they’re telling me, ‘People inking your work is the way we do things—that way we get more work out of you.’” Adams explained to Giordano his artistic intentions, and offered some technical recommendations to make their styles better mesh. “Suddenly, Dick’s work became more sparkling, and he put more into it,” Neal reveals. Giordano was producing inks that made the penciler admit, “that almost looks like I did it.” The synthesis of the Adams/Giordano approaches defined a look that “essentially became my comic-book style, unless I inked it myself,” notes Adams. “It wasn’t until I went over to Marvel that people started to realize that maybe my stuff isn’t the same all the time, once they saw Tom Palmer ink my work.”
“That almost looks like I did it,” admits Neal Adams of Dick Giordano’s inks shortly into their collaboration. From Green Lantern/Green Arrow #82. ©2003 DC Comics.
Admits Giordano of his first attempt at inking Adams in World’s Finest #175: “It was the weakest job I ever did with Neal.” ©2003 DC Comics.
Witching Hour. Dick declares, “Neal and I had a nearperfect relationship at DC, when I was an editor and he was an artist.” Their first artistic pairing was far from near-perfect, however. Giordano had brokered a deal with Carmine Infantino to supplement his editorial salary with freelance art assignments, and took on inking work—faster for the artist to complete than penciling jobs—to maximize his earnings. Editor Mort Weisinger tapped Dick to ink 1968’s World’s Finest Comics #175, a Superman/ Batman tale penciled by Neal. “I remember getting the pencils,” says Giordano. “They were the best pages I’d ever gotten to handle. And it was the weakest job I ever did with Neal.” Neal Adams concurs: “When Dick first inked my work, I hated it. But I didn’t hate it as much as other peoples’ inks over my work. I wasn’t used to the idea of someone else inking my work. I was an artist who’d practically had his way for all of his career, then at DC
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