Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jan 26, 2025 | 6 comments

The celebrated Mr. K pays a BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to the artist, who’s turning 89!

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 stints on The Avengers, Spider-Girl, and literally hundreds of fill-ins and short runs on everything from Alpha Flight to X-Men.

Later in his career, from 1997-99, Sal moved briefly over to DC Comics for such assignments as pencilling Superman, Superboy, and Batman, and inking dozens of other titles. He recalled in his interview with Amash, “(DC) were giving me all these young guys that could hardly hold a pencil in their hands and asking me to ‘tweak it.’ In cases like that I would definitely put a lot of myself into it and change whatever I felt needed to be changed.”

I was one of the editors who gave Sal such an assignment, hiring him to do layouts for the first couple of issues of a title being taken over by a talented but inexperienced young artist, who later told me he learned everything he needed to know about comic book storytelling from Sal’s layouts.

Here then, MY 13 FAVORITE SAL BUSCEMA SPLASH PAGES:

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The Avengers #72 (January 1970). There’s something Sterankoesque about this image of small figures maneuvering around a giant title, which is only fitting since this tale refers back to a Steranko written and drawn storyline from Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Sal may not have had the slick, refined drawing style of a Steranko, but I’d stack his storytelling chops up against any of his contemporaries. Inked by Sam Grainger.

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The Sub-Mariner #35 (March 1971). Art direction: “Hulk, Subby, Silver Surfer sharing Surfer’s surfboard orbiting high above Earth. Oh, yeah, and try to make it interesting.” Sal: “Done!” Inked by Jim Mooney.

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Captain America #147 (March 1972). Everyone should have an easily accessible “Destruct Panel” near at hand! And Sal subtly makes sure that, despite the melee on the monitor that dominates the scene, the reader’s eye is drawn straight down to it on lower page right, which the Hydra agent’s sword is literally pointing to. Inks by John Verpoorten.

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Captain America #151 (July 1972). “Your name’s Captain America… so what does that get you, mister?” It gets you a swell ghostly image of your alter ego hanging over you while you walk through a moody Sal Buscema splash into a supervillain ambush. Inks by Vince Colletta.

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The Defenders #21 (March 1975). Perspective shots can be tricky. Unless you’re Sal. Inks by Sal Trapani.

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The Avengers #159 (May 1977). Another bit of well-executed perspective, a not an easy scene with all those bodies—including the miniaturized figures of Yellowjacket and the Wasp—intersecting on different planes. Inks by Pablo Marcos.

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The Incredible Hulk #214 (August 1977). I always thought this splash captured the Hulk’s weight and power, hitting the ground so hard he sent anything not bolted down leaping into the air. Inks by Ernie Chan.

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The Fantastic Four Annual #13 (1978). Happiness is the Fantastic Four becoming a team. Again! A moment of red hot Johnny Storm bliss. Inks by Joe Sinnott.

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Tarzan #20 (January 1979). Raw savagery, Sal B.-style! Inks by Bob Hall.

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ROM #26 (January 1982). Big! Inks by Sinnott.

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Thor #372 (October 1986). Raw emotion! Inks by Brett Blevins and Al Williamson.

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Detective Comics Annual #10 (1997). Drawing Batman like he’d been doing it his entire career! Inks by Klaus Janson.

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The Creeper #8 (July 1998). What’s so funny? Some of Sal’s layouts, finished by Shawn Martinbrough.

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MORE

— 13 REASONS to Love Our Pal SAL BUSCEMA. Click here.

— The TOP 13 SAL BUSCEMA HULK Stories — RANKED. Click here.

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PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. He also wrote an essay for DC’s Aquaman: 80 Years of the King of the Seven Seas. Check out his new memoir, Panel by Panel: My Comic Book Life. 

Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/

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