John Buscema
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John Buscema, true name Giovanni Natale Buscema (December 11, 1927–January 10, 2002) was an American comic book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during both its 1960s and 1970s ascendance into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate. His younger brother Sal Buscema is also a comic-book artist.
Buscema's is best known for his run on the superhero-team series The Avengers and for over 200 stories featuring the sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. In addition, he pencilled at least one issue of nearly every major Marvel title, including runs on such flagship titles as Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man. He stepped into the breach when industry legend Jack Kirby, one of the arcitects of Marvel's ascendance, left the company from 1970-1975.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
Buscema was born in Brooklyn, New York. He showed an interest in drawing at an early age, copying comic strips such as Popeye. In his teens he had an interest in superhero comic books as well as appreciating the classic adventure strips, notably Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth's Tarzan and Prince Valiant, Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates. He also had an interest in the illustrators of the period such as Dean Cornwell, Colby Whitmore, Al Dorne and Robert Fawcett. His artistic interests extended to the fine arts, copying works from Italian Renaissance artists in particular.
Buscema graduated from Manhattan’s High school of Music and Art. He also took night lessons at the Pratt Institutes well as life drawing classes at the Brooklyn Museum. While training as a boxer, he began painting portraits of boxers and sold some cartoons to the Hobo News. With this fairly modest art training, Buscema endeavoured to seek work as a commercial illustrator while doing various odd jobs. Lacking in experience to crack the commercial art market at the time, he eventually took a look at the comic book field, thinking it an easier field which would enable him to eventually get more schooling in order to become a commercial illustrator. In 1948, he got his foot in the door by landing a staff job with Stan Lee at the Timely Comics bullpen (with artists such as Syd Shores, Carl Burgos and Mike Sekowsky. Gene Colan had been hired two weeks earlier).
Buscema spent a year in a half as the youngest artist in the Timely bullpen (until it was dissolved) with a steady diet of crime, romance and western (end even western-romance) stories. An early highlight is his work on the Tex Morgan title (#4-7). His work during this period is clearly novice quality, although not without signs of strong draftsmanship.
[edit] 1950s
In the early 1950s Buscema (with a brief stint in the army in 1951, with a honorable discharge due to ulcer, after which he married in 1953) continued to work freelance for Timely/Atlas as well as branching out to other publishers (Ace, Hillman, Orbit, Quality, St. John, Ziff-Davis), continuing in the crime, romance, western vein. Highlights of the period can be found especially with Our Publications/Orbit on such titles as Love Diary (#31-39, including all covers), Love Journal (#14-22 with most covers), Wanted Comics (#47-53 including most covers) and the Westerner (#28-29, 31, 33-37, 40), featuring Nuggets Nugent, Wild Bill Pecos and Lobo the Wolf Boy.
Buscema's Atlas work drops off as the comic industry shrinks after the early 1950s. It is a credit to his talent that he manages to continue working in comics for the better part of the decade, landing steady work mainly with Western/Dell. Of note for this period is his work on Roy Rogers Comics (starting in 1954 with a long run of stories, #74-97 and 104-108). AC Comics have reprinted a number of those stories and describe Buscema as the best Roy Rogers artist. Moreover, in 1956, he squeezes in a brief first superhero effort on Charlton's Nature Boy (#3-4).
His work up to the mid-1950s shows solid draftsmanship, but compared to the top golden age artists of EC and DC, it perhaps lacks the impact and flair of the best of those, possibly because he didn’t necessarily have a passion for the comic book medium per se, as was the case with many other top golden age artists. Nonetheless, Buscema next produces some of his finest work of the decade with a series of western, war, and sword and sandal film adaptations for the Four Color title. The peplum genre is especially suited to his style and could be considered a good preparation for his later work on Conan. The trademark Buscema power, grace, finesse and energy of his later work is very much apparent in these, although in a more subdued way.
Buscema's work for Western dried up in the late 1950s as the industry takes a nosedive (his work on Indian Chief #30-33 is notable later work). He manages to hang on a little while with mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction stories for Atlas (Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, Strange Worlds) and ACG (Adventures into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds.) before seeking work in other fields. It is again a credit to Buscema's talent that he landed a freelance position at the Chaite Agency, an important New York commercial art studio, which employed top commercial artists such as Bob Peak and Frank MacCarthy.
