We’re wrapping our tour with a special — and deserving — 3-Part Batstravaganza...
OK, we’ve come to the end of 13 DAYS OF THE NEAL ADAMS GALLERY.
Everything you want to know about Adams’ new permanent exhibit at his Midtown Manhattan studio can be found by clicking here. I highly encourage you to pay a visit if you’re in the New York area or are planning to be. It’s fantastic.
Now, I’ve decided to wrap up our daily look at the gallery with something special: A note-by-note recreation of the cover of Batman #244, one of Adams’ best ever.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL, as Ronco says.
We also have for you the final, unassailable answer to just how to pronounce Ra’s al Ghul — from Neal himself! Click here!
Aaaand, we have a special appearance on Rob Kelly’s TreasuryCast podcast on Limited Collectors’ Edition C-51, in which Rob Kelly and I go into great detail about Adams and Denny O’Neil’s classic, first Ra’s al Ghul saga — which culminates in Batman #244. Click here!
PLUS: If you want more from Adams on Batman #244 itself, click here, here and here. And don’t miss this Denny O’Neil commentary (click here). And check out what people like Bill Sienkiewicz (click here) and Scott Williams have to say about it (click here).
Phew. Now, on to today’s piece of art — and Neal’s comments about it.
As I’ve noted before, one of my great Bat-frustrations is that there’s no Adams Artist’s Edition out there, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the whereabouts of some of his greatest material. So the very next best thing is getting to see Adams put together something like this:
Here’s Adams’ EXCLUSIVE commentary:
“This one too is a recreation but according to the fans, no cover could be more worthy. It’s the showdown between Ra’s al Ghul and Batman. Forget that they totally lifted it for the Arrow show and put it on top of a mountain, and forget that it is harkened back to by everyone who ever does Batman, this is the first time in a standard superhero comic that we get to see hair on the chest of a superhero — but even more interesting is that Batman has nipples on his chest. It’s amazing how we forget that up to this point these things weren’t true and since we were making a statement, hell, we put it on the cover.
“For those of you to whom it has not occurred on this cover, how many pairs of pants does Batman have? (With apologies for the structure of that last sentence.) He has two pairs of pants. Why is that you ask? How could Ra’s al Ghul take off Batman’s pants without taking off his shorts and seeing his junk which would have led to far, far too many questions? So when I explained it to my editor, he told me to color Batman’s leg like it was Batman’s costume and no one will even notice. But now that I’ve told you, it’s hard to notice anything else…isn’t it?”
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For the complete 13 DAYS OF THE NEAL ADAMS GALLERY INDEX of stories, click here.
For a video tour of the Neal Adams Gallery, hosted by Neal, click here.
For How to Pronounce Ra’s al Ghul — according to Adams himself, click here.
For the TreasuryCast podcast on Limited Collectors’ Edition C-51 — which you definitely want to listen to — click here.
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