PAUL KUPPERBERG | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Jan30

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite DENYS COWAN Stories (Mostly) Written by Me

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jan 30, 2026

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite DENYS COWAN Stories (Mostly) Written by Me

The celebrated Mr. K pays a BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE… By PAUL KUPPERBERG I’ve written a lot of stuff and worked with a lot of artists in my comic-book writing career, some good, some bad, some either already acknowledged as greats, and others on their way to that recognition. Among the last category was a young man named Denys Cowan (born January 31, 1961). It was 1985 and I was a grizzled vet of 10 years. Denys had turned professional half a decade after me, breaking in by penciling stories for DC and Marvel on titles such as Weird War Tales, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Superman, The Flash, and Moon Knight before settling in for a yearlong run on Marvel’s Power Man and Iron Fist. Then he was back at DC, and nine of the first dozen jobs he was handed to draw were by me. Lucky me! Of course, I knew Denys and was aware of his work, but there’s nothing like having to stare at page after page of an artist’s output as you put words to their pictures to make you really appreciate some of their subtleties. And Denys’ work had subtleties from the very start. Denys was a fan of superheroes from watching afternoon reruns of the George Reeves Adventures of Superman, but it wasn’t until the third grade, when he changed school districts to live with his grandmother after the death of his mother, that he was introduced both to comic books and lifelong friend Derk Dingle. Dingle showed Cowan his first comic book, an issue of Jack Kirby’s New Gods, and he was hooked. Denys attended New York’s High School of Art and Design where he met someone who worked for artist and Deathlok creator Rich Buckler, and an after-school visit to Buckler’s studio led the artist to eventually hire the 14-year old as his assistant. Like a lot of artists of this era, Denys learned on the job, developing his own unique and energetic style that set him apart from many of his contemporaries. My first time working with Denys was when I dialogued Vigilante #19 (June 1985) over character co-creator Marv Wolfman’s plot in what I at first thought was just a fill-in job; it wasn’t, after writing the next issue over Marv’s plot, I became the regular writer and stayed on...

Jan26

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite SAL BUSCEMA Splash Pages

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jan 26, 2026

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite SAL BUSCEMA Splash Pages

The celebrated Mr. K pays tribute to the artist, who has died at 89… — UPDATED 1/26/26: Today was to be Sal Buscema’s 90th birthday but word emerged that he died three days ago. Here is a piece from his birthday in 2025. For more, click here and here. — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG I can tell you exactly when I first noticed Sal Buscema’s work. It was in Silver Surfer #4 (February 1968), as the inker over his brother John’s pencils. I can also tell you exactly how I reacted to Sal’s inks on his brother John’s pencils: Where has this guy been hiding all this time? At the time, I had no way of knowing that not only had Sal not been hiding, but he had also already worked briefly in comics during the early-1950s and gone on to a career in advertising and commercial art, including work for the U.S. government for the Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture. That early comics work had also been inking over brother John’s pencils on the stories he was doing for Dell Comics, and when Sal (born Jan. 26, 1936) did make the move back into comics in 1968 with John’s encouragement and help, it was, “to be an inker. I didn’t want to pencil,” Sal told comics historian Jim Amash. But he had spent a year under John’s tutelage learning how to produce a dynamic Marvel Comics page, resulting in samples that Stan Lee liked enough to ask the artist to come to New York and draw for the company. “I wanted to work full-time for Marvel, so it was out of necessity that I pencilled,” he told Amash. According to Sal, John was unhappy with Joe Sinnott’s inks on the first three issues of Silver Surfer, feeling his pencils were being overshadowed by the inker’s finishes. Sal told Amash, John “knew that I knew how to ink his work.” And that he did, but as good as the finished product was and as reluctant as Sal was to lay down his brush in favor of the pencil, the younger Buscema was soon one of Marvel’s busiest artists. He would go on to such memorable runs as 10 years as artist of The Incredible Hulk, and eight years on The Spectacular Spider-Man, as well as long...

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