Etymology.

President of the United States (and five-star general during World War II) Dwight D. Eisenhower used the term in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961:  The phrase was thought to have been "war-based" industrial complex before becoming "military" in later drafts of Eisenhower's speech, a claim passed on only by oral history. Geoffrey Perret, in his biography of Eisenhower, claims that, in one draft of the speech, the phrase was "military–industrial–congressional complex", indicating the essential role that the United States Congress plays in the propagation of the military industry, but the word "congressional" was dropped from the final version to appease the then-currently elected officials. James Ledbetter calls this a "stubborn misconception" not supported by any evidence; likewise a claim by Douglas Brinkley that it was originally "military–industrial–scientific complex". Additionally, Henry Giroux claims that it was originally "military–industrial–academic complex". The actual authors of the speech were Eisenhower's speechwriters Ralph E. Williams and Malcolm Moos.  Attempts to conceptualize something similar to a modern "military–industrial complex" existed before Eisenhower's address. Ledbetter finds the precise term used in 1947 in close to its later meaning in an article in "Foreign Affairs" by Winfield W. Riefler. In 1956, sociologist C. Wright Mills had claimed in his book "The Power Elite" that a class of military, business, and political leaders, driven by mutual interests, were the real leaders of the state, and were effectively beyond democratic control. Friedrich Hayek mentions in his 1944 book "The Road to Serfdom" the danger of a support of monopolistic organization of industry from World War II political remnants:  Vietnam War–era activists, such as Seymour Melman, referred frequently to the concept, and use continued throughout the Cold War: George F. Kennan wrote in his preface to Norman Cousins's 1987 book "The Pathology of Power", "Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military–industrial complex would have to remain, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy." In the late 1990s James Kurth asserted, "By the mid-1980s... the term had largely fallen out of public discussion." He went on to argue that "[w]hatever the power of arguments about the influence of the military–industrial complex on weapons procurement during the Cold War, they are much less relevant to the current era".  Contemporary students and critics of U.S. militarism continue to refer to and employ the term, however. For example, historian Chalmers Johnson uses words from the second, third, and fourth paragraphs quoted above from Eisenhower's address as an epigraph to Chapter Two ("The Roots of American Militarism") of a 2004 volume on this subject. P. W. Singer's book concerning private military companies illustrates contemporary ways in which industry, particularly an information-based one, still interacts with the U.S. federal and the Pentagon.  The expressions permanent war economy and war corporatism are related concepts that have also been used in association with this term. The term is also used to describe comparable collusion in other political entities such as the German Empire (prior to and through the first world war), Britain, France, and (post-Soviet) Russia.  Linguist and anarchist theorist Noam Chomsky has suggested that "military–industrial complex" is a misnomer because (as he considers it) the phenomenon in question "is not specifically military." He asserts, "There is no military–industrial complex: it's just the industrial system operating under one or another pretext (defense was a pretext for a long time)."

Post-Cold War.

United States defense contractors bewailed what they called declining government weapons spending at the end of the Cold War. They saw escalation of tensions, such as with Russia over Ukraine, as new opportunities for increased weapons sales, and have pushed the political system, both directly and through industry groups such as the National Defense Industrial Association, to spend more on military hardware. Pentagon contractor-funded American think tanks such as the Lexington Institute and the Atlantic Council have also demanded increased spending in view of the perceived Russian threat. Independent Western observers such as William Hartung, director of the Arms & Security Project at the Center for International Policy, noted that "Russian saber-rattling has additional benefits for weapons makers because it has become a standard part of the argument for higher Pentagon spending—even though the Pentagon already has more than enough money to address any actual threat to the United States."

Eras of the United States Military Industrial Complex.

The Military Industrial Complex has gone through three distinct eras in its existence.

The First Era.

From 1797 to 1941 the government only relied on civilian industries while the country was actually at war. The government owned their own shipyards and weapons manufacturing facilities which they relied on through World War I. With World War II came a massive shift in the way that the American government armed the military.  With the onset of World War II President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the War Production Board to coordinate civilian industries and shift them into wartime production. Throughout World War II arms production in the United States went from around one percent of the annual GDP to 40 percent of the GDP. Various American companies, such as Boeing and General Motors, maintained and expanded their defense divisions. These companies have gone on to develop various technologies that have improved civilian life as well, such as night-vision goggles and GPS.

The Second Era.

The start of the second era of the Military Industrial Complex is said to start with the coining of the term by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This era continued through the Cold War period and finally saw the end of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1993 the Pentagon urged defense contractors to consolidate due to the collapse of communism and shrinking defense budget.

The Third (Current) Era.

The third era of the Military Industrial Complex has seen the most change as defense contractors either consolidated or shifted their focus to civilian innovation. From 1992 to 1997 there was a total of US$55 billion worth of mergers in the defense industry. Major defense companies purchased smaller defense companies and became the major companies that we know today. In the current era, the Military Industrial Complex is seen as a core part of American policy-making. The American domestic economy is now tied directly to the success of the MIC which has led to concerns of repression as Cold War era attitudes are still prevalent among the American public.  Shifts in values and the collapse of communism have ushered in a new era for the Military Industrial Complex. The Department of Defense works in coordination with traditional military industrial complex aligned companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Many former defense contractors have shifted operations to the civilian market and sold off their defense departments.

Benefits.

Benefits of the Military Industrial Complex of the United States include the advancement of the civilian technology market as civilian companies benefit from innovations from the MIC and vice versa.

The military subsidy theory.

The Military Subsidy Theory is the theory that the effects of the Cold War era mass production of aircraft benefited the civilian aircraft industry. The theory asserts that the technologies developed during the Cold War along with the financial backing of the military led to the dominance of American aviation companies. There is also strong evidence that the United States federal government intentionally paid a higher price for these innovations to serve as a subsidy for civilian aircraft advancement.

Current applications.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, total world spending on military expenses in 2018 was $1822 billion. 36% of this total, roughly $649 billion, was spent by the United States. The privatization of the production and invention of military technology also leads to a complicated relationship with significant research and development of many technologies. In 2011, the United States spent more (in absolute numbers) on its military than the next 13 nations combined.  The military budget of the United States for the 2009 fiscal year was $515.4 billion. Adding emergency discretionary spending and supplemental spending brings the sum to $651.2 billion. This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget. Overall the U.S. federal government is spending about $1 trillion annually on defense-related purposes.  In a 2012 story, "Salon" reported, "Despite a decline in global arms sales in 2010 due to recessionary pressures, the United States increased its market share, accounting for a whopping 53 percent of the trade that year. Last year saw the United States on pace to deliver more than $46 billion in foreign arms sales." The defense industry also tends to contribute heavily to incumbent members of Congress.  The concept of a military–industrial complex has been expanded to include the entertainment and creative industries. For an example in practice, Matthew Brummer describes Japan's Manga Military and how the Ministry of Defense uses popular culture and the moe that it engenders to shape domestic and international perceptions.

Similar concepts.

A similar thesis was originally expressed by Daniel Guérin, in his 1936 book "Fascism and Big Business", about the fascist government ties to heavy industry. It can be defined as, "an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs." An exhibit of the trend was made in Franz Leopold Neumann's book "" in 1942, a study of how Nazism came into a position of power in a democratic state.

The military–industrial complex (MIC) is an informal alliance between a nation's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind this relationship between the government and defense-minded corporations is that both sides benefit—one side from obtaining war weapons, and the other from being paid to supply them. The term is most often used in reference to the system behind the military of the United States, where it is most prevalent due to close links between defense contractors, the Pentagon and politicians and gained popularity after a warning on its detrimental effects in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17, 1961.

Le complexe militaro-industriel (CMI) désigne l'ensemble constitué par l'industrie de l'armement, les forces armées et les décideurs publics d'un gouvernement, et le jeu de relations complexes (lobbying) entre ces trois pôles destiné à influencer les choix publics.


Early life.

Neal Adams was born June 15, 1941 on Governors Island, New York City. He is Jewish. Adams attended the School of Industrial Art high school in Manhattan, graduating in 1959.

