John Buscema: Under the Influence

If you're not a fan of Big John Buscema, well... I honestly don't know why you wouldn't be! Be that as it may, one thing JB fans often discuss is the "look" of the Master's work when under the pen and brush of various inkers. It's long been known - basically because Buscema said it whenever he saw an "in" - that John Buscema preferred only two inkers ever touch his pencils: his younger brother, Sal, and himself. All others, again according to Buscema, ruined his work. Buried it. Whatever negative you want to throw in here, chances are good that Buscema felt it or said it!

Today we're going to examine several samples of wonderful John Buscema pages, each one with a different inker. A hearty "thanks!" in advance to the great people across the Interwebs who own these pages and have posted them elsewhere online. We all benefit from your generosity!

Here's today's Hall of Fame line-up:

1. John Buscema
2. Dan Adkins
3. Alfredo Alcala
4. Sal Buscema
5. Ernie Chua
6. Tony DeZuniga
7. Frank Giacoia
8. Don Heck
9. Rudy Nebres
10. Tom Palmer
11. George Roussos
12. Joe Sinnott
13. Sonny Trinidad

Your job is to leave some impressions in the comments section, and hopefully a rich conversation develops today. Please also offer suggestions on other inkers I may have missed. My goal was certainly not to slight anyone's work, and I make no claim that my presentation today is comprehensive.

So let's get on with it...

John Buscema inks, from Avengers Annual 24, p. 23

Dan Adkins, from Sub-Mariner 8

Alfredo Alcala, from Savage Sword of Conan 2, page 31

Sal Buscema, from Silver Surfer 7, page 38

Ernie Chua, from Conan the Barbarian 36

Tony DeZuniga, from SSoC 27, page 20

Frank Giacoia, from Sub-Mariner 1

Don Heck, from Our Love Story 3

Rudy Nebres, from SSoC 158

Tom Palmer, from Avengers 81, page 4

George Roussos, from Avengers 42, page 9

Joe Sinnott, from Fantastic Four 121, page 9

Sonny Trinidad, from SSoC 22, page 15

The Many Styles of Rich Buckler

Rich Buckler has been called many things, notably a swiper of other artists' work or ideas. I'd prefer to call him a talent, able to produce whatever style the job demanded or his editors asked of him. For many Bronze Age Babies, we cut our teeth on Buckler's Fantastic Four. When I came to that mag, Buckler was just coming out of his phase where he aped Jack Kirby. One could do worse. But just before Buckler left the book (turning it over to a young George Perez), his style had changed, coming into a bit more distinct look.

Of course, Buckler was virtually omnipresent on Marvel's 1970s covers, competing with Gil Kane and Kirby for ubiquity. As the 70s gave way to the 80s, Buckler landed at DC where he again turned in stellar work. While Rich Buckler will most likely never be mentioned among the masters, he must be considered one of the Bronze Age greats, for sheer output alone. And if you dig deep, you may be surprised at just how much he put his hands on - corner boxes, covers on mags you'd least expect (the All-New, All-Different X-Men, for example), and big projects like DC's Limited Collectors' Edition treasuries.

Samples of Buckler's work (below) include:

Avengers 104 (1972), inked by Joe Sinnott
Fantastic Four 150 (1974), inked by Sinnott
Saga of the Original Human Torch 2 (1990), inked by Danny Bulanadi
All-New Collectors' Edition C-58 (1978), inked by Dick Giordano
Action Comics 486 (cover)(1978), inked by Frank Giacoia
Tarzan 25 (cover)(1979), inked by Bob McLeod

Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Artist Edition - a Review

Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Artist Edition
IDW Publishing, March 2018

Now I love me a good Artist Edition, and today's fare certainly falls into that category. I pre-ordered this from the fine folks at Tales of Wonder, and received their always-expertly packaged box some months later. I've had this for quite some time, but only recently reserved a day (and the kitchen counter) to read from it. If you humored my live-tweet of my reading via the @bronzeagebabies Twitter feed, I thank you. Today, you are the lucky recipient of more of my photos as well as some thoughts on the book and on Andru's work.

