NEWS Updated Dec.
16
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Adams or Discovery…?
4 Years ago, Neal displayed these 2 pages at San Diego.
Today…or soon the “Discovery Channel” will cover the same subject.
How sauropods protected against carnivores. What will they say?
Scooped by Neal?
Before Discovery broadcasts, read these pages carefully.
Neal suspects that Discovery won’t go as far as he did is his analysis,
but he hasn’t seen the Discovery piece. What will it say compared to his
two pages? We wait impatiently.
When “Discovery” broadcasts, you might like to comment. Write------ |
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Click images to open larger view. |
MONSTERS
Neal Adams, appeared in support of his new and recent Vanguard
project at the Thanksgiving weekend Big Apple National Convention
in New York. Neal Adams unveiled the world premier of the new,
high-quality deluxe, full-color Vanguard graphic novel NEAL
ADAMS MONSTERS. TV crews from New York's UPN channel 9 and
the Discovery network were on hand to cover the event.
Legendary Batman, X-Men, Deadman & Green Lantern
artist, Neal Adams, explodes back onto the comic scene with a
new hardcover graphic novel, Neal Adams Monsters, featuring
the most terrifying supernatural creatures in classic-horror
history: The Frankenstein Monster, Count Dracula and the Werewolf.
Neal Adams Monsters was rendered oversized to take the
penciling and inking chores to the max. The end result is a masterwork
which features the dramatic linework and exquisite fine rendering
Neal Adams has been canonized for. Thrill to a level of unprecedented
detail as a comics grandmaster reveals the story of these infamous
horror legends as only he can see them: a horror epic guaranteed
to thrill.
Also at the show were: Bill Sienkiewicz, Gene Colan, J. David
Spurlock and Michael Kaluta.
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"I always felt that the classic
Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman movies had missed the boat.
They didn't do the one final movie. You know, the one where the
monsters all battle. I developed this "Monster Project"
myself. The ultimate launch for a readers imagination to take
off from."
-- NEAL ADAMS
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What's in the Monsters book?
The "Neal Adams Monsters"
graphic novel plus, has digital coloring and effects personally
overseen by Adams to conform to his exacting standards for rendering,
lighting and form.
The story has been extended with pages
added. Neal says, he'd always wanted the main battle to be longer
and this book has given him the opportunity to extend it for
it's American debut as a graphic novel.
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Following the story is 15 color
pages of Neal's horror film and graphicwork including a rare
look at his design work to Stuart Gordon's Film FROM BEYOND by
HP Lovercraft, a full color look into Childhood's End, The Funhouse
designs you never got to see, full color cover art including
the ManThing, Dracula, and more.
8.5 x 11 prestige format, full-color,
hardcover on
heavy, gloss stock.
72-pg Regular hardcover $24.95
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The Deluxe Edition
Has everything the hardcover has plus:
Blood-red-foil embossed Slipcase
Neal Adams Signiture
Plus:
A 16-page bonus art portfolio of rare and unpublished works.
This includes: art from a vampire story that was never completed,
design work for the Bram Strokers Dracula film, pencil work from
his horror comic covers, finished pencil horror illustrations,
Swamp Child pencil and finish, Grizzly preliminary, the rare
Species storyboards, Monsters pencils and much more. As usual
with Neal's work, it's never enough.
88-pg Deluxe hardcover in a slipcase
$39.95
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Who did this drawing?
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That page and also this page were drawn by none
other than Neal.
But, but but they're manga. Neal doesn't draw manga can't
be! Simply can't yeah? Neal?
Turns out that for commercial projects, Neal can pretty much
draw anything in any style.
We can't tell you what this is for and in which country
it was to appear. What we can tell you is that at the last minute
the company pulled the ad and their advertising is heading in
another direction.
We thought, since you won't get to see it printed, you might
like to get a peek at it anyway.
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Hey, did we show you the Hulk drawing?
We didn't?
Oh maaan, we're sorry. Okay, did you see that hulk commercial?
Ya go into the Marvel building into the offices. Hulk smashes
his hand onto a comic book?? Yes? For SunnyD. Well, Neal storyboarded
that commercial and drew the Hulk cover that the Hulk smashes.
We didn't get to bid for the animation but it was quite good
anyway.
Here's the Hulk cover Neal did. It goes by in a flash but
it's a hottie.
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Book #2 Old Printing
Book #3 80s Color
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Book #2 New Separation
Book #3 New Color Guide
Thought you might like to see a page from the second
book with the old color separation and the new. Then as a change
of pace, a page from book #3 with the re-made separations from
the separations from the 70's or 8-'s and the new color guide.
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Thought you might like to see a page from the second
book with the old color separation and the new. Then as a change
of pace, a page from book #3 with the re-made separations from
the separations from the 70's or 8-'s and the new color guide.
At the Big Apple Convention we will be taking pre-orders
for the Batman books with original sketches inside. The price
will be $250 and we should have the books in any day now.
Example of the sketch inside.
No two are alike.
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COUNTDOWN
to BATMAN
The first printing of the Batman Collection volume #1 sold
out in a breath. We didn't get any and lots of people can't get
a copy. Stores are O-U-T so DC is reprinting in China. So it'll
take 2 more months.
The bad thing: By our guess, they're under printing again. What
to do? Get down to your local comic shop and pre-order A.S.A
P.
A Christmas Gift? If you don't hit the store within a day or
two of the books getting there, your N.A. fan will be out of
luck.
