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

Hell-Reapers at the Heart of Paradise - a Review from Doc Savage 2

Doc Savage #2 (October 1975)
"Hell-Reapers at the Heart of Paradise"
Doug Moench-Tony DeZuniga

How do you like your pulp? If it's orange juice, I don't. But if it's more of the hero variety, then it's gotta be like Doc Savage. True confession time (I do that a lot around here, it seems): Prior to purchasing Dynamite Comics's phenomenal-looking hardcover Doc Savage Archives, vol. 1 - The Curtis Magazine Era, I had had zero interaction with the character. Zip. I know, I know... Now that's not to say I was a pulp virgin - of course not. I've had plenty of eyeball time with all of the Robert E. Howard heroes; ditto for the Edgar Rice Burroughs stable of characters. Toss in some Zorro, Buck Rogers, and the Lone Ranger and I've actually read quite a few pulp stories. But for whatever reason, never Doc Savage. I'll try to change that soon.

So why'd I buy the hardcover if I didn't even know if I'd like it? Free money, effendi. I'd come into around $50 of disposable cash several months ago. Given the options, I figured since I wasn't losing anything - and knowing I'd need some resources for this blog - I picked up the Savage book, the Vampirella: The Essential Warren Years trade I'd used for last month's review, and the second volume of The Savage Sword of Kull the Conqueror (featuring Dark Horse reprints of the Marvel magazine). I've read the first two stories in the Doc Savage book, and since I liked the second installment better than the first, here we are. Let's dive in!

100 Word Review:

We open with a quite-large Viking-looking fellow menacing a realtor (of all things). The man is kidnapped by his attacker, and we move ahead a bit to a man seeking help from Doc Savage. But that’s no man! It’s Sandy Taine, whose father went missing some time ago whilst on an Arctic expedition to find Spanish gold. Problem: He’s been accused of murder - but is nowhere to be found. Doc and his team will need to find clues to other kidnappings, and we’ll find that this adventure will lead them to the Arctic, and below! But are they prepared to meet subterranean reptilians?

The Good: How easy must it be to write when you can do whatever you want? Fantastic technology? Let's do it! Exotic locales? Why not? A world beneath our own and populated by reptilian humanoids? Sure!

Saying that I do not mean at all to undermine what Doug Moench has plotted thus far in the two reprints of the Marvel Doc Savage magazine. On the contrary, these are well-crafted tales! Clark "Doc" Savage was created by Street & Smith publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic and first saw print in March 1933. Additional elements were added to the mythos by author Lester Dent. If you've seen any of the Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers serials, then you have a real sense of what these pulp characters could be like - larger-than-life and able to push any boundaries needed for that month's narrative. Moench and series illustrators John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga (the latter flying solo in today's issue) take all the wildest and wackiest of the pulps and cut loose. I think we've often read, and remarked, that John Buscema felt most comfortable between the covers of a Conan or Thor mag - fantasy lands, where his mind could go away from the drudgery of cars and buildings and guns and all that. Yet in Doc Savage, both he and DeZuniga seem to rise to a different level - there is power in these comic pages. These guys were nothing if not professionals, but the work seems fired at a higher temperature than normal. These books are pretty awesome to look at.

Doc Savage is the best of all our heroes - he's Captain America, Tarzan, Batman, and Iron Man all rolled into one. Brave, smart, intuitive, and creative - the whole package. He also comes with help - five men who've sworn their loyalty to Savage and who sometimes take care of the dirty work, but are always willing to move forward with their leader. If there's such a thing as a "man's man", then these guys are that. They are fearless, and are adept at kicking some tails and taking names. In this story, it's these five faithful men who begin the case by listening to a Mr. Sandy Taine; little do they know that Doc is approaching the building in his Autogyro and picking up the augmented conversation. It's Doc who sees through Taine's disguise and get to the heart of the matter. And away we go.

I really have enjoyed the vehicles used by Savage and his aides. These are sharp machines, evocative of Batman's arsenal for travel. In Doc Savage #2, we see the Autogyro, the Runabout, the Amberjack, the Helldiver, the Juggernaut, and the Hydro-glider. Bruce Wayne's fortune? Gotta be peanuts compared to the resources Savage had at his disposal. And that raises another important point about the original pulps: those tales were written as the Great Depression was landing hard on Americans. To have a hero seemingly immune to the financial terror gripping the nation had to be a welcome release, a respite of fantasy.

Without going into a longer plot synopsis than I did above (and that the art samples provided hopefully convey), suffice it to say that the story moves at a pretty good clip and everything fits nicely. Moench has bad guys with motivations that are believable (albeit pretty bad guy-ish), heroes who behave as such, a twist here and there, and a satisfying if mildly predictable conclusion. As mentioned, pulpy things like settings, technology, and uranium (because who doesn't love themselves some atomic age fiction?) all knit together this mammoth 54-page tale. Doug Moench did good work.

