Sal Buscema celebrates his 79th Birthday today. If anything can convince me to put my work aside for a while and blog again, it's the opportunity to talk about Our Pal Sal. As I understand, not everyone has always been enamored with Sal's work. During the 70s, whether the likes of Neal Adams, Jim Starlin and Frank Brunner were trying to expand our collective minds, artists like Sal Buscema simply got to work cranking out great stories and turning them in on time. Several years ago, I had a wonderful email exchange with Steve Engelhart in which he praised Sal as a wonderful collaborator.
When I close my eyes and think of comic book images from my formative funnybook years (let's say 1976 to 1983), I am amazed by how many of those got their start at Sal Buscema's drawing board. From Cap's shield crushing him (thanks to Graviton) in Avengers #158 to the truly eerie 'glass men' from Incredible Hulk #262. That image of the swimmer still creeps me out. How about that Spectacular Spider-Man #1 cover? There's a reason we all picked that one up, right? It grabs your attention. Here's to Sal Buscema.! I wish you the happiest of Birthdays!
No comments:
Post a Comment