We are not in control. We'll get a few hundred, but they'll go
and we not only don't discount, we also have Neal do sketches
in half of them for $250 because we don't want to compete with
retailers.
We consider you guys friends. Friend to friend, when book 2 comes
out and you don't have book 1, there will be no way to get it.
We are expecting them to be shipped to
us Nov 19-24th.
Keep an eye on the site.
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WE WIN!
YOU WIN!
DC WINS!
EVERYBODY WINS!
RECOLORING FOR THE
REST OF THE BATMAN
STORIES!
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Thank you, thank you for all the support and letters for
the re-coloring of the Batman stories.
Here, in part, is our note from Bob Greenberger of DC comics
that he sent to us after Neal's most recent note to the DC editorial
staff.
Dear Neal,
Sorry it's taken me a few days to respond, but I wanted to make
sure our planning here too both volume two and volume three into
account.
The fan and retailer reaction to volume one was beyond our expectations
and I'm glad to see you're as happy with the response as we are.
We agree, the new color and separations adds something modern
and vital to the finished product. These are the versions of
the stories that can be used around the world as part of our
publishing program.
With that long-term view in mind, we concur that, going forward,
re-coloring the remaining stories in volume two and all the stories
in volume three makes the most sense.
For our part, we promise you, the reader, that we will bend
every effort to retain the nature and quality and intent of the
originals and only seek to improve this intent.
We will tell you this, because you need to know how important
this effort is for us.
Calculating our cost to color, correct, edit and rework these
color guides cost Continuity in excess of 200 to 300 dollars
per page.
DC is paying us $37 per page. No lie.
Neal said to tell you so that you know how important it is to
him to finally do this right, or at least better.
Again thanks for the support. This decision from DC comes directly
from fan support. We love you guys.
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NEAL ADAMS
MONSTERS
BOOK PROOFS JUST
ARRIVE. WOW!
Not since the beautiful printing on
"The Ultimates" have we seen the brilliant printing
that we're seeing on the "Monsters" book.
Printing in China makes the pages sing.
Computer coloring can be bad, so-so.
And well, great. This is great. Here are a few of the pages,
but the 'net can't do them justice.
Please, please, please reserve your
copies with your comic book store. Support your store. If
they order right, they won't run out. But you gotta let them
know to reserve yours. It's holiday time coming up. Straight
up, we have orders of the GL-GA book we can't fulfill. We're
out, everyone's out. We have a few with sketches, but
they're too pricey.
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The monster book kicks butt all around the block.
Neal Adams' "Monsters" have been printed all over the
world, but only in "Echo of Future Past" in the United
States and that was broken up over 5 issues. (Continuity's comic
magazine.)
For this incredible edition, the whole novel has been re-colored.
Neal has added 4 action pages. To say the least, it is gorgeous.
The colors were done by Louis Douzepis and the incredible Cory
Adams with a little help from Zeea. Add to that a section of
Neal's work on Stuart Gordon's "From Beyond". If you
don't know the movie, rent it and watch it. Then a 2 page feature
on "Childhood's End", 2 pages on the art done for Tobe
Hooper's "Funhouse", 2 pages on the art for Francis
Ford Coppala's Dracula, Storyboards from "Species".
There's 2 pages on a vampire story Neal never completed as a
possible Warren project. The deluxe edition has an extra 16 pages
of Neal's history in horror.
The book will be coming from Vanguard. If you miss it,
you'll miss it. Pre-order at your local comic store. I can't
emphasis this enough. We are running into people week after week
who can't find a copy of the Green Lantern Green Arrow reprint.
How long will Monsters last in your comic book store?
The book is to be released for Christmas.
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STUART GORDON
MAKES A NEW
MOVIE
We saw the Stuart Gordon movie.
May we tell you about it?
Okay, it's not Re-animator.
It's not a big budget movie.
And, truth be told, it's not a great movie.
But, in fact, it truly is a good movie, and, in the truest
sense of the word: a man's movie.
It has a gripping story and is terrifically acted,
and, since I can make this observation about the acting in service
to the story it is, obviously, terrifically directed. The 'hero'
of this picture, in a not-so-nice-guy of a role, has a lot of
potential and can certainly be a future star if tapped by someone
with an eye for movie-making like Stuart.
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You know those TV movies that are never satisfying?
Or those low-budget movies that just drag on and on? This movie
is nothing like that. Stuart understands pacing. You can
tell he films for story. I went away from the movie feeling that
I was glad I saw it, and I recommend it.
It's not a Star Wars big-budget film. It's a gritty, knuckles
in the dirt movie what I used to refer to as a "Fuck-you
kind of movie, " named from the attitude of the world the
story is set in.
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Arlen Schumer has Done it Again
An incredible book. Exciting and dynamic. - Neal
Adams Press
Just look at some of these excerpts from Arlen
Schumer's book "The Silver Age of Comic Book Art."
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 If
he didn't profile Steranko, Kirby, Infantino, Kubert, Ditko,
Kane, Colan and Adams and this was just a book on comics, it
would still be great. Half the quality of this book is Schumer's
graphics. Every page, every spread jumps out at you. This book
shows in the clearest possible terms exactly what comics in the
70's was all about.
EXCITEMENT as Stan "the man" has said since Piltdown
Man... "Nuff said." Get this book!
From a handwritten letter, dated
10/13, sent to Laura Bartroff,
Publicity Director for Collectors Press, by the legendary co-creator
of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange (among others), comicdom's own
J.D. Salinger/Greta Garbo, a man who has refused to be interviewed
nor photographed for over 35 years, and has rarely (if ever?)
spoken for the record of others' works:
"Thanks for the copy of THE SILVER AGE OF COMIC BOOK ART.