Career.

Early work.

After graduation in 1959, he unsuccessfully attempted to find freelance work at DC Comics, and turned then to Archie Comics, where he wanted to work on the publisher's fledgling superhero line, edited by Joe Simon. At the suggestion of staffers, Adams drew "three or four pages of [the superhero] the Fly", but did not receive encouragement from Simon. Sympathetic staffers nonetheless asked Adams to draw samples for the Archie teen-humor comics themselves. While he did so, Adams said in a 2000s interview, he unknowingly broke into comics: That panel ran in "Adventures of the Fly" #4 (Jan. 1960). Afterward, Adams began writing, penciling, inking, and lettering humorous full-page and half-page gag fillers for "Archie's Joke Book Magazine". In a 1976 interview, he recalled earning "[a]bout $16.00 per half-page and $32.00 for a full page. That may not seem like a great deal of money, but at the time it meant a great deal to myself as well as my mothers... as we were not in a wealthy state. It was manna from heaven, so to speak." A recommendation led him to artist Howard Nostrand, who was beginning the "Bat Masterson" syndicated newspaper comic strip, and he worked as Nostrand's assistant for three months, primarily drawing backgrounds at what Adams recalled as $9 a week and "a great experience".  Having "not left Archie Comics under the best of circumstances", Adams turned to commercial art for the advertising industry. After a rocky start freelancing, he began landing regular work at the Johnstone and Cushing agency, which specialized in comic-book styled advertising. Helped by artist Elmer Wexler, who critiqued the young Adams' samples, Adams brought his portfolio to the agency, which initially "didn't believe I had done those particular samples since they looked so much like Elmer Wexler's work. But they gave me a chance and... I stayed there for about a year".

"Ben Casey".

In 1962, Adams began his comics career in earnest at the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicate. From a recommendation, writer Jerry Caplin, a.k.a. Jerry Capp, brother of "Li'l Abner" creator Al Capp, invited Adams to draw samples for Capp's proposed "Ben Casey" comic strip, based on the popular television medical-drama series. On the strength of his samples and of his "Chip Martin, College Reporter" AT&T advertising comic-strip pages in "Boys' Life" magazine, and of his similar Goodyear Tire ads, Adams landed the assignment. The first daily strip, which carried Adams' signature, appeared November 26, 1962; a color Sunday strip was added September 20, 1964. Adams continued to do Johnston & Cushing assignments during "Ben Casey"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s 3 1/2-year run.  Comics historian Maurice Horn said the strip "did not shrink from tackling controversial problems, such as heroin addiction, illegitimate pregnancy, and attempted suicide. These were usually treated in soap opera fashion... but there was also a touch of toughness to the proceedings, well rendered by Adams in a forceful, direct style that exuded realism and tension and accorded well with the overall tone of the strip".  In addition to Capp, Jerry Brondfield also wrote for the strip, with Adams stepping in occasionally.  The ABC series, which ran five seasons, ended March 21, 1966, with the final comic strip appearing Sunday, July 31, 1966. Despite the end of the series, Adams has said the strip, which he claimed at different points to have appeared in 365 newspapers, 265 newspapers, and 165 newspapers, ended "for no other reason that it was an unhappy situation": Adams' goal at this point was to be a commercial illustrator. While drawing "Ben Casey", he had continued to do storyboards and other work for ad agencies, and said in 1976 that after leaving the strip he had shopped around a portfolio for agencies and for men's magazines, "but my material was a little too realistic and not exactly right for most. I left my portfolio in an advertising agency promising they were going to hold on to it. In the meantime I needed to make some money... and I thought, 'Why don't I do some comics?'" In a 2000s interview, he remembered the events slightly differently, saying "I took [my portfolio] to various advertising people. I left it at one place overnight and when I came back to get it the next morning it was gone. So six months worth of work down the drain.... "  He worked as a ghost artist for a few weeks in 1966 on the comic strip "Peter Scratch" (1965–1967), a hardboiled detective serial created by writer Elliot Caplin, brother of Al Capp and Jerry Capp, and artist Lou Fine. Comics historians also credit Adams with ghosting two weeks of dailies for Stan Drake's "The Heart of Juliet Jones", but are uncertain on dates; some sources give 1966, another 1968, and Adams himself 1963. As well, Adams drew 18 sample dailies (three weeks' continuity) of a proposed dramatic serial, "Tangent", about construction engineer Barnaby Peake, his college-student brother Jeff, and their teenaged sibling Chad, in 1965, but it was not syndicated. Adams later said that Elliot Caplin offered Adams the job of drawing a comic strip based on author Robin Moore's "The Green Berets", but that Adams, who opposed the Vietnam War, where the series was set, suggested longtime DC Comics war-comics artist Joe Kubert, who landed that assignment.

Silver Age splash.

Turning to comic books, Adams found work at Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazines, under editor Archie Goodwin. Adams debuted there as penciler and inker of writer Goodwin's eight-page anthological story "Curse of the Vampire" in "Creepy" #14 (April 1967). He and Goodwin quickly collaborated on two more stories, in "Eerie" #9 (May 1967) and "Creepy" #15 (June 1967), and Adams as well reapproached DC Comics.  With DC war comics stalwart Joe Kubert now concentrating on the comic strip "The Green Berets", Adams, despite his opposition to then-current U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, saw an opening: Adams made his DC debut as penciler-inker of the 81⁄2-page story "It's My Turn to Die", written by Howard Liss, in the anthology series "Our Army at War" #182 (July 1967). He did a smattering of additional horror and war stories, respectively, for the two publishers, and then, after being turned down by DC's Batman editor Julius Schwartz, approached fellow DC editor Murray Boltinoff in the hopes of drawing for Boltinoff's Batman team-up title "The Brave and the Bold". Boltinoff instead assigned him to "The Adventures of Jerry Lewis" #101 (July–August 1967) and its full-length story "Jerry the Asto-Nut", written by Arnold Drake. It became the first of a slew of stories and covers Adams would draw for that series and "The Adventures of Bob Hope", two licensed titles starring fictional versions of the TV, film and nightclub comedians.  During this period near the end of the industry revival historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Adams was soon assigned his first superhero covers, illustrating that of the Superman flagship "Action Comics" #356 (Nov. 1967) and the same month's "Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane" #79 (Nov. 1967), featuring Superman and a mysterious new costumed character, Titanman. Also that month, Adams drew his first superhero story, teaming with writer Gardner Fox on the lighthearted backup feature "The Elongated Man" in "Detective Comics" #369, the flagship Batman title. Shortly afterward, he drew Batman himself, along with the supernatural superhero the Spectre, on the cover of "The Brave and the Bold" #75 (Jan. 1968) – the first published instance of Adams' work on what would become two of his signature comics characters. The first instance of Adams drawing Batman in an interior story was "The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads" in "World's Finest Comics" #175 (May 1968).  Another signature character, in what would prove Adams' breakout series, was the supernatural hero Deadman, who had debuted in DC's "Strange Adventures" #205 (Nov. 1967). Adams succeeded co-creator artist Carmine Infantino with the following issue's 17-page story "An Eye for an Eye", written by Arnold Drake, with George Roussos inking Adams' pencils. Adams went on to draw both the covers and stories for issues 207–216 (Dec. 1967 – Feb. 1969), and taking over the scripting with #212 (June 1968). The series became a fan sensation, winning many awards and being almost immediately inducted into the Alley Award Hall of Fame, with Adams himself receiving a special award "for the new perspective and dynamic vibrance he has brought to the field of comic art".  Adams concurrently drew covers and stories for "The Spectre" #2–5 (Feb.-Aug. 1968), also writing the latter two issues, and became DC's primary cover artist well into the 1970s. Adams recalled that Infantino "was appointed art director, and decided I was going to be his spark plug. I also thought it was a good idea, and was promised a number of things which were never fulfilled. But I thought it would be an adventure anyway, so I knuckled down to things like 'Deadman', "The Spectre" and whatever odd things would come my way. I was also doing large amounts of covers".  Adams was called upon to rewrite and redraw a "Teen Titans" story which had been written by then-newcomers Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. The story, titled "Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho!", would have introduced DC's first African American superhero but was rejected by publisher Carmine Infantino. The revised story appeared in "Teen Titans" #20 (March–April 1969).  Adams' art style, honed in advertising and in the photorealistic school of dramatic-serial comics strips, marked a signal change from most comics art to that time. Comics writer and columnist Steven Grant wrote in 2009 that,

First Marvel Comics work.

