M O D E R N M A S T E R S V O L U M E S I X :Characters TM & 2006Marvel Characters, Inc.ARTHUR ADAMSB"GeorgeKho!r"andEricNolen-Weahingon B"GeorgeKho!r"andEricNolen-WeahingonARTHUR ADAMSDedicationTo Caper Glee Nolen-Weathington, born during the making of this book. You were worth the wait. And to Donna, for bringing you into this world, and to Iain, for being a super big brother.AcknowledgementsArthur Adams, for his time and energy, and for his sense of humor. John Fanucchi, for his valiant efforts in always finding the best art, and being the biggest Art Adams fan on the West Coast.Joyce Chin, for always being so nice and understanding during the making of this book.Terry Austin, for his continuing help and support.Special ThanksWill Allred, Rich Cirillo, Chris Claremont, Jon B. Cooke, Scott Dunbier, David Hamilton, Jason Hofius, Frederic Massa, MarcMcKenzie, Steve Miller, Steve Moncuse, Hiroshi Morisaki, Steven Ng, Stuart Ng, Scott Reno, Eric Delos Santos, Mike Wieringo,Fog City Art Exchange (http://home.pacbell.net/adbm3/comicart.htm)Rick McGee and the crew of Foundations Edge, Russ Garwood and the crew of Capital Comics,and John and Pam MorrowMODE R N MA S T E R S V OL UME S I X :ARTHUR ADAMSedited by Eric Nolen-Weathington and George Khourydesigned by Eric Nolen-Weathingtonfront cover by Arthur Adamsfront cover color by Tom Ziukoall interviews in this book were conducted by George Khourytranscribed by Steven TiceTwoMorrows Publishing10407 Bedfordtown Dr.Raleigh, North Carolina 27614www.twomorrows.com e-mail: twomorrow@aol.comFirst Printing February 2006 Printed in CanadaSoftcover ISBN: 1-893905-54-3Trademarks & CopyrightsAll characters and artwork contained herein are and 2006 Arthur Adams unless otherwise noted.Monkeyman & OBrien and 2006 Arthur Adams.Angel & the Ape, Batman, Blue Devil, Catman, Catwoman, Cobra, Creeper, Cyborg, Deadman, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Dr. Sivana, Flash, Geo-Force, Green Lantern, Jade, Joker, Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho, Obsidian, Penguin, Riddler, Robin, Scarecrow, Superman, Troia, Two-Face, Wonder Woman and 2006 DC Comics // Jonni Future, Solomon, Tom Strong, Young Tom Strong and 2006 Americas BestComics, LLC // Apollo, the Authority, Swift and 2006 WildStorm Productions // Baron Mordu, Baron Zemo, Beta Ray Bill, Black Cat, Black Widow, Cable, Captain America, Cloak & Dagger, Daredevil, Dazzler, Defenders, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Strange, Enchantress,Fantastic Four, Gargoyle, Generation X, Ghost Rider, Giant-Man, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Hulk, Human Torch, Inhumans, Invisible Woman,Iron Man, Juggernaut, Lizard, Loki, Longshot, Magneto, Marvel Girl, Mr. Fantastic, Mojo, New Mutants, New Warriors, Phoenix, Psylocke,Punisher, Quasar, Red Skull, Richard Buzznick, Scarlet Witch, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Spiral, Storm, Sub-Mariner, Thanos, Thing, Thor,Vision, Wasp, Wolverine, X-Factor, X-Men and 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. // Moon Beam McSwine 2006 Capp Enterprizes, Inc. //Vampirella and 2006 Harris Publications, Inc. // John Carter of Mars, Tarzan and 2006 Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate // Micronauts and 2006 Takara/A.G.E. // Conan and 2006 Conan Properties International, LLC // Gumby, Pokey and 2006 ArtClokey // Appleseed and 2006 Masemune Shirow and Seishinsha // Creature from the Black Lagoon, King Kong and 2006 UniversalCity Studios, Inc. // Fish Police and 2006 Steve Moncuse // Star Wars and 2006 Lucasfilm Ltd. // Godzilla, King Caesar and 2006Toho Co., Ltd. // Xena: Warrior Princess Universal TV Distribution Holdings LLC and 2006 Universal Television Enterprises LLLP // Gen13 and 2006 Aegis Entertainment, Inc., dba WildStorm Productions // Final Fantasy and 2006 Square Enix Co., Ltd. //Cousin Eerie, Uncle Creepy and 2006 Warren Publishing, Inc. // Danger Girl and 2006 Atomico // Buffy the Vampire Slayer and2006 20th Century Fox Film Corporation // Double Dragon and 2006 Atlus Games, Inc. // Madman and 2006 Mike Allred //Nocturnals and 2006 Dan Brereton // Tellos and 2006 Todd Dezago and Mike Wieringo // Lady Death and 2006 Avatar Press //Witchblade and 2006 Top Cow Productions, Inc. // Red Sonja and 2006 Red Sonja CorporationEditorial package 2006 Eric Nolen-Weathington, George Khoury, and TwoMorrows Publishing.3Table of ContentsIntroduction by Chris Claremont. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Part One: Comics, Monsters, and Dinosaurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Interlude One: Under the Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Part Two: A Longshot Pays Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19PPPart Three: The Fantastic Voyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35PPPart Four: Riding Solo on a Dark Horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Part Five: The ABCs of Comics... with Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Part Six: Storytelling and the Creative Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Modern Masters Volume Six:ARTHUR ADAMS4The man loves Godzilla.And Gumby.For me anyway, if you want to know about Art Adams,thats where you have to start, with a character who layswaste to cities and is brought to life by a man wearing arubber suit, and an animated piece of clay, a classic ofstop-motion whose every movement has to be adjustedone frame of film at a time. One is in many ways the ulti-mate wide-screen spectacle, while the other remains oneof the most personal and intimate of creations. Same holds true for Arthurs art: on the one hand, he cangive his writers the most majestic and outrageous of wide-screen spectacles, be they in space or the realms of fabledAsgard. And yet focus in on moments so individual and per-sonal, they cant help but win your heart, or break it.His first gig teamed him with the woman who wasthen my editor on X-Men, Ann Nocenti, on a book theycreated called Longshot, and within the first few pages itwas abundantly clear that we readers were in the handsof a pair of creators whose vision was as wacky as it wasidiosyncratic. First of all, the hero only had three-fin-gered hands, which I couldnt help wonderingthen asnowif that wasnt Ann and Arts deliberate, albeit sub-tle way of telling us the character and his book werederived as much from the world and ethos of animationas much as the more formal