It is a unique achievement by Arlen Schumer and will be an ongoing
source of reference, study and enjoyment for everyone interested
in comics. Regards, Steve Ditko"
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I think that the best thing about books
that Arlen does is in the way he conducts his interviews and
edits them down later. It always makes for a great read. Not
the typical interview questions "Who's your favorite to
draw? What kind of pens do you use?", rather, his interviews
seem to be directed towards a purpose brought around by an interesting
conversation that flows smoothly. - Jason Spyda Adams |
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OPINION-MINE ALONE
Some have commented on what they perceive as my political
opinions in this little column.
I have made clear attempts, in fact, not to give political
opinions.
My comments are on freedom and democracy. On human rights
and the erosion or building of these freedoms in a democracy.
Some people don't recognize that our political institutions,
social and educational and religious institutions are, were,
and continue to be susceptible to corruption, to the detriment
of human beings.
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Folks must be vigilant to these dangers or their freedom will
easily be eroded. Not because I say so, it's just so. In our
day to day cares it's very hard to be vigilant. But it is our
duty to ourselves and our children for us to take the time.
We elect our officials. They should not be removed by another
man's money, should they?
We create technology to better our lives. This technology
should not be taken from us so that rich men may continue to
profit, should it?
Good, safe, nearly free sources of fuel once given to us should
not be unfairly removed in place of dangerous disease-causing
fuels for the sake of money, or should they?
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Look at our economy, They say it's beginning to do well now.
It's simple math. The economy is doing better. Yet millions
of people are out of jobs. Millions of other people have been
forced to take jobs at half or less than their previous salary.
Families often need 3 working members to simply pay the rent
and eat. Many businesses have declared a profit because they
have laid off so very many of our people.
I tell you now that I am not for companies showing a profit
because they are firing people, especially, especially
especially when you discover how much money CEO's, can I say,
"earn." No, not "earn," but "take!"
There's an imbalance in the land, wouldn't it be interesting
if companies like Enron were forced by the court to stay in
business. For the officers of the company to give up their
salaries and the company to continue to work to return the profit
of the wounded companies to the employees and the investors,
so that they are not the victims.
Isn't this America?
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PRESIDENT INSISTS OCEANS EXISTED 200 MILLION YEARS
AGO EVEN THOUGH RESEARCHERS FIND NO EVIDENCE WHAT-SO-EVER!
After 30 years of research by the US Navy, multitudes of American
and International ships, pulling up tens of thousands of deep
sea gore samples there is no evidence of plant or animal life
much past 100 million years ago anywhere in the deep oceans.
Contrary-wise finding evidence of undersea plants and animals
in Utah is as easy as kicking up clumps of dirt in a canyon floor,
or chipping rocks in the Rocky Mountains. "It's a bit of
a mystery" the president offered, a bit confused. Scientists
admit they have no proof of deep oceans on Earth back then, "Just
'cause we don't have proof doesn't mean it didn't exist."
President Bush insists that though his investigators have
combed the Earth and the current oceans they have found no evidence
of ancient ocean life, plant or animal of any sort past 60 to
70 million years ago. "It was as if the oceans had spread
open and were created over the last 100 million years,"
a researcher said candidly, before he was hurried off by other
research team members.
Bush and his team still continue to insist there must have
been oceans, "Otherwise that would imply the Earth grew,
and we know that's impossible." The President and his people
had a chuckle over that rather silly idea.
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A moment of embarrassed silence followed a reporter's
question about why and how dinosaurs could face the gravity of
an Earth at the present size, if our biggest land animal today
is the elephant. "It's a puppy, compared to any big Sauropod,"
he said.
The President's chief advisor laughed off the question with
a Triceratops joke that no one quite understood.
There was a lot of talk about subduction with diagrams and
charts similar to the ones shown by Colin Powell at the U.N.
last year.
"The problem, Mr. President," questioned Laurence
Phleug from the Gazetteer, "is that subduction, if it exists,
seems to have completely shoved the whole of the ocean bottoms
everywhere into the magma equally without leaving one square
mile of ancient undersea bottom anywhere on Earth."
"Yes, that does seem very, very odd, doesn't it, Larry.
You'd think there would be some little chunk left over. Sure
beats me," The President said with an indulgent smile.
"if we had deep oceans, Mr. President, why did we need
shallow seas covering most of the land?" asked Charlie Root
from Reuters. "And where are they now?"
"That's a very good question, Charlie. I'll pass
that one to our resident oceanographer, Professor Barnard who
aha oops seems the good doctor has left the room. Anyone else
want to handle that one hmmm no? ah well next question."
The President turned to the assembled reporters. "Last question."
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"Mr. President, to this topic," began Jim DeGregory
from the Sleepy Hollow News and World Report, "there's this
fellow in New York who after 35 years of research has concluded
that, based on all the evidence he's compiled there is absolutely
no evidence of the existence of any deep oceans anywhere on Earth
in the ancient past and the deeper ocean rifts began opening
and spreading only 175 million years ago, slowly and have spread
and grown exponentially since then and before then only shallow
seas spread and grew on and within the upper tectonic plate,
the continents, and that those shallow seas drained off into
these new spreading oceans. And that dinosaurs lived on a planet
with one quarter the gravity it has today.."
The President was clearly disturbed. "Oceans or no oceans,
what the heck is the difference really. Water on the land or
in new spreading holes. There was water and places for water.