First, the tale of the tape from the good people at the Artist Edition Index:

Ross Andru’s The Amazing Spider-Man Artist’s Edition
Includes Amazing Spider-Man 125-127, 153, 165 and 167, plus a special gallery section. Review.

• Publication Date: March 28, 2018 (solicited for January 2018)
• Publisher Series Number: 57
• ISBN: 978-1-68405-286-8
• 12″ x 17″
• 144 pages
• $125 USD
• Editor: Scott Dunbier
• Production: Scott Dunbier
• Design: Randall Dahlk
• Initial Reported Sales: 353

This is the twelfth Artist Edition I've purchased; unfortunately, these books are so large that I had to sell two to make room for others. First-World problems, I know... For those who are not familiar with Artist Editions (or their counterparts from other companies, i.e. Gallery Editions from Fantagraphics, et al.), these are collections of original art. When possible, complete issues are included, and the art is scanned in color - that means that all white-out, margin notes, blue-line pencil, paste-ups, etc. are visible in high definition... these books are the next best thing to owning the actual pages.

Ross Andru was my entry point to Amazing Spider-Man, c. issue #138. I think for many long-time fans, "you never forget your first". So while Andru may not be my favorite artist on the Wall-Crawler, I have a soft spot for his work. I hope you find, through the pages and panels I've presented, that Andru's run is pleasing to your eye as well.

I am an enthusiast of the production process. I come from a family of printers, so seeing the blue line pencil under the inks, the stats, the yellowed paste-ups, and the white-out is wonderful. In that vein, the page below is what I'd consider a prime exhibit of the purpose of the Artist Edition:

Amazing Spider-Man #180, by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

Not only is this a great composition by Andru, the fact that all the word balloons are paste-ups is a curiosity. Of the 144 pages in the Artist Edition, this is the only one like this. You can find stats/paste-ups here and there, but never an entire page. It just makes me wonder a) what it looked like before, and b) was it the entire plot that was changed, or just wording here and there?

When many fans think of Ross Andru's tenure on Amazing Spider-Man, it's his attention to the details of New York City that come to mind. I've only been to NYC once, and then only to Manhattan on a drive-through and to a Yankees game in the Bronx. So for this Midwestern boy, Ross Andru provided me a window to another world.

 

 

The splash pages included in the AE are also an Andru tour de force. It's nice to see the influence of the various inkers on Andru's pencils, too. The varied camera angles are cool as well.

       

 

  

 

 And speaking of inkers, here's a closer look at some of the embellishers featured in the book. Left to right, top to bottom you'll see John Romita, Sr., Jim Mooney, Mooney again, Frank Giacoia, and Mike Esposito.

 

Gerry Conway and Len Wein were the scripters on the issues that were chosen for the book. Even with only these six issues as a sample, the rough and sometimes rocky relationship between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson is on full display. This also serves as a time capsule for me, as I watched these events play out monthly after my trips to the corner drug store.

 

Early in the AE, in Amazing Spider-Man #s 126-127, Spider-Man is commissioned to build the Spider-Mobile. The panels featuring Spidey and the Human Torch working were fun - always some nice banter when those two are together. And darned if the guys pitching to Spidey don't resemble Funky Flashman and Houseroy!

The IDW folks did a great job - this is one of only two pages in the book not shot from original art.

 

The focus of an Artist Edition is not only the production process, as I mentioned above. I think that with the color stripped away, my concentration often goes to page layouts and panel composition. Ross Andru was a master of motion, specifically action. But if you notice in the final panel in this section, he was also pretty darn good at the conveyance of emotion.

Lastly, just by chance the issues chosen for this wonderful exhibition happened to include three Christmas pages. Since we're fully in the thick of the holiday season, here are those panels -- I bet they jog a memory for many of you!

Thanks for humoring me with this tour of a great book - one I'm very happy to have purchased and set alongside similar collections featuring the work of Jack Kirby, John Romita, Gil Kane, and John Buscema. Drop a comment below if you're so inclined, and stop back by this space on Thursday for another look at some great Bronze Age comic book art.