One could characterize Buscema 1950s work as a period of gradual constant improvement; his work was continuing to improve as he left the field, which is somewhat different from other of his contemporaries (such as Williamson, Frazetta, Wood, Drucker, Toth, Heck, Ditko) who often experienced an earlier youthful artistic peak period.
[edit] 1960s
Buscema spent around eight years in the commercial art field associated with the Chaite and Triad studios, doing a variety of assignments: layouts, storyboards, illustrations, paperback covers, etc. in a variety of medium. He gained a greater academic technique such as can be found in the Famous Illustrators correspondence course books (which features Buscema favourites[citation needed] Al Dorne, Robert Fawcett and Harold Von Schmidt, among others).
Buscema returned to comic books in 1966> Buscema would pencil an average of two comics a month in collaboration with such inkers as George Klein, Frank Giacoia, Dan Adkins, Joe Sinnott, his younger brother Sal Buscema, Tom Palmer, and, occasinally, Marvel production manager and sometime inker-cartoonist John Verpoorten. He drew The Avengers through #62 (March 1969), including the introduction of the modern-day Vision in #57 (Oct. 1968) and The Avengers Annual #2 (Sept. 1968); the first eight issues of The Sub-Mariner (May-Dec. 1968), including the oft-reprinted cover of issue #1 and, the reintroduction, in #8, of an aged Betty Dean Prentiss, the Sub-Mariner's romantic interest in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of comic books; The Amazing Spider-Man #72-73, 76-81, 84-85 (ranging from June 1969 - June 1970), providing layouts finished by either John Romita or Jim Mooney, and two issues he himself finished over Romita layouts; and, among other pitch-in romance, horror/mystery anad superhero stories, the new title, The Silver Surfer.
One of artistic highlights[citation needed] of the mid-1950s and 1960s Silver Age of comic books, the philosophical series about a Christ-like alien with miraculous powers, roaming the world trying to understand both the divinity and the savagery of humanity, was a personal favorite of Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee[citation needed], who scripted. Buscema penciled 17 of its 18 issues, with the first seven — issued as a bi-monthly, giant-size, 25¢ title at a time when comic books typically cost 12¢ — considered classic by historians and fans.[citation needed] Issue #3 (Dec. 1968) introduced Marvel's long-running, Satanic antagonist Mephisto).
[edit] 1970s
With Jack Kirby's departure from Marvel in 1970, Buscema was succeeded him on both Kirby's titles at the time, Fantastic Four (penciling issues #107-141, inked by Joe Sinnott) and The Mighty Thor (#182-259, inked by Sinnott, Vince Colletta, Tony DeZuniga, John Verpoorten and others).
Buscema began penciling Conan the Barbarian with #25 (April 1973) following Barry Smith's celebrated run, and debuted as the Conan artist of the black-and-white comics-magazine omnibus Savage Sword of Conan with issue #1 (Aug. 1974). He would eventually contribute to more than 100 issues of each title (the former through 190, the latter through 101, then again from #190-210), giving him one of the most prolific runs for an artist on a single character. He additionally drew the Conan Sunday and daily syndicated newspaper comic strip upon its premiere in 1978, and even contributed some storyboard illustrations for the 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie.[citation needed]Ernie Chua/Chan was his main inker on Conan the Barbarian in the 1970s, (except for a hiatus between #’s 44-69 which were inked by Tony DeZuniga, Dick Giordano, Tom Palmer, Steve Gan and others). Buscema’s work on the title consistently improved and developed producing some remarkably dynamic and powerful artwork and storytelling reaching a peak of sorts with issue #100 (which concludes the adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Queen of the Black Coast) or perhaps with #115 (featuring Red Sonja) which marked the departure of Roy Thomas.
Alfredo Alcala was his regular inker on Savage Sword of Conan until #24 and they produced some highly regarded stories. Of note are "Iron Shadows in the Moon" (#4), "The Slithering Shadow" (#20), "The Tower of the Elephant" (#24,). Tony DeZuniga became Buscema' regular inker with #26 (he also inked the highly regarded "A Witch Shall Be Born", #5) producing some outstanding Conan literary adaptations, bringing that title to a peak of sorts which ended more or less with the departure of DeZuniga with #58.