Heck, let's even say the Earth was smaller. Who really
gives a hoot about all that. It's just science stuff. Maybe Earth
grew, maybe not, what's the difference?"
"Sir," one of the President's staff began, "ah,
actually sire if Earth actually grew.. ah," all eyes
shifted to the man, "that would mean sir that, well, matter
was created somehow, inside the Earth and that,
sir would mean, oh goodness, that our whole cascading mass of
theories of how the Universe came into being and how it works
and exists is are one hundred percent wrong. No 'Big Bang,'
sir, no exploding Universe. The Universe will have grown
sir. It's like starting from scratch, sir. Earth can't
have grown or or or."
"See that?" The President smiled. "Didn't grow.
See you, boys."
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An Open Letter to DC and Marvel
Our business must focus a broader audience or we will be shaved
to a smaller and smaller audience. The Jim Lee Batman sold to
a broad audience and maintained this audience through 12 issues.
What this broad appeal series does and can do is bring new
and extra audiences into the market. Joe tells Tom, Tom tells
Frank and Frank for the first time in 15 years goes to a comic
book shop to buy Batman.
What's bad? Bad is tons of spin-off titles that sell ten thousand
copies.
This only appeals to our limited inbred community of fans
that actually have 30 to 70 bucks a week to buy comics.
This group is a rapidly narrowing group.
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We must make newsworthy, well crafted product. Product
that will attract outside readers. A broad range of readers and
we must reach out to these readers.
We think the Jim Lee/Jeph Loeb Batman was a big success and
puffed out our comics community chest. But outside the community,
I saw nothing.
My own Batman reprints are a good example.
Are they advertised to the general public? The battle over
the new seps, finally turned positive, but this was an inner
industry bit of business did DC present this as a premiere product
to the general public? No, they printed 5000 copies and they
were shocked when they sold out in days and they had to print
more.
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Did the general public know of this product? Would they want
to have known? Would they buy if they knew?
If a promotion worked, how many copies at $50 per pop could
DC have sold? How many old/new customers would have come into
comic book stores to buy it and other product.
It's not me, folks. I'm immaterial, 3 near legendary books
of works on Batman, a world-wide icon namely, Batman. What's
the potential?
Marvel's Ultimates by Bryan Hitch talked about on TV and radio.
Worth talking about? Sales would increase 10 fold and those same
people will buy other product.
We need a broader audience, not narrower!
WE MUST WAKE UP!!
Sincerely and with respect,
Neal Adams
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New STUFF
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POD Gallery has been doing the best quality Giclees
we've ever seen. Last year we were happy to join up with them
in makeing the first Ever Neal Adams Giclees. Fans have been
very happy.
Neal's favorite type of Giclee is the ones done on Water color
paper. These prints look as if you have the original Neal Adams
art hanging in your home or office
Just up are 8 new pieces, four of which are special for Halloween.
Take a look. It's a collector favorite.
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SAN DIEGO
OKAY OKAY OKAY
IT WAS COOL.
·There were a million people there and it was five
miles long and and President Clinton hosted it. No no no no no
no no no NO!
OKAY, CLINTON WASN'T THERE BUT STAN WINSTON WAS!
OKAY, there weren't a million people there but there
were more people than I've ever seen at San Diego, and everyone
was having a good time.
·And it was bigger than ever.
·Marvel wasn't there officially, but people didn't walk
around moaning "Oh, no Marvel's not here! Somebody tell
me if this story is true that the reason Marvel wasn't there
was because last year Marvel wanted to give out cookies and the
con wouldn't let them? Is this true and that's why Marvel didn't
go to the con??
If it is guys everybody, we love you. This isn't the Berlin
wall. Wasn't someone making smoothies this year? C'mon Con. It's
cookies, not dried out, over salted ham sandwiches (Oops, sorry,
take it back, backsies.)
·The con was a full building section longer. There
was lotsa room. The con once again treated Marilyn, Josh and
I beautifully, giving us a terrific spot for our booth where
we could meet and greet everyone. In fact everyone's spot was
favorable and easily seen and viewable if, that is, you had on
your walking shoes.
·Size? It was immense. People simply couldn't do the
whole con in one day! Don't ask me if this is true. Ask anyone
who was there.
·So I go to meet Stan Winston. He says "I'm such
a big fan of yours." I say, "Hey, I'm such a big fan
of yours," and we agree neither of us will win this
but I still think I'm a bigger fan of his, between you, me and
the fence post.
·So, booth next to ours, Dave Spurlock has Julie Schwartz
and Carmine Infantino. And first time at Spurlock's booth, Carmine
does sketches. Hell, I was tempted to get one myself.
·So, cause Julie and Carmine are there, Irwin Hasen comes
around a few times. Irwin dopes drew the "Dondi"
comic strip! A phenomenon in its time, after World War Two. It
was the adventures of a war orphan named Dondi. It bridged a
kind of gap in America and it was a warm and great strip. Irwin.
The sweetest, greatest guy you'd ever want to meet. Don't miss
getting a sketch from him. He did one for me Dondi with a tear
in his eye because of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster and their
poor treatment at the hands of DC.
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·Folks bitch about Manga and anime influenced
comics.
Well, whine if you like, but manga seems to be the only comics
that bring young readers to the con. And there were lots of kids
at the con.
·Story. I showed an hour of my video at the
con. As promotion I had an ad in Comic book artist on the inside
front cover. The mag was supposed to come out two weeks before
the show.
WHY WAS THIS A GOOD PROMO FOR MY VIDEO?
Cause first issue with a new publisher lead story is about
Alex Ross and yours truly. The cover, penciled by me and painted
by Alex Ross.
AT THE END OF THE CON
The editor Jon Cooke shows up at my booth. With a Xerox copy
of the book, it hadn't gone to press yet!
Anyway, I showed the video to about 150 people and about 50
more who bopped in and stayed. There was one physicist and one
paleontologist, a couple of teachers and some lively folks who
got quite whipped up. So if I guest at other cons this year I'll
bring the vid and show it, when apropos. Showings can be arranged
through Jason. As well as lectures.
·NEW SUBJECT:
THE BATMAN BOOK.
BOY-OH-BOY, During the end of the San Diego show, we got our
first copy of the Batman book.
First: let me say it looks great!
Second: If there ever was a case for re-doing the color of
older work in a finer, higher quality style by talented
people this is the argument. No one will argue with this
statement, I guarantee. The first half of the reprint,
though of poorer quality artistically (my work), that first half
is now twice the quality of the second half of the book.
Or, in mathematical terms, the first half of the book has jumped
about 400 percent in quality!
Kudos to Cory!!!
Why didn't they do the whole book?
Budget!!
I guarantee, if this book is as successful as it bodes to
be, I will continue to try to convince DC to do a version with
new color, cover to cover!
THIS ONE? GET IT! You will have an eye-opening experience
(was all that stuff always there? Yes!)
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·BRIAN SINGER, DIRECTOR OF X-MEN THE MOVIES,
STOPPED BY. WE TALKED X-MEN, AND HOW YOUNG BRIAN LOOKS.
Stan Winston came by our booth and I got to tell him our
next door neighbor at the L.A. studio is, in fact, Stan's
old partner Tom Berman, special effects designer extraordinaire
and newly-famous (for the hundredth time) for his fantastic work
on ta-da Nip/Tuck.
If you don't know who Tom Berman is Scrooged, Con-Air, X-Files,
Howard The Duck, Halloween 3, Prophecy, Island of Dr. Moreau
and on and on.
Anyway, Brian is introed to Stan Winston and up comes Gary
Goddard, director of He-Man the live movie (Dolph) and creative
director of Landmark.. (Terminator T2-3D, Spiderman the Ride
and half the best rides in the world.) Then the co-writer of
the next X-Men movie, Zack Penn shows, all smiles and happy as
a pig in poo. Then the smiling, back-slapping melee went on in
full force. Brian was about to hint at the next villain in the
next X-Men movie, then he looks at me and says "Hell, you
probably already figured it out, you know everything." I
smiled. But no, I had no idea.
Actually l thought the second movie would be Sentinels but
Brian and others thought, too much cost giving too little personal
contact. I agree but movie 3 needs a good villain (or villains).
·Sergio was there. We love him and he was the very
first to "get" Neal's theory.
·LISTEN UP
Rob-Van-Dam you don't know who he is?
Oh, I'm ssssso ashamed of you. W.W.E. WRESTLING!
Rob-Van-Dam is a comic fan and he owns and just opened a
comic book store in L.A. in Long Beach. Go there if you're in
the nabe! So Josh did a drawing of Rob,and Rob gave Josh
a knee pad and two signed, used wrestling shoes. Josh was flying
for two days.
RVD's 5-Star Comics
131 Lakewood Center Mall. 562-531-3553
www.twistedperception.com/5starindex.htm
·Kevin Smith, Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie were there.
·Joel Adams was there selling prints and sketches of his
popular Lil's.
·Jason had sculpts for sale.
·LAST DAY. BATMAN-PREDATOR. AT LAST A TASTE OF NEAL'S
BATMAN!
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Fire on the F-Train
Thank you NY Post for reporting the REAL Story - Jason Spyda
Adams
Friday night July 18 - Saturday morning I had finished a late
rehearsal and was returning home on the F-train with a close
friend of mine and fellow actor. Right before we got to York
street there was a loud noise followed by a grinding at the back
of the train. The train made it to York street and stopped. The
girl that I was with, and I sat for a moment and then heard people
shouting. We stepped off the train and looked around. Smoke was
pouring out of the back of the train into the underground terminal,
which we were in. I told the girl not to worry, we will just
walk to the other exit at the other end and take a taxi the rest
of the way home.
So, we headed for the front of the train. Suddenly, we realized
there was a dead end. No exit at that end. The only exit was
at the end where the fire was. over a hundred people were underground
with us. A single confused police officer prevented people from
trying to go through the smoke to the exit, even though the fire
was not so big. A few people started panicking and talking about
running through the tunnel that was on the opposite side of the
platform. Thank God they didn't. As I was calming the girl I
was with, a train came on that track and slowly stopped. "See?"
I said "Told you we were gonna be OK." People were
pounding on the train to get the door to open. Then the train
moved forward 20 feet and stopped again. One guy jumped from
the platform to the space you walk on the train to get from one
car to the next. People continued pounding. Then the train left.
It left! It left everyone behind to die. We looked back and saw
that the smoke was two thirds of the way towards us. People were
panicking and shouting. I took off my shirt and gave it to the
girl to cover her mouth and nose, grabbed her hand and we ran
into the smoke to try to make it to the exit. By that time the
cop was staring at the floor not knowing what to do. As we ran
in the smoke I realized we couldn't see and I had no clue as
to how much farther the exit would be and if we would fall on
the tracks, so we turned back around stopping another couple
from making the same mistake.
