Adams has also illustrated books featuring characters for which he has a personal love, such as Godzilla, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Gumby, the latter of which garnered him a 1988 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue.

Because of his reputedly tight, labor-intensive penciling style, which was initially influenced by Michael Golden and Walter Simonson, and his admittedly slow pace, Adams mostly does cover work.

[5] His father was a loadmaster in the United States Air Force, and as a result, Adams frequently moved with his parents and four younger brothers to places that included West Virginia.

magazine and in particular Walter Simonson's work on The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans, which Adams saw as "the bible of how to draw comics", and "the perfect example of how to do a team book."

[2][6] Because he tends to consult source material when illustrating a book, he studied much of Kirby's work in particular during his 1990 run on Fantastic Four, learning much about focusing on clarity and dynamism over attention to detail.

[6][7] Adams initially created a portfolio of pinups and monster splash pages, and added story sequences when he began attending comics conventions at age 17.

After showing his portfolio to editor Bob Schreck at a Creation Convention, he gained permission to set up a table, doing drawings for fans for $5 – $10.

Adams, now a couple of months before his twentieth birthday, did a series of preliminary design drawings, basing the main character's appearance and hairstyle on that of singer Limahl, and the female lead, Ricochet Rita, on Nocenti herself.

[2][6][9] Reviewing the first issue for Amazing Heroes, R.A. Jones, who criticized the writing, stating: Longshot does have one major saving grace, and that is the penciling of Arthur Adams.

[6] Nocenti also asked Adams to produce a cover for Heroes for Hope, a 1985 book intended to benefit famine relief in Africa, which was written and illustrated by dozens of creators, including writers Harlan Ellison and Stephen King, and artists John Byrne, Charles Vess and Bernie Wrightson.

By 1986, Adams' professional career had been cemented,[3][6] and he moved out of his parents' home and into the same Oakland, California apartment building where fellow artists Mike Mignola and Steve Purcell lived.

His interior X-Men-related work included a two-issue run on X-Factor and the one-shot Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem, both in 1989, and three Uncanny X-Men Annuals, in 1986, 1988, and 1990.

Schultz, who initially wanted Mark Evanier for the job, considered this, and eventually agreed to it after contacting Burden, who was enthusiastic about the idea.

[3][8] That book, which demonstrated Adams' versatility in handling comedy as well as superheroics,[9] garnered him and Burden a 1988 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue.

[22] Series writer Walter Simonson, who also was the regular artist on the title, decided to write a story for Adams to draw in order to catch up on his deadlines.

Simonson asked Marvel's Marketing Department who the four top-selling characters were, and was told they were Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man, and the Punisher.

[25] Adams became acquainted with Randy Stradley and other staff members of Dark Horse Comics, after which he illustrated a number of their books featuring the classic Universal Monsters he loved in his youth.

A book on the making of that film features a cover illustration of Godzilla that was copied from the Color Special, which amused Adams.

The 50-page adaptation was published in 1993, but the line's low sales cost Dark Horse money, and it was canceled after four books, precluding the sequel that Adams wanted to draw.

The duo finds itself embroiled in a variety of adventures typical of classic B-movies, often featuring the type of movie monsters Adams is fond of, such as the subterranean Shrewmanoid[26] and the extraterrestrial Froglodytes.

Together with Paul Chadwick, Mike Allred, Dave Gibbons, and Geof Darrow, the creators formed Legend, a creator-owned imprint of Dark Horse.

The duo's first appearance under the Legend imprint was an ongoing backup story in Mike Mignola's 1994 Hellboy: Seed of Destruction miniseries.

[6] In the early 2000s Adams was commissioned to create artwork for the drum kit used by System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, an avid comic book collector and vendor.

[30] Throughout the 2000s, Adams provided cover images for various DC Comics, such as Superman, Batman, and JLA: Scary Monsters, as well as for books by various other publishers, such as Vampirella,[31] Red Sonja, Jurassic Park, Madman Adventures, Thundercats, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[40] In 2016 Adams provided the illustrations for a satirical piece in GQ magazine that imagined a number of controversial public figures as comic book supervillains, including Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Sepp Blatter, Martin Shkreli, and Kris Jenner.

[44] In April 2022, Adams was reported among the more than three dozen comics creators who contributed to Operation USA's benefit anthology book, Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds, a project spearheaded by IDW Publishing Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier, whose profits would be donated to relief efforts for Ukrainian refugees resulting from the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[45][46][47] Though his work for Marvel takes priority for him, he also makes a significant amount of his income from private commissions, which he produces when time permits.

[2][6] In the early part of his career, Adams' pencils were embellished by inkers such as Whilce Portacio, Dick Giordano and Terry Austin.

[54][55][56] Timothy Callahan of Comic Book Resources points to the use of dynamic action poses, idealized figures, costume designs featuring numerous accessories, a preference for copious crosshatching over brushwork in rendering, and the depiction of cybernetic limbs and other reflective surfaces seen in those artists' styles as being derived from Adams' work, in particular his run on Longshot.

Noting also that Adams' Longshot pencils were inked by Whilce Portacio and an uncredited Scott Williams, Callahan refers to that book as "early Image, in primal form".