A Marvelous Neal Adams Gallery!

In his relatively short time at Marvel Neal Adams created some of the finest covers the company has ever produced. The masterpiece above with a spaceman descending in golden light before a gaggle of classic cavemen is probably my favorite Adams cover of the era, though it does have stiff competition. 

I think Adams drew the Man-Thing better than anyone. He drew the second Man-Thing story and created the wonderfully macabre image above for an early issue of Monsters Unleashed. There are some fantastic exploitation elements in this one, in particular the woman with the torn blouse and heaving bosoms. The gunshot which goes astray as the Man-Thing in all his shaggy awfulness dispatches the men.  

Dracula is a powerful creature who deserves a powerful artist, and Adams created three dandy covers starring the Lord of the Undead for Marvel. His cover for the debut issue of The Tomb of Dracula is amazing. The image of the vampire king cradling a helpless woman is used again for Dracula Lives, but this time with more background drama. I find the cold ferocity of the former to best effective. 

I used to not like this cover for Marvel Spotlight which featured the debut of Werewolf by Night that much. I was annoyed at the structure, but over the years its grown on me. Perhaps it takes longer for some of us to properly feel the power of lycanthropy. 

This Legion of Monsters cover is legend. What a mob. 

I'm not one hundred percent sure what's going on in this image, but that doesn't stop the ferocious power of it to seep in. One gets a glimpse of the power of the Neal Adams pencil Marvelmania Magazine offering. 

Space, girls, and gibbering monsters is a classic science fiction image and Adams delivers in spades for his Epic Illustrated outing. 

This is an interesting Marvel project Adams produced for another publisher. Back in those halcyon days before the internet, guides and indexes played a big role in my comic book life. 

I know it's culturally insensitive these days (was back then too) but I really like Red Wolf. He was introduced in The Avengers and quickly got his own solo feature in the debut issue Marvel Spotlight. The thing was Marvel decided to switch the setting to the Old West and that was fun, but not as much as seeing this brave warrior taking on modern villains in an urban setting. They eventually brought it back to the modern day, but the title was gone by then. Adams for his part drew a gangbuster cover for this first adventure. 

I know I said the Marvel Preview cover was my favorite but looking again at this Marvel Feature offering I change my mind. Neal Adams created an epic image with Subby, Doc Strange and Jade Jaws in excellent form. I remember the thrill of his new team whenever I see this fantastic debut image. I'm not sure they get better than this one.

But I'm looking at more Neal Adams work for Marvel later this month such as the stuff he produced for The Uncanny X-Men, The Avengers, The Mighty Thor, the Inhumans, and The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu so I might change my mind yet again. Also, I'll be taking a glance at his Sword and Sorcery work for Marvel and others later this summer. 

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