All this time, no transit worker offered any help or let us know
what can be done. By time we reached the front of the platform,
the smoke had reached there too. The smoke smelt chemical and
people were afraid it was terrorists. The only hope now was to
jump onto the track that our burning train was taking and make
our way through the pitch black tunnel to the next stop. I jumped
down and helped the girl down and we hoped there would be less
smoke in the tunnel as we entered it. No such luck.
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| People tried seeing with there lighters
and even cell phones but the smoke was to thick. I grabbed the
girl's hand and with my free hand felt along the wall. Up ahead
I saw that a couple people had flashlights (apparently the train
workers) but they did not wait for people to catch up to them.
Also, they had apparently turned the electricity off but didn't
tell anyone because were were all yelling"Watch out for
the third rail!" At some points your leg would slip between
the train slats and your leg would fall into the ground up to
your thigh. People began vomiting and dropping everywhere. I
lost my grip on my friend for a moment as I fell but I found
her again and pulled her through. People were helping others.
I kept re-assuring the girl but after walking in the tunnel for
at least a quarter mile I began believing I wouldn't hold out
much longer. I was convinced that everyone who fell down was
passing out and would be found dead. There was no light and the
only sound in the dark were the voices. Finally, I saw light
ahead and knew we would make it. I pointed it out to the girl
and when we got to the light there was a ladder that led to an
opening in the sidewalk Firemen and rescue people were there
pulling people out. I got the girl out first and followed a few
people behind her. I got out and found her. Our lungs felt like
they were on fire. Finally I started vomiting up the soot. For
the next half hour I tried to help the girl stop hyperventilating.
(I'm calling her"the girl" only because I haven't asked
her if I can use her name) 45 minutes later she still couldn't
breath so the ambulance guys took us to the hospital. There we
were put on oxygen and they took blood from our arteries to see
if the carbon dioxide was at a deadly level. by 7:30 Saturday
morning we were let go. We got some sleep. |
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^ There I am on the left
So here's the point of the story. The Sunday papers. I bought
a paper on Sunday as I was feeling better and what did I read?
"F Train Spurs Heroics, Crew Leads 117 Out of a Smoky Subway".
WHAT??? The papers were making heroes out of the people of MTA???
The people who let the other train leave us behind? The people
that didn't keep us informed of what's going on? The ones who
caused panicking? The ones who didn't help people by separating
and lighting the way as people walked? Sure they lead the way.
They got their own asses out first and left people behind and
didn't tell anyone what we needed to do. Didn't even say "Don't
worry about the third rail, it's shut off." And didn't let
us out the exit before the smoke covered the entire stop. Heroes??
The heroes where the commuters I saw carrying people on their
shoulders and holding hands to make sure we ALL got out. Heroes
are the rescue guys that gave us water, helped us out of the
hole in the sidewalk and gave oxygen to people who couldn't breathe.
Anyway, Monday, I got the NY Post. Their reporters interviewed
the commuters instead of the cops. They printed an article of
TRUTH.
Josh Williams, Georgett Roberts
and Heidi Singer, Thank you for being real reporters. The people
do need to know.
I wish I could remember the names of the paramedics that were
so patient in helping us to breath but I can't. Thank you to
you as well.
Jason Spyda Adams
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Opinion-mine alone
THE BLACKOUT
THIS IS BULL
The mayor of New York, Bloomberg is full of shit. The Governor
of New York, Pataki is full of shit.
The both of them told us it would be a matter of hours 'til
electricity came on then they changed their estimates again and
again.
I am writing this at noon next day. I'm on 27th Street. There
is no electricity.
Who the hell do these bozos think they're talking to the two
of them are like car mechanics who revise their estimates each
time we talk to them, like if they tell us the truth we'll take
our business elsewhere.
First story was a lightning bolt hit a plant!
Hello generating plants make lightning bolts, folks!
What structure would you think would be protected against random
lightning bolts more than any type of structure on Earth? Right!
Generators!
Then they said electricity would be up in a few hours.
Gosh, last time, it took 24 hours. What's happened since then?
Super-mechanic? No, the mayor and the governor simply think we're
stupid and gullible.
You know why this emergency isn't an emergency with the people?
Because the people simply resolved to deal with their own
shit and they did with no help from anyone.
People, you and I, went out into the street and directed
traffic hours before it occurred to the police. "Hey officer,
why don't you get out and direct traffic?!"
"Move along, bud."
The best city official? The one with brains. The Brooklyn
borough president Marty Markowitz was on the Brooklyn end of
the Brooklyn Bridge last night, welcoming the Brooklynites coming
from their jobs in Manhattan,with a megaphone. Congratulating
them for escaping Manhattan and coming home to the greatest place
in the World. "Brooklyn, nearly paradise. Welcome home,
time to relax and kick back, welcome home." Or words to
that effect. Isn't that great?
Just now, over the radio, news has come that Marty Markowitz
has announced the biggest block party on Earth. His thinking
is, hey, all that meat in your freezer is gonna go bad. Take
your barbecues out front and cook it up for family, friends and
neighbors. The biggest block party ever in the world.
So anyway, Marilyn, Josh and I easily got home to 27th Street
and climbed the ten flights of unlit, spiral firestairs, roasting,
thinking and praying that the super had thought to brace open
the fire door on the 10th floor or we'd be stuck. It worked out
okay and the loft had a little left-over air-conditioned air
trapped inside so we traded body heat for cool air til it evened
out then heated up again but all and all we were fine.
