then you’re going to work together and change it and make a story out of it. It’s kind of a game. I worked with Julie on Spectre scripts and I understand Julie and the way he works. I had been thinking about how I was going to approach Julie because I didn’t want this Man-Bat story changed and ruined. I was trying to think of any way I could to present it right. Anyway, I was at Dick’s desk, for some reason, probably handing work in, and I had noticed that [Schwartz Denny O’Neil asked Adams to portray the antagonist of Detective #397 and Robbins] were in there for quite a as Orson Welles. while talking back and forth. It was a lationship with the amateur singer who he was hot day and the sun was coming in grooming to be an opera star. Did you base the Julie’s window, and they basically had come to a look of that character on Welles? He looks like dead end. So Julie turned to me and said, “So, Orson Welles. Smiley … so, Adams. You got a Batman story?” ADAMS: I was told by Denny that he just wanted And I said, “Yes, as a matter of fact I do.” an “Orson Welles fat guy.” And I thought, if I drew “Oh, yeah, yeah, fine.” Orson Welles, that would be bad. I know Denny “Okay, you don’t have to hear it.” And then he told me that it was based on Orson Welles, it was realized that they didn’t have any story. Orson Welles related to that movie. And I thought, “All right, what is it?” “Okay, it’s a fat guy. I don’t want to do Orson Welles. That’s not right.” It doesn’t seem right to me. But people equate “fat guy” with “Orson Welles,” so there you go. That was a story that I believe Dick inked. It was after that story that I got together with Dick, and I said, “Dick, we’re going to have to talk. If you’re going to ink my stuff any more, we’re going to have to do a better job than this.” I wasn’t really happy with that story. And I thought, “Shoot, I’m doing “Deadman,” you know. Let’s get a relationship going,” because I had a feeling that I was going to be written by Denny and inked by Dick, and let’s sit and talk. Let’s get serious about this stuff. If we’re going to work together, let’s do some nice stuff. And I think that was the time where Dick and I seriously started to work together.
“‘Man-Bat,” I said. “It’s a guy who likes Batman so much that he wants to help him. And he thinks that if he develops a serum and he gives it to Batman it will make Batman more like a bat. It will give him the powers and abilities of a bat. And he’s a scien-
TBC: Can you tell me how the idea of Man-Bat (Detective #400, June 1970) came about? ADAMS: Yes, I can. I had actually thought about it, and I had written a synopsis I wanted to approach Julie with after I’d finished the job I was working on. He and Frank Robbins were sitting at his desk; Frank Robbins was fairly new with Julie. Julie attaches himself to certain writers. He’s very writer-oriented, and he was working well with Frank Robbins. Generally, the way it happened with Julie was: A writer would come in with a story and then Julie would tell him he didn’t like it. And then it would evolve into another story. So you get used to Julie that way. The first idea that you’re going to present him with, he’s not going to like,
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All art TM & © DC Comics.
TBC: I didn’t know that was the significance of that story. ADAMS: No, I don’t know if it is. It’s just that, at that point, that’s when we started talking.
Neal Adams’ pencil rough for the cover of Detective #400, the first appearance of Man-Bat.