Neal Adams (1941-2022)

Neal Adams House of Mystery #180 Cover Original Art (DC, 1969). Adams' affinity for supernatural horror served him well when assigned to editor Joe Orlando's campaign to revamp DC's weird-mystery titles along the lines of the classic EC Comics Tales from the Crypt-type titles. Orlando, after all, was an EC veteran, intent upon reviving that quality in defiance of the repressive Comics Code Authority. A recurring quality of Orlando's cover-design sense was an element of child endangerment -- a strong selling-point for DC's largely juvenile readership. Here, a dragon in a picture-book (lower left) appears to spring to menacing life, in a fine bit of wordless storytelling. The art contains the central image, without the upper logotype area. Ink and white-paint retouching over graphite on toned and stained Bristol board, with an image area of 10.25" x 12.75". The entire image here is original art; however, please note the extreme glue-staining that appears on the dragon-figure. It is from a missing production stat which shrank the dragon by about 10% for the published cover. The remaining art image has whiteout art correction with scuffing on some of those areas. Extremely tight cropping at bottom edge. Good condition. HID09710052018 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved