Neal Adams!

Since I was about 9 years old, the name Neal Adams has always had mythic proportions. I started to get serious about my comic book collecting at about that age, and all I knew was the particular issues that he had drawn were all about $30 in value. I didnt even have the ability to SEE the art close up, much less own any.

 

For Christmas a few years later, my brother Joe had bought the full X-Men/ Adams issues for me (these would the first work he'd done for Marvel, and would go on to become very valuable). I'm not sure how my brother knew to get those particular issues, but, it was surprise to me!

Over the years, I would start to accumulate more of Neals work, and ended up with a nice little collection (as I said, most of his books were a bit too expensive for me, but I managed to find some in relatively good condition). Little did I know, Neal had also become a huge proponent of 'Creators Rights' among the comics industry, and was solely responsible for some of the aging creators to see profits from they're characters (that were now being made into multi-million dollar movies/ properties).

Fast forward almost 20 years, and I was heading up the 'Animation' section of the newly formed 'Digital Entertainment Network'. We were having meetings with random content creators, and they told me I was to have a meeting with "Neal Adams' who was there to pitch us content. I wasn't sure it was the same guy, but, sure enough, here I am having a meeting with the man himself. Once our 'business' was over, I had him sign a few things. I was starstruck, even though most people in the office had no idea who he was.