This post should have been up last week but better late than never. With my last two Arthur Adams tributes I posted a selection of the best new art by the master but as you can guess from the title Today we are revving up the old way - back machine to a time when Arthur still did interior work.
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Now I usually don´t do two Marvel posts in a row but since it has been a really long time since my last post - which ended up being two Marvel posts in a row - I´m bending my own rules here a bit. I just want to get something on the blog for the few readers I have left and I already had all the material for this Arthur Adams birthday post prepared. As to why I didn´t post so long I think I mentioned it in my last post but we will get more into detail about that in the bonus section of the next few posts.
Okay, as I said we are traveling back in time, to the year 1985 to be exact when Donna Troy married Terry Long, we found out what to get FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING, a Crisis on Infinite Earths started while the Surtur Saga reached it´s conclusion just a few months before the start of my favorite crossover SECRET WARS II and Arthur Adams hit the comic scene with a big bang in the form of the LONGSHOT six issue mini series .
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Like most great comic artists it took Arthur Adams a few years to become this overnight success and he had his share of problems. Initially Ann Nocenti - which some of my readers may remember as the writer of my favorite run of DAREDEVIL - had this idea for a mini series which had been turned down by every artist before she pitched the idea to Arthur Adams.
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He did some preliminary design drawings basing the look of Longshot on singer Limahl ( ask your parents who that is ) and Ricochet Rita on Ann Nocenti. And as happenstance would have it departing Marvel editor Al Milgrom found the samples while cleaning out his office for Carl Potts.
What Arthur Adams struggled with the most on the first issue was getting the perspective right and drawing things he was not accustomed to like babies, windmills or people smiling. Also Ann Nocenti´s script was so dense - featuring up to 20 panels on any given page - that he had to redraw the first half. Which is why it took him eight months to finish it.
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With the help of Elliot Brown, Walter Simonson and Jim Shooter Arthur Adams quickly improved but it still took him two years to draw all six issues and you can see the sweat and effort on the page. As R. A, Jones wrote in his review of the first issue of LONGSHOT for AMAZING HEROES :
Longshot does have one major saving grace, and that is the penciling of Arthur Adams. I'm going to once again go out on my prophetic limb and predict that Art will soon become a fan favorite. He has a dynamic style that grabs your attention and won´t let go. To be sure, he exhibits some of the weaknesses of any young artist, the occasional awkward pose or crude drawing - but as a first effort this is incredibly impressive. In fact, this limited series should be worth buying simply to watch the progress Adams makes from issue to issue.
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For those who haven´t read the series it even came out in Germany by the Bastei Verlag and there is a Marvel premiere hardcover and trade paperback that you should find at cover price at any well stocked comic shop. Especially the trade has been in trade for the longest time - dating back to the times when Marvel was very particular about what they put in trades and reserved that for special occassions like THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA or KRAVEN`S LAST HUNT - so you can probably find it in bargain bins.
One reason why I wanted to include the pages of LONGSHOT in this post is that he has always been one of my favorite X - Men who has been all but forgotten in favour of the pretender Gambit or like I call him el Gambito.
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Longshot made one of my favorite periods in UNCANNY X - MEN ( the so called Outback Era by Marc Silvestri when the team was based in Australia ) a lot of fun to read since he brought a sense of innocence coupled with excitement and adventure to the team. He was one of the coolest guys without even trying - or being blissfully unaware of it - while Gambit on the other hand was so obviously tailor made to appeal to girls and secretly gay readers that it was painful for all who remembered the Longshot era.
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I have long speculated that all fans of Gambit must have come in reading UNCANNY X - MEN well after Longshot had exited the title because otherwise Gambit is such an obvious cheap Longshot knock off that you can´t take him seriously. But before I get into another of my long anti - Gambit rants let´s return to the early Marvel work of Arthur Adams.
specials
to be continued
Now I usually don´t do two Marvel posts in a row but since it has been a really long time since my last post - which ended up being two Marvel posts in a row - I´m bending my own rules here a bit. I just want to get something on the blog for the few readers I have left and I already had all the material for this Arthur Adams birthday post prepared. As to why I didn´t post so long I think I mentioned it in my last post but we will get more into detail about that in the bonus section of the next few posts.
Okay, as I said we are traveling back in time, to the year 1985 to be exact when Donna Troy married Terry Long, we found out what to get FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING, a Crisis on Infinite Earths started while the Surtur Saga reached it´s conclusion just a few months before the start of my favorite crossover SECRET WARS II and Arthur Adams hit the comic scene with a big bang in the form of the LONGSHOT six issue mini series .
Like most great comic artists it took Arthur Adams a few years to become this overnight success and he had his share of problems. Initially Ann Nocenti - which some of my readers may remember as the writer of my favorite run of DAREDEVIL - had this idea for a mini series which had been turned down by every artist before she pitched the idea to Arthur Adams.
He did some preliminary design drawings basing the look of Longshot on singer Limahl ( ask your parents who that is ) and Ricochet Rita on Ann Nocenti. And as happenstance would have it departing Marvel editor Al Milgrom found the samples while cleaning out his office for Carl Potts.
What Arthur Adams struggled with the most on the first issue was getting the perspective right and drawing things he was not accustomed to like babies, windmills or people smiling. Also Ann Nocenti´s script was so dense - featuring up to 20 panels on any given page - that he had to redraw the first half. Which is why it took him eight months to finish it.
With the help of Elliot Brown, Walter Simonson and Jim Shooter Arthur Adams quickly improved but it still took him two years to draw all six issues and you can see the sweat and effort on the page. As R. A, Jones wrote in his review of the first issue of LONGSHOT for AMAZING HEROES :
Longshot does have one major saving grace, and that is the penciling of Arthur Adams. I'm going to once again go out on my prophetic limb and predict that Art will soon become a fan favorite. He has a dynamic style that grabs your attention and won´t let go. To be sure, he exhibits some of the weaknesses of any young artist, the occasional awkward pose or crude drawing - but as a first effort this is incredibly impressive. In fact, this limited series should be worth buying simply to watch the progress Adams makes from issue to issue.
For those who haven´t read the series it even came out in Germany by the Bastei Verlag and there is a Marvel premiere hardcover and trade paperback that you should find at cover price at any well stocked comic shop. Especially the trade has been in trade for the longest time - dating back to the times when Marvel was very particular about what they put in trades and reserved that for special occassions like THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA or KRAVEN`S LAST HUNT - so you can probably find it in bargain bins.
One reason why I wanted to include the pages of LONGSHOT in this post is that he has always been one of my favorite X - Men who has been all but forgotten in favour of the pretender Gambit or like I call him el Gambito.
Longshot made one of my favorite periods in UNCANNY X - MEN ( the so called Outback Era by Marc Silvestri when the team was based in Australia ) a lot of fun to read since he brought a sense of innocence coupled with excitement and adventure to the team. He was one of the coolest guys without even trying - or being blissfully unaware of it - while Gambit on the other hand was so obviously tailor made to appeal to girls and secretly gay readers that it was painful for all who remembered the Longshot era.
I have long speculated that all fans of Gambit must have come in reading UNCANNY X - MEN well after Longshot had exited the title because otherwise Gambit is such an obvious cheap Longshot knock off that you can´t take him seriously. But before I get into another of my long anti - Gambit rants let´s return to the early Marvel work of Arthur Adams.
specials
to be continued