Editing Neal Adams (section)

===Early work===
After graduation in 1959, he unsuccessfully attempted to find freelance work at [[DC Comics]],<ref name=NealAdamsEnt/> and turned then to [[Archie Comics]], where he wanted to work on the publisher's fledgling [[superhero]] line, edited by [[Joe Simon]]. At the suggestion of staffers, Adams drew "three or four pages of [the superhero] the [[Fly (Red Circle Comics)|Fly]]", but did not receive encouragement from Simon.<ref name=cb>{{cite web|author=Neal Adams interview|url= http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/111086279993605.htm |title=Neal Adams: Renaissance Man Part I|publisher= ComicsBulletin.com|date=n.d. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217111703/http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/111086279993605.htm |url-status=dead| archive-date=December 17, 2008}}</ref> Sympathetic staffers nonetheless asked Adams to draw samples for the Archie teen-humor comics themselves. While he did so, Adams said in a 2000s interview, he unknowingly broke into comics:

{{blockquote|I started to do samples for Archie and I left my Fly samples there. A couple weeks later when I came in to show my Archie samples, I noticed that the pages were still there, but the bottom panel was cut off of one of my pages. I said, "What happened?" They said, "One of the artists did this transition where Tommy Troy turns into the Fly and it's not very good. You did this real nice piece so we'll use that, if it's OK." I said, "That's great. That's terrific."<ref name=cb />}}

That panel ran in ''Adventures of the Fly'' #4 (Jan. 1960).<ref name=cb /> Afterward, Adams began writing, [[penciler|penciling]], [[inker|inking]], and [[letterer|lettering]]<ref name=natp3 /> humorous full-page and half-page gag fillers for ''Archie's Joke Book Magazine''.<ref name=cb /> In a 1976 interview, he recalled earning "[a]bout $16.00 per half-page and $32.00 for a full page. That may not seem like a great deal of money, but at the time it meant a great deal to myself as well as my mothers ... as we were not in a wealthy state. It was manna from heaven, so to speak." A recommendation led him to artist [[Howard Nostrand]], who was beginning the ''[[Bat Masterson]]'' syndicated newspaper [[comic strip]], and he worked as Nostrand's assistant for three months, primarily drawing backgrounds at what Adams recalled as $9 a week and "a great experience".<ref name=natp3 />

Having "not left Archie Comics under the best of circumstances",<ref name=natp3 /> Adams turned to [[commercial art]] for the advertising industry. After a rocky start freelancing, he began landing regular work at the [[Johnstone and Cushing]] agency, which specialized in comic-book styled advertising.<ref>{{cite web|last=Heintjes|first=Tom|url=http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/features/johnstonecushing.asp|title=Funny Business: The Rise and Fall of Johnstone and Cushing|publisher=Hogan's Alley (online magazine), via MSNBC.com|date=n.d.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828161630/http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/features/johnstonecushing.asp|archive-date=August 28, 2009|url-status=dead}} Additional, November 16, 2009.</ref> Helped by artist [[Elmer Wexler]], who critiqued the young Adams' samples, Adams brought his portfolio to the agency, which initially "didn't believe I had done those particular samples since they looked so much like Elmer Wexler's work. But they gave me a chance and ... I stayed there for about a year".<ref name=natp5>{{Cite book|title=The Neal Adams Treasury|last=Adams|first=Neal|publisher=Pure Imagination|year=1976|volume=1|location=Detroit, MI|page=5|asin=B0006WZB2E}}</ref>