DC Finest: Hard Traveling Heroes

Dennis O’Neil began his career as a comic book writer in 1965 at Charlton, where then-editor Dick Giordano assigned him to several features. When Giordano moved to DC, O’Neil soon followed. At DC, O’Neil scripted several series for Giordano and Julius Schwartz, quickly becoming one of the most respected writers in comics. O’Neil earned a reputation for being able to “revamp” such characters as Superman, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, and Batman, whom O’Neil brought back to his roots as a dark, mysterious, gothic avenger. Besides being the most important Batman writer of the 1970s, O’Neil served as an editor at both Marvel and DC. After a long tenure as Group Editor of the Batman line of titles, he retired to write full-time.

Neal Adams was born June 6, 1941 in New York City. He attended Manhattan’s High School of Industrial Art and, while still a student, found work ghosting the Bat Masterson syndicated newspaper strip and drawing gag cartoons for Archie Comics. Neal received his own comic strip based on the popular TV series Ben Casey in 1962. The strip ran until 1965 at which time Neal made the move to comics for Warren Publishing and DC Comics. Neal’s realistic style on Deadman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow, at odds with the more cartoony comics of the day, made him an immediate star. He became DC’s premier cover artist, contributing radical and dynamic illustrations to virtually the company’s entire line. Neal’s work has also appeared in Marvel’s X-Men, The Avengers, and Thor, on paperback book covers, and on stage, as the art director for the Broadway science fiction play, Warp. In the 1970s, Neal and partner (and frequent inker) Dick Giordano started the art agency Continuity Associates out of which came, in the 1980s, Continuity Comics. Neal is the winner of several Alley, Shazam, and Inkpot Awards, and was inducted into the Harvey Awards’ Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.