While continuing to freelance for DC, Adams in 1969 also began freelancing for Marvel Comics, where he penciled several issues of the mutant-superhero team title "X-Men" and one story for a horror anthology title. The Marvel "Bullpen Bulletins" column of "Fantastic Four" #87 (June 1969) described Adams as having "one foot planted in our Marvel doorway. We're guessing your ecstatic comments, when you see the way he illustrated our latest "X-Men" bombshell, will transform him into a Marvel madman from head to toe." Such freelancing across the two leading companies was rare at the time; most DC creators who did so worked pseudonymously. Adams recalled in 1976: He teamed with writer Roy Thomas on "X-Men", then on the verge of cancellation, starting with issue #56 (May 1969). Adams penciled, colored, and, according to Thomas, did most of the plotting, including the entire plot for issue #65. In that issue, his final work on the series, Adams and writer Dennis O'Neil, in one of that creative team's earliest collaborations, revived the Professor X character. While working on the series, Adams was paired for the first time with inker Tom Palmer, with whom he would collaborate on several acclaimed Marvel comics; the duo's work here netted them 1969 Alley Awards for Best Pencil Artist and Best Inking Artist, respectively. Thomas won that year for Best Writer. Though the team failed to save the title, which ended its initial run with #66 (March 1970), the collaboration here and on the "Kree-Skrull War" arc of "The Avengers" #93–97 (Nov. 1971 – May 1972) produced what comics historians regard as some of Marvel's creative highlights of the era. Adams also wrote and penciled the horror story "One Hungers" in "Tower of Shadows" #2 (Dec. 1969), and co-wrote with Thomas, but did not draw, another in "Chamber of Darkness" #2 (Dec. 1969). Thomas and Adams collaborated again along with scripter Gerry Conway and penciler Howard Chaykin to introduce the series "The War of the Worlds" and its central character, Killraven, in "Amazing Adventures" vol. 2 #18 (May 1973).

"Batman".

Continuing to work for DC Comics during this sojourn, while also contributing the occasional story to Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazines (including the Don Glut-scripted "Goddess from the Sea" in "Vampirella" #1, Sept. 1969), Adams had his first collaboration on Batman with writer Dennis O'Neil. The duo, under the direction of editor Julius Schwartz, would revitalize the character with a series of noteworthy stories reestablishing Batman's dark, brooding nature and taking the books away from the campy look and feel of the 1966–68 ABC TV series. Their first two stories were "The Secret of the Waiting Graves" in "Detective Comics" #395 (Jan. 1970) and "Paint a Picture of Peril" in issue #397 (March 1970), with a short Batman backup story, written by Mike Friedrich, coming in-between, in "Batman" #219 (Feb. 1970). Adams introduced new characters to the Batman mythos beginning with Man-Bat co-created with writer Frank Robbins in "Detective Comics" #400 (June 1970). O'Neil and Adams' creation Ra's al Ghul was introduced in the story "Daughter of the Demon" in "Batman" #232 (June 1971) and the character would later become one of Batman's most common adversaries. The same creative team would revive Two-Face in "Batman" #234 (Aug. 1971) and revitalize the Joker in "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!" in "Batman" #251 (Sept. 1973), a landmark story bringing the character back to his roots as a homicidal maniac who murders people on a whim and delights in his mayhem.

"Green Lantern/Green Arrow" and "relevant comics".

Batman's enduring makeover was contemporaneous with Adams and O'Neil's celebrated and, for the time, controversial revamping of the longstanding DC characters Green Lantern and Green Arrow.  Rechristening "Green Lantern" vol. 2 as "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" with issue #76 (April 1970), O'Neil and Adams teamed these two very different superheroes in a long story arc in which the characters undertook a social-commentary journey across America. A few months earlier, Adams updated Green Arrow's visual appearance by designing a new costume and giving him a distinctive goatee beard for the character in "The Brave and the Bold #85" (Aug.-Sept 1969). A major exemplar of what the industry and the public at the time called "relevant comics", the landmark run began with the 23-page story "No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" and continued to "... And through Him Save a World" in the series' finale, #89 (May 1972). It was during this period that one of the best known O'Neil/Adams stories appeared, in "Green Lantern" #85–86, when it was revealed that Green Arrow's ward Speedy was addicted to heroin. Wrote historian Ron Goulart,  After "Green Lantern" was cancelled, the adventures of both super-heroes continued in the pages of "The Flash" #217–219 and #226 (1972–74).

Other work for DC.

After "Green Lantern/Green Arrow", Adams' contributions to DC, apart from his work on "Batman", were sporadic, limiting to draw a Clark Kent back-up story in "Superman" #254 (1972) and sharing credits with Jim Aparo pencilling the Teen Titans in "The Brave and the Bold" #102 (1972). Adams also drew a few stories for "Weird Western Tales" and "House of Mystery" and covers for "Action Comics" and "Justice League of America" as well. Adams worked on the first intercompany superhero crossover "Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man". Several of the Superman figures were redrawn by him.  The last complete story that Adams drew at DC before opening his own company, Continuity Associates, was the oversize "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali" (1978) which Adams has called a personal favorite. After this, Adams' production for DC and Marvel was mainly limited to new covers for reprint editions of some of his work, such as "Green Lantern/Green Arrow", "The Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War", "X-Men: Visionaries", "Deadman Collection" and "The Saga of Ra's al Ghul", which were variously published as reprint miniseries or trade paperback collections. In 1988, he designed a new costume for DC's Robin character Dick Grayson DC loved the redesign and adopted it to the comics years later when they introduced new Robin Tim Drake. a miniposter included in the first issue of the "Robin" limited series.

21st century.

In 2005 Adams returned to Marvel (his last collaboration for this publisher had been in 1981 drawing a story for the "Bizarre Adventures" magazine) to draw an eight-page story for the "Giant-Size X-Men" #3. The following year Adams (among other artists) provided art to "Young Avengers Special" #1.  In 2010, Adams returned to DC Comics as writer and artist on the miniseries "Batman: Odyssey". Originally conceived as a 12-issue story, the series ran for six issues, being relaunched with vol. 2, #1 in October 2011. A total of seven issues were published for the second series until its end in June 2012.  Apart from those assignments for DC, Adams penciled "The New Avengers" vol. 2, #16.1 (Nov. 2011) for Marvel Comics. In May 2012, Marvel announced that Adams would work on the X-Men again with "The First X-Men", a five-issue miniseries drawn and plotted by him and written by Christos Gage. Adams produced short stories for "Batman Black and White" vol. 2 #1 (Nov. 2013) and "Detective Comics" vol. 2 #27 (March 2014).  In February 2016, Adams revisited some of his most notable covers done for DC Comics in the 1960s and 1970s, replacing the original characters with some of the New 52 ones. Later that same year, Adams wrote and drew the six-part "Superman: Coming of the Supermen" miniseries. In 2017, Adams wrote and drew a "Deadman" limited series. He drew a new five-page story titled "The Game", which was written by Paul Levitz, for the "Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman" hardcover collection.

Film, TV and theater.

Adams' pencil drawings on his later "Batman" stories were frequently inked by Dick Giordano, with whom Adams formed Continuity Associates, a company that primarily supplied storyboards for motion pictures. In the early 1970s, Adams was the art director, costume designer, as well as the poster/playbill illustrator for "Warp!", a science fiction stage play by director Stuart Gordon and playwright Lenny Kleinfeld under the pseudonym Bury St. Edmund.  In 1980 Neal Adams directed and starred in "Nannaz," later released by Troma under the title "Death to the Pee Wee Squad." The film co-starred Adams' children Jason and Zeea as well as fellow comics professionals Denys Cowan, Ralph Reese, Larry Hama, and Gray Morrow.  In late 2013 Adams appeared in the PBS TV documentary "Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle".