On our way home we passed bars and pubs which had no people
inside. But tons of people spilling out into the street in front
of the pubs, beer in hand and good will for all. Many stores
sold drinks: water, lemonade and the like in their doorways.
The 'Mister Softie' trucks were doing a land-office business.
As the mayor continued to bullshit us on into the night.
It's 12:35. No electricity.
So try to imagine a system that has generators that supply
power. Those in charge create an interlocking grid of power.
A grid that, if it overloads, or something goes down, shares
its disaster with the whole bloody grid.
No failsafe that cuts off the disaster, no fire doors, no
cut off, no fuse box, no circuit breaker, no surge protectors?
just welcome in to take down plant after plant.
Does this sound smart? Or stupid?
Folks, open your newspaper, appliances for sale. Buildings
going up, neighborhoods being built. How can, safe, non-nuclear
power plants keep up with all of this.
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On the radio I hear discussions on how to conserve energy,
as if you and I can hold back the flood, the need. One woman
calls in and describes how in Westchester where she now has power
she stopped in at a convenience store. They had their two front
doors wide open with air conditioned air pumping out. The woman
spoke to the manager about wasting the power. The manager looked
at her as if she was crazy and said it was to welcome in customers.
If they can pay the bill people want the pwer. The richer
the company, the more they suck up power. It's the "Divine
Right of Kings." Turn your computer off when not in use
while IBM sells 500 new computers to so and so financial advisory
corporation, so that they can telemarket you to distraction grasping
for every dime in your pocket.
It's all bullshit and a yard wide, my friend. The bleeding
hearts whimper at you to turn out your lights but their eyes
are too filled with tears to see the corporate energy hogs that
ignore them and are ignored by them.
Listen carefully to this, I implore.
Every building, house, car, neighborhood can install its own
energy.
HYDROGEN POWER
Not explosive hydrogen power. Oh no
When hydrogen combines with oxygen to make water molecules,
one or both hydrogen atoms which curiously enough have extra
electrons traditionally throw off an electron.
This electron is pure negative electromagnetic power. Normally
it collects in the sky holds up the clouds and flashes to Earth
in bolts of lightning.
To capture these electrons we can do it in things some folks
call Stax!
Works like this. You see those pressed carbon plates. (You
take carbon and compress it into a plate. Well it's more complicated
than that, but not much more.) It will, because it's porous,
easily absorb atoms.
So you run a slow stream of hydrogen up one side of the plate.
Now hydrogen is 90 percent of our universe, probably more. So
there's a lot of it around. Two thirds of the oceans, all water,
is hydrogen. Many natural processes release hydrogen. You can
get it in a medical supply house or welding supply.
If this is complicated I'm sorry, it's not! Think how complicated
an internal combustion engine is.
For safety's sake you store the hydrogen in a super-safe tank
which also contains hydride. Hydride is a form of certain metals.
Some will absorb hydrogen like a sponge. It will release the
hydrogen in discrete amounts. That is, put a bullet into a tank
and it won't explode, it will simply leak hydrogen.
So we're flowing a discrete amount of hydrogen gas up past
one side of carbon plates from a super-safe tank that will never
explode, no matter what. With me so far?
Up the other side of the carbon plate we want oxygen (O) to
flow.. Oxygen as you know, can be explosive. So we need "safe"
amounts of oxygen. Hmm how about air?
Air you know, about 22 percent of air is oxygen, right? So
we put a little tiny fan under the stax to blow air up through
it gently.
"some" of the two gasses will enter the porous
carbon plate. Some will join and make a water molecule. AH-HA.
And when that happens a hydrogen atom will release
an electron lovely little packet of negative energy.. zipping
through carbon.
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By this simple action we have captured the lightning from
the sky. (S'okay, it's not a criminal act. We were meant to find
it, not explode gasoline in our cars.)
As our simple next step we put a clip at the top of the carbon
plate to draw off that lovely energy. With that energy we run
our motor or store excess energy in a series of car storage batteries.
No internal combustion engines.
No gasoline.
Hardly any moving parts.
Fuel: 1. Air
2. Hydrogen stored in hydride.
No plugs. We make our own energy. No hybrid fuels, no
complicated system but oops.
No rich-beyond-belief-oil-men.
Cost to you and me. Real costs. One tenth of what we now pay..
but you know that the powers-that-be won't let that one settle
in to your brain. Maybe you shouldn't read the rest of this.
Where will we get all this hydrogen?
It is everywhere, folks. We don't need to dig oil wells to
find it. You can get hydrogen by rusting iron.
A few more facts.
Emissions from hydrogen oxygen engines? Pure H2O, the purest
water on Earth.
You can drink it from your tailpipe if your car is
powerful enough. In a small motor it just evaporates away.
Capacity: If you have hydrogen tanks which are the size of
your present engine you will be able to drive across America
from N.Y. to L.A .on one tank of hydrogen in hydride.
Refuel. Simple gas tank couple safely used for 75 years. Takes
30 seconds max. Fact.
If you use hydrogen power to fly planes and your plane crashes
you may die from the crash but you will never burn to death.
Why am I telling my thickheaded media blip fellow earthlings
about this?
Because you and I and everyone can power our homes and buildings
with this simple power. Companies make this stuff but we don't
seek it out and big companies don't want us to have it, so they
muffle it, hide it, say it's too expensive, slow it down
and we were too stupid to get it. "Well we look forward
to a bright emissions free future in 5 to ten years as we bring
the costs down to fossil fuel costs my good friends." (Smile
grin.)