and realistic environs of theMarvel Universe. Longshot was pure of heart, innocentin a way that was rare then and virtually non-existenttoday; his power was to be lucky. His adversary wasMojo, a monumental bloat of a being who was soobscenely corpulent (dare we even say, crapulous) thatwhatever legs he might once have possessed were nolonger able to support him. Instead, he was mated to apowered cradle, which allowed him to scurry about onmultiple crab-legs. In addition, he had no spine. Literally.Which meant that his body was supported by an exter-nal, articulated, bionic frame. He took great pride in thiscondition. For Mojo, being spineless was the summit ofsentient evolution; the only point to him of possessing abackbone was to see it smashed to bits. Mojos game waswhat we call these days a content provider. His world,his people, demanded constant entertainment; he gave itto them. The higher the ratings, the greater the glory,and the raw power that went with it. Longshot was hisstar, who for some strange and inexplicable reason wasdetermined to develop a mind of his own and some seri-ous free will. He escaped. Mojo wanted him back.And therein lay the genesis of that wonderful, eight-issue roller-coaster ride.My chance to work with Art came with what startedout as a New Mutants Annual and mutated, quite naturallyit seemed at the time, into an opus. I mean, Art has hisown memories of this collaboration, which mostlyinvolve lots of sobbing on my end of the phone line, anepisode of the original series of Star Trek (Boyoboy, Ireally cannot wait to see that giant optical effect amoebain High-Def, not to mention the masking tape holdingtogether the set panels), and a shade under a millionpages of plot, mainly about the ongoing saga of Lokis(Norse God of Mischief: Arch-enemy of his half-brotherThor, God of Thunder and all-around Marvel good-guy)plain-spoken but spirited Filipino housekeeper Lupe. Me, Id just written this really cool story with PaulSmith where the X-Men go head to head with the afore-mentioned Loki and had ended with him vowingvengeance, and I wanted to see what would happennext. I also wanted to have some fun with this otherbook I was writing, The New Mutants and was figuring theX-Men for once, could take second fiddle. I thought Artwould be perfect for the job. He, living in California,had no idea what he was getting into (you think werekidding about that packet of plot pages?), and what thehell, Annuals are only 38 pages, how hard could it be? I dunno what I was thinking. The more I wrote, themore there was to write, sort of falling under the headingthat this was probably the only time the mutants would beable to visit Asgard, be a shame to miss out on any of thereally cool sites and characters. And if were going to show-case the place theyre visiting so comprehensively, its onlyfair to give the characters their due. And since were guest-starring Storm, and since shes one of the mainstays of theX-Menwell, she of course would have to dominate thestory and somehow make it All-About-Her! (Basically bybecoming Lokis Object-of-Ultimate-Desirewhich is infact her true mutant power, to make the Baddest of BadGuys fall head over heels in Desire for her! But I digress.)Not much to ask for in a story: sublime characteriza-tion of a cast that includes teenagers of all ages, humanheroes, Asgardian Gods, demi-gods, demons, critters,elves, dwarves, sorceresses, settings that range from theGreek Isles to all the fabled realms of the Norse mythos,battles, bar scenes, seductions, brutality, heroism, cos-tume changes, lots of meals, an occasional bath, a girland her (winged) horse, loathsome spells, broken hearts,low drama and high comedy.Oh yes, and when we got to the end, wed discoverthis was only Part 1. Thered have to be a sequel to wrapthings up, in the X-Men Annual. (We could do silly things like that in those days.)So heres Arthur, blithely accepting what he thoughtI+/-,"0!/',+5was a light-hearted gig to while away a couple of weeksquick work......only to discover hed been sucked into the maw ofa monster that would ultimately run so many pages itwould end up with a (much reprinted) trade paperbackall its own.And damn, if he didnt do it.That thing about being a writer in this business isthat, while we often have to think up this crazy stuff,we really do depend on the visual facilitythe talent,the skill, the creative geniusof our artists to bring it tolife. What looks spectacular in our heads, what has thepotential to rock the world when we finish typing ourlittle fingers to the bone......doesnt always see print in quite the same way. It takes a mind, an imagination, a sensibility thats sim-patico with that vision, to finish the job. To look at thosewords and, after the requisite growls and curses, use themas a springboard to come up with something even better.Art Adams is just such an artist. He does the big thingswell, he does the little things even better. Demon warriorscharging out of a hole in space, a young woman giving upbecause the fight to go on with her life has become justtoo damn hard. He does drama, he does funny, he doesjust about every genre a writer can throw at him. Best of all, he has that rare and ineffable knack ofcreating characters who are immediately empathetic,with whom the readers cannot help but bond and carefor. I look at these images and I see folks who areimbued with a sense of charm, I really cant help but likethem and want to see more of themeven the villains.(Hell, even the monsters.) Within the context of hispersonal style, which is pretty much unique unto himself(another rarity in our profession), theyre very real folks. I mean, this is a guy who created an entire seriesabout a sentient ape and his gloriously beautiful, not tomention brilliant, gal companion, and after more than adecade Im still waiting eagerly to see what happens next!Back last century, I had a brief and shining opportunityto write an arc for the JLA. A rare, possibly my only, shotat the Great Big Guns of the DC pantheon. I thought thestory was fun but what made the series personally memo-rable was that the editor, Dan Raspler (my wifes cousin,what can I say?), managed to finagle Art as the cover artist.Six pages out of 130-plusbut for me they were theencapsulation of everything I was aiming for with mystory. Here was a visualization of the movie thatunspooled past my minds-eye when I took pen to paperand started sketching out my ideas. And he even tookone