CBA Interview
From Son-O’-God to Bauhaus Neal Adams on his humor work for the National Lampoon Inset right: For the 1976 National Lampoon Iron On Book, Neal Adams contributed this rarely-seen piece of the rock’n’roll hero. Courtesy of the ever-helpful and talented Mark Simonson (hey, don’t forget to check out this NatLamp afficionado’s Web site — see the inside front cover ad of this issue of CBA). ©1976 National Lampoon, Inc.
Below: We’ve taken the liberty of flopping this image of the EC Comics-like host from “The Fall of the House of Bau,” by Neal Adams, from The National Lampoon Very Large Book of Comical Funnies (’76), a tale sporting superb artwork by the master. ©1976 National Lampoon, Inc.
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Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Steven Tice Our next guest is certainly no stranger to regular readers of this magazine, as Neal Adams has been interviewed more times by CBA than any other single artist. His influence on American comic books—the industry as well as the art form—is incalculable, and the man’s abilities as an artist are beyond reproach. He is, quite simply, a living legend, and this is far from the last time we hope to speak with him, as Neal is already lined up to be a part of the first issue of CBA’s upcoming revamp, in which he will be collaborating for the first time with Alex Ross on a new cover. This interview took place in the new Continuity Studio offices in midtown Manhattan on September 6, 2002. Neal copyedited the final transcript. Comic Book Artist: How did you first hear about the National Lampoon? Neal Adams: I believe I heard that the guys who had worked on Harvard Lampoon had decided to do a lampoon magazine commercially. Doug Kenney was sort of the pitcher/leader of the thing. I guess I was doing a lot of work up at DC at the time. CBA: Michael Gross was the art director. Neal: No, I came in before Michael. Well, I sort of introduced them to the comic book business, but they also introduced themselves. Doug Kenney came over to DC Comics one day. I don’t know if I was working at the Lampoon at the time, but Kenney came over to meet with
[DC publisher] Carmine Infantino. They were walking around the offices and Kenney was sucking on a pacifier. I believe that’s where I met him; I was introduced to him by Carmine. It was obvious he was putting everybody on with this pacifier, but nobody was saying anything. So I had a conversation with him and just ignored the pacifier. I thought it was funny, but it wasn’t that damned funny. [laughs] Sucking on a pacifier! I don’t know if you know much about Archie Goodwin, but Archie used to do pratfalls when he was younger. We’d be walking out of a hotel somewhere and he would fall on his face. He’d stumble and fall. You’d rush over to him, thinking he’d hurt himself, but he would just get up and smile that kind of shy smile. Then everybody would get upset! But you realized after a while that he just did it as a joke. So it was a very funny thing he would do. So if you were there when he did it again, you were in on the joke. People have things that they do. One of the things that I do is, I walk down the street and I go under an awning and I hit the awning with my hand, but I act as if I hit it with my head and throw my head back as if I smashed my face. Now, this is stupid stuff, and I know that I’m revealing some incredibly stupid aspect about myself, but it’s funny to take a look at people’s faces when you do something like that! I’d act like I knocked my teeth out… in Archie’s case, he acted like he broke his back. But we would just do this kind of stuff…. So Doug Kenney came around DC Comics sucking on a pacifier. Compared to running into an awning and doing a pratfall, sucking on a pacifier wasn’t that damn funny. My favorite gag is… you know how bums come up to you on the street? Some are pretty funny in a strange way. So if I’m ever with any business people, the serious-type suits, and some bum comes up…. Of course, bums always see me, for whatever reason. I look like a soft touch. So they come up and they’re stumbling up and I do a fake turn and I look at the bum and go, “Dad!” [laughter] And the suits will all cringe…. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Now, I think that’s funnier than a pacifier. It’s not my level of humor, anyway. So I wasn’t initially overly impressed by the Lampoon. On the other hand, there were some things that I saw that I must have liked, and somehow we got together. The first thing I remember doing was “Son-O’-God Comics.” I thought, “‘Son-O’-God Comics’? That’s hysterical!” Of course, I didn’t tell them that I thought it was hilarious; I just figured it was a job. They paid a little bit better than DC and Marvel, certainly better than Warren. As it turns out, they didn’t pay better enough to be worthwhile, because it was just too massively difficult to do the work. CBA: I was under the impression the Lampoon paid quite well. Neal: Yes, they did, but when you, for instance, have to draw the 12 Apostles in every panel, that gets COMIC BOOK ARTIST 24
April 2003