Allison Sohn

Adam Hughes (born May 5, 1967) is an American comics artist and illustrator best known to American comic book readers for his renderings of pinup-style female characters, and his cover work on titles such as '' Wonder Woman'' and '' Catwoman''. He is known as one of comics' foremost cheesecake artists, and one of the best known and most distinctive comic book cover artists. Throughout his career Hughes has provided illustration work for companies such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. Pictures, '' Playboy'' magazine, Joss Whedon's Mutant Enemy Productions, and Sideshow Collectibles. He is also a fixture at comics conventions where his commissioned sketches command long lines.

Early life

Adam Hughes was born on May 5, 1967 in Riverside Township, New Jersey and grew up in Florence, where he attended a private elementary school. He stayed in Florence until he was 24."Adam Hughes Sketching 13"
YouTube. August 21, 2010. Retrieved September 10, 2010.

Career

Early work

Hughes, who had no formal training in art, began his career in 1987."Adam Hughes Sketching 3"
YouTube. August 21, 2010. Retrieved September 10, 2010 His first comic book work was a pinup in ''Eagle'' #6. He penciled two short stories and the first issue of '' Death Hawk'', created by Mark Ellis. In 1988 Hughes became the penciller on writer Mike W. Barr's detective series '' Maze Agency'', as his portfolio bore samples of both that series and Mike Gustovich's '' Justice Machine''. ''Maze Agency'', published by Comico, and edited by Michael Eury, became Hughes' first regular series and his first color work. Despite wanting to draw action-oriented superhero stories at the time, he credits his work on ''Maze Agency'', whose scripts Barr composed in the full script format, with improving his skill and confidence at storytelling. In a 2004 interview, he stated that this work also developed his preference for character-oriented stories over action-oriented ones, both as an artist and a writer. Hughes' interior pencils were inked by Eury's longtime friend Rick Magyar, and because Hughes aspired to ink his own work one day, he took Barr's suggestion that he produce pinups on each issue's back cover as an advertisement for the next issue to practice inking his own pencils. It was around this time that Hughes switched to inking with a brush on the advice of Dave Stevens when Stevens looked at Hughes' samples. Hughes stayed on the series for a year.

After two years of providing background art or interior pencils on independent books, writer/artist Bill Willingham, who like Hughes, had done work for Comico, introduced Hughes to Andy Helfer, the editor on the DC Comics series ''Justice League America''. Helfer was impressed by Hughes' portfolio and asked Hughes to contact him when his contract expired. A few months later, after Comico went out of business, Helfer contacted Hughes, hiring him initially to draw inventory covers for issues like '' Mister Miracle'' #19, one of Hughes' favorite creations by Jack Kirby. Hughes was then made the regular artist on ''Justice League America'', with issue #31 being his first published DC Comics work. At the time he began on that book, he was still working at a comics shop two days a week. He continued doing covers and interior art on the title for two years, before switching to providing covers only.

At the age of 24, Hughes moved to Atlanta, Georgia to join Gaijin Studios, believing that working more closely alongside fellow artists would improve his own skills. Hughes stayed with Gaijin Studios for 12 years. That same year, he penciled ''Comics' Greatest World: Arcadia'' #3 for Dark Horse Comics, which featured the first appearance of the supernatural character ''Ghost''. He drew that character subsequently in the 1994 one-shot ''Ghost Special''. When that character was given her own series in 1995, Hughes penciled the first three-issue storyline, "Arcadia Nocturne".

From 1994 to 1995, Hughes drew the satirical storyline "Young Captain Adventure", which appeared in the first several issues of the adult comics anthology magazine '' Penthouse Comix''. Hughes also provided a painted cover for issue #2, and a pinup in issue #26 in 1997. In a 2011 interview, he indicated that while he did not regret that work, he felt shame at the time he produced it, as he feared it might end his future prospects with companies like Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and because he feels that depicting full nudity is less fulfilling than merely suggestive art. Hughes explains:"Spotlight On: Adam Hughes"
Comic Vine. May 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2017.

I firmly believe that drawing a fully clothed, beautiful woman is more sensuous than a completely naked, laying on a table getting ready to go in for a CAT scan. I firmly think that it's what you hint and suggest—that is more attractive—and that goes for both men and women. When you go into full nudity, and swing for the fences with the nudity, it can be titillating at first, but after a while you get kind of tired and kind of spent and decide "Hey, you know what, I am just going to go watch the ball game." I think that you need to have the mystery, and that layer to be peeled away so that the interest remains there.

In 1995 Hughes wrote and illustrated the 1996 two-issue miniseries, '' Gen¹³: Ordinary Heroes'' from WildStorm, his first writing assignment. Because he did that at the WildStorm offices in La Jolla, California, he spent evenings in the suite where the studio's books were colored, where he learned how to color with Photoshop from colorists Homer Reyes, Ben Dimagmaliw and Laura Martin.

In late 1998 he began a four-year run as cover artist on DC's '' Wonder Woman'', producing 49 covers for the series. He also provided cover art on '' Tomb Raider'' from Top Cow Comics. He would eventually gain a reputation as one of the best known and distinctive comic book cover artists.

2000s

When Wizards of the Coast created their 2000 d20-based ''Star Wars'' RPG, Hughes created designs for both the original and revised core rulebooks, as well as the ''Star Wars: Invasion of Theed'' adventure game mini-RPG. When he reused his portrait of the Jedi guardian, Sia-Lan Wezz (his favorite character), for the cover of the 2005 one-shot '' Star Wars: Purge'' as a gag, there was such editorial interest that she was written into the story as one of Darth Vader's early victims.