Creators' rights.

During the 1970s, Adams was politically active in the industry, and attempted to unionize its creative community. His efforts, along with precedents set by Atlas/Seaboard Comics' creator-friendly policies and other factors, helped lead to the modern industry's standard practice of returning original artwork to the artist, who can earn additional income from art sales to collectors. He won his battle in 1987, when Marvel returned original artwork to him and industry legend Jack Kirby, among others. Adams notably and vocally helped lead the lobbying efforts that resulted in Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster receiving decades-overdue credit and some financial remuneration from DC.  Inker Bob McLeod recalled in the 2000s the unique place Adams held in the industry when McLeod entered the comics industry in 1973: In 1978, Adams helped form the Comics Creators Guild, which over three dozen comic-book writers and artists joined.  Also during the 1970s, Adams illustrated paperback novels in the "Tarzan" series for Ballantine Books. With the independent-comic publishing boom of the early 1980s, he began working for Pacific Comics (where he produced the poorly received "Skateman") and other publishers, and founded his own Continuity Comics as an offshoot of Continuity Associates. His comic-book company's characters include Megalith, Bucky O'Hare, Skeleton Warriors, CyberRad, and Ms. Mystic. He and fellow artist Michael Netzer entered into a dispute over intellectual property rights to Ms. Mystic, a character they had worked on jointly in 1977, which Adams had published under the Pacific Comics and Continuity Comics imprints, leading to a lawsuit against Adams in United States District Court in 1993. The case was dismissed in 1997, citing the statute of limitations.

Dina Babbitt and work related to the Holocaust.

In collaboration with Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, Adams has championed an effort to get the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which is operated by the government of Poland, to return the original artwork of Dina Babbitt. In exchange for his sparing her mother and herself from the gas chambers, Babbitt worked as an illustrator for Nazi death camp doctor Josef Mengele, who wanted detailed paintings to demonstrate his pseudoscientific theories about Gypsy racial inferiority. Using text from Medoff, Adams illustrated a six-page graphic documentary about Babbitt that was inked by Joe Kubert and contains an introduction by Stan Lee. However, Adams deemphasizes any comparison between the Babbitt case and his struggle for creator rights, saying that her situation was "tragic" and "an atrocity."  In 2010, Adams and Medoff teamed with Disney Educational Productions to produce "They Spoke Out: American Voices Against the Holocaust", an online educational motion comics series that tells stories of Americans who protested Nazis or helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Each standalone episode, which runs from five to ten minutes, utilizes a combination of archival film footage and animatics drawn by Adams (who also narrates), and focus on a different person. The first episode, "La Guardia's War Against Hitler" was screened in April 2010 at a festival sponsored by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and tells the story of the forceful stand New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia took against Nazi Germany. La Guardia's actions stood in contrast to the relative passivity of President Franklin Roosevelt, who historians such as David S. Wyman believe did not do as much as he could have to save European Jewry, a point underlined in the episode "Messenger from Hell". Other episodes include "Voyage of the Doomed", which focuses on the S.S. "St. Louis", the ship that carried more than 900 German-Jewish refugees but was turned away by Cuban authorities and later the Roosevelt administration, and "Rescue Over the Mountains", which depicts Varian Fry, the young journalist who led an underground rescue network that smuggled Jewish refugees out of Vichy France.

Awards and honors.

Adams' first Deadman cover won the 1967 Alley Award for Best Cover. A Batman/Deadman team-up in "The Brave and the Bold" #79 (Sept. 1968), by Adams and writer Bob Haney, tied with another comic for the 1968 Alley Award for Best Full-Length Story; and in 1969, Adams won the Alley Award for Best Pencil Artist, the feature "Deadman" was elected to the Alley Award Hall of Fame, and Adams received a special award "for the new perspective and dynamic vibrance he has brought to the field of comic art".  He also won Shazam Awards in 1970 for Best Individual Story ("No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" in "Green Lantern" vol. 2, #76, with writer Dennis O'Neil), and Best Pencil Artist (Dramatic Division); and in 1971 for Best Individual Story ("Snowbirds Don't Fly" in "Green Lantern" vol. 2, #85, with O'Neil).  Adams won the 1971 Goethe Award for Favorite Pro Artist, as well as the 1971 Goethe Award for Favorite Comic-Book Story for "No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" (written by Denny O'Neil) in "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" #76.  He won an Inkpot Award in 1976 and was voted the "Favourite Comicbook Artist" at the 1977 and the 1978 Eagle Awards.  In 1985, DC Comics named Adams as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication "Fifty Who Made DC Great".  Adams was inducted into the Eisner Award's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.  In 2019, Adams was inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame for his lifetime achievement and outstanding accomplishments.

Advocacy of expanding Earth hypothesis.

Adams believes the Earth is growing through a process called pair production. Adams holds the work of Australian geologist Samuel Warren Carey in high esteem, but considers the term "Expanding Earth" a misnomer. While Carey did advocate an expanding Earth in the mid-20th century, his model was rejected following the development of the theory of plate tectonics. Adams advocates his ideas in a DVD documentary he wrote and produced, clips of which are available on his YouTube channel.  Adams appeared on the radio show "Coast to Coast AM" several times to discuss his claims. He was also interviewed by Steven Novella on a "Skeptics Guide" podcast in 2006, and afterward continued the debate on Novella's blog. "Japan Times" columnist Jeff Ogrisseg wrote a three-part feature promoting Adams's ideas, which was roundly criticized by Novella for being an example of "outright promotion of pseudoscience as if it were news." Adams also used the concept as the basis for his "Batman: Odyssey" series, in which the planet's expansion has produced a Hollow Earth, the inside of which is inhabited by dinosaurs and Neanderthal versions of the main characters.

Personal life.

Adams and his wife Marilyn live in New York and have three sons: Jason, Joel and Josh Adams. Jason Adams works in toy and fantasy sculpture, while Joel and Josh Adams illustrate comics and do design work on TV shows. Josh Adams illustrated a pinup of Batman in "Batman: Odyssey" #1 (Sept. 2010).  Neal was once married to the comic colorist Cory Adams, and their daughter, Zeea Adams, has also worked as a colorist.

Neal Adams (born June 15, 1941) is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Batman and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Neal E. Adams (né le à New York) est un auteur de bande dessinée américain spécialisé dans les "comic books". Il est connu pour ses histoires de super-héros (notamment ses travaux sur les personnages Superman, Batman et Green Arrow) et son style d'illustration très réaliste. Il a été ajouté au "Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame" en 1998 et au "Jack Kirby Hall of Fame" en 1999.


Early life.

Jim Lee was born on August 11, 1964 in Seoul, South Korea. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived a "typical middle-class childhood". Though given a Korean name at birth, he chose the name Jim when he became a naturalized U.S. citizen at age 12. Lee attended River Bend Elementary School in Chesterfield and later St. Louis Country Day School, where he drew posters for school plays. Having had to learn English when he first came to the U.S. presented the young Lee with the sense of being an outsider, as did the "preppy, upper-class" atmosphere of Country Day. As a result, on the rare occasions that his parents bought him comics, Lee's favorite characters were the X-Men, because they were outsiders themselves. Lee says that he benefited as an artist by connecting with characters that were themselves disenfranchised, like Spider-Man, or who were born of such backgrounds, such as Superman, who was created by two Jewish men from Cleveland to lift their spirits during the Depression. His classmates predicted in his senior yearbook that he would found his own comic book company. Despite this, Lee was resigned to following his father's career in medicine, attending Princeton University to study psychology, with the intention of becoming a medical doctor.

Comics career.

Rise to fame at Marvel Comics.

