When comic book fans hear the name Neal Adams, some of the things they’ll initially relate to the name are his redefining of the look of Batman for years to come, his art from his Green Lantern/Green Arrow run, his time in the late 60’s with the X-Men, or even his advocating for the rights of comic creators. So, why then am I bringing him up on a Spider-Man fansite, you ask? As it turns out, Neal had a big influence on the character in the 90’s. How so? Read on!
Until a few years ago, I had no idea that the late, great, Mr. Adams had anything to do with Spider-Man. In fact, this discovery started thanks to another Spider-Man artist. One day, I had seen a Hobgoblin piece of art come up for sale on eBay. Since Hobgoblin is one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, I had to check it out, of course. As it turned out, the piece was done by former “Web of Spider-Man” artist, Alex Saviuk, for the old ToyBiz line of Spider-Man figures that tied into the 90’s animated series. My curiosity piqued, I decided to look for more of this ToyBiz packaging art for Spider-Man, and, much to my surprise, I started to find some familiar Spider-Man artwork with the very distinctive Neal Adams signature on them! I just couldn’t believe it! Were these just commissions Neal had done that Google randomly lumped in with my search, as they often do? Nope! These were pieces of Spider-Man art that ToyBiz commissioned Neal to do for the 90’s cartoon toyline, and, as a result, they were used for other products during this time period, including wall clings! I had gotten so many of these figures in the 90’s, that it was no wonder why they looked so familiar to me! With Neal’s comics and commercial art background, he was a natural choice to do this particular type of Spider-Man artwork!
Below, you’ll find just some of my favorite Neal Adams artwork that work he did for ToyBiz, along with the accompanying figure it was used for. Did you know Neal worked on Spider-Man? Be sure to let me know your thoughts on Neal’s take on Spider-Man, as well as those ToyBiz figures from the 90’s, in the comments section at the bottom of this page!
English (US) · 