Many thanks, Beardguy.
Sometimes it takes a LOT of edits to get those images right !
You share my love for the 60's and 70's material.
I agree on John Buscema (and Swan, Kane and many others). I was aware of Buscema's death because a tribute was posted on the old DC boards when he died. I posted a link to the tribute in my "
What's the attraction of Silver Age books?" topic. ( Long gone now. )
Gil Kane, Dan DeCarlo, Kurt Schaffenberger, and Chuck Jones all died around the same time, and had similar tributes on the DC boards.
My favorite Buscema work, though, is his 20-year run on CONAN THE BARBARIAN, and even more so his work in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. The Robert E. Howard adaptations especially, in issues 1-35.
I think the series had a dry period in issues 40-60, and then the magic was back from 60-100, plus a lot of great work by other artists in addition to Buscema.
The series changed gears around 150, and I mostly lost interest after that.
But Buscema was a huge deal in the late 60's/early 70's, on the first SILVER SURFER series(1968-1970), and AVENGERS(1969-1971).
And after Kirby left Marvel in 1970, Buscema took over THOR and FF for a few years.
The best interview I saw of Buscema was in the 1979 S.Q productions book,
THE ART OF JOHN BUSCEMA. Which also had a beautiful poster-worthy montage of all the characters Buscema has drawn.
Buscema also did a TARZAN series for Marvel that was interesting from 1977-1979, if I recall. Buscema's work is very Hal Foster-influenced, and in that I find him very well suited to any adventure type stories he's done.
Info and photos of John Buscema:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_BuscemaI actually read Buscema's FANTASTIC FOUR before I read Kirby's FF. The first Buscema issue I saw was FF 128, very much in the Kirby mode, with very detailed art, even for Buscema.
FF 128 also has a great 4-page insert centerfold of "friends and villains of the FF", printed on glossy stock.
I discovered reprints of the Lee/Kirby FF in MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS within a month or two of reading FF 128, beginning with MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS 38 (reprinting "This Man, This Monster", from FF 51. What a great place to start !)
I've put off posting to this topic for a while, Beardguy, I just wanted to have something to say before I posted here again.
I have to thank you for prodding my interest in the Marvel Masterworks FF reprints.
Since I last posted here, I picked up Volume 1 (reprinting FF 1-10, Nov 1961 to Jan 1963) and volume 6 (reprinting FF 51-61, June 1966 to Mar 1967).
The progress in Kirby's art (from FF 10 to FF 51) in less than four years is just amazing. And the collected hardcover glossy offset-printed format arguably allows greater appreciation of them than when they were originally printed.
I'm waiting for the other FF volumes (2, 3, 4, and 5) to arrive in the mail. I highly recommend e-bay. I saved a fortune !
And I've seen ads that volume 7 (reprinting FF 61-70) is due to be released in the next 30 days.
So it's great that Kirby's best-known work (FF) is only three volumes from being completely collected in hardcover.
And most of his other best-known work as well:
BOYS RANCH, FIGHTING AMERICAN, HULK, THOR, AVENGERS, X-MEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA (Golden Age, and TALES OF SUSPENSE).
And in trade form: JIMMY OLSEN, FOREVER PEOPLE, NEW GODS, and MISTER MIRACLE. Would that these were in comparable hardcovers, like the prior ones I listed.
But... it's just a matter of time.
A trade of Kirby's mid-70's CAPTAIN AMERICA "Mad Bomb" stories will be out in the next month or so as well.
