THE NEAL ADAMS CHRONICLES: His master indeed…
IDW supereditor Scott Dunbier keeps posting on Facebook the occasional update to the Neal Adams DC Classics Artist’s Edition, coming in 2024. Naturally, that means we’re gonna follow suit.
We posted these three pages a few weeks ago — along with some others — but they were smaller and lower-res.
So dig these all big-like:
The second page above, the penultimate one from 1972’s Batman #244, features what I still think is the hardest punch ever drawn on a comics page. That first panel is the perfect climax to the original — and by far the best — Batman vs. Ra’s al Ghul saga.
What makes it especially impressive is that it’s a relatively small image. It’s absolutely remarkable that it’s not a splash page of its own. But Adams’ ability to imbue the panel with such ferocious power so that it stands at the top more than 50 years later is nothing less than extraordinary. (The secret ingredient? That ziggy movement line in the upper right that follows the trajectory of the punch. Such focused, brawny force!)
“Perhaps, beloved, he recognized his… master!”
You’re damn right he did. And his name was Neal Adams.
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MORE
— NEAL ADAMS and BATMAN: YEAR ONE ARTIST’S EDITIONS Coming From IDW and DC. Click here.
— Dig This Glimpse at the Upcoming NEAL ADAMS DC CLASSICS ARTIST’S EDITION. Click here.
October 30, 2023
I am convinced Ras and Talia should have never come back after the original saga. No one ever did them better than Denny and Neal.