Green Arrow 1974

Green Arrow sketch by Neal drawn at a 1974 San Jose convention. Original is on standard size 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It first saw publication in a 1975 fanzine, Venture. The original pen and ink drawing was colored at a later date. When I won this off of EBay in Dec. 2004, the seller attributed the coloring to Neal Adams, but I've received the opinion of one of the original 1974 owners stating that it may have been colored by Steve Oliff. The uncolored B&W image was one of the five used in the infamous bootleg Neal Adams portfolio. Venture was a fanzine published by Gary Winnick, Frank Cirocoo, and Brent Anderson. In 1986, Brent told me this story that he remembers soon after Venture 5 came out, he remembered sitting in Gary's family kitchen. Gary had cut some wood a little larger thatn the sketch paper, laid on the rubber cement and glued the sketches to the wood so that he could hang them on the walls. Oh well. it must have seemed like a good idea in 1975. I recall at the time Brent told me the story he added that, though he hadn't seen the sketches in years, they would be so stained that I wouldn't want them. Wrong. Rubber cement stains mar the image, but do I give a darn? Heck no! About 20 years after that first inquiry with Brent, one of those lovely sketches fell into my hands. Since then I've acquired the Angle sketch also. I love to buy any early or mid '70s Neal sketches. Please consider growing my collection.