Am I exaggerating this conspiracy against you and I and all
of us.
I went to the car show at the Javitz this year. A hydrogen
car was there. They had filled it with as much crap and redundant
systems that it looked stupid. Yet you could tell the engineers
loved it.
I stood by the car at the Honda display for a half hour and
I talked to 3 sets of people. In all that time, no Honda representative
showed his face or jacket. Is that impossible at a car show?
Think of it. I laughed out loud at the irony of it.
The previous year I asked at a Mercedes booth where was the
promised hydrogen car? Three people shifted their eyes and tried
to disappear and never made eye contact. When one person does
this to you, you feel odd. When 3 people do it at once it looks
hysterically funny. I thought I was in a movie satire. Or a Michael
Moore documentary.
You can see through the bullshit if you try, but they have
clever people who twist words and say things like "while
expensive to build now, we will bring a product to market in
as little as 5 years (or 10 years, you pick) at the same price
as a regular car.
This is a lie. The technology is here, now. Has been known
for 100 years, it's just engineering and that's been available
for 30 years.
Men have been fired, bought off, retired early and simply
ignored. More than 3 busses travel city streets in American cities
who's maintenance is 1/10 of a common bus. And they've been used
for 10 years. They run on hydrogen and oxygen in stax.
You have been duped. Your fears and egos have been used against
you, and because of this we have blackouts and brownouts, half
our cancers would never happen and the other half wouldn't be
as bad. Upper respiratory illness in our population would be
cut more than in half but hey, who gives a hydroelectric damn
after all, we have nuclear energy that has a cancerous radiation
that has a half life of 250 thousand years and more. Are we stupid.
Yes, I'm afraid so.
What other excuse do we have?
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The Neal Adams Batman Collection
The first book of three Neal Adams Batman Collections
will be out next month. Yes we will have them available on our
site. You can get them signed or signed with a sketch inside,
the way we did the GLGA and Deadman books.
We're all hoping the colorists follow Cory's color guides
accurately because the work she'd been doing on the books is
just wonderful. To the right you will see an example. It'll be
great to see richer colors and more depth the way Cory is working
them. Neal has been overlooking the project and even laying in
color of his own on the pages.
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Item: well; the first Batman book has "been put to bed."
Half of it has been upgraded. Thank le bon dieu.
Did Neal get to see the corrected pages after he marked them
up?
No! (Tsk.) Too bad! But the book is now a cut above anything
we've seen before.
We're working on the second book now.
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THOR
Now that Thor cover piece
Neal loved it. Is it iconic? In some ways totally iconic.
Neal says some sketches don't show the potential of a piece.
Neal says 9 times out of 10 his first sketch is his best. Thing
is, among other things, Neal is a cover artist. "It's a
skill," and he knows it. Lots of artists draw well but don't
do good covers. Neal tells this story.
When Neal used to do the X-Men and Avengers for Stan (the
Man), Stan used to say that Neal did better covers for DC than
for Marvel. Neal says if it was true it was because Stan would
shoot down his first ideas, so he did second ups that fulfilled
broader but more general goals. Two covers were the exception.
The pop-art Havok running toward us and one Stan rejected completely
had the Living Monolith grasping an X-Men logo with the X-Men
strapped to it. Word was you couldn't read the name of the book.
Well that inked cover became legend and was recently printed
as an art print and in fact not only keep showing up but at least
one artist used the idea whole for another cover. What do you
think, will Marvel find a place for this cover now? It's a mystery.
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WHAT'S NEW AT CONTINUITY
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Adams Family Graduation
Another talented Adams well, granddaughter. Kortney
Hartz has graduated Middle School. As a thank you to her school,
she wrote and read a tribute.
You might have a couple of minutes to put your feet up and read
it. No pressure. It's cute, funny and sincere and you might think
we're just parents and grandparents here but hmmm, yeah I guess
we are.
Click Here
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 My son
Jason Spyda Adams has released (as
some of you know) his "next" sculpt based on my barbarian
drawing "Next." This has become easily his most popular
sculpt so far. Followed closely by his own sculpt on his own
creation, Ribald. Check 'em out. This is not to take anything
away from the Frankenstein bust Jason did based on my own graphic
novel creation.
Click here to buy sculptures
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 My son
Joel Adams is doing licensing drawings
for the Harry Potter property. Isn't this the very top of this
kind of work?
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We're getting lots of our animatics made into commercials.
Check our animatics and check your TV to see how they got finished
up. The soccer ball in the crotch one didn't get made into a
commercial but we liked it anyway.
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ABOUT HIS SCIENCE PROJECT
"This project is the biggest, most incredible thing
I've ever done in my life. For friends who think I've invested
too much of my reputation in this project and failure if I'm
wrong would disgrace me somehow, I say 'don't you worry about
if for one minute.' I'm a big boy and I've done my homework and
the fact that I don't resort to Latin or big esoteric words doesn't
mean I don't fully understand the sciences on a basic and profound
level. I do.
For those of you who don't think I'm serious about what I
do and I'm light meat, do this.
Ask artists and writers what impact my battles with the publishers
have had on their income and lifestyles since them days 'til
today in simple overt areas like royalties and return of original
art.
I know comics are light and fluffy compared to the sciences
but I don't make my moves 'til I've dotted my i's and crossed
my t's. And yes, I know I'm up against 99.9 percent of the scientific
community.
But, to be honest, I kinda' like those odds. And try this
what if I'm right. Wouldn't that be a hoot?
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