Famous First Fridays: Neal Adams' Detective Comics Debut

When we think of Neal Adams and the Groovy Age, our thoughts usually turn to The Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, or Deadman. But, what about the Elongated Man? Sound crazy? Not so, Groove-ophiles! Y'see, the same month Neal took over the artistic chores of his first regular super-hero strip Deadman (in Strange Adventures beginning with issue 206), Neal's other "first" super-hero work turned up in Detective Comics #369 (September 1967) on, you guessed it, the Elongated Man back-up strip. That's right, before the Spectre, Batman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow, Neal's super-hero debut was split between the aforementioned Deadman story and the focus of today's post, the Elongated Man in "Legend of the Lovers' Lantern!", written by Gardner Fox. T'was Neal's only Elongated Man tale, btw, making it even more special. So now when some smarty-pants fanboy mentions Neal's Detective debut was on "Secret of the Waiting Graves" in 'Tec #395 (October 1969), you can show off that you're the smartest fan in the room!