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[All My Issues is a semi-regular peek into the mind of comic book virtuoso Jeff Stolarcyk, a part-time teacher, part-time freelance journalist, and full-time geek. He has an almost unhealthy obsession with the printed page, though when he’s not busy reading comics or gaming, he cooks a mean bowl of chili.]

“It’s in my books, so that’s the way it has to be!”

That justification isn’t good enough for Neal Adams. He’s talking about the scientific community’s out-of-hand refutation of the expanding earth theory, but the New York native isn’t the sort to settle for the accepted logic on any subject.

With the help of writer Denny O’Neill, Adams redefined the way comic books approach social issues. The artist tackled race, drug addiction and other social ills head-on in the pages of Green Lantern/Green Arrow and other titles. Off the page, he was a crusader for creators’ rights and was instrumental in the long battle to get Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster credit for the creation of Superman. With Secret Invasion hitting shelves this summer, and hundreds of con-goers milling around the Javits Center in Skrull masks, it’s worth noting that Adams and Roy Thomas redefined the Skrulls with the Avengers’ Kree-Skrull War storyline. “These things are cyclical,” he says, talking about the staying power of the Skrull concept.

I sat down with Neal Adams in his Continuity Comics booth at the New York Comic Con. We sat and talked for well over the amount of time we’d allotted for the interview, and Neal and his family were incredibly cordial.

Adams’s first answer to “What are you working on right now?” was his YouTube channel dealing with his defense of the growing Earth theory.

On the comics front, Adams is near completion on a biographical project about Dina Babbitt, a Czech artist and Holocaust survivor. While imprisoned in Auschwitz, Babbitt painted watercolors under the orders of Josef Mengele. Now living in California, Babbitt is trying to reclaim her surviving paintings from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

Moving back to the mainstream, Adams has been drawing several high-profile variant covers for his old employer, DC Comics. “They’re instant collector’s items,” he says a bit derisively, “Perhaps not the best practice, but it doesn’t seem to hurt anybody.”

On the subject of any more substantive work for DC, Adams tells me – with a conspiratorial look in his eye – that he’s drawing a series of graphic novels for DC starring “an unnamed caped crusader.” Still in its early stages, look for DC to solicit the title when it’s about halfway complete. Frank Miller is collaborating with Adams on the project, called __________: Odyssey, providing dialogue. The project is an examination whether or not the title character can do more good for society as their masked alter-ego, or as Bruce Wayne, billionaire philanthropist. It seems likely that Deadman, another hero made famous by Adams, will make an appearance.

When questioned about the sorts of issues that he’d be compelled to tackle if he were still on a book like Green Lantern/Green Arrow today, Adams cites our society’s dependence on oil and the lack of universal healthcare: “We’re a civilized nation,” he says. “I’d personally be attacking Bush with as much gusto as I could,” he admits with a laugh. When asked how exactly a superhero can tackle these issues, Adams gives me a wink and says, “The question is whether Batman is wasting Bruce Wayne’s time, isn’t it….It’s not an issue of good or bad, but how do you deal with it?”

For more information on Neal Adams and his current projects, check out his website.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 8:37 pm and is filed under All My Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.