Thursday, January 22, 2009

Admiring Adams: "Another Time, Another Place"

When folks ask me, "Groove, this Groovy Age thing--is it the Silver Age? Bronze Age? When did it begin?" I always answer, "Yes, to your first question, and with Neal Adams and Jim Steranko to your second question." While they're scratching their heads at my obviously obtuse answer, I explain: "The Groovy Age takes in the end of the Silver Age (around 1967) and the majority of the Bronze Age (until mid-1980). It's an organic thing you can't exactly pin down. It grew, it expanded, and it died a slow, lingering death. But it was vital, fun, and mind-blowing until the end." They still scratch their heads (as you might well be doing right now), and that's partly why I started this blog. It's a lot easier--and more fun--to show you what the Groovy Age is than to tell you.

Why is Neal Adams such a catalyst in the origin of the Groovy Age? 'Cause when Adams came on the scene at DC drawing mags like Strange Adventures (Deadman) and Brave and the Bold, comicdom had never seen anything like him. He stood so far out (far out!) stylistically from every other comicbook artist, you could spot his work a mile away. He (along with Steranko) was like the Elvis of comicbooks. By melding styles and sensibilities from outside the mainstream, he seemed to create something new and exciting, irrevocably shaking up the status quo. You either loved him or hated him, but regardless, you noticed him, baby!

Pros and fans alike took notice. Comicbook art styles started changing from the simplicity and fluidity of Curt Swan or the in-your-face cartooniness of Jack Kirby to a more realistic, shadowy, raw, detailed style. Guys with their own individual styles, like Bob Brown and Irv Novick, had to adapt a more Adams-ish style when they drew Batman. New artists like Rich Buckler, Mike Nasser, and Bill Sienkiewicz pretty much started out as Adams clones, while others like Jim Aparo, Jim Starlin, and John Byrne blended the Adams influence with other influences and came up with unique new styles of their own.

I could rap all day on the greatness of Neal Adams. His work on Batman, the Inhumans, the X-Men, Deadman, the Avengers, Green Lantern/Green Arrow etc. is legendary, and rightfully so. But seeing is believing, Groove-ophile! Feast your eyes on this rare masterpiece from Our Army at War #240 (October, 1971) written by the irrepressible Bob Haney. It's a sci-fi follies of war parable simply titled, "Another Time, Another Place".

3 comments:

  1. Great! I'm a very Neal Adams fan from Spain and these pages are grrovy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad you enjoyed them, Felix! I'll be sharing more Adams, I promise!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Neal Adams did backup stories in 182, 183, 186 (all in 1967, some of his earliest work), and this last one 5 years later in issues 240, in 1972.
    OUR ARMY AT WAR
    182 (Adams p and i) 9p, July 1967 "It's My Turn To Die"
    183 (Adams p and i) 9p, Aug 1967 "Invisible Sniper"
    186 (Adams p and i) 9p, Nov 1967 "My Life For A Medal"
    240 (Adams p and i) 8p, Jan 1972 "Another Time, Another Place"

    STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES
    134 (Adams p and i) 14p, Sept 1967, "The War that Time Forgot"
    144 (Adams p/Kubert i) 23p, May 1969, "Enemy Ace"

    ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE
    106 (Adams p and i) 23p Sept 1967
    107 (Adams p and i) 24p Nov 1967
    108 (Adams p and i) 23p Jan 1968
    109 (Adams p and i) 23p Mar 1968

    ADVENTURES OF JERRY LEWIS
    101 (Adams p and i)23p Aug 1967
    102 (Adams p and i) 23p Oct 1967
    103 (Adams p and i) 23p Dec 1967
    104 (Adams p and i) 24p Feb 1968

    DETECTIVE COMICS
    369 "Legend of the Lovers' Lantern", Elongated man backup story, 9p, Adams p and i, Nov 1967

    Adams' first regular series was STRANGE ADVENTURES 206-216, Dec 1967-Feb 1969.

    And also
    SPECTRE
    2 (Adams p and i) 23p, Feb 1968
    3 (Adams p and i) 24p, Apr 1968
    4 (Adams p and i) 24p, June 1968
    5 (Adams p and i) 23p, Aug 1968
    Then WORLDS FINEST 175 and 176.
    Then BRAVE AND THE BOLD 79-86, and 93.
    And after that, Adams pretty much had his choice of any series he wanted to do, at either Marvel or DC.

    A few months before Adams got hired at DC, he also did stories for Warren.
    In CREEPY 14, 15 and 16 (1967), and much later, issues 32 and 75.
    and EERIE 9, 10, and 11 (1967). And EERIE 125 (1981) collects almost all these stories in an all-Adams reprint issue.

    I'd agree that Neal Adams is almost a total original. The only clear influence I can cite is Al Williamson, and one Adams interview I saw showed Adams art from when he was 16 years old, re-drawing and imitating Williamson S-F story pages, as an exercise to learn Williamson's drawing technique. Fifty-plus yearss later, Adams' pages are among the most beaautiful comics pages I've ever seen.
    My personal favorite is his opening splash page for BATMAN 234.

    ReplyDelete