Editing Neal Adams (section)

===''Ben Casey''===
[[File:BenCasey 1stcomicstrip web.jpg|thumb|500px|Premiere of the ''[[Ben Casey]]'' strip, November 26, 1962. Art by Adams.]]

In 1962, Adams began his comics career in earnest at the [[Newspaper Enterprise Association]] [[comic strip syndication|syndicate]]. From a recommendation, writer Jerry Caplin, a.k.a. Jerry Capp, brother of ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' creator [[Al Capp]], invited Adams to draw samples for Capp's proposed ''[[Ben Casey]]'' [[comic strip]], based on the popular television medical-drama series.<ref name=cb /> On the strength of his samples and of his "Chip Martin, College Reporter" [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]] advertising comic-strip pages in ''[[Boys' Life]]'' magazine, and of his similar [[Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company|Goodyear Tire]] ads,<ref>These would later include the one-page "Flash Farrell Gets the Picture at Goodyear Aerospace". See [[Harvey Comics]]' [http://www.comics.org/issue/228623/ ''Richie Rich''] #39 (Nov. 1965) at the [[Grand Comics Database]]</ref> Adams landed the assignment.<ref name=cb /> The first daily strip, which carried Adams' signature, appeared November 26, 1962; a color Sunday strip was added September 20, 1964.<ref name=horn>{{cite book|editor-last=Horn|editor-first=Maurice|editor-link=Maurice Horn|title= 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics|publisher=[[Random House|Gramercy Books]]|location= New York City and Avenel, New Jersey|year= 1996|isbn=978-0-517-12447-5|pages= 53–54, ''Ben Casey'' (entry)}}</ref> Adams continued to do Johnston & Cushing assignments during ''Ben Casey''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s {{Fraction|3|1|2}}-year run.<ref name=mendez1>{{cite web | last = Mendez | first = Prof. Armando E. | url = http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/daily_adams.html | title = The Rules of Attraction: The Look of Love: The Rise and Fall of the Photo-Realistic Newspaper Strip, 1946–1970: 'The Boy Wonder: Neal Adams and ''Ben Casey''<nowiki>'</nowiki> | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070224222709/http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/daily_adams.html | archive-date = February 24, 2007 | access-date = January 1, 2009 | url-status=dead | df = mdy-all }} Additional, November 16, 2009.</ref>

Comics historian [[Maurice Horn]] said the strip "did not shrink from tackling controversial problems, such as heroin addiction, illegitimate pregnancy, and attempted suicide. These were usually treated in soap opera fashion ... but there was also a touch of toughness to the proceedings, well rendered by Adams in a forceful, direct style that exuded realism and tension and accorded well with the overall tone of the strip".<ref name=horn />

In addition to Capp, Jerry Brondfield also wrote for the strip, with Adams stepping in occasionally.<ref name=mendezghost>Mendez, {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061112224800/http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/adamsghost.htm |date=November 12, 2006 |title="The Rules of Attraction ... 'The Boy Wonder: Neal Adams and ''Ben Casey'' — Ghost Stories'" }}. Archived from the [http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/adamsghost.htm original] November 13, 2006. Additional, November 16, 2009.</ref>

The [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] series, which ran five seasons, ended March 21, 1966, with the final comic strip appearing Sunday, July 31, 1966.<ref name=horn /> Despite the end of the series, Adams has said the strip, which he claimed at different points to have appeared in 365 newspapers,<ref name="natp5"/> 265 newspapers,<ref name=tcjp52>{{cite journal|title= Neal Adams interview|journal= [[The Comics Journal]]|issue= 43|page= 52|publisher= [[Fantagraphics]] Books|date= December 1978}}</ref> and 165 newspapers,<ref name=cb2>{{cite web|url=http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/111091948245775.htm |title=Neal Adams: Renaissance Man Part II|publisher= ComicsBulletin.com|date=n.d.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526054454/http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/111091948245775.htm|archive-date=May 26, 2010}}</ref> ended "for no other reason that it was an unhappy situation":

{{Blockquote|We ended the strip under mutual agreement. I wasn't happy working on the strip nor was I happy giving up a third of the money to [the TV series' producer,] [[Bing Crosby]] Productions. The strip I should have been making twelve hundred [dollars] a week from was making me three hundred to three-fifty a week. On top of that, I was not able to express myself artistically when I wanted to. But we left under very fine conditions. I was even offered a deal in which I would be paid so much a month if I would agree not to do any syndicated strip for anyone else, in order that I might save myself for anything they have for me to do.<ref name=natp5 />}}

Adams' goal at this point was to be a commercial illustrator.<ref name=cb /> While drawing ''Ben Casey'', he had continued to do storyboards and other work for ad agencies,<ref name=cb /> and said in 1976 that after leaving the strip he had shopped around a portfolio for agencies and for men's magazines, "but my material was a little too realistic and not exactly right for most. I left my portfolio in an advertising agency promising they were going to hold on to it. In the meantime I needed to make some money ... and I thought, 'Why don't I do some comics?'"<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Neal Adams Treasury|last=Adams|first=Neal|publisher=Pure Imagination|year=1976|volume=1|location=Detroit, MI|pages=5–7|asin=B0006WZB2E}}</ref> In a 2000s interview, he remembered the events slightly differently, saying "I took [my portfolio] to various advertising people. I left it at one place overnight and when I came back to get it the next morning it was gone. So six months worth of work down the drain. ... "<ref name=cb />

He worked as a [[ghostwriter|ghost artist]] for a few weeks in 1966 on the comic strip ''[[Peter Scratch]]'' (1965–1967), a [[hardboiled]] detective serial created by writer [[Elliot Caplin]], brother of Al Capp and Jerry Capp, and artist [[Lou Fine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thrillingdetective.com/scratch.html |title=''Peter Scratch'' |publisher=ThrillingDetective.com |access-date=June 17, 2010|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101225051251/http://thrillingdetective.com/scratch.html |archive-date = December 25, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> Comics historians also credit Adams with ghosting two weeks of dailies for [[Stan Drake]]'s ''[[The Heart of Juliet Jones]]'', but are uncertain on dates; some sources give 1966, another 1968, and Adams himself 1963.<ref name=mendezghost /> As well, Adams drew 18 sample dailies (three weeks' continuity) of a proposed dramatic serial, ''Tangent'', about construction engineer Barnaby Peake, his college-student brother Jeff, and their teenaged sibling Chad, in 1965, but it was not syndicated.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Neal Adams Treasury|last=Adams|first=Neal|publisher=Pure Imagination|year=1976|volume=1|location=Detroit, MI|pages=22–27 and inside back cover|asin=B0006WZB2E}}</ref> Adams later said that Elliot Caplin offered Adams the job of drawing a comic strip based on author [[Robin Moore]]'s ''[[The Green Berets (book)|The Green Berets]]'', but that Adams, who opposed the [[Vietnam War]], where the series was set, suggested longtime [[DC Comics]] [[war comics]] artist [[Joe Kubert]], who landed that assignment.<ref name=cb2 />