Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Neal Adam's BATMAN is a Major Inspiration for Graphic Artist Al Bigley



I have a friend named Al Bigley who is a Graphic Artist that is totally inspired by the work of Neal Adams. I mean, all you have to do is visit his blog sometime & read a few posts. He's totally goo-goo over Neal Adams & who isn't? Adams did some incredible artwork of the Dark Knight in the 1970's. In fact, he & Dennis O'Neil re-invented the character at the time. During the 1960's the comic book was very influenced by the 1966 TV Show where everything was sort of silly & campy. Well, Denny came in to revamp the character making him more realistic, dark, & more of a detective figure. It worked! The "new" Batman at that time is still considered one of the very best variations. OK, now back to Al. He's a commercial artist who has done a ton of Batman work around the time of the animated series cartoon in the 1990's. He did children's books, the graphics for the Animated Series Action Figure header cards, & even the McDonalds Happy Meal Toy packaging. Here's a few pics I stole from his blog ( ha ha ) that show 2 pieces of proof of his Neal Adams fandom. The 1st one was where he took a very famous, actually iconic, drawing of Batman by Adams & did it in his own "animated style". I think it's an extremely cool parody image & a great homage. The 2nd photo is a vintage personal family photo of Al in the 1970's showing him when he was a little kid & look at what he's wearing...a Batman T-Shirt with Neal Adams ART!! Well, that just proves he's been a big fan for a very long time, ha ha! OK, you might be curious about Al Bigley's artwork by now so please be sure to visit his BIG GLEE BLOG sometime. There's a lot of cool eye candy & pop culture to enjoy ( just click on the yellow word up above ). Thanks Al for allowing me to reprint these pic, they're cool!