The Bad: Above I commented on Doc's five faithful men. While those guys are certainly an asset to Doc (and the stories), there's just something mildly unsavory about the relationship. I'm not suggesting that those guys are in any way slaves to Savage - far from it. But their loyalty seems somewhat over the top, almost fawningly symbiotic, if that makes any sense. Each of the five are supposed to be at the top of their various disciplines, whether it be archeology, chemistry, law, etc. Yet they often prove inferior to Savage's intellect and intuition. This of course serves to elevate our hero to superman-like status. But at the expense of the other characters, it gave me a bit of pause. Overall, what it has inspired me to do is to get some of the Doc Savage novels downloaded to my Kindle.

The Ugly: I got nuthin' here this time. I've liked what I've read so far in this beautiful book. The stories are long and do require a little stamina/perseverance, but it's ultimately time well spent.

Leave a comment, please, as I know there are readers who have a much more intimate history with Doc Savage than I do. I'd love to hear your praises and get a sense for your nostalgia about the character. Thank you in advance!

KISS, by John Romita, Jr. and Tony DeZuniga

Were you a card-carrying member of the KISS Army back in the Bronze Age? This guy sure was! I couldn't get enough of them for about a 3-year period. All the records, posters, issues of Creem and Hit Parader, et al. But perhaps the highlight of that era was the entrance of KISS to the realm of my true love - comics! Marvel Super Special #1 and #5 featured the band, and below is a nice two-page spread from their second appearance. John Romita, Jr. and Tony DeZuniga were tabbed as the penciler and inker, and I'd say they did just fine. The image is provided by Heritage Auctions, as noted, and seems to be one of a very few pages laying around the Internet (shoot - it was the only one I found). Enjoy!

*Next week, join in on Monday for some original art, Christmas cover-style, and then Thursday you'll see several samples from the Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns Gallery Edition. Happy Holidays!

Shadows in Zamboula - a Review from Savage Sword of Conan 14

From time to time, I hope to do full reviews of Bronze Age stories presented in the black & white format. Today we're going to trip back in time not only to the Hyborian Age, but back a couple of years to the final months of the Bronze Age Babies blog. The post below was written right around six months before we ceased publication. By then, in an effort to streamline my reviews (read: make it a little easier on myself, as opposed to doing a full plot synopsis on a 30-page yarn), I developed a concise format of recapping the plot in 100 words, followed by a Good/Bad/Ugly commentary style. One note: I've since reread this rendition of "Shadows in Zamboula", and I'll stand by other commenters who feel that Tony DeZuniga deserves the lion's share of the credit for the art chores here. See how you feel about it.

The post is presented here in its original form, so please don't feel like you're coming into the middle of a conversation. Here is a link to the original publication; there were 19 comments on the review - a pretty healthy conversation!

I hope if you're seeing this for the first time, you enjoy the experience -- you can leave a comment below with any praises and pans!

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 4 APRIL 2016 AT BRONZE AGE BABIES.

Savage Sword of Conan #14 (September 1976)(cover by Earl Norem)
"Shadows in Zamboula"
Roy Thomas-Neal Adams/"the Tribe" (although databases credit Tony DeZuniga on the inks)

Doug: A little over a month ago I mentioned in a comments section that today's review would be coming your way. I said then that I'd originally intended to do a Thor issue from the first few post-Kirby offerings. Noticing that Neal Adams was the first artist on the post-Jack scene, I was drawn to that 2-parter. However, upon leafing through those two books and seeing the odd combination of Adams with Joe Sinnott's inks I was pushed away. Eyeballing the shelves in my comics room, I was reminded that it has been years since we ran a Savage Sword of Conan review (we've only done two in our long history here), so I zeroed in on the spines of the four collected volumes I own. I decided just to grab the second compilation and see what lurked within. Of all the stories inside, only two were not penciled by John Buscema. Since he's sort of the Conan go-to artist, I wondered about finding something different so I checked out first the Gil Kane story and then the Neal Adams tale. If you ever ask me to pick between those two artists I'm going to choose Adams 100% of the time -- no question. So here we are.

Doug: I've said it before, but some of the things I'd snatch up had I a time machine and a fair amount of cash are Marvel's various Bronze Age B&W magazines. The art is so spectacular -- from the limited amount of material I've seen, there weren't many misses in terms of quality. The inks are lush, and the use of wash, zipatone, etc. really give some great textures that the coloring of the day simply could not provide. If you've never laid eyes on these "essential" Savage Sword books (I lower-cased that, as these are published by Dark Horse, not Marvel), I'd encourage you to seek them out. They are thick, and a sight to behold.