In 1986, as he was preparing to graduate, Lee took an art class that reignited his love of drawing, and led to his rediscovery of comics at a time when seminal works such as Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" spurred a renaissance within the American comics industry. After obtaining his psychology degree, he decided to postpone applying to medical school, and earned the reluctant blessing of his parents by allotting himself one year to succeed, vowing that he would attend medical school if he did not break into the comic book industry in that time. He submitted samples to various publishers, but did not find success. When Lee befriended St. Louis-area comics artists Don Secrease and Rick Burchett, they convinced him he needed to show his portfolio to editors in person, prompting Lee to attend a New York comics convention, where he met editor Archie Goodwin. Goodwin invited Lee to Marvel Comics, where the aspiring artist received his first assignment by editor Carl Potts, who hired him to pencil the mid-list series "Alpha Flight", seguéing from that title in 1989 to "". Lee's work on the "Punisher: War Journal" was inspired by artists such as Frank Miller, David Ross, Kevin Nowlan, and Whilce Portacio, as well as Japanese manga.  In 1989, Lee filled in for regular illustrator Marc Silvestri on "Uncanny X-Men" #248 and did another guest stint on issues 256 through 258 as part of the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, eventually becoming the series' ongoing artist with issue #267, following Silvestri's departure. During his stint on "Uncanny", Lee first worked with inker Scott Williams, who would become a long-time collaborator. During his run on the title, Lee co-created the character Gambit with long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont. Lee's artwork quickly gained popularity in the eyes of enthusiastic fans, which allowed him to gain greater creative control of the franchise. In 1991, Lee helped launch a second "X-Men" series simply called "" Volume 2, as both the artist and as co-writer with Claremont. "X-Men" Vol. 2 #1 is still the best-selling comic book of all-time with sales of over 8.1 million copies and nearly $7 million, according to a public proclamation by "Guinness World Records" at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. The sales figures were generated in part by publishing the issue with five different variant covers, four of which show different characters from the book that formed a single image when laid side by side, and a fifth, gatefold cover of that combined image, large numbers of which were purchased by retailers who anticipated fans and speculators who would buy multiple copies in order to acquire a complete collection of the covers. Lee designed new character uniforms for the series, including those worn by Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Psylocke and Storm. He also created the villain Omega Red. Lee's style of rendering the X-Men was later used for the designs the television program "". Actor/comedian Taran Killam, who ventured into comics writing with "The Illegitimates", has cited "X-Men" No. 1 as the book that inspired his interest in comics.  Stan Lee interviewed Lee in the documentary series "The Comic Book Greats".

Image Comics and WildStorm, return to Marvel.

Enticed by the idea of being able to exert more control over his own work, in 1992, Lee accepted the invitation to join six other artists who broke away from Marvel to form Image Comics, which would publish their creator-owned titles. Lee's group of titles was initially called Aegis Entertainment before being christened WildStorm Productions, and published Lee's initial title "WildC.A.T.s", which Lee pencilled and co-wrote, and other series created by Lee in the same shared universe. The other major series of the initial years of Wildstorm, for which Lee either created characters, co-plotted or provided art for, included "Stormwatch", "Deathblow" and "Gen13".  In 1993, Lee and his friend, Valiant Comics publisher Steve Massarsky, arranged a Valiant-Image Comics crossover miniseries called "Deathmate", in which the Valiant characters would interact with those of WildStorm, and of Lee's fellow Image partner, Rob Liefeld. The miniseries would consist of four "center books" (each one denoted by a color rather than an issue number), two each produced by the respective companies, plus a prologue and epilogue book. Wildstorm produced "Deathmate Black", with Lee himself contributing to the writing. He illustrated the covers for that book, the "Deathmate Tourbook" and the prologue book, as well as contributing to the prologue's interior inks.  WildStorm would expand its line to include other ongoing titles whose creative work was handled by other writers and artists, some of which were spinoffs of the earlier titles, or properties owned by other creators, such as Whilce Portacio's "Wetworks". As publisher, Lee later expanded his comics line creating two publishing imprints of WildStorm, Homage and Cliffhanger (that years later merged and were replaced by a single WildStorm Signature imprint), to publish creator-owned comics by some selected creators of the US comics industry.  Lee and Rob Liefeld, another Marvel-illustrator-turned-Image-founder, returned to Marvel in 1996 to participate in a reboot of several classic characters; the project was known as Heroes Reborn. While Liefeld reworked "Captain America" and "The Avengers", Lee plotted "Iron Man" and plotted and illustrated "Fantastic Four" issues #1-6. Halfway through the project, Lee's studio took over Liefeld's two titles, finishing all four series. According to Lee, Marvel proposed continuing the Heroes Reborn lineup indefinitely, but under the condition that Lee would draw at least one of them himself, which he refused to do. Instead, he accepted an offer to re-imagine and relaunch (in the role of editor) three mainstream Marvel Universe titles: "Defenders", "Doctor Strange", and "Nick Fury". Though scheduled to debut in December 1997, these three relaunches never appeared.  Lee returned to WildStorm, where he would publish series such as "The Authority" and "Planetary", as well as Alan Moore's imprint, America's Best Comics. Lee himself wrote and illustrated a 12-issue series called "", in which an internet slacker inadvertently manages to download the secrets of the universe, and is thrown into a wild fantasy world.

Move to DC Comics.

Because he felt his role as publisher and his growing family demands interfered with his role as an artist, Lee left Image Comics and sold WildStorm to DC Comics in late 1998, enabling him to focus once again on art. He drew a "Batman Black and White" backup story for the first issue of "" (March 2000). In 2003, he collaborated on a 12-issue run on "Batman" with writer Jeph Loeb. "" became a sales success. That same year, Ubisoft released "", a side-scrolling beat 'em up video game whose titular villain was designed by Lee, a fact that served as the main draw to the game.  In 2004 Lee illustrated "For Tomorrow", a 12-issue story in "Superman" by writer Brian Azzarello.  In 2005, Lee teamed with Frank Miller on "All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder", a series plagued by delays, including a one year gap between the releases of the fourth and fifth issues. Lee himself took full responsibility for the delays, explaining that his involvement with the "DC Universe Online" video game were the cause, and not Miller's scripts, which had been completed for some time. "All-Star" also drew controversy for Miller's dialogue, pacing and depiction of the characters, garnering reviews that were mixed to negative, though Lee's art was praised, and the book enjoyed excellent sales. A total of 10 issues were produced of that series, the tenth issue being released on September 24, 2015. In September 2015 Lee indicated the possibility of returning to the book to conclude it with Miller's originally intended ending, but this series was never produced.  Lee continued to run WildStorm as Editorial Director, sometimes working on both DC and WildStorm properties simultaneously. In September 2006, Lee returned to "WildC.A.T.s" with Grant Morrison as the writer, but only one issue that series' fourth volume was published.  Lee provided artwork for the album booklet for Daughtry's 2009 album "Leave This Town". In February 2006, it was announced that Lee would be involved with the concept art for the DC Comics online game "DC Universe Online". In 2008, Lee was named the Executive Creative Director of the forthcoming game, which at that time was expected to be released in 2009. In February 2010, Lee and Dan DiDio were named Co-Publishers of DC Comics by DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson. According to Lee, this did not indicate another move away from the creative side of comics, as his Co-Publishing duties granted him greater creative involvement in the entire DC line and allow him to illustrate titles. DC announced they were ending the WildStorm imprint in September 2010.

2011 – present.

