Legendary Marvel Comic Artist Sal Buscema Passes Away at Age 89
Legendary Marvel artist, Sal Buscema, one of the last living creators from the Marvel Age of comics in the 60s, has passed away at the age of 89
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The longtime Marvel Comics artist, Sal Bucema, known for his iconic runs on titles such as Spectacular Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Rom the Spaceknight, and Captain America, has passed away at the age of 89, according to artist Sterling Clark, who recently worked with Buscema on a project:
Sal Buscema was still in high school when he first started working in comic books in the early 1950s, doing inking work at Dell Comics over his brother, the superstar artist, John Buscema. After high school, Buscema served in the military, and then went to work in advertising in the late 1950s/early 1960s, including working with his brother again at an advertising agency. When John returned to comics, Sal went to a different commercial art studio until John finally convinced him to come back to comics in 1968.
John Buscema's interest in his brother doing comics was partially inspired by John's desire to see Sal ink his work, as he trusted his brother more than any other inker at the time. While not the first assignment he had at Marvel, Sal's first PUBLISHED Marvel comic book story was the legendary Silver Surfer #4, inking his brother John, which came out in late 1968...
In the excellent historical book, Sal Buscema: Comics' Fast and Furious Artist, Jim Amash detailed Buscema's career. Buscema noted how he got such a plum Silver Surfer assignment:
Initially a inker, Buscema moved to penciling, where he soon became one of the most prolific artists of the era, telling Amash, "At first I was very slow. If I knocked out six or eight pages a week I was happy. Then I started getting a little bit better, and I could probably do a couple of pages a day. But once I hit that five-year transitional period, I was like a machine. I could grind the stuff out. ... Everything just fell into place, and all of a sudden I found it very easy to do."
Buscema penciled Avengers with Roy Thomas, where they introduced the Squadron Sinister (the inspiration for the later Squadron Supreme)..
In 1972. Buscema launched the Defenders with writer Steve Englehart. He and Englehart had an iconic run on Captain America together, which culminated with the classic "Secret Empire" storyline that revealed that the President of the United States was part of the secret criminal organization, right before he died by suicide in front of Captain America.
Buscema worked on nearly every major Marvel character in the 1970s at one point or another. He had some some inking work on Amazing Spider-Man, but his first major Spider-Man run came when he launched Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man with Gerry Conway in 1976...
Buscema had two major collaborations with writer Bill Mantlo in the late 1970s/1980s, with both an acclaimed run on Rom the Spaceknight, but also a long run on Incredible Hulk (Buscema worked with Roger Stern, as well). Buscema drew the Incredible Hulk for ten years. It was during his time on the Hulk that Buscema became most known for the "Buscema Punch," a distinctive punch that he had developed early in his time at Marvel, but, well, the Hulk punched SO MANY PEOPLE that it became best known for its use in Incredible Hulk...
In 1986, Buscema began penciling AND inking himself on Spectacular Spider-Man, a gig he would maintain for roughly 100 issues, including a particularly well-remembered stint with J.M. DeMatteis on the series in early 1990s (I just wrote recently about how excellent that run was).
DeMatteis remembered his beloved collegue today
Buscema also finished Walter Simonson's iconic Thor run as the regular artist (as Simonson stopped drawing the book himself before the ending).
After a stint at DC in the 1990s, Buscema returned to Marvel, inking Pat Olliffe on Spider-Girl, and eventually becoming the regular inker on Ron Frenz's long run on Spider-Girl (which continued until roughly 2011 in a few different series).
When that run finally ended, Buscema was MOSTLY retired, but he continued to work on and off for the rest of his life, often with Frenz or collaborators connected to Frenz.
Sal is survived by his widow, Joan, and their three children.
Source: ComicClubLive
