I saw this mentioned over at the CGC boards and asked the original poster if he minded if I noted it over at BSC. John Buscema is my personal favorite Marvel artist when I consider those who were in their prime before I really started collecting comics. Some people prefer Kirby, or Neal, others go with Romita, Windsor-Smith, Ditko, Steranko (among many others), and while I love them all, it’s Big John Buscema’s work that always catches my eye. All you have to say is Silver Surfer#4.
Currently, over at Palma de Mallorca (fun place) a John Buscema art exhibit is being showcased and will be featured until November 8th. It has over 200 pages of original art from the 1950′s through the 1980′s.
The art:
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People viewing the exhibit:
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There is also a catalog (gotta grab one myself!) that you can check out (and get ordering info for ) here.
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Buscema’s work is really interesting. He was notoriously fast – turning out around 5 pages of pencilled art a day (according to him, his top page rate was 7 pencilled pages in one day). Allegedly, he would sometimes put his watch on his drawing board, as a means of timing himself per page. He was a master not only of anatomy, but of economy; he advocated drawing on a chisel point pencil, to keep you from getting caught up in the details (as he generally pointed out, that’s the inker’s job). Hell of an artist.
I have no problem saying that of the Marvel Guard that was pre-me picking up comics on the racks, that Big John is is probably the Marvel Artist I have come to admire the most as a whole. I know a lot of people point to Kirby, but I kind of thin ‘My Marvel” is probably more molded from the Buscema brother;s work,.