of the crazier notions I ever had, the idea of wear-ing Plastic Man as a survival suit (which, when you real-ly think about it, turns out to be something you proba-bly really dont want to think about), and not only madeit work, he made me smile to look at it.Arts the kind of artist who makes writers think theyreally do have a clue. Hes the kind of artist whose workdoesnt fade with time. His work is very much an exten-sion of himself, the characters come across as nice peo-ple because hes nice people. No small achievement,either way.In fact, these days there are just a couple ofthings Iregret when I think of him: that he always lived on onecoast and I on the other (because it would be so mucheasier to drop those 900K-page plots on his doorstepwithout the intercessionand, dare I say, expenseofFedEx), that he always liked his Godzilla action figures,and Gumby, and going out for dead-raw-fish, andstrolling to the movies (even if it was just to the TV inthe next room) and hanging with friends, way more thanslaving away at the drawing table. These days, he worksfor one company, and I for the other, so that means I getto enjoy his work solely as a reader. But writers, especiallyin comics, are always fools for hope.In the meantime......I really cant wait to see what happens next.Chris ClaremontBrooklyn, New YorkNew Mutants and all related characters and 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.MODERN MASTERS: First things, first: youre notrelated to Neal Adams, right?ARTHUR ADAMS: Not to my knowledge, no.MM:But people mustve asked you about that in thebeginning, right?ARTHUR: Some people were even irritated that Isigned my name Arthur Adams. When I first start-ed, I would just sign my name Adams, and thatwould somehow get people very upset, even thoughNeal had always signed his stuff Neal Adams.MM:Have you ever met him?ARTHUR:Ive met him several times. Weve neverreally spent much time together, but weve met sev-eral times, and the first couple times he opened hisarms wide and said, My son, much to the confu-sion of everyone all around. Hes been very niceto me the few times weve met.MM:What year were you born?ARTHUR:I was born in 1963 in Holyoke,Massachusetts.MM:When did your family move outof Holyoke?ARTHUR:I think my dad was in the Air Forcewhen I was first born, and we moved around alittle bit. We were in Massachusetts for a littlewhile, and then he got out of the Air Forceand we moved to West Virginia. But mymom and dad kept on having more kids, somy dad rejoined the Air Force. It was agood, reliable income. So we endedup moving to Philadelphia forabout a year, where we stayedwith my grandmother until Iwas about five. My dad wasoverseas most of this time.We didnt really see much ofmy dad, then.MM:Was your dad a pilotor a mechanic?ARTHUR:He was what was called a loadmaster, whichnowadays, and now that Im much older, is filled with allkinds of weird connotations. In the Air Force, what aloadmaster does is make sure the airplanesbecause hewas mostly doing planes that were shipping massiveequipmentare loaded evenly to make sure the planedoesnt snap in two as its in the air.MM:And your mom was just the housewife?ARTHUR:She occasionally took jobs out ofthe house. She was a receptionist at a hospitalfor a while. She worked with a dog groomerfor a little while, because she really likeddogsand still does. But for the most part,yes, she was a stay-at-home mom.MM:Where do you think your artisticability came from?ARTHUR:My clearest memory ofwhen I was really fascinated by someonedrawing was, I believe, when we weremoving away from where we were livingin West Virginia. I cant exactly rememberwhich town we were in, but we were mov-ing away from West Virginia, and we wereloading up boxes. And my dad,on one of the boxes,drew some stick fig-ures of us kids, justPa-/ 1: C,*'!., M,+./#-. a+" D'+,.a0-.67on the side of a boxjust big figures of usloading boxesand for some reason Ifound that really fascinating.MM:Was your dad strict?ARTHUR:My dad wasespecially earlyon, at least for the first, gosh, maybe evenfor the first six or seven years of my lifegone a lot, because he was in the Air Force.He would often spend as much as a yearaway from home. So he would be gone,and then he would come back, yknow, forthe month of June, and hed have to go offagain for months on end. When I wasabout maybe seven or eight, he wasnt trav-eling quite as much, but he was still in theAir Force, and he worked at the air baseevery day for eight or ten hours a day. Mymom was the disciplinarian.MM:Are you the eldest?ARTHUR:I am.MM:When you were growing up, didyou hang out all by yourself since yourfamily moved around so much?ARTHUR:I was mostly on my own. Itsnot that we didnt have friends; I playedwith some kids in the neighborhoods. Andthere were five of us boys, so we werealways playing together.MM:So you didnt find these moves kindof hard?ARTHUR:You know, its just what wedid, so it never occurred to me that it wasdifficult. And because my dad was in theAir Force, we were going to the school onthe Air Force base, so everyone I knew wasin the exact same situation. You could behanging out with somebody one year andthey just dont come back ever again, orthey get shipped off somewhere else.MM:So you felt like they were shippingyou off? Like you were in the Service?ARTHUR:I guess I never really thoughtabout it like that. I just knew that I didntwant to join the Air Force at that timebecause I just knew that wasnt for me.MM:Wasnt that something your dadencouraged?ARTHUR:For me, no. He did encouragethat in some of my brothers, but he knewthat I was moreI had an artistic leaning,and he wanted me to pursue that.MM:When you say that your dad wasthe first person to give you comics, is thathow you discovered comics?ARTHUR:Well, Im sure I must have got-ten comics before that. I must have,because we had all the usual kids books,and my mom would go to the thrift shopon the base and buy just stacks of comicsfor a dollar. Itd be this ten pound pile ofcomics wrapped in twine or whatever.Previous Page: Anearly 80s fantasy draw-ing.Above: A 1983 portfolio piece.Hobgoblin, Spider-Man and2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.MM:It was for you and your brothers?ARTHUR:Oh, yeah, for me and my brothers. But Iwas the oldest, so I was always skimming off the top, ifyou know what I mean. I was always taking the beststuff. I wasnt necessarily a really good big brother.