Buscema's pencils on Conan in the 1970s are some his finest work as he developed a new heroic adventure story style with the Sword and Sorcery genre producing stories which are a high-water mark in terms of comic book action, movement, power, expression, mood, and dynamics.
At some point in the mid 1970s, Buscema's productivity increased (to the chagrin of many Buscema fans) by opting to pencil mainly layouts (pencilled pages without the shading and rendering) as opposed to finished pencils. For about ten years, he would produce on average a 3-4 books worth of pencils a month.
Due to his speed and versatility, on top of his regular assignments he would be called on to pencil fill-in jobs on numerous different titles : Captain America, Captain Britain (Marvel UK), Daredevil, Frankenstein Monster, Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom (in Giant-Size Super villain Team Up), Howard the Duck, the Warriors Three (in Marvel Spotlight), the Thing and Spider-Woman (in Marvel Two-in-One), Master of Kung Fu, Red Sonja, the Golem (in Strange Tales), Warlock, as well as a science-fiction stories in Worlds Unknown and many covers for a variety of titles.
He also contributed to Marvel's black and white magazines including the first issues of Rampaging Hulk (Bloodstone), Savage Tales (Ka-Zar) and Doc Savage as well as various issues of Dracula Lives!, Haunt of Horror (digest magazine, illustrations), Monsters Unleashed (Frankenstein), Tales of the Zombie (Simon Garth), and Tomb of Dracula. He even did some fine Mad-style humour work in Crazy and Pizzaz.
He was also called on to launch several new titles, i.e. Amazing Adventures (Black Widow, 1970), Nova (1976), Ms. Marvel (1977) and She-Hulk (early 1980).
Buscema left the Thor title (although will return for issues #272-285, inks by Palmer and Stone) to launch the Marvel version of Tarzan in 1977. Having already done 13 issues of the Jungle-oriented Kazar (in Astonishing Tales and Savage Tales) his fine version of the Burroughs icon in the first three issues (which he pencilled and inked along with several covers) compares favorably with the great Tarzan artists in comic strips, comic books, and illustration, although he switches to only layouts for the rest of his 18-issue stint with many changes in inkers, giving mixed results. Of note is his Tarzan Annual #1 with Steve Gan inks.
Other licensed projects Buscema tackled include a 72-page The Wizard of Oz movie adaptation in Treasury Edition format with DeZuniga's inks. Apparently Buscema, having something of a photographic memory, was able to draw the entire book without reference except for character photos, based on his recollection of a viewing 25 years prior. He even drew Star Trek, as well as Holo Man (both for Power records), and some Star Wars covers for the UK magazine. He also contributed some superhero drawings for Pro, the NFL official magazine (1970) and even pencilled some chapters for the first issue of Marvel Comics Super Special Magazine featuring the rock group Kiss (1977).
1978 saw the publication of How to Draw comics the Marvel Way (Simon & Shuster, 1978). Written with Stan Lee, this influential rock-solid primer on drawing and comic book storytelling fundamentals was based on the comic art classes Buscema had given a few years prior and is probably the best-selling book of its kind, still in print to this day.
An interview and many fine sketches and drawings appeared in the Art of John Buscema the same year (with a superb cover which was also sold as a poster). Buscema's passion for drawing was such that he continued to draw and sketch in his spare time (often on the back of comic book art pages) and these images form a considerable body of work in their own right.
Buscema capped off a remarkably fruitful decade with some inspired finished pencils for Weirdworld/Warriors of the Shadow Realm, a Tolkien-style project in Marvel Comics Super Special Magazine #11-13 (although the ornately detailed pencils were somewhat obscured by the inking and coloring). A six-plate portfolio was released by Pacific Distribution).
[edit] 1980s
Buscema carried his whirlwind momentum into the 1980s. Despite the departure of key Buscema collaborators writer Roy Thomas and inker Tony Dezuniga, the Conan franchise continued to prosper. He does an excellent 6-plate Conan portfolio released by Sal Q. Productions in 1980 and the popular Thomas, Buscema, Chan trio launched a third Conan title, the double-sized bi-monthly King Conan in 1980) as Buscema abandoned regular superhero work in order to spearhead art duties on all 3 Conan titles. The popularity of the character spurred the release of a Conan movie in 1982; Buscema provided superb pencils and inks for a 48-page movie adaptation.
