Living in comics…
Neal Adams
Our pal Peter Stone — writer of the 13th Dimension columns THE NEAL ADAMS CHRONICLES and BURIED TREASURE — has a birthday this week. It occurred to us that some folks out there might not know enough of Pete’s background other than as “Neal Adams’ son-in-law,” so dig this bio that he put together.
Happy birthday, Pete!
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By PETER STONE
I was born in Woburn, Mass. but my home was in Hamilton. Usual childhood in the suburbs until my mother convinced my father to buy a bigger, more ostentatious house in West Springfield. It was in a Victorian style and my mother collected cats (17 outside cats) a black labrador, a rabbit, two mallard ducks and… wait for it… a raccoon. As we all know, raccoons have opposable thumbs so they can open all sorts of stuff — like India ink. Raccoon paw prints look great all over your pants.
When I got braces, I couldn’t eat candy anymore so my dad told me to switch to something else. That’s when I saw a copy of Justice League of America. I was hooked. From then on, I read any comic book I could get my hands on. I read my friends’ comics, I read comics in stores, and even comic strips in my grandfather’s basement library. My uncle, who lived in Switzerland, introduced me to Tintin one year and I collected them for years.
Frank Miller pencils, Klaus Janson inks
There was the early John Byrne work, George Perez, Gene Colan, John Buscema. I read The X-Men, The Avengers, Conan, some Batman and Superman. When I hit high school I was firmly entrenched in comics so I found a small direct-sales store and got a job just to buy the first issue of Nexus, Jim Starlin’s Warlock and Metamorphosis Odyssey, Walt Simonson’s Thor, Frank Miller’s Daredevil and anything else that looked cool and interesting.
Then college with Swamp Thing, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Batman: Year One, Daredevil: Born Again and a ton of independent comics. I knew exactly what my life’s path was going to be. I couldn’t draw, so I was going to be a writer. Junior year of college, I applied for an internship at every comics company in existence. Only one company responded. Neal Adams’ Continuity Comics.
Neal Adams pencils, Kevin Nowlan inks
I started writing comics as a college intern after being accepted by Elliot S! Maggin and under the tutelage of Neal himself. Wow. My first plot assist was on Toyboy #7, drawn by the legendary Michael Golden, and my first full script was Ms. Mystic #4, drawn by Terry Shoemaker. From there, I worked on almost all of the Continuity heroes and titles, eventually writing over 200 issues. I got to work with great artists like Larry Stroman, Mark Texiera, Dave Hoover, Mark Beachum, Trevor Von Eeden, Clarke Hawbaker, Mike Deodato Jr., Dan Barry, Alex Nino, Sal Velluto, and Richard Bennett, as well as some of the big guns — Michael Golden, Rudy Nebres, Stan Drake, and of course “the man” himself, Neal Adams.
Michael Golden
I wrote the climactic episode of the Bucky O’Hare animated series as well as dozens of other animation projects.
After the comics bust of 1993/1994, I turned to commercial advertising, becoming a lead animator and editor for pre-production animatics. (Test commercials for major advertising agencies.) During this time, I edited the Nasonex Bee on-air commercials, a Disney educational series called “They Spoke Out” about Americans who spoke out against the Holocaust, Wendy’s 3-D Classic Comics, and a plethora of commercial comics.
Adams layout, Nestor Infante pencils, Nowlan inks
Comics have always been my first love so I continue to write new material like “Quandary” from PKMM on Substack, and the resurgence of Continuity Comics, including Megalith, Armor, The Hybrids, She-Bat and Knighthawk.
I love good writing, great comics, adventure movies and stunning art, have a wife, two spectacular daughters, a funny and brilliant grandson and two adventure novels.
To paraphrase Frank Miller in The Dark Knight Returns #4: “This is a good life. Good enough.”
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MORE
— BURIED TREASURE: Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz’s BROUGHT TO LIGHT. Click here.
— BURIED TREASURE: The Harsh, Unforgiving Worlds of JORGE ZAFFINO. Click here.
August 8, 2024
Wonderful, Peter!