[laughter] Ah, we all saw em. But my dad did bringbecause he knew I liked drawing and monsters and allthat sort of stuffon one of his trips overseas, one ofthe guys had a couple of the old, big Marvel Treasurybooks. I believe it was the first Marvel Treasury HolidayGrab-Bag, and then, I think it was the Spectacular Spider-Man one where they reprinted Ditkos Sinister Six story.MM:Those are both from the 70s, right?ARTHUR:The Treasury Editions? Yeah. Theyre fromthe earlier 70s, yeah. I must have been, like, eight or ninewhen I got these. I wasnt really, really young, but I couldhave been ten; Im not really sure. So, yeah, he got those,and I was just really amazed by them. I thought they werereally cool, especially the Holiday Grab-Bag, because theyreprinted those two issues where the Fantastic Four andthe Avengers fought the Hulk, and it had a Wally WoodDaredevil story, and a Gene Colan and Bill Everett BlackWidow story. And what else? I think it reprinted the firstissue of Marvel Team-Up. It was just a really nice collectionthat had all of Marvels main super-heroes in it.MM:Was this bookit wasnt all of a sudden you wantedto become a comic book artist. This happened gradually?ARTHUR:Well, yeah, I didnt want to become a comicbook artist immediately. What I thought originally I wasgoing to be was a paleontologist, because I was really,really into dinosaurs, and I loved drawing dinosaurs. Iwould just draw them all the time, and I would just driveeveryone in school nuts, because I was always keepingup with dinosaur stuff.8MM:After High Energy, thats when youstarted sending submissions to the othercompanies, right?ARTHUR:Thats when I started sendingout submissions to Marvel and DC. Im notsure if I was sending out stuff to Pacific orFirst. Im not even sure whether they exist-ed at that point.MM:So how did it work? Who hired youfirst, was it Marvel or DC? Because I thinkyou had something published in CaptainCarrot.ARTHUR:One of the things I sent in wasa drawing of a character in Captain Carrotcalled Farrah Foxette, who, as you mayguess, was based on Farrah Fawcett. And mebeing the super-genius that I am, I found thedouble poster ofFarrah Fawcettwhere shes wear-ing a one-pieceswimsuit and right behind her is a multicol-ored, striped piece of cloth or something;Im not sure what it is, just a multicolored,striped background. So me, being a super-genius, I copied that poster and changed herhead to Farrah Foxette. I sent that to CaptainCarrot, and I got a call, like, a week or twolater from Roy Thomaswhich was prettyexciting, because Id been reading RoyThomas Conan comics and all sorts of othercomics for who knows how longasking ifthey could use that for the letters page. Andthey only had a certain budget for the let-ters page, but hed be happy to pay me $10for the piece. I said, Sure, why not?MM:This was long before Longshot?ARTHUR:Yes, it was before Longshot, butthat would hardly be countedas a submission, I think.That was almost a fanletter.Pa-/ 2: A L,+%.&,/ Pa3. O$$Below: In 1987 Arthurwas asked to redesignLongshot for the X-Mentitle. These are some ofthe samples.Longshot and 2006 MarvelCharacters, Inc.19MM:When that pin-up came out in Captain Carrot, didyou think youd made it? Was that a good feeling?ARTHUR:Ummm, I dont know that I thought Idmade it. I thought it was pretty cool, but I also thoughtit was pretty silly. I knew that the rest of my career was-nt going to be based on the same $10 pin-up.MM:Was it one of those things, where you went outto buy as many copies as you could to show it to yourparents and yourARTHUR:I must have bought ten or 15 copies, becauseI like to keep extras for myself, and then I got some forthe rest of my family, yeah. But, I wasnt bragging aboutit too much. It was ten bucks. Its hard to remember nowfrom the beginning of my career, but being published, Idont know if I thought it was as big a deal to me as actu-ally being able to have a career doing it.MM:So then, as you mentioned before, Joe Rubinsteinhelped you out a little bit, showing your portfolio allaround at Marvel, and somehow it ended up on Annslap. That was the story that never got published, right?ARTHUR:Thats the story that never got published.That was at least a year before I got hired to do Longshot.I was still 18 at that time when Joe took my samples andshowed them to people at Marvel, and I cant remembernow if it was Denny ONeil or Linda Grant, but theysaid theyd be happy to have me do a three- or four-pagething. So I did a tight layout for that, and it had a shortlittle script that was just a silly little cruel joke for BizarreAdventures. And they got that, and this, apparently, wasgoing to be published in the issue right after the bookgot canceled, so.... Im actually not too sad about that.MM:You mentioned you werent happy with that art.ARTHUR:I just wasnt ready to be a professional artistyet at that time, and as nice as Joe was to get me that job,I just dont know if Joe is actually the inker for me, eventhen. But the funny thing was that Id done the script anddid the really tight layouts, and I got a call back fromLinda Grant asking me who Id like to have draw the story.So I was kind of surprised, because I had never had anyintention of going into comics to write comicsI justwanted to draw. So of course I said, Me. I want to drawit. And they let me do that, and I sent it in. I cant remem-ber what I got paid. It was probably two or three hundredbucks. That was a pretty good deal. Actually, it probably20wasnt that much, but either way, it wasmore money than Id been paid for any onething at one time, so it was still pretty cool. But I called up Linda Grant and asked ifthey had any more work for me, and I gotthe expected answer, which was, Dont callus, well call you. A couple months afterthat I realized I wasnt going to get anymore work out of them, so I decided to dosome more samples.MM:And that took you another year toprepare these new samples, right?ARTHUR:Enh, like most of the things inmy career, it probably took a week or two,but I ended up taking a year doing them.So I did those samples and I sent them toabsolutely everyone I could think of atMarvel Comics and at DC Comics.MM:And thats when Ann found theportfolio, right?ARTHUR:Yeah, whathappened was, Al Milgrom was ending hisstint as an editor to go freelance, and hewas cleaning out his office and he appar-ently had a stack of submissions that hedkind of gone through a little bit, but nottoo much. So as he was cleaning his office,he was quickly