He continued to tackle other high-profile projects such as the second Superman and Spiderman team-up (1981, Sinnott inks), a Silver Surfer story for the first issue of Epic Illustrated (1980, inks by Rudy Nebres), a fine King Arthur story (Marvel Preview #22, 1980, Palmer's inks), a movie adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981, inks by Klaus Janson, and a sensitive rendition of the life of St. Francis of Assisi (Francis, Brother of the Universe, Marie Severin's inks, 1980).
The Conan franchise eventually began to struggle editorially, however (no regular inker was found to follow DeZuniga, although Nebres provided excellent occasional jobs and even Nestor Redondo did an issue, Savage Sword #90) as Buscema became increasingly disenchanted with the writing on Conan and will gradually drop all Conan work altogether. He left King Conan in 1982 after 9 issues although he remaied with the Howard franchise with a revival of the Kull series for 10 issues.
His post-Thomas work on Savage Sword of Conan was done mainly with Ernie Chan as inker and is overall quite strong. He actually made a return to more frequent inking (eschewing a looser Foster/Frazetta rendering style, #61, 70, 73) and a fondly remembered 5-part tale of a character of his own creation, Bront (#65-66, 79-81). He left the series in 1984 with #101 on a strong note with a series of stories that he plotted himself.
After pencilling the Conan the Destroyer movie adaptation in 1984 and the Conan of the Isles graphic novel in 1987 (both which seemed somewhat rushed and had several inexperienced inkers although he inked the first half of Destroyer himself), he left the Conan the Barbarian title with #190 in 1987, ending a highly successful 14-year association with the character. The series had gone through a number of changes in writers and inkers (Bob Camp being the most prolific inker before the return Chan) to Buscema's dissatisfaction although he nonetheless contributed a series of several dozen fine pencilled and inked covers in closing out his work on the title.
Buscema didn't take up regular writing chores on the title (he had plotted five solid issues, #155-159) as he had strong plotting and storytelling skills as evidenced in his preference for the 'Marvel method' of storytelling (i.e. working from a brief plot rather than a full script). Stan Lee declared:
| As a writer I found him a delight to work with. I had only to give him the barest bones of a plot and he'd flesh it out magnificently. He didn't even want a written synopsis most of the time. We'd discuss the story over the phone for a few minutes and days later he'd deliver a terrific strip that looked as though we had spent weeks going over every last detail! |
After a nearly five-year absence from the superhero world (except for a two-issue stint on Magic (a 1983 X-Men related mini-series), Buscema returned to familiar ground as the regular penciller on the Avengers in 1985 (with #255, inks by Tom Palmer) and will stay with the title up to the 300th issue. He was also the regular penciller on Fantastic Four for their 300th issue during a 15-issue stint beginning in 1986 (#296-309, inks by his brother Sal and by Sinnott). Ever the workhouse, he still manages to fit in an adaptation of the movie, Labyrinth (1986) as well as a four-issue mini-series featuring Mephisto, a signature character (1987).
With the sheer volume and variety of work Buscema produces and the unfinished nature of doing mainly layouts, much of his 1980s work has been considered by some to be less inspired than previously. This is probably true to a certain extent, but Buscema's work continued to develop nonetheless. His artwork was characterized by a greater degree of simplicity with a shift of focus to storytelling and cartooning (although he still has plenty of his trademark power, energy, and draftsmanship). Moreover, he continued his inking efforts, producing a noteworthy Thor Annual (#15, 1985), a 10-page western in Savage Tales magazine (#10,1986), and a plate for the WFCBA Portfolio (Éditions Déesse, 1983), for example.
Buscema return to the Silver Surfer character with a special hardcover graphic novel, Judgment Day, inked by himself and done entirely with full-page panels (1988) and by tackling Wolverine, a new character for him, helping to launch his adventures in 1988 with two new titles, Marvel Comics Presents, an anthology title (#'s 1-10, Klaus Janson's inks and #38-47, with Buscema inking himself) as well as in his own title (#1-16, 20, 25, inks by Al Williamson and Bill Sienkiewicz inks, with issues 7, 8, and 25 featuring superb Buscema inks). Wolverine marked a return for Buscema to doing finished pencils regularly as his work displays a renewed show of power and energy.
