CBA Interview
Adam Hughes An uproarious chat with the ultimate “good girl” artist Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by the LongBox.com staff Look, folks: We could debate the pros and cons of objectifying women in the form of comic book cheesecake till the cows come home, but one thing is certain: Whatever the intent, Adam Hughes draws absolutely mesmerizing and delightfully charming women. However provocatively staged, there’s a wholesome (and almost ironic) element to AH!’s adoration of the female form (with distinct emphasis on the bosom, natch!), and it’s infectious. Mutual pal Mark Chiarello, DC’s superb art director, introduced Ye Ed to the wunderkind artist at the 2001 International Comic Con: San Diego, and I found AH! to be, well, a bit subdued. Yet when I conducted this interview via phone in May 2002, Adam was very friendly, outgoing and downright hilarious (reminding me a bit of a character in one of Kevin Smith’s good movies), but also reflective of his standing in the industry. Adam copyedited the final transcript.
This page: Artist and model. Adam Hughes, the subject in question, poses with Julie Rapp, his oft-model for the Wonder Woman covers. This and all images in this section are courtesy of Adam Hughes.
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Comic Book Artist: Where are you originally from? Adam Hughes: The fashionable west coast of New Jersey. I was born and raised in a little town called Florence, on the Delaware River. CBA: Do you have any siblings? Adam: No, not really. Like that line from the Superman movie: “Any more at home like you?” “ Uh, no, not really.” It’s just me. CBA: Did you have an introduction to comics at a young age? Adam: Yeah, I actually even remember my first comic book, which was Fantastic Four #81. It’s the issue when Crystal joined the FF. I had two older cousins who outgrew comics (like all people seem to do; all normal people), and they gave me their box of comics which included scads of Fantastic Four, which I immediately fell in love with. My deepest love of comic books as a child was the Fantastic Four. There were also a couple issues of National Lampoon because this was, like, the early, early ’70s. I was wee, tiny, and I remember cracking open this National Lampoon and there was this weird fumetti comic with talking breasts or something like that. You had a breast coming out of the ocean and a whaler saying “Thar she blows!” My mom’s talking to my cousin about Kent State or something and I’m sitting there going, “Wow, what are these?” My mom saw and flipped out, “Oh my God, he’s looking at boobs!” [laughter] And look where I am now… CBA: Drawing boobs for a living. Adam: It was a seminal moment. [laughter] My Uncle Bill, my mother’s only brother, taught photography at the Smithsonian and I was a frequent study of his back in the late ’60s, early ’70s. I have tons of black-&-white photographs of me, just being a kid, and this one of me sitting in a chair at my grandparents’ with the January 1970 issue of Playboy in my lap! [laughter] I’m two-and-a-half! [See pg. 16.]I’m literally fresh off the label of a Gerber’s baby food jar and ready for a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover and I’ve got this Playboy with Barbie Benton on the cover [laughter]. Everybody looks at that and goes “Hmmmm.” CBA: That’s foreshadowing for you! Adam: If I ever write a novel or ever publish a sketchbook, that’s going to be the author’s photo. [laughter]. CBA: So you were born in 1967? Adam: Correct. CBA: So when did you see these Fantastic Four comics? Was it the early ’70s when you were literally five years old? COMIC BOOK ARTIST 21
August 2002