Early Life
Arthur Adams was born April 5, 1963 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. His father was a loadmaster in the United States Air Force, and as a result, his family, which would eventually include four younger brothers, migrated frequently to places like West Virginia until Arthur was five years old, when they moved to Vacaville, California, near Travis Air Force Base. Adams' first exposure to superhero and monster comics came through the ones his mother would buy for him once a month at a thrift store, though his enthusiasm for superhero stories by particular creators began when his father returned from an overseas trip with the first Marvel Treasury Grab-Bag, which included stories by Ross Andru, Wally Wood and Gene Colan. His interest in dinosaurs and monsters such as King Kong was also fueled by watching Creature Features on TV every Saturday, and Universal Monster movies such as Frankenstein and Creature from the Black Lagoon. He also enjoyed superhero and science fiction programming, such as Super Friends, Ralph Bakshi's Spider-Man cartoon and Star Trek. Adams' enjoyed drawing frequently in his youth, as far back as he could remember. He discovered the work of Frank Frazetta when he was 13 or 14, which was a "huge" early influence on him, and attempted to mimic his style using watercolor. Adams did not consider illustration as a profession, as he harbored dreams of a paleontologist.
The idea of drawing comics for a living began for Adams in high school when he bought Marvel Comics' Micronauts #1, which was illustrated by Michael Golden, the first artist Adams noticed significantly. Adams would subsequently seek out work by other artists, and names as influences Barry Windsor-Smith, Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson and Terry Austin. Adams also singles out Bill Sienkiewicz's Moon Knight work in Hulk magazine and in particular Walter Simonson's work on The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans, which Adams saw as "the bible of how to draw comics", and "the perfect example of how to do a team book." Simonson, who also harbored in an interest in dinosaurs and paleontology, would later become a close friend and collaborator with Adams, as would as Simonson's wife, Louise Simonson, who would edit Adam's breakthrough project, Longshot. Adams names Simonson and Golden as his two largest artistic influences. Adams also says he was influenced by Jack Kirby after he became a professional artist. Aside from books on drawing human anatomy, Adams' only formal education in illustration was learning newspaper strip-type drawing in his freshman year of high school from Mr. Vandenberg, a teacher who stressed the importance of clear storytelling and perspective. After a female classmate Adams was attracted to talked him into joining the acting club, Adams also entertained notions of becoming an actor, eventually doing community theater for two years. He quit acting when he turned 19, in order to concentrate on drawing.
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