In September 2011, DC Comics instituted an initiative called The New 52, in which the publisher cancelled all of its superhero titles and relaunched 52 new series with No. 1 issues, wiping out most of the then-current continuity. Lee and writer Geoff Johns, DC Comics' Chief Creative Officer, are the architects of the relaunch, which was initiated with a new "Justice League" series, written and illustrated by Johns and Lee, respectively. The series' first story arc was a new origin of the Justice League, which depicted the return of DC's primary superheroes to the team. Lee's illustration for the cover of issue No. 12 drew media attention for its depiction of Superman and Wonder Woman in a passionate embrace, a rendition that Lee said was inspired by Gustav Klimt's painting "The Kiss" and Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1945 photograph "V-J Day in Times Square".  In July 2012, as part of the San Diego Comic-Con, Lee and Dan DiDio participated in the production of "Heroic Proportions", an episode of the Syfy reality television competition series "Face Off", in which special effects makeup artists compete to create the best makeup according to each episode's theme. Lee and DiDio presented the contestants with that episode's challenge, to create a new superhero, with six DC Comics artists on hand to help them develop their ideas. The winning entry's character, Infernal Core by Anthony Kosar, was featured in "Justice League Dark" #16 (March 2013), which was published January 30, 2013. The episode premiered on January 22, 2013, as the second episode of the fourth season.  In October 2012, DC Entertainment and Kia Motors America entered a partnership to benefit We Can Be Heroes, a campaign dedicated to fighting hunger in the Horn of Africa. The campaign involves the creation of eight Justice League-inspired vehicles, on whose designs Lee collaborated. Each vehicle is tied thematically to a member of the Justice League, the first of which was a Batman-themed Kia Optima. A Superman-themed version inspired by Lee's art followed in February 2013. In 2013, Lee designed a new version of the "Mortal Kombat" character Scorpion for use in the DC fighting video game "".  On May 4, 2013, DC published a Free Comic Book Day sneak preview of "Superman Unchained", an ongoing series written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Lee, which was published on June 12, 2013, and intended to coincide with the feature film "Man of Steel", which opened two days later.  In 2014, General Mills enlisted the help of DC Comics to create new designs for its monster-themed cereals in time for Halloween. The designs, revealed on August 6, consisted of a Boo Berry design by Lee, a Count Chocula design by Terry Dodson and a Franken-Berry design by Dave Johnson. Describing the task of designing a cartoon character, Lee explained, "Drawing simpler characters is a lot more work and harder than drawing something that's more complicated or has a lot of renderings. Every line counts and every distance between the eyes and the ears, it's all super critical."  In February 2015, DC released "The Multiversity: Mastermen", the seventh issue of Grant Morrison's "The Multiversity" project, which Lee illustrated. That same year, Lee provided designs for a Batman action figure as part of the company's BlueLine Edition series, to be released at that year's San Diego Comic-Con. A Superman figure designed by Lee followed in 2016. November 2015 saw the debut of the miniseries "Batman: Europa", on which Lee collaborated with writers Brian Azzarello and Matteo Casali and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli. The book, which was inspired by Lee's time living in Italy, was originally announced by DC in 2004, and intended to feature Lee's painted art over Camuncoli's layouts, but after a series of delays, it was published with conventional artwork as a four-issue miniseries to positive reviews.  In 2016, Lee was the main artist on the one-shot "Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fool's Special" sharing art duties on that book with Sean Galloway. That August, DC released the first of eight issues of Lee and writer Rob Williams' new "Suicide Squad" series, as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch.  In July 2017, Marvel decided to capitalize on Lee's popularity by releasing 29 of its books with covers reprinting Lee's art for its 1992 Series 1 X-Men trading cards.  In March 2018, Lee and writer James Tynion IV launched the series "The Immortal Men" as part of DC's New Age of Heroes line. That June, following the departure of DC Entertainment's Diane Nelson, and Geoff Johns' stepping down from his role as Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of DC Comics, Lee was named DC's CCO, a role he would assume while continuing to act as publisher with Dan DiDio.  In May and June 2019, Lee, writer Tom King, and CW series actresses Nafessa Williams, Candice Patton, and Danielle Panabaker toured five U.S. military bases in Kuwait with the United Service Organizations (USO), where they visited the approximately 12,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in that country as part of DC's 80th anniversary of Batman celebration.  On June 5, 2019, Lee and the fashion accessory brand HEX launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for two Batman-branded backpacks designed specifically for comics artists and collectors. The former, the HEX x Jim Lee Artist Backpack, is designed with features specifically for transporting art supplies and portfolios, such as a 11" x 17" dedicated portfolio cases, waterproof pockets for inks and paints, and organizers for brushes and pens. The latter, the HEX x Jim Lee Collectors Backpack, is designed with features for transporting art collections, such as fleece-lined pockets for comics, a poster tube holder, a pocket for the "Overstreet Price Guide", and an anti-theft zipper lock. In addition to the Batman artwork by Lee that adorns both backpacks, the collectors version features batarang zipper pulls.  In late February 2020, following the departure of Co-Publisher Dan DiDio, Lee became the sole Publisher of DC Comics. The following month, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, Lee began a 60-day series of daily sketches, auctioning off the proceeds of each sketch to a different random brick and mortar store that had closed as a result of the pandemic.

Technique and materials.

Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work. While inking his own pencils on "The Punisher War Journal", Lee began using a crowquill nib for the first time. When illustrating full page commissions or sketches, Lee uses the drybrush technique in order to achieve greytone areas with an uneven texture, applying india ink to the paper and then rubbing it with a tissue, or by using a brush to fill in areas of black, and then using the brush to effect drybrush effects after it is nearly depleted of ink. To create white highlights, he uses a Pentel correction fluid pen.  In talking about the artist's work ethic, Lee has said, "Sometimes I wonder if we ever really improve as artists or if the nirvana derived from completing a piece blinds us enough to love what we have created and move on to the next piece. If we could see the work as it is, with years of reflection in the here and now, how many images would end up in the trash rather than on the racks?"

Criticism.

In a 1996 interview with "The Comics Journal", writer/illustrator Barry Windsor-Smith criticized the depth of the work of artists like Lee and Rob Liefeld, and those whom they influenced (whom he referred to as "the Liefelds and the Lees"), stating, "Your Jim Lees and all this lot, their product hasn't got anything to do with them, you know? There is no emotional investment...I look at Jim Lee's work, and the guy's learning how to draw. He has some craft to what he does...I don't think it has even crossed their minds that comic books can be a medium for intimate self-expression." "The Comics Journal" publisher Gary Groth concurred, stating "Lee's work is obviously more technically accomplished than Liefeld's, but otherwise it's conceptually comparable." Windsor-Smith added that he believed in the Image Comics' founders' exodus from Marvel Comics as an important step for creator autonomy and creator rights, and was angered when they returned to Marvel to do "Heroes Reborn".

Personal life.

Lee is married to Carla Michelle Lee In 2012, when Carla was pregnant, Lee included a tribute to her in "Justice League" #5, writing "I LOVE CARLA" on the shattered windshield of a car onto which Batman jumps. As of November 2016, they had nine children, ages 2 to 23.  In the 1990s, Lee bought two pages of Jack Kirby concept art, which Kirby had created for a film adaptation of Roger Zelazny's novel "Lord of Light", as part of the cover story to smuggle Americans out of Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis. Lee purchased the art at a Sotheby's auction via Barry Geller, the producer of the faux film, who was selling it to help pay for his child's college tuition. Although the CIA operation that rescued the Americans remained classified for another 17 years, and thus Lee had no idea of the pages' historical significance, nor did Geller know their true monetary value when he sold them to help pay his son's college tuition (with Kirby's permission). Both Lee and Geller learned of the true story behind the art years later with the rest of the public. In August 2013, four of Lee's children were headed for college, and he and Carla decided to auction off the art through Heritage Auctions in order to pay for their education.

Jim Lee (Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a Harvey Award, Inkpot Award and three Wizard Fan Awards.

Jim Lee est un dessinateur de comics coréano-américain né le à Séoul, Corée du Sud connu pour son style détaillé et dynamique.


Works.

