met Neal at C2E2 and loved the guy,he's a great guy to talk to and he loves comics as much as we do,I now have Uncanny Xmen #56 CGC signature series thanks to that meeting also. Neal has always inspired me in my own artwork and my love of comics and art was thanks greatly to Neal's run on Xmen and I still consider those books to be some of the greatest Xmen stories ever.

[JeyNyce]

I must have been the only one who had a bad experience meeting him.  I met him earlier this year when he came to NY and I brought my daughter along because she's wants to be an artist and her stuff is pretty god for a 10yr old.  I'm taking her to meet Neal and I'm bragging about the guy and everything and when my daughter met him and asked for advice, he just sighed and said that the business is tough and it's hard and make sure that you really want to do it and every other word was *sigh*.  The guys was very depressing.  I'm guessing because across the room George Perez was there and there was a long line for him and nobody was at Neal Adams table.  I'm glad you had fun meeting him.  I might have just caught him on a bad day

[Silver Shocker]

Wow, that is depressing. Yeh, I wonder if you just caught him on a bad day, because like I said earlier, when I met him he was very enthusiastic, and Shogunn seemed to have good memories of meeting him too.

[JeyNyce]

I'm guessing I did and I won't hold it against him.  I hope to meet him again, maybe at the NY Comic Con this fall

[GhostMachine]

The only artists I'd love to meet more than Neal Adams are John Byrne and George Perez. And fat chance of meeting Byrne, because he quit doing conventions and other public appearances years ago. (I am a member of his forum, though)