NEAL ADAMS MONTH: Neal Adams. Frank Miller. Giants.

Who’da guessed, indeed.

Week 4 books, out 2/24

Week 4 books, out 2/24

It’s NEAL ADAMS MONTH here at 13th Dimension, and we’re featuring daily commentary by Adams on his variant-cover project for DC Comics. Each of his 27 variants is a twist on one of his famous covers from the past. He provided the pencils, and the inks and colors were handled by some of the biggest names in the business like Kevin Nowlan and Simon Bisley.

For the full NEAL ADAMS MONTH INDEX of stories — click here.

Our previous installment featured Deathstroke #15, which was based on Strange Adventures #207. Click here.

In this segment, it’s The Flash #49 — out 2/24 — which is based on 1977’s Superman #317 (which, by the way, is Walt Simonson’s favorite Adams cover. Click here to read why).

Week 4 books, on sale 2/24

Week 4 books, on sale 2/24

There are four Batman creators on my personal Gotham Mount Rushmore: Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers, Carmine Infantino and Frank Miller.

All told, their contributions will give you the truest sense of what makes me the Batman comics fan I am today. That’s not to diminish the contributions of my other favorites, Denny O’Neil, Steve Englehart and David Mazzucchelli. It’s just that it’s the work of the first four whose specific contributions have struck me the most viscerally.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Legends all.

I only bring it up because here we have Frank Miller inking Neal Adams.

Frank freaking Miller inking Neal freaking Adams.

Would I have preferred it be a Batman cover? OF COURSE.

But I’ll take the curveball of Adams and Miller doing the Flash doing Superman.

Adams and Miller.

Man.

FLS_Cv49_Neal_Adams_var

Pencils by Neal Adams, inked by Frank Miller and colored by Terry Dodson

Neal Adams: Who’da guessed? Right? Who woulda guessed?

Dan Greenfield: Inked by Frank Miller. That’s amazing. Tell me about that.

Neal: OK, Frank Miller is like a son to me. A lot of people are like sons to me. But Frank Miller’s like a son to me in that I told him he never would make it. I tried to drive him away from the industry and he held on and he was right and I was wrong. I have never been more wrong about anybody in my life and very happy to be so. There are big advantages to being wrong.

FLASH_VAR_49

But his style never was anything like mine. But I think because of our special relationship—which is a very special relationship—he wanted to do one of these covers. And he twisted himself into being able to do this and he did a fantastic job! I really am taken by what you see here. Not only do I like this (The Flash #49) better than that (Superman #317) —I hate the color on this (he indicates the original) — but he pulled it out of the fire. He could easily have gone “Frank Miller.”

SM_317_92

And he didn’t. He just did the most sincere job. So you have an awful lot of sincerity in this. There is no way that I can put into words the kind of sincerity that I see in this, considering how different this is from what you see here (points to Superman). He had to twist himself into a different thing in order to be able to do this and he did it. He went beyond my expectations… which he has done from the beginning.

FLASH-Neal-Adams-variant-HI-color

NEXT: An unexpected cameo … Click here.

You can also find more on Neal Adams at his website, here.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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  1. The NEAL ADAMS MONTH Index | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] Adams’ commentary on The Flash #49/Superman #317. Click here. […]

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