[edit] 1990s and beyond
Buscema began his sixth decade in the field by joining Roy Thomas for a return to the Savage Sword of Conan with #191 (1991, inks by Dezuniga, Chan, E.R. Cruz) with a lively, entertaining 20-issue run. 1991 also sees the publication of Conan the Rogue, a graphic novel plotted, pencilled, inked, and coloured by Buscema, which stands as one his most personal works as he produced it over a period of several years in his spare time. He departed the Wolverine title, but not before delivering a graphic novel, Bloody Choices (1991, which he inked himself).
Buscema continued to tackle new genres with a stint with the Punisher (Punisher War Zone #23-30). Although the stint was brief, he nonetheless produced some fine artwork with that character; including issues 26-29 which he inked himself along with the first Punisher War Zone Annual. He also pencilled and inked a fine Punisher western tale, the 1994 graphic novel, A Man Named Frank, and was the chosen penciller for The Punisher Meets Archie (1994) team-up. At this late stage in his career, Buscema adopted a bolder, looser inking style, somewhat akin to Joe Kubert's. No longer attached to a regular series after his Punisher run, he penciled and inked a fine Avengers Annual (#23, 1994) and five more energetic black and white Conan adventures. Unfortunately, the Conan franchise reached its twilight at Marvel and Buscema is the final artist on the last issue of Savage Sword of Conan with #235 and also the final artist on the short-lived spin-off, Conan the Savage (#10, 1996).
He later provided a few fill-in pencil jobs (the Cosmic Powers Unlimited mini- series, Doom 2099, Fantastic Four 2099, Thor, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer and a Silver Surfer/Rune special). In 1996 after a long, productive, and fruitful career, he formally retired, at the age of 68. 1997 was the first year in 30 years where new Buscema material did not appear on the stands - it would also be the last year in Buscema's lifetime, as Buscema, ever the workhouse, continued to receive assignment offers which he would take on, his retirement thus becoming a "semi-retirement".
Always evolving artistically, his "post-retirement" work has an easygoing, fluid simplicity to it, which only a veteran of the craft can achieve. He did pencils & inks on a black and white short story for Shadows and Light (1998) and made a final return to Conan with the Death Covered in Gold 3-issue mini-series (1999). 1999 also saw the publication of a Spider-Man Annual with full Buscema art, five of the six-issue Galactus the Devourer mini-series which he pencilled (Sienkiewicz's inks), and a fill-in Thor issue (inks by Jerry Ordway).
Buscema continued to do entertaining work into his seventh decade of professional comic book work, working with DC Comics for the first time, initially doing full art on a black and white Batman short story (Batman – Gotham Knights #7, 2000). He later reunited with Stan Lee on the Just imagine Stan Lee and John Buscema creating Superman (2001) project. He also kept active doing private commissions and cover re-creations as well as teaching art classes and helped produce the John Buscema Sketchbook (Vanguard 2001) for whose promotion he attended the 2001 San Diego Comic Art Convention where he was received with great appreciation by fans and colleagues. The book gives a good overview of Buscema's wide-ranging passion for art:
| I love all the painters…Vermeer, Velasquez, Goya, Rubens, Rembrandt. I’ve got over a thousand art books! |
He finished the pencils on a Superman project started by Gil Kane (who had since passed away), Superman: Blood of my Ancestors (inks by Kevin Nowlan, 2003) and had just signed on for a five-issue mini-series with Roy Thomas called JLA: Barbarians. Shortly after finishing the first issue, Buscema, diagnosed with stomach cancer a few months earlier, passed away at the age of 74. A pencil illustration of the Avengers (painted by Alex Ross) was his last professional work.
[edit] Awards
He received much recognition for his work in comics, including the Shazam Award for Best Penciller (Dramatic Division) in 1974. He was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2002.
[edit] Legacy
The documentary Frank Frazetta, Painting with Fire (2003), in which Buscema appeared, is posthumously dedicated to him. Comprehensive tributes were published in Alter Ego #15 and Comic Book Artist #21 in 2002 and much of his work remains in print in trade paperback reprints.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: John Romita, Sr. |
Fantastic Four artist 1971–1973 |
Succeeded by: Rich Buckler |
| Preceded by: John Byrne |
Fantastic Four artist 1986–1987 |
Succeeded by: Keith Pollard |