In May 2007, Sideshow Collectibles debuted a miniature statuette of Mary Jane Watson, a perennial love interest of Spider-Man's, based on artwork by Hughes. The statue, which depicts Mary Jane wearing a cleavage-revealing T-shirt and low-cut jeans that expose the top of a pink thong while bending over a metal tub holding Spider-Man's costume, generated controversy among some fans who felt that the statue was sexist. Marvel addressed the matter by stating, "The Mary Jane statuette is the latest release in a limited edition collectibles line. The item is aimed at adults that have been long-time fans of the Marvel Universe. It is intended only for mature collectors and sold in specialty, trend, collectible and comic shops – not mass retail." Sideshow Collectibles stated, "Our product is not produced to make a political or social statement but is fashioned after entertainment properties currently in the market place (sic). We suggest that if you do find the Mary Jane product offensive that you refrain from viewing that web page." Elizabeth McDonald of girl-wonder.org, an organization dedicated to "high-quality character depiction" in the comics industry, was incredulous at the statue's design, though she stated, "Honestly, the difficulty with this statuette is that if you're a woman who likes comics, it's not even noteworthy. Many male comic fans can't understand the outrage it's generated, since this is fairly tame within the industry. This portrayal of Mary Jane could be considered superior to some in the industry, since her clothes don't seem to be actively falling off her". The ''Toronto Stars Malene Arpe echoed this, pointing to female characters with even more revealing appearances, such as Black Cat and Witchblade. Gary Susman of '' Entertainment Weekly'' lamented that the statuette was not issued some weeks earlier, so that it could have been included in the website 10 Zen Monkeys' list of "Ten Worst Spiderman Tie-Ins". Sideshow subsequently released several other statues, or "comiquettes", based on Hughes' depiction of other female Marvel characters, including Black Cat, She-Hulk, and various X-Men-related characters.

In 2008, Hughes created a poster of major DC Comics female characters as a giveaway for that year's San Diego Comic-Con to promote the publisher's upcoming projects. The poster, called "Real Power of the DC Universe", features 11 female characters standing and/or sitting abreast of one another, similar to a '' Vanity Fair'' gatefold layout. Per DC's request, the characters are mostly clad in white outfits rather than their familiar superhero costumes. Hughes, wanting to avoid making the poster look like a bridal magazine layout, gave each outfit a different color temperature. He also gave each character a distinctive style. The garment worn by Wonder Woman resembles a Greek-style tunic, while the one worn by Poison Ivy features a floral trim. Because the '' Catwoman'' series was coming to an end, DC instructed Hughes to leave her off the poster. Hughes was fond of the character, so he drew her on the far left, figuring that he would edit her out of the final version. However, having seen his progress, DC's editorial team decided that they liked his version and told Hughes to include Catwoman. She is dressed in a black latex evening gown with a white shawl. Hughes reasoned that Selina would have been irritated by being included in the group at the last minute and thus wore the blackest ensemble she could out of spite. The poster's popularity resulted in requests for Hughes to create similar ones with men, Marvel characters, etc. It is one of the images for which Hughes has gained a reputation as one of comics' foremost cheesecake artists. About this status, Hughes has said:

For an article by Hal Niedzviecki on the impact of blogs, social networks and reality television in the February 2009 '' Playboy'' magazine, Hughes illustrated a double-page spread depicting a group of voyeurs observing a topless woman in front of a computer.

2010s

Although Hughes was announced as the writer and artist on '' All Star Wonder Woman'' in 2006, he explained at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International that that project was "in the freezer" for the time being, due to the difficulty involved in both writing and illustrating it himself. His website indicated that after the current ''Catwoman'' series ended with issue #82, he would cease his DC cover work, and would focus on producing the six-issue ''All Star Wonder Woman'' series, though he stated in an October 2010 interview with NJ.com, after the ''Catwoman'' assignment had concluded earlier that year, that ''All Star Wonder Woman'' was still on hold.

At the 2010 Chicago Comicon, editor Mark Chiarello offered him the art duties on the four-issue miniseries '' Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan'', one of eight tie-in prequels to the seminal 1986–1987 miniseries '' Watchmen'', which would be written by J. Michael Straczynski, and which would require Hughes to delay finishing ''All-Star Wonder Woman''. Hughes accepted the job of drawing that miniseries, which was announced in February 2012, and premiered August 22, 2012. Hughes commented: "I love Alan Moore's canon of work, with special affection for '' Miracleman'', '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', and most definitely ''Watchmen''. I hope to do some sort of justice to Dave Gibbons' brilliant art: he's one of the all time great illustrators ever to work in the field of comics...I'm fairly stoked to be working with the fabulous J. Michael Straczynski I loved his '' Thor'' run, especially. The man knows how to craft amazing tales, so I feel like you & I are in good hands."

Between 2009 and 2012, DC Collectibles produced a series of statues of various female DC characters that were based on Hughes' cover art called Cover Girls of the DC Universe. These included statues of Black Canary, Catwoman, Zatanna, Hawkwoman, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Supergirl, and one of Wonder Woman based on Hughes' cover to ''Wonder Woman'' vol. 2 #150.

In 2010, DC Comics published ''Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes'', a collection of Hughes' cover work for that publisher, arranged chronologically, with commentary by Hughes on each selected cover, as well as preliminary sketches.Johnston, Rich (January 19, 2019)
"Almost All of DC Comics’ April 2019 Solicitations, Leaked"
Bleeding Cool. Retrieved January 31, 2019.

In 2014 "She Lies at Midnite", an eight-page Batman/Catwoman story written and illustrated by Hughes using greytones, appeared in the sixth and final issue of the anthology miniseries '' Batman: Black and White''.

On July 20, 2016 Archie Comics

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