going through them, toss-ing the ones that he thought had somepotential to Carl Potts. Ann Nocenti at thetime, I think, was just coming on as anassistant editor, and she was going to beCarl Potts assistant. And so Al was goingthrough these submissions and was tossingthe ones he thought had some potentialover to Carl, and Carl went through themand thought mine was okay, and called meup and offered me a script for some issueof The DefendersI cant really rememberwhat issue numberand said, Here, goahead and do layouts for 15 pages out ofthis thingabout ten or 15, its not impor-tantand well see what we think about.21Previous Page: Pages 2and 3 of The Return ofRichard Buzznick, whichwas intended for an issueof Bizarre Adventuresbefore its cancelation.Inks by Joe Rubinstein.Above: Two of TheDefenders pages Arthurpenciled as samples forMarvel.Beast, The Defenders, Gargoyle,Richard Buzznick, Scarlet Witch,The Vision and 2006Marvel Characters, Inc.MM:Is this when The Defenders was made up offormer X-Men members?ARTHUR:I was just at the beginning of thatpoint, I think. It was Angel and Beast andIceman... Moondragon, I think, and thatGargoyle character they had.MM:And this was published?ARTHUR:No, this was never published.This was from a script for a job that wasbeing worked on at that time. This isjust samples, which is apparentlysomething that Marvel did at thetime. I dont know if they still do, but theywould send you a script for something that wasactually going to be used, but not with theintention of ever actually using the artworkthat you did. They were just trying to see ifyou could handle the job. And I cantremember what it paid; it was, I dontknow, probably 20 bucks a page, some-thing like that. I honestly cant remember.Could have been a little more, could havebeen a little less.MM:How did Ann lure you to Longshot?ARTHUR:I did those pages and, for the most part, they werent crazy about manyof the pages. Most of my action was not very good, and my proportions and anatomywere all a little bit odd, but there were a couple pages where I had some character justwashing dishes and just kind of hanging out, and they liked those. Iguess they thought that showed that I did have the characters act.Because comics arent just people punching each other, they actuallyhave to sometimes look like theyre just doing regular stuff.Apparently, Ann in particular liked these couple pages of thecharacter thing. At that time, I think Marvel had a policy that if youwere going to become an editor at Marvel, you had to have writtensomething for them, or possibly even have created a character forthem. Dont hold me to that, thats just what I recall. So shed madeup this character, Longshot, apparently about a year before shedcome across my samples. And as I recall her telling me, everyoneshed shown her script to had turned her down. They said they did-nt have time, or they just could not possibly understand the char-acter. And so they went in and took a chance on me doing it.MM:Did you get it right away?ARTHUR:Longshot is kind of an odd character to me. Believeme, I really liked working on itit was a lot of fun, and Annwas a lot of fun to work withbut I never quite got the idea ofthe character, that his super-power was that he was lucky. Thatseems to be the case with lots of super-heroes and lots ofaction/adventure characters. But that was his actual power: hewas lucky. And there were other little things. He was an alien22MM:I always felt the Action Annual you did with JohnByrne was a key moment in your career. I mean, a lot ofpeople dont talk about it, but there was big change inyour style from what wed seen before. Did Giordanohave something to do with that, or was that just you?ARTHUR:I think its a combination. This is more storythan you actually need, really.MM:But I always thought that the art was really good. Imean, is it one of those things you dont like talking about?ARTHUR:No, itsone of those thingswhere real life is kindof influencing what isgoing on in the page.At the time I wasworking on the ActionAnnual, I was also, forwhatever reason,working on the firstGumby special, the firstSummer Fun Special.And, at that exactsame time, my girl-friend broke up withme. So [laughs] I wasjust miserable for amonth, and I was justtrying to get this workdone. Like, I wasworking on the Actionpage, Mike Carlinwould call up and say,[whining] Are thereany of those pages? Ineed them now. ButMike, I cant draw, mygirlfriend broke upwith me. Arthur, soyour girlfriend brokeup with you. I dontcare. I need pages. SoI was trying to getthose done.Ive never beencomfortable drawing Supermanat that time I wasnteven really comfortable drawing Batmanbut I thinkthat I was working on that right after Franks Dark Knightcame out, so that was probably a big influence on what Iwas doing.MM:It shows a lot.ARTHUR:Sure. And, gee, I was drawing Supermans chinreally big; I would get calls from Carlin saying, Could youplease not make his chin so big? And me, being a jackass,I wouldMM:Make it bigger?ARTHUR:I wouldmake the chin bigger.[laughs] So somehowwe got that one done.And its not one of myfavorites now, but,you know.... You men-tioned not a lot ofpeople talk about it,but, you know, a lotof people do tell methat its one of theirfavorite books.MM:But consciously,were you trying tochange your figure-work? The figures area lot bulkier in thisstory.ARTHUR:Because Iwas looking at FranksDark Knight a greatdeal, so Im sure thatmust have been a biginfluence.MM:When you weredrawing, putting asidethe breakup and allthat stuff, did you findit fun?Pa-/ 3: T Fa+/a./'! V,3a%#3536ARTHUR:Im sure I was trying to do something differ-ent. Its kind of a blur now. I think I actually, for all of mycomplaining about my not getting it done quicklyenough, I think, for me, it actually went relatively quickly.MM:Did Byrne write this just for you? Was that thestory you got?ARTHUR:Yeah. Thats one of the few where one of thepages, I guess John and Carlin didnt like my storytelling,so they rearranged some panels on one page, which kindof drove me nuts.MM:I think your storytelling looked better on thisthan anything up to that point.ARTHUR:You know, I think youre probably right. Ithink it was pretty clear. And Johns really direct andreallyagain, I believe it was a plot; I dont believe itwas full script, but Im not absolutely sureabout that. But it was, as I recall, really direct,and it was really easy to draw.MM:What about the vamp girl? Did they askyou