All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #8 Variant Cover Original Art (DC, January 2008).

Who do YOU see?

Neal was my favorite Batman artist, and I am beyond sad about his passing this past week. This cover is very special to me for many reasons, and if you saw my recent Amateur DD, I showed and talked about this piece briefly. I will never forget the first time I saw it, ECCC 2017. I was flipping through Neal's "expensive portfolio" and stopped on this cover. Per the question at the top, I immediately saw Joker. Neal noticed and asked me what I thought. I told him I loved his Joker and the image and.....OH! There's a hidden image! He laughed and said so many people would initially see one but not the other and then be shocked when the other revealed itself. I loved the cover but couldn't afford it, so I moved on.

In case you are wondering what I mean by "one or the other", this image deftly combines Joker and Batman into a single image (look again if you missed it the first time!). I love the optical illusion at play here. I didn't know how an artist could imagine this design, and so flawlessly? Well, according to Neal, he couldn't, but more on that in a bit.

It was still in the portfolio 2 years later, ECCC 2019. On Day 3 of the con, I brought my kids, and they wanted to see Neal (they LOVED his stories and art). He did a killer commission for me, we were dressed up as the Bat family, and were going to take a picture together with Neal and pick up the commission. I just had to show them this specific cover. Neal told a story about "elephants in the sky", an analogy to clouds and how they can take on all sorts of different shapes and perspectives. He described setting up a ketchup bottle and toothpick holder on a piece of paper, shining light on them, and moving them to change how the shadows were cast to inspire the masterpiece that ultimately became this cover. Neal Adams was probably the most confident artist I ever met, and he always said he could draw anything. Hearing him say that he could not have imagined it on his own was dumbfounding to me and made me appreciate the cover that much more!

I committed to buy at Heroes 2019 and ended up getting it in hand after COVID swept the world. I had planned on videoing him retelling the story, but with cons suspended, finally asked if he would be willing to write a companion story for the piece, which Neal overdelivered in October 2021. I had hoped to print out the story, have him remarque and sign, and frame it with the cover. Alas, I will never get that chance. I have included his unabridged original writing below.

Accomplished in ink over graphite on 11"X17" art board. Signed in lower right corner.

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