There are some good things about being born in the 1950's. Playing football in the streets (less cars), watching England win the world cup, and collecting comics in the 1960's in the middle of an exciting time that is now called the 'Silver Age', ('Gold' is pre 1950's).

Jim Steranko at Marvel and Neal Adams were the most prominent new artists of the late '60s to enter a field that had been relatively hostile to new artists ... and they brought breaths of modernism, referencing advertising art and pop art as much as comics.

Despite vastly different styles, both favored designs that drew on depth of focus and angularity that put the reader in the center of the action while slightly disorienting them to increase the tension, and placed special emphasis on lighting and body language as emotion cues.

Not that these things were unknown in comics by any stretch, but publishers traditionally deemphasized them. Both were hugely influential on how a new generation of artists thought about what comics should look like.

Although Steranko is my favourite artist, Adams was arguably more influential; his approach was more visceral and, more importantly, he ran a studio in Manhattan [Continuity Associates] where many young artists started their professional careers.

When Neal Adams moved from DC comics to Marvel he revitalised an ailing X-Men comic with a story series lasting from #56 to #63. My 'Last X-Man' painting is taken from the cover of issue 59 first published in August 1969.