Doug: So let's get this moving with a 100-Word Review of the plot, as I'm guessing few among our throngs of readers have read this particular tale.

Conan finds himself in Zamboula, warned against staying at the tavern of Aram Baksh. Allegedly men who sleep there disappear, their goods sold at the bazaar. Conan’s investigation soon leads him into conflict with cannibals from Darfar, and a bare-breasted damsel in distress. Further, a drugged Turanian soldier and an idol for human sacrifice add to the suspense. Conan is tested against a Black giant, reality-warping drugs, and the peddler of flesh, Totrasmek. A magical ring is the center of attention, for it enslaves the hearts of the opposite sex. Lies, peril, swordplay, and thievery dominate this fast-paced tale.

The Good: I sometimes feel like I need to take a deep breath when I'm reading these Savage Sword stories. It's pretty well known that John Buscema felt most at home with Conan the Barbarian. I think we could make that same argument of Roy Thomas. Sure, we all know of Thomas's affinity for the WWII-era heroes and the opportunity to retcon their histories. But he seemed to really put out with the Cimmerian. You could also add to the argument by stating how easy it must have been to work with the likes of Buscema, Kane, Adams, and the wonderful lot of Filipino artists that dot the Marvel B&W titles, as compared to lesser (and that's not really a dig) talents that might have been his partners in the four-color books. I just think there's a true comfort in the pacing, dialogue, and eventual payoff in a Roy Thomas Conan story. That being said, I know he has his detractors in the regular Conan mag, and it's been stated on this blog that post-#50 the drop-off in quality is marked. So what do I know?

Neal Adams's art is Neal Adams's art. It's beautiful. I read somewhere (maybe it was even Sean that suggested it in earlier comments here on the BAB) that Tony DeZuniga had tremendous influence on this issue. I suppose I see it in some places, but I mainly see Adams. The faces, angles of the body when walking, the motion of a turn -- some of those are specific traits that I see in Adams's pencils whether here or in a Batman or X-Men story. I also liked the attention to detail on Conan's hair. I know, sounds sort of metrosexual for a barbarian yarn. But if you've read some of the Robert E. Howard stories, Conan's hair is jet black and trimmed straight across his forehead. Adams honors that in nearly every panel. Small detail, but it adds authenticity to the portrayal of the character.

The plot, as I mentioned, was solid. It was extremely well-paced, slowing only when the tension of an action scene was required. There are some movements in the story, but I never felt that getting from here to there required me to suspend my disbelief (beyond "normal" in a sword/sorcery story) or accept any deus ex machina developments. Adams's panel layouts stayed mostly to the grid, but he just often enough mixed in a no-panel layout to keep me enthralled. There are three splash pages in the story, all appropriately placed and effective. Often the figures and/or accessories spill outside the panel's constraints, and I find that effective as well. The end panel is suitably "Conan", and left me with an "of course" smile.

An element of Conan stories is a sort of continuity-without-continuity. For example, on the first page Thomas pens that Conan is accosted in the bazaar by "one of his former Zuagir comrades". I don't necessarily need to know of that episode, but it places the thought into my mind that this Conan fellow is well traveled and well-adventured. Also, the use of city and national names gives Conan stories a "universe" feel. A Tarzan story, to draw on another major mythical adventurer, doesn't give me the same sense of geographic wonder; perhaps that's because Edgar Rice Burroughs anchored his ape-man in our own world.

My favorite part of this story was the 8-page mano-a-mano battle to the death between Conan and the Darfarian giant Baal-Pteor. The creators crafted a vignette with a great deal of tension and an outcome of which I assumed but could not be fully convinced.

The Bad: There's really not much to say here, other than I wondered about this rough-and-tumble world where barbarians stride through town shirtless and later meet and have an adventure with a beautiful woman, also shirtless. Makes me wonder why I'm sitting here wearing clothes... (no, not really). Cover up! Sheesh.

The Ugly: The only ugly thing about this story, or any Conan story for that matter, are the baddies. Whether here with Adams or in a Big John-penciled tale (or shoot -- in my imagination as I read a Howard short story), the denizens of these mythical cities never disappoint in terms of menace. But as to any story element? I got nuthin'.

As I said at the top, do yourself a favor and check out some of these stories. You know, we often bat around "what's so great about the Bronze Age?", and we always tend to focus on Treasury Editions, Megos, the Giant-Size and Dollar Comics, etc. But these magazines are a vital component of 1970s comics history and should not be neglected as part of the larger experience.