Reynolds wrote his first four published science fiction short stories while still a graduate student, in 1989–1991; they appeared in 1990–1992, his first sale being to "Interzone". In 1991 Reynolds graduated and moved from Scotland to the Netherlands to work at ESA. He then started spending much of his writing time on a first novel, which eventually turned into "Revelation Space", while the few short stories he submitted from 1991–1995 were rejected. This ended in 1995 when his story "Byrd Land Six" was published, which he says marked the beginning of a more serious phase of writing. he has published over forty shorter works and nine novels. His works are hard science fiction veiled behind space opera and noir toned stories, and reflect his professional expertise with physics and astronomy, included by extrapolating future technologies in terms that are consistent, for the most part, with current science. Reynolds has said he prefers to keep the science in his books to what he personally believes will be possible, and he does not believe faster-than-light travel will ever be possible, but that he adopts science he believes will be impossible when it is necessary for the story. Most of Reynolds's novels contain multiple storylines that originally appear to be completely unrelated, but merge later in the story.  Five of his novels and several of his short stories take place within one consistent future universe, usually now called the Revelation Space universe after the first novel published in it, although it was originally developed in short stories for several years before the first novel. Although most characters appear in more than one novel, the works set within this future timeline rarely have the same protagonists twice. Often the protagonists from one work belong to a group that is regarded with suspicion or enmity by the protagonists of another work. While a great deal of science fiction reflects either very optimistic or dystopian visions of the human future, Reynolds's future worlds are notable in that human societies have not departed to either positive or negative extremes, but instead are similar to those of today in terms of moral ambiguity and a mixture of cruelty and decency, corruption and opportunity, despite their technology being dramatically advanced.  The "Revelation Space" series includes six novels, seven novellas, and six short stories set over a span of several centuries, spanning approximately CE 2205 to 40 000, although the novels are all set in a 300-year period spanning from CE 2427 to 2727. In this universe, extraterrestrial sentience exists but is elusive, and interstellar travel is primarily undertaken by a class of vessel called a lighthugger which only approaches the speed of light (faster than light travel is possible, but it is so dangerous that no race uses it). Fermi's paradox is explained as resulting from the activities of an inorganic alien race referred to by its victims as the Inhibitors, which exterminates sentient races if they proceed above a certain level of technology. The trilogy consisting of "Revelation Space", "Redemption Ark" and "Absolution Gap" (the Inhibitor trilogy) deals with humanity coming to the attention of the Inhibitors and the resultant war between them.  "Century Rain" takes place in a future universe independent of the "Revelation Space" universe and has different rules, such as faster-than-light travel being possible through a system of portals similar to wormholes. "Century Rain" also departs substantially from Reynolds's previous works, both in having a protagonist who is much closer to the perspective of our real world (in fact he is from a version of our past), serving as a proxy for the reader in confronting the unfamiliarity of the advanced science fiction aspects and in having a much more linear storytelling process. Reynolds's previous protagonists started out fully absorbed in the exoticisms of the future setting and his previous "Revelation Space" works have several interlinked story threads, not necessarily contemporaneous. According to Alastair himself, no sequel will ever be made on Century Rain.  "Pushing Ice" is also a standalone story, with characters from much less distant in the future than in any of his other novels, set into a framework storyline that extends much further into the future of humanity than any of his previous novels. It contains an alternative interpretation of the Fermi paradox: intelligent sentient life in this universe is extremely scarce. Reynolds states that he is "firmly intending" to return to the "Pushing Ice" setting to write a sequel.  "The Prefect" marked a return to the "Revelation Space" universe. Like "Chasm City", it is a stand-alone novel within that setting. It is set prior to any of the other "Revelation Space" novels, though still 200 years after the original human settlement is established on the planet Yellowstone in the Epsilon Eridani system. It was published in the United Kingdom on 2 April 2007. Since its publication, the title of "The Prefect" has been changed to "Aurora Rising" to more align with the name of the sequel, "Elysium Fire", which was published in 2018, marking the first novel length return to the "Revelation Space" universe since 2007. This sub-series within the "Revelation Space" universe is now called "The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies". Reynolds states that he has "tentative plans for three more Dreyfus titles, with an arc that would eventually take him beyond Yellowstone, and then back again."  "House of Suns" is a standalone novel set in the same universe as his novella "Thousandth Night" from the "One Million A.D." anthology. It was released in the UK on 17 April 2008 and in the US on 2 June 2009. Reynolds described it as "Six million years in the future, starfaring clones, tensions between human and robot metacivilisations, King Crimson jokes." Reynolds states that he is "firmly intending" to return to the "House of Suns" setting to write a sequel.  "Terminal World", published in March 2010 was described by Reynolds as "a kind of steampunk-tinged planetary romance, set in the distant future". As with "Century Rain", Reynolds has said that he does not plan any further work in the universe of "Terminal World".  In June 2009 Reynolds signed a new deal, worth £1 million, with his British publishers for ten books to be published over the next ten years.  Between 2012 and 2015 Reynolds released three novels set in a new universe called "Poseidon's Children": Blue Remembered Earth (2012), On the Steel Breeze (2014), and Poseidon's Wake (2015). The novels comprise a hard science fiction trilogy dealing with the expansion of the human species into the solar system and beyond, and the emergence of Africa as a spacefaring, technological super-state.  His "Doctor Who" novel "Harvest of Time" was published in June 2013.

Awards and nominations.

Reynolds's fiction has received three awards and several other nominations. His second novel "Chasm City" won the 2001 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. His short story "Weather" won the Japanese National Science Fiction Convention's Seiun Award for Best Translated Short Fiction. His novels "Absolution Gap" and "The Prefect" have also been nominated for previous BSFA awards. Reynolds has been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award three times, for his novels "Revelation Space", "Pushing Ice" and "House of Suns". In 2010, he won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for his short story "The Fixation". His novella "Troika" made the shortlist for the 2011 Hugo Awards. His Novel "Revenger" received the 2017 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book.

Adaptations.

On 10 March 2019 Alastair Reynolds announced that his short stories "Zima Blue" and "Beyond the Aquila Rift" had been adapted as part of Netflix's animated anthology "Love, Death & Robots". These stories are the first of Reynolds's works to be adapted for TV or film.

Bibliography.

Novels.

Revelation Space Universe.

"The Inhibitor Trilogy:"  "The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies:"  "Standalone:"

Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a British science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD in astrophysics from the University of St Andrews. In 1991, he moved to Noordwijk in the Netherlands where he met his wife Josette (who is from France). There, he worked for the European Space Research and Technology Centre (part of the European Space Agency) until 2004 when he left to pursue writing full-time. He returned to Wales in 2008 and lives near Cardiff.

Alastair Reynolds, né le à Barry au pays de Galles, est un auteur britannique de « hard » science-fiction et de space opera. Il a acquis une reconnaissance littéraire avec les romans qui constituent son "Cycle des Inhibiteurs".


Early life and background.

M.G.R. was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, to Melakkath Gopalan Menon and Maruthur Satyabhama from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama found employment as a housemaid and put both her sons in school with her paltry earnings.  It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.  The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had play female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.  In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.  M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. In 1965, M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Janaki divorced her husband, Ganapathy, to marry M.G.R.

Acting career.

Ramachandran made his film debut in 1936, in the film "Sathi Leelavathi", directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, MGR got his breakthrough in the 1950 film "Manthiri Kumari", written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he rose to popularity with the 1954 film "Malaikkallan". He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 "Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum". He rose to become the heartthrob of millions of Tamils with films such as "Thirudadhe", "Enga Veettu Pillai", "Aayirathil Oruvan", "Anbe Vaa", "Mahadevi", "Panam Padaithavan", "Ulagam Sutrum Vaalibhan", etc. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film "Rickshawkaran" in 1972. He acted in many films that appealed to the direct sentiments of the common man and the rich as well.  His 1973 blockbuster "Ulagam Sutrum Vaalibhan" broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film "Ullagam Suthi Paru", in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. Ramachandran said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.

Mentor.

Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of Ramachandran in his acting career.

Political career.

MGR was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953 MGR joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C.N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, MGR became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.

1968 assassination attempt.

The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.  After the operation, M.G.R's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing "Arasakattalai", MGR acted in Devar's film "Vivasaayee" against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the film "Kaavalkaaran" were reduced. This was the only film in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film "Kaavalkaran" in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.  "Petralthaan Pillaya" was the last film of M.G.R.-M.R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.

Split from DMK and formation of AIADMK.