to draw that Mr. Peanut on her shirt forthe whole story?ARTHUR:[laughs] My girlfriend who had justdumped me had that exact T-shirt. [laughter][whining] I went and drew it because I thoughtit was cute.MM:So you didnt have any problem withlegal over that?ARTHUR:Surprisingly enough, no. Its one ofthose weird pop culture things. Theres onlybeen a couple of times where Marvel or DCslawyers said, Please dont do that. I think thelast one was either the New Mutants Special or theX-Men Annual, where I drew, like, Hagar theHorrible or something in the back of one panelin Asgard. [laughs] Yknow, it was stupid, becauseI drew him pretty much like Hagar the Horrible.Theres no good reason for that character to bethere, but I drew him anyway. I think someonein legal said, Please dont do that.MM:This story also has Don Knotts in it,too. That was pretty cool, I thought.ARTHUR:[laughs] Where was Don Knotts?MM:You made him the deputy to the sheriff.ARTHUR:Oh, yeah, thats right. Oh, yeah.Thats one of those things writers are askingfor, and if I had done more work, maybe writ-ers would be onto me by now. He asked for him to bekind of an Andy GriffithMM:See, thats one of those things I was telling youbefore that I thought was charming about your work,because you helped bring Marvel Comics into the1980s. Those little nuances went a long way.ARTHUR:Well, I appreciate that. [laughs] I dont knowif I would have given myself credit for that, but I willnow. So thank you. So yes, I was thinking of an AndyGriffith Show sort of vibe for the thing, so theres DonKnotts. Like, in Jonni Future, the writer, Steve Moore,asked for Jonni Futures house to look kind of like thePsycho house. So I was thinking, How can I draw some-thing like the Psycho house? How can I draw somethinglike the Psycho house? I know! Ill draw the Psycho house![laughter] Me being all smart and stuff.37MM:What did you think of DickGiordanos inks on your work on that comic?ARTHUR:I was quite thrilled and hon-ored to have Dick Giordano inking myself,but I think dont know if he had enoughtime to ink my stuff. MM:It seemed like he was pretty faithfulto whatever you put down on the page.ARTHUR:As I recall, he was. I think Ijust wasnt crazy about his line weight.MM:Okay, because I always thought itwas a strange case. I know he can doeverything, but it was a strange choicefor your style.ARTHUR:Yeah, I dont think it was amatch made in heaven. Again, I washonored and flattered that he was will-ing to do it. I just dont know if it wasreally a great combination.MM:How did you get yourself intothe Gumby thing? I thought I read thatyou werent even a big fan of Gumbygrowing up or anything.ARTHUR:When I lived in WestVirginia there was a little boy downthe street named Rusty who one daystole my Gumby and Pokey toys thatI was playing with outside. But he wasan older kid, this Rusty, and he wasrunning away and I couldnt catchhim, and I was crying because I want-ed my Gumby and Pokey back. Hethrew Gumby in a bush where Icouldnt get it. So I have bad memo-ries of Gumby and Pokey. [laughs]I think on the second issue ofLongshotfor whatever reasononvarious Longshot pages I was drawingGumby as various super-heroes. Idont know why I was doing it, Iwas just doing it. So there was a lit-tle Superman Gumby and a Spider-Man Gumby and Thor Gumby andwhatever else. Occasionally whenI visited Mignola, who lived in theOakland area, we went to Comicsand Comix and visited with DianaSchutzbecause she knew aboutcomics and she was a girl, so wecould talk to her. For whateverreason, I brought my Longshot pages withmeI guess because I was showing off toMignola and Purcellto show folk atComics and Comix. Diana was there andshe saw them and got a kick out of the lit-tle Gumbys drawn in the corners.Years and years go by, and she finds her-self as an editor at Comico Comics. Andwhen they were looking for stuff to do, sheremembers that I had drawn these weird lit-tle Gumbys in the corners of this Longshotjob. We can get Arthur to draw Gumbycomics! Thatll be something for Comico tolicense, and itll get Arthur Adams workingPrevious Page: Page 2of Gumby Winter FunSpecial #1.Below: The Psychohouse makes its firstappearancefrom theJonni Future story inTom Strongs Terrific Tales#1. Jonni Future and 2006Americas Best Comics, LLC.Gumby, Pokey and 2006Art Clokey.MM:So then how did you get over to Dark Horse? Isthat something that you were planning?ARTHUR:Well, I was certainly not planning, no. Again,planning is not a big part of my career. Schreck had justbecome an editor. I guess both Bob Schreck and DianaSchutz had become editors at Dark Horse, and, of course,Id already had a long, friendly relationship with both ofthose people. When Id been workingI cant rememberwhat job Id beenworking on. I wasprobably working onone of the X-MenAnnuals. I got a callfrom MikeRichardson right atthe beginning oftheir days at DarkHorse Comics, ask-ing me to draw oneof their Aliens books,which I hadabsolutely no inter-est in doing. Thatsnot fair; I cant say Ihad no interest indoing, because Iliked the Aliens stuff.I just didnt think itwas my cup of tea.And I was busyworking on what-ever the heck I wasworking on. So Idbeen offered workfrom Dark Horsebefore they gotthere, but I justcouldnt do it.Bob was atone of theWonderConconventions inOakland, havingjust come toDark HorseComics, and he was asking what Id be interested in doing.And he was saying they were getting the license forbecause he was always a big monster fanall the Universalmonsters. Would I be interested in doing those? And I said,Well, yeah! Definitely! You know, the Universal monsters,I loved those. So I was saying Id like to do something withthe Creature from the Black Lagoon. He said, Well, we needsomeone to do adaptations of all the movies. I said, Well,I dont really want to do a movie adaptation. I dont knowabout you, but Ive seen plenty ofthe Marvelonespretty rarefor those to beany good. I thinkWalters Alien forHeavy Metal wasabout the onlyreally goodmovie/comic bookadaptation I couldthink of at thattime.MM:Some of theWilliamson StarWars stuff wasnttoo bad.ARTHUR:No,thats true, thatstrue. That wasgreat. That wasabsolutelyMM:Those are therare exceptions.ARTHUR:Yeah, Ithink those are therare exceptions. So Iwas not interested indoing a movie adap-tation, but I wasinterested in doingmaybe a new, origi-nalI dont knowwhat the hell I wasPa-/ 4: R'"'+% S,), ,+ a Da-( H,-.