(Not Exactly) BURIED TREASURE: Waid and Hitch’s THE LAST DAYS OF LEX LUTHOR
A project that has not received the credit it’s due — and a few comments about working with Neal Adams… By PETER STONE Working with and for Neal Adams for over 30 years had a definite impact on how I viewed comic books. Neal, being one of the best and most influential artists in the history of the medium, had very intense beliefs about what made a good comic. Based on the structure of Continuity, Neal and I ended up working in the same room, where I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut and my eyes open. Neal taught me to appreciate well-drawn adventure comic strips, the stories behind some of them, and the history of how and why they came to a grim ending. He taught me about Alex Raymond, Stan Drake, Alex Kotsky, Milton Caniff, Will Eisner and his studio, Wally Wood and HIS studio, Carl Barks and his world of ducks, Al Williamson, and Jack Kirby. Neal taught me that comics were a visual medium. The art was more important than anything else. The writing was the “icing on the cake” he said. I, however, grew up in the 1980s with the stories of Alan Moore, Frank Miller, John Byrne, Chris Claremont, and Marv Wolfman. Miracleman, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Daredevil, The Dark Knight Returns, The X-Men, and The New Teen Titans were my superhero fare. The writers were getting better and better. In some cases, the artwork became secondary to the concepts and dialogue being generated by these intelligent young men. There were the artists Neal loved in the ’60s and ’70s, and the ’80s was my time period. Finally, we could talk about the new artists coming up. One of them was Bryan Hitch, a British artist who we noticed drawing Death’s Head from Marvel UK in the late ’80s. Hitch, artistically speaking, moved to the U.S., and drew all sorts of series for Marvel, DC, CrossGen, and even Valiant. Then, despite his tardiness, he became a superstar when he worked with Mark Millar on Marvel’s The Ultimates. Concepts introduced in this alternate version of the Avengers appeared all over the screen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Bryan Hitch, for example, was the artist who drew Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Hitch and his most common inker, Paul Neary, had altered...
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