As audiences settle in to watch the latest Marvel blockbuster, it’s worth remembering that so many of the MCU’s most iconic moments were born on the pages of comic books. Sal Buscema was one of the artists who helped bring those beloved characters to life, shaping Marvel’s visual language for generations of readers. Sadly, it has been announced that Buscema passed away on January 23, just days shy of his 90th birthday.
One of Marvel’s Most Prolific Artists
Following in the footsteps of his older brother, John Buscema, Sal began his career by inking his brother’s pencils before carving out his own path in the industry. That journey eventually led him to Marvel Comics, where he submitted six pages of sample work, which were impressive enough to earn him a meeting with Stan Lee. “He asked me to come on up to New York, which I did, and I went through the most fantastic interview of my life,” Buscema said. “Stan was leaping on his chair and his desk, just to relate to me physically what he wanted on a comic-book page. It was fascinating and it was charming all at the same time. He made the sound effects, the whole nine yards. … He demonstrated every other way you could possibly demonstrate what he wanted on those pages—the dynamics and so on.“
Buscema is best known for his ten-year run on The Incredible Hulk and over 100 issues of The Spectacular Spider-Man. He’s also known for The Avengers, The Defenders, Rom, Captain America, and so many more. He quickly developed a reputation as one of Marvel’s most prolific artists.
“At one point for Marvel and I was penciling and inking two books a month,” he said in a 2019 interview. “That was a real boon to me because the way we worked back then, rather than the computer driven world of comics today, I would pencil the book, or rather do breakdowns and then the dialogue would be written and the lettering would be done and then it would come back to me for inking. Then it was a matter of doing the finish work with the ink. I actually draw better with a brush than I do with a pencil. Why, I don’t know. It just seems to be the way things are. Anyway, that was a real boon to me because I enjoyed the inking more than the penciling, so it was just a nicer way for me to work. I did that for a lot of years at Marvel and of course a lot of other guys did, too.“
Although Buscema primarily worked for Marvel, he also worked at DC Comics in the late ’90s, leaving his mark on characters such as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, and others. “The short time I worked for DC, they were giving me all these young guys that could hardly hold a pencil in their hands, and asking me to ‘tweak it,’” he explained. “In cases like that I would definitely put a lot of myself into it and change whatever I felt needed to be changed.“
Buscema had a hand in creating several Marvel characters, including Starhawk, aka Stakar Ogord. The character was played by Sylvester Stallone in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Erik Larson Remembers Sal Buscema
Savage Dragon creator Erik Larson paid tribute to Buscema on Facebook. “Sal was a rock. And Sal was what every editor dreamed of–a guy who could deliver the goods–a guy they could depend on. Sal was one of those guys they could turn to whenever somebody else fumbled the ball–he could pound out a solid issue over a long weekend and make that deadline,” he wrote. “Because he was so prolific, he was frequently taken for granted. He’d do his regular books yet still step in and draw a fill-in or two. He wasn’t a fan favorite but he was one of a handful of creators who made the trains run on time–who made Marvel work.“
Larson continued, “His work was clear, his line was bold and decisive. He didn’t hide behind elaborate rendering or other parlor tricks to disguise poor draftsmanship. There was no confusion with a Sal Buscema job. You knew what was going on. And he was an inker’s dream. Everything was well designed, well defined and yet there was room to embellish and play. If you just went over the lines it was perfectly competent and if you added shadows and textures and flourishes you could make it sing.“