#thinkingbut a new, original Creature fromthe Black Lagoon story. And so Schreck wassaying, Well, wed love to have you dothat, but we really need to get themovie adaptation first, or else we justcant get permission to do the rest.So finally they wore me down andtalked me into doing the adaptation.MM:You were faithful. I thoughtthat came out really well.ARTHUR:I thought it came out prettywell, too, which is why I now have astanding policy that Ill only adaptmovies that are at least 50 years old.MM:So you wanted to do a new storywith the Gill Man?ARTHUR:I did. I had noplans, no plot, no realidea of what I wasgoing to do with thecreature. Somehow I wasgoing to come upwith some allnew, origi-nal thing.Again, Ihave noidea whatthat wouldhave been.MM:So doingthis adaptationgot it out of yoursystem already?ARTHUR:Im veryhappy with the finishedproduct, but it was hardwork to do, because this wasbefore DVDs. Universalwhich hadgivenuspermissionto do the various adaptations that DarkHorse was doingfor whatever reasoncouldnt find a script for Creature from the BlackLagoon, even though thered been a bookprinted with the script. Which will get meto the Walt Simonson Curse in a moment.We just couldnt get a script, so I got afriend of mine, Steve Moncusewhos thecreator of Fish Police, and who was also a bigCreature from the Black Lagoon fan, so I knew Icould con him into doing this job that Ididnt want to doto watch the film overand over and over again, and to write thescript, and to describe what was going on ineach scene. I had the videotape and wouldjust watch, like, a minute of it every dayand just draw what was happening in thatone minute of the movie.MM:Were you guys still a fan of the filmafter that?ARTHUR:I was still a fan of the film, but Icould not watch it for, like, four or five years. MM:What was the Walt Simonson Curse?ARTHUR:Walt early on in my career haddescribed this particular curse for everycomic book artist, and probably all artists ofevery sort. Whenever you need reference forsomething you can never find it. No matterwhat it is, you can never find it.Unless you own italready, you cannever find any ofthe referenceyou needuntil immedi-ately after youdo the job. Withthe Creature from theBlack Lagoon, wednot been able tofind a script. Idbeen up to Portland,Oregon a couple times atthat point, and they havea huge, huge book storethat has everythingthere, and I knewUniversalhad justpub-lished a bunch of their oldUniversal monster film scripts with variousother stuff in there. I knew they must havethe script there, they must have it. So I wassending people there, I was going theremyself, and could not find the script any-where. Immediately after I finished the job, Iwent to visit Powells Book Store. Not onlydid they have the script and synopses of48Above: A 1986 illustration for Fish Police,a creation of SteveMoncuse.Right: The Gill Manstalks the lovely KayLawrence. Panel detailsand page 28 fromCreature from the BlackLagoon. Inks by TerryAustin.Fish Police and 2006 SteveMoncuse. Creature from theBlack Lagoon and 2006Universal City Studios, Inc.proposed scripts, there was also a novelization ofCreature from the Black Lagoon. So it would have beeneverything that I needed early on, and I wouldnt havehad to go through all that other stuff. When Joyce, my wife, was working on some tryoutsfor a book called Nevada, there was some character in itthat was supposed to be an ostrich. I have all sorts ofwildlife reference here in various books and stuff. And, ofcourse, were living in San Franciscotherere bookstoreseverywhere. We could not find a good photograph of anostrich anywhere to save our lives.When she was working on a book called WynnonaEarp, someone was supposed to bein a Hum-V right when theHum-Vs were getting popular.And, you know, Id seen toysand all sorts of stuff with theHum-V. But as soon as she hadto draw it, we went looking intoy stores all over the city andcould not find a Hum-V toy.Thats the Walt SimonsonCurse. Whenever you needreference, you cannot findit.MM:You were a lit-tle tight on some ofthe pages. Did you feellike you couldnt do allthe splash pages andsemi-splashes?ARTHUR:Oh, defi-nitely not. I would have preferredbecause it was a 48-page bookI would havebeen much happier with what would be the next increment up. Even 52 pageswould have been better. Yeah, I really needed breathing space on that thing. But Iwas able to get in almost everything in the movie. I only had to cut one small scene,but somehow I was able to get everything else in. And I think it worked out all right,and certainly a lot of people seem to like that one. But thats, as Im always telling people,the one job Ive done that I know lost money for the company, at least initially.MM:They said that?ARTHUR:Oh, yeah. There was a good reason why it lost a lot of money. They were doingfour or five adaptations of the old Universal monster movies. I think they put out Dracula first,or Frankenstein? Im not really sure, but either way, the first one did not sell particularly well,and the second one sold marginally worse, so the lady who was in charge of advertising forDark Horse at the time for solicitations and buying ad space and all that stuff, decided that itwas not worth advertising the Creature from the Black Lagoon because it wasnt going to make moneyanyway, so why bother advertising it?MM:Oh, God. [laughs]ARTHUR:When it came out, people were just surprised. Initially I think they only printed14,000 or something like that, and somehow that didnt cover things for the book, because it4950was aI dont know as much about the numbers onthe books as I should. It had a pretty good coverprice. It seemed like that would have covered14,000, but to my understanding it didnt.MM:Did you ever have a shot to do King Kong asa part of that deal?ARTHUR:At that time, no. Because I was askingthem about the rights to that, but at the time, therights were all confused. I guess the rights havebeen sorted out to whatever degree now, but Iimagine theres going to be so many Kong-relatedthings coming out, I dont know if now would bethe time Id want to do a Kong thing.MM:I think the first thing you did for DarkHorseIm not sure if its the first thing, but Ithink it was the first thing that came outwasthat Star Wars cover you did.ARTHUR:That could be, could be.MM:What was the story behind that? Youwere just to put everything you could put intoit? Has that always been your motto since thebeginning?ARTHUR:Its my motto, because it kind ofgoes with what I was telling you a little