Winter 1999
COMIC BOOK ARTIST
was Adam Austin. Neal: There were so many things that were wrong in comic books that had nothing to do with conscious efforts to be bad—but it’s almost like going to another country where they haven’t discovered fire and they’re eating raw meat. So you teach them to cook meat and they don’t necessarily like it at first but after a while they find that their digestive systems work a little bit better with it. Above: Oft-printed but still impressive rejected cover design (X-Men It was sort of the same way #56) by Neal Adams for his first Marvel comic book job. Neal says, “I in comic books; the things they did this cover and handed it in. Stan took it to [Marvel publisher were doing wrong would have Martin] Goodman and afterwards, Stan called me in, saying, ‘I really have to reject the cover, but if it were up to me, I would say go with it. been so evident to somebody But I’m told we can’t do it because the figures obliterate the logo.’ I from advertising or book publishing—any of these worlds said, ‘Stan, when it’s colored, the figures aren’t going to obliterate the logo.’ He said, ‘Well, it’s just not acceptable. You’ll have to do it over or outside of comic books—but I can get someone else to do it.’ I said, ‘No, no, Stan, I’ll do it.’ I comics were so insulated, they thought, they’re going to kill the book in two issues, and they’re worried didn’t know they were wrong; if anyone can identify the logo because of sales! If you obliterate the they didn’t know that they logo and make it hard to read, you might actually pick up sales! That’s were backward and foolish. not a thing I could argue, so I did the cover over because you can’t argue past a certain line.” ©1998 Marvel Entertainment. So, for me, it was perhaps an adventure in breaking these rules down but at the same time it was my day-to-day existence. It wasn’t like “I’m going on this adventure to break down this rule”; it was more “I think I should try to do this and see what happens and maybe I’ll get something else out of it.” My motives weren’t so clear, but certainly that little piece stuck in the back of my head when I went to ask Stan if I could do a book for Marvel. I had seen those altered names of artists in the Marvel books, and felt that passing back and forth from Marvel and DC would be good for creators. And I didn’t like the way creators were treated in general. Arlen: Didn’t Gil Kane do it about a year-and-a-half before you, in 1967 when he went to Marvel to do the “Hulk” for Stan Lee? Neal: Oddly enough, it seemed when Gil Kane went to Marvel and used the name “Gil Kane” that, for whatever reason, there wasn’t a significance to it; perhaps it became clear that Gil was “changing companies”! Somehow when I went, it seemed to make a statement. I’m not saying that going back and forth to Marvel and giving my name was my goal. It just seemed it was silly to hide it; I guess because of whatever position I held in the comic book field, my going and being so overt about it, and being so comfortable and willing to talk about it—which of course I did— had more of an impact. 15
©1998 Marvel Entertainment.
wanted me to do something for Marvel. One of the reasons was that “Deadman” was the only DC Comic that the Marvel guys read. So he asked what title did I want to do. I said, “Well, I’m sure there are titles I can’t do.” And he said, “No, you can do any title you want.” Arlen: He would have given you any title? At the time, Kirby was still there and, other than his titles, you had the pick of anything? Neal: Yeah, but I don’t necessarily think he meant it, though he certainly was generous in his approach. I said, “Tell me what your worst selling title is.” And he said, of course, X-Men. Werner Roth had done the story just before me; they were giving it to anybody who would wander in. They gave the job to Barry Smith (and of his story, I would say the job he did on it was not his best); they gave the job to Steranko, but it was dribbling down. Not that I want to insult anybody but it didn’t seem that anybody was giving it much attention at the time. So I said I’d love to do it. Arlen: You did it only because it was a loser? You had no affinity for the characters? Neal: Not at all. Arlen: You were reading the books? Neal: Sure, I read all the Marvel and DC books at the time; I read everything. I had no idea what I would do with the X-Men. I just knew that I had this pile of stuff that nobody seemed to care about. Perhaps intentionally because nobody cared about them, I could remold them. So the process was to remold them from the core that Jack had begun. Arlen: Looking back on it now, if you had your druthers, what would you have drawn? Neal: Whatever their lowest seller was. Stan asked me why I would do that and I said, “If I do the X-Men, your worst selling title, would you pay that much attention to it?” He said, “No, you can do what you want.” So I said that’s probably a pretty good reason for me to want to do it. He said, “I’ll tell you what: I’ll make you a deal. You do X-Men for two issues—or however many issues you’re going to do—and after that you do a good selling title like The Avengers.” So I said, “Fine, I’ll do that.” And that was the deal between Stan and I. Stan then said, “How do you want to be known at Marvel? Do you want us to give you a different name?” I said, “No, my name will be just fine.” So Stan said, “Well, you know, here at Marvel we don’t like people working for the other company.” I said, “Well, I guess you can’t let me do the X-Men.” But Stan said, “No, no, no. That’s fine. It’s not a problem.” I said, “Good.” And he said, “Hey, how about I give you a nickname? How do you feel about ‘Nefarious Neal?’” I said, “Well, if you feel like doing that, I guess it’s okay. I’m not really prone to nicknames; I never had one, but if that’s what you’d like to do.” So I agreed to do the X-Men. Arlen: Your working at Marvel represents the whole breakdown in that pseudonym game, where for instance, Gene Colan