RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Rich Buckler dead

Rich Buckler, Prolific Marvel and DC Comics Artist, Dies at 68: Buckler died Friday after a long battle with cancer, bleedingcool.com reported on Saturday. Marvel's official Twitter account confirmed the news in a tweet: "Marvel is deeply saddened by the loss of artist Rich Buckler. We offer our condolences to his family, friends, and fans worldwide."


I was always conflicted about Buckler's art. On one hand, it was always competent and told a story well. On the other, he was possibly the worst "swipe artist" of the bronze era. You could read one of his stories and spot overt swipes from Kirby, Adams, Buscema, Aparo and others from page to page.

In fact, my first exposure to Buckler was a Batman story (Issue 265) where there were so many swipes, and Batman looked so different from panel to panel (even with Berni Wrightson doing the inking), that I assumed "Rich Buckler" was a psuedonym for a group effort, not unlike when "D Hands" would pencil or ink an issue.

Good! Glad he's dead! Hated that guy!

Man, they're dropping like flies!


Re-reading the 100-page "Manhunter" issues of DETECTIVE (issues 438-443) I was struck by how many of my favorites have died in recent years. Dick Giordano, Jim Aparo, Joe Kubert, Carmine infantino, Marshall Rogers, and just recently Berni Wrightson.

I always enjoyed Buckler's work, despite the obvious swipes. Particularly on Batman, virtually every artist, including Giordano, was swiping Adams' style anyway, just not quite as obviously (Grell, Brunner, Buckler, Byrne, Nasser...)
I love that Batman 265 issue, with Buckler inked by Wrightson, a one-time only collaboration, and surprisingly Wrightson's style does not dominate, it just looks like a very cleanly inked Buckler.

My first sample of Buckler's work was a Robin backup series in BATMAN 241 and 242.

I recall a Buckler interview (probably in COMIC BOOK ARTIST) where Buckler described editorial criticism of his early 70's work, that it morphed from story to story and didn't have a distinctive "voice" and individual style. And when he started imitating Neal Adams, they ironically said "You've found your voice!"
Compare, for example, the 1971-1972 work of Buckler's on the Robin backups in BATMAN, and his simultaneous "Rose and the Thorn" backups in LOIS LANE, that are almost unrecognizable as the same artist.

Buckler's first pro work for DC was a HOUSE OF SECRETS 90 issue in 1971, where Neal Adams inked the story to help Buckler make that first sale to DC.

Buckler was one of many "hack" artists at Marvel in the early/mid 1970's, that just churned out stuff in the house style. I think Buckler's main series was FANTASTIC FOUR (roughly 140 to 180, Buckler, Perez and J Buscema alternating the art chores).
Buckler's most distinctive and individual work was his DEATHLOK series with writer Doug Moench in ASTONISHING TALES 25-36, circa 1973-1976. (Concluded much later in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 33, in 1977)
Another was an early McGregor Killraven story in AMAZING ADVENTURES 25, in 1974. Buckler also did a few issues of McGregor's Black Panther series in JUNGLE ACTION 6-24 in the same period.

After that Buckler went over to DC and for a while was their primary cover artist from 1977-1982. The series I recall most of his from that period was his run in WORLD'S FINEST(nice art but very unmemorable stories by Haney, O'Neil and others), and a few scattered but really nice issues of TIME WARP, JONAH HEX, DC SPECIAL (Captain Comet, with dinosaurs), JLA, and BATMAN.
In that same period, Buckler was doing a lot of work for Continuity Associates (which is to say Neal Adams) so not surprisingly his work increasingly came to resemble that of Adams. That was a job requirement at Continuity. As seen at Continuity comics through the 80's and 90's, even artists as distinctive as Rudy Nebres would draw like Neal Adams.

While I wouldn't point to Buckler as one of my absolute favorites such as Adams or Wrightson or Kirby, Buckler did do some nice and solid work, that I enjoy and occasionally re-read.

I think only Keith Giffen rivals him in the shameless art swiping category, though.

An early cover by Buckler, from 1976. Both Buckler and Perez did nice work on this series.

From Buckler's first year of Marvel and DC work, Buckler did Man-Thing stories in FEAR 11 and 12.


Issue 11 is Buckler pencils, inked by Jim Mooney. (With a really nice Neal Adams cover! Adams covers at Marvel were few and far between.)




Issue 12 is Starlin pencils, inked by Buckler! (with a Starlin /Trimpe cover)

If the cop is going to kill Man-Thing and the escaped convict anyway, why not just shoot them (and the snake) right then and there?

I guess he wants to enjoy the fight before he shoots.
And good luck trying to kill Man-Thing with a gun anyway!

I was more focused on the rare early Starlin/Trimpe art combination.

Here's the DC SPECIAL 27 issue with Captain Comet that I mentioned, from 1977, with 34 interior pages of Buckler art. It was during the period when Buckler was working for continuity, and was reaching the peak of his clonal Neal Adams stage.

Although Buckler was far from the only guy working in a Neal Adams style. I recall John Byrne saying when he worked for Charleton, and he did a DOOMSDAY PLUS ONE poster (looking very much like a Neal Adams page) , and Neal Adams visited the Charleton editorial offices and saw the Byrne page, and said to the editor "This is very nice... what can HE do?"

One of the nicest art jobs Buckler turned in was this story from TIME WARP 1.

While the short twist-ending stories in TIME WARP 1-5 were pretty standard fare, and harken back to the late 1950's /early 1960's Marvel and DC S-F short stories, they were still enjoyable, and presented a nice spectrum of artists. And the sophisticated pulp-era styled Kaluta covers were to die for.

I see the later MYSTERY IN SPACE 111-117 revival as a continuation of TIME WARP after its cancellation. Apparently the dollar-size book wasn't selling, so they tried it again with a 50-cent version. Alas, to a similar lack of sales.

One of Buckler's covers from DC for SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE 32, Jan 1981, inked by Bob Smith.



Buckler covers on SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE issues 32-40.

Bob Smith is actually one of my favorite inkers on Buckler. Some stories Smith inked over Buckler are JLA 190 (Buckler pencils in 188-191, from 1980-1981) and the above linked full 8-page story from TIME WARP 1, that I found on posting it, was miscredited to Dick Giordano, but was actually Bob Smith! 37 years later, the proper credits revealed.

I was feeling kind of Rich Bucklery today, and pulled up a chronological list of all his work at comics.org.


The first covers he did were on AVENGERS, most covers from 101-113. And for ASTONISHING TALES (Kazar, Man Thing), FEAR (Man Thing) and others, from roughly late 1972-1973. I was struck how generically Marvel they were, aping John Buscema and the other Marvel hacks of the time. It was not until around 1974-1975 that his work really took on a distinctly Buckler linestyle. The titles I recall reading where his work had a clear distinctive look were AMAZING ADVENTURES/Killraven, JUNGLE ACTION/Black Panther, and a DOC SAVAGE pulp adaptation series.

Here's a cover Buckler did for AMAZING ADVENTURES 24, May 1974:



...which is still, while nicely finished by Janson, in the generic Kirby/Buscema/Kane Marvel house style.


Here is a DOC SAVAGE 7, Oct 1973 cover, that to me looks much more distinctly Buckler: