Because You Asked For It (Kinda Sorta): The Art of Arthur 'Art' Adams

 

Keep your Todd McFarlanes, your Rob Liefelds, your Erik Larsens, your Jim Lees (the very last of whom I am, admittedly a total Stan). 

Art Adams is the mother fawkin' man. You know it. I know it. Your mama knows it. 

The guy draws beauties, beasts and spandex bedecked superheroes like nobody's business. 

Oh, and gorillas. Adams really has this thing for drawing gorillas. (We all have our kink don't we?)

Since 1984, when he turned pro, he's been producing work at a level that, pencil for pencil, very few in the industry can rival. And some of his early stuff almost pales to the work he's been producing since the late 1990s.  

I mean,  yeah. He's slow and meticulous––which is why his name doesn't rank higher than it does in the pantheon of comic book artists with legions of fans. 

He's never done an extended run on Spider-Man, X-Men, New Mutants, X-Force or...Batman. But he plays to his strengths, which are shorter stories in anthologies like Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, limited series like the X-Men affiliated Longshot and artistically breathtaking Ultimate X. 

And let's not forget the his creator-owned Monkey Man and O'brien published by Dark Horse. The beloved comic book duo who, by the way, made their debut in the back pages of Hellboy: See of Destruction #1. 

For the last few years, most of the work he's been turning in are covers for various Marvel titles, because Marvel knows what they've got, and Art Adams cover art is an attention grabber. 

If DC Comics was smart, they'd tie Adams down to a chair, pay him a bajillion dollars to illustrate 12-issues of a new title they're ready to launch into the stratosphere (uh, about 24 months into the future) and then wait patiently for the magic to happen. 

A long run on a flagship book is the only thing missing from his resume, and keeping a great artist from being really really great. 

But...then again. Greatness is overrated. 

Doing what you love how you want is what's really great, right?

Art Adams is a total draftsman. An artist's artist. And the work this man produces, even when the subject is a repulsive looking monster, is always a thing of beauty. 

 

But as LeVar Burton on his Reading Rainbow TV show used to say: You don't just have take my word for it! 

Buh-dun-dunh!

Great Debate: 7 Times ‘Hip-Hop’ Was Used in Print Before Historians Say

"It was perhaps that casual use in “Rapper’s Delight” that lead some to surmise that the meaning of the term hip-hop wasn’t clearly understood by party-goers in the Bronx or that it hadn’t been meaningfully defined until Manhattan took an interest. But this looks to have been a mistake on the part of regional and/or cultural outsiders."

To read my latest piece celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop, zip on over to my Medium page by clicking here.