In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M.K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time MGR was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of Annadurai, and in a public meeting, asking for the financial details of the party to be publicised, thereby enraging the DMK leadership. Consequently, MGR was expelled from the party.  Upon his ouster from DMK, Ramachandran floated a new party which he called Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK), later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like "Netru Indru Naalai" (1974), "Idhayakani" (1975), "Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga" (1977), etc.

Continued success in TN Assembly elections.

1977 Assembly elections.

The AIADMK contested the 1977 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. The election was a four cornered contest between the ADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The ADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while INC(I) and Communist Party of India (CPI) contested as allies. The DMK and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The ADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the ADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the ADMK led ADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and MGR became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, MG Ramachandran became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as MGR was alive. Although Anna Durai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, MGR was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.

1980 Parliament and assembly elections.

Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M. G. Ramachandran extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). ADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister. Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M. G. Ramachandran government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by MGR to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The ADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980. Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. ADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time. He became the first leader since K. Kamaraj to win a re-election as Chief Minister.

1984 assembly elections.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of MGR recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the ADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, MGR's illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.[1][2] DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the ADMK leader M.G.R was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of MGR upon the masses.

Achievements as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

Once he became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he placed great emphasis on social development, especially education. One of his most successful policies was the conversion of the "Midday Meal Scheme", introduced by the popular Congress Chief Minister and kingmaker K Kamaraj, which already was encouraging underprivileged children to attend school, into "MGR's Nutritious Meal Scheme" in the government-run and -aided schools in Tamil Nadu by adding "saththurundai" – a nutritious sugary flour dumpling. This scheme was at a cost of Rs. 1 billion and was imposed in 1982. A little more than 120,000 children of the state were benefited. He also introduced Women's Special buses. He introduced a liquor ban in the state and preservation of old temples and historical monuments, ultimately increasing the state's tourist income. He set up a free school for the cinema technicians children in Kodambakkam called MGR Primary & Higher Secondary School which provided free mid-day meals in the 1950s. He led the ADMK to victory in the 1984 assembly elections, despite not taking part in the campaigning. At that time he was undergoing medical treatment in America and his images were broadcast in Tamil Nadu through cinema halls. This was an effective campaign tactic and ADMK won the elections claiming around 56% of assembly seats, indicating the depth of his popular support. He won his seat in a double landslide victory in 1984. He still holds the record of being the chief minister with the highest consistent longevity of more than a decade.  Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that MGR was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in 1979, with Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to MGR acted as a spoiler and MGR changed his mind.

Criticism and controversies.

Even after his death, MGR proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.  Other criticisms have been on MGR's centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of MGR counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving MGR rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.  Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 40 million rupees to the LTTE.  MGR has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.

Bharat Ratna.

After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with Jayalalithaa, the successor to MGR at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.

Commemorative coins.

To commemorate MGR's Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".

Philanthropy.

He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of "Thai" weekly magazine and "Anna" daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.

Illness and death.

In October 1984, MGR was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of MGR recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. MGR returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.  MGR never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.  His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.  This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.  In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence MGR Gardens, Ramavaram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college.

Legacy.

After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. In 1988, M.G.Ramachandran was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. Chennai Central railway station was renamed "Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station", Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus was renamed "Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus", One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, "Dr.MGR Road"—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M.G.Ramachandran now stands there and MGR Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed "Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand" and Omalur Main Road was renamed "MGR Road" in Salem, Mattuthavani Integrated Bus Terminus was also renamed "M.G.R. Bus Stand" in Madurai, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed "Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand" in Tirunelveli and two parks were named "Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park" and "M.G.R Park" in Thoothukudi.  A life-size statue of M.G.Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.  The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.

Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 – 24 December 1987), popularly known as M.G.R, was an Indian politician and film actor who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for ten years between 1977 and 1987. He was also a philanthropist and a humanitarian icon. In 1988, M.G.R. was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously.

Marudhur Gopalamenon Ramachandiran (மருதூர் கோபாலமேனன் இராமச்சந்திரன்), plus connu sous le nom de M. G. R. (எம்.ஜி.ஆர்.), né le à Kandy (British Ceylon) et mort le à Chennai (Tamil Nadu), est un acteur, homme politique, producteur et réalisateur indien, originaire de l'État du Kérala.


History.

On Columbus' first expedition, "Niña" carried 26 men, captained by Vicente Yáñez Pinzón. They left Palos de la Frontera on 3 August 1492, stopping at the Canary Islands on 12 August 1492, and continued westward. Landfall was made in the Bahamas at dawn on 12 October 1492.  On 14 February 1493, in the east of the Azores, a storm threatened to capsize "Niña", and at Columbus' instigation, he and the crew took a series of vows to perform certain acts including religious pilgrimages upon their return to Spain. "Niña" reached Lisbon, Portugal, on 4 March 1493, and arrived in Palos de la Frontera on 15 March 1493. On the first voyage to America, the crew of "Niña" slept on the deck but adopted the use of hammocks after seeing Native Americans utilizing them.  In September 1493, "Niña" joined a grand fleet of 17 ships for the second voyage to Hispaniola, becoming the flagship for an exploration of Cuba. She was the only ship to survive the 1495 hurricane, returning quickly to Spain in 1496.  "Niña" was then chartered for an unauthorized voyage to Rome. She was captured by a pirate corsair when leaving the port of Cagliari and brought to Cape Pula, Sardinia. The Captain, Alonso Medel, escaped with a few men. He stole a boat, rowed back to "Niña", and made sail, returning to Cádiz.  In 1498, she returned to Hispaniola as advance guard of Columbus' Third Voyage. She was lying in wait at Santo Domingo in 1500. In 1501, she made a trading voyage to the Pearl Coast on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, and no further log of her is found in historic archives.  "Niña" logged at least under Columbus' command.

Replicas.

A replica of "Niña" was built by the Spanish government for the Columbian Naval Review of 1893. Along with replicas of "Santa María" and "Pinta" she participated in the review.  A replica of "Niña" (based upon theory; there are no known contemporary likenesses of any of the three ships) now sails around the world.  The 4-masted replica "Niña" was built 1988-1991 by engineer and naval researcher John Patrick Sarsfield, British naval historian Jonathan Morton Nance, and a group of master shipbuilders in Bahia, Brazil who were still using design and construction techniques dating back to the 15th century. They built it from heavy, teredo-resistant Brazilian hardwoods using only adzes, axes, hand saws, and chisels. The sails were designed by Nance using square main sails and two aft lateen sails as were used by ships of this size at the end of the 15th century. The crew of "Niña" say that it can make about, which is quicker than older designs of the era. The replica weighs 75 tons.  In 1991, the replica sailed to Costa Rica to take part in the filming of "", and "Niña" has visited hundreds of North America ports to give the public a chance to see and tour the ship. The vessel continues to visit ports across the Eastern to mid-United States along with its sister replica ship, "Pinta". The replicas of "Niña" and "Pinta" were built in Valença, Brazil using the same methods as the 15th century Portuguese.  Other replicas are located in Andalusia, Spain (at El Puerto de Santa María and at the Wharf of the Caravels in Palos de la Frontera). A replica had been harbored in Corpus Christi, Texas in the United States, but it sunk on April 23, 2019—from Hurricane Harvey.  The historic San Francisco restaurant Bernstein's Fish Grotto was designed to look like "Niña".

La Niña (Spanish for "The Little Girl") was one of the three Spanish ships used by Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus in his first voyage to the West Indies in 1492. As was tradition for Spanish ships of the day, she bore a female saint's name, Santa Clara. However, she was commonly referred to by her nickname, "La Niña," which was probably a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño of Moguer. She was a standard caravel-type vessel.

La Niña (littéralement « la fillette ») est une des deux caravelles de la première expédition de Christophe Colomb en Amérique, avec la "Pinta" et la caraque "Santa Maria" sur laquelle se trouvait Colomb le chef de l'expédition"." Les trois navires découvrent la première route aller-retour entre le Nouveau Monde et l'Europe.