whileago, that I have trouble saying no to jobs. Butalso I sometimes have trouble deciding what todraw in a single scene, especially when itssomething asI dont if big is the right word,but lets say as bigas the first StarWarsmovie. It had lots of stuff that I really likedin it, and I wanted to find some way to get it allin one piece. I got quite a lot of it in there, Iguess. [laughs]MM:I always thought that was a greatpiece. You even won an award from it.ARTHUR:Somehow I have an awardhere from some guys in Spain that run aconvention out there. Its a really niceone. Its this big, brass guy on a block ofmarble. I could probably kill a bunch ofpeople before the cops took me out, withthis thing. Its big and scary.But, yeah, I just wanted to get as muchstuff on the cover as I could, and somehow itseemed to work okay. But what was funnyabout that one is in my initial layouts for itbecause Dark Horse needed to see a couple ofAbove: Cover art forClassic Star Wars: A NewHope #1.Right: King Kongas heappeared in King Kong vs.Godzilla, gorilla suit andallfrom 1998s TheOfficial GodzillaCompendium, publishedby Random House.Next Page: Final artand thumbnail script forMonkeyman & OBrien #3,page 30. Star Wars and 2006Lucasfilm Ltd. King Kong and2006 Universal City Studios,Inc. Monkeyman & OBrien and 2006 Arthur Adams.MM:Whats a typical day? Where do you start?ARTHUR:A typical day. Umm....MM:Whats your schedule? ARTHUR:I generally try to be at my drawing boardJoyce will laugh at this, but I try to be at my drawingtable by between nine and ten in the morning. I wouldget more work done if I got down here a little bit earlier,but unfortunately Im kindof a night owl. That does-nt mean Im necessarilyworking late at night, or, ifI am working, Im workingmuch more slowly later atnight. So I try to be atmy table at about tenoclock, and I generallywork till four or five,with a couple of littlesnack breaks, and maybespending too much timelooking at the comput-er. And, because Imgetting older, Ive beentrying to exercise a lit-tle bit, so every otherday I may go out andwalk around for twoor three hours.MM:But you nolonger burn the mid-night oil?ARTHUR:Oh, itdepends, it depends.I sometimes do, andIm often workingpretty late. Lately,because Im feelingway behind on mycurrent project, Imgenerally startingwork at about tenoclock, and havea break for lunchor whatever little snack, and then Ill make dinner ataround five or six. Im a slow cooker. It usually ends uptaking two or three hours for me to make dinner. [laughs]And then, after dinner, Ill sometimes come downstairsand work for another two or three hours.MM:Do you have to get yourself in the mood to dothe work? Does everything have to be right?ARTHUR:You know, I dont think so. Somehow thingsjust seem to get done when they need to get done.But its not really amood thing. WhatI find is that if Idont work, I kindof get moregrouchy if I dontdo at least a littlebit of work everyday.MM:What type ofequipment do youusually use? Do youhave a favorite pen ora pencil?ARTHUR:For pen-cils, well, I usuallystart out a page using anon-photo blue pencil,a Prismacolor non-photo blue pencil withan eraser on the backend, because its not toowaxy, it erases fairly eas-ily. And then Ill usuallytighten up those non-photo blue pencils with alight blue pencil, alsowith an eraser. And then Iwill tighten those up fur-ther with a Ticonderoga,just plain old #2 pencil.MM:When you ink yourwork, do you usually use amarker, or do you usePa-/ 6: S/,-3/#))'+% a+" / C-#a/'1# P-,!#..7778ARTHUR:For almost thelast decade or so, Ive beenusing the Staedtler PigmentLiner, which comes in avariety of sizes. Its perma-nent ink, but its in a felt-tip pen, yes.MM:You dont use a brush?ARTHUR:No. I learned how to use abrush fairly early on in my career, and Ilike that just fine, its just I feel a little loos-er when Im using the pen. It feels a littlebit less like a real job. Which may explainmy career. [laughs]MM:But you can get those thinner lines,I guess, with that pen?ARTHUR:Well, I can do that with acrow quill or even with a brush just aswell, it just takes a little more concentra-tion. With these particular pens, here,these big permanent markers, theyre justreally easy to have around. And sometimesIll take work upstairs and just sit on thecouch with my lapboard and just ink away.MM:Do you watch television while youwork?ARTHUR:Sadly, I do toomuch of that, which is one of the reasons Idont have cable TV here in my studio. ButI have a fairly large selection of DVDs.MM:Do you usually work on a lapboardinstead of an art board?ARTHUR:I have a nice big old drawingboard that I work on here in my studio. Ionly use the lapboard when Im upstairs.MM:You find it uncomfortable after awhile, working at the drawing board?ARTHUR:Oh, no, no, no. Ive been doingit for so long that I find it more uncomfort-able if I dont do it every once in a while.MM:Because I thought thats why you wereusing the lapboard, to just move around thehouse more, or watch televisionARTHUR:For some reason, my wifeinsists on seeing me occasionally every day.Above: Layout and self-rejected finishedpencils for the cover ofClassic X-Men #1.Next Page: Coverthumbnails forArmageddon: Inferno #1and Vampirella SummerNights #1. Both weredrawn at 1/4-size on thesame board (along withtwo Godzilla splash pagethumbnails).Superman and all related characters and 2006 DCComics. X-Men and 2006Marvel Characters, Inc.Vampirella and 2006 HarrisPublications. Cousin Eerie,Uncle Creepy and 2006Warren Publishing, Inc.A-/&0- A"a*.A-/ Ga))#-3Godzilla and 2006 Toho Co., Inc. Creature from the Black Lagoon and 2006 Universal City Studios, Inc. Arthur Adams and 2006 Arthur Adams.91Longshot, Mojo, Spriral and all related characters and 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.Modern Masters:ARTHURADAMSby George Khoury & Eric Nolen-WeathingtonEdited by ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON, these trade paperbacks are devoted to theBEST OF TODAYS COMICSARTISTS! Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORKdirect from the artists files, plusa COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW(including influences and theirviews on graphic storytelling),DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!(128-page trade paperback) SOLD OUT(Digital Edition) $4.95http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=346IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THELINK BELOW TO ORDER THIS BOOK!