A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE by his son-in-law Peter Stone… — The late, great Neal Adams was born 84 years ago, on June 15, 1941, and we have a two-fer birthday salute for you this year: this column about Adams’ Ben Casey strip by his son-in-law Peter Stone, and a piece by Scott Dunbier that highlights the upcoming Neal Adams’ DC Classics Artist’s Edition. The book, with multiple covers, is due July 8, but you can already get special editions from Adams’ family, here. I have mine and it’s extraordinary. Dig it. — Dan — By PETER STONE September 20, 1964. the Newspaper Enterprise Association decided to add a Sunday installment to the popular Ben Casey newspaper strip. The daily strip started almost two years earlier, on Nov. 26, 1962, with a storyline featuring a lightweight boxer named Sugar Kayne. It was pencilled and inked by 21-year-old Neal Adams. Of course, Neal would now handle the Sunday strip, which was almost three times the size of the daily. Somehow, Neal Adams, now a feisty and still youthful 23-year-old, took on the extra work like it was nothing. Sure, there were late nights with the family, long photo sessions to achieve the right poses, but amazingly, Neal exceeded the daily work. Fans of Neal’s talk about the daily strip as being one of the best things he did because he could lay out, pencil and ink the entire job. Some dailies are genuinely remarkable, especially, for a 21-year-old, but those Sundays were head and shoulders above. There is not a single Sunday that looks rushed. No crowd scenes are hidden or cropped off. The Sundays are packed to the gills with details that artists three times Neal’s age knew how to draw. A particular storyline features a jockey with a brain injury. So, Neal has to draw horses. Not just one or two… entire professional horse races. There are only a handful of talented artists who can accurately depict horses, racetracks, and jockeys, especially when they’re only 23. Then there are the women. Maggie Graham, Ben Casey’s loyal girl Friday, appears in the daily strip as a beautiful woman, but Neal drew other female characters with different hair styles and sometimes downright stunning figures. The Sundays, however, were populated by easily Neal’s most beautiful female faces. One storyline features a younger woman...