Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Making a Splash: S. Buscema/Klaus Janson Defenders

On his 41-issue run on the Defenders (issues 1-29, 31-41, Annual #1), Our Pal Sal Buscema was inked by a virtual who's who of Groovy Age inkers. Ol' Groove's fave of the bunch, though, hadda be Kinky Klaus Janson. Janson's inks were true to Sal's pencils (and, yeah, sometimes just layouts), capturing all the power while slicking them up and giving them an edge of realism few inkers could bring out in Sal's work. Not only that, but Sal's stoic heroes and Klaus' moody inks really emphasized the mad genius and sheer lunacy of writer Steve Gerber's issues. So, dig all of the S. Buscema/K. Janson Defenders dynamism--plus, for all us completists, their Defenders-meet-Howard the Duck splash from Marvel Treasury Edition #12 (Fall 1976). Waugh!
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5 comments:

  1. Paul D BrazillNovember 2, 2010 at 9:59 AM

    I'd forgotten how great those comics were.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 2, 2010 at 12:30 PM

    Klaus Janson's inks make everyone look good, he is simply one of the best in the business and his inks over Buscema's pencils made this bit of the Defender's run a must read.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mike MikulovskyNovember 2, 2010 at 3:46 PM

    Hey Groovy One!
    Loved Sal Buscema's pencils! Espically inked by the great klaus Jansen! One of the greatest inkers Marvel ever had!Everything he inked turned to Gold! What If #3 over Gil Kane, Sal on the Defenders, frank Miller's Daredevil run!

    Hope to see alot more of the Defenders here! As well as Sal & Klaus's beautiful work! Thanks for yet another awesome post! I can't wait until tommorrow's B & W Wednesdays are my favorite part of the week on your awesome site!

    ReplyDelete
  4. HEHNovember 2, 2010 at 11:26 PM

    When I was a young boy, my father brought home a whole bunch of these Defenders issue. I was strictly an Avengers, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four fan.
    So, upon seeing these issues, I was blown away. They looked moody, dark (was each comic set at night time?) and so action-packed:

    Sons of the Serpents, the Headmen, Badoon (spelling?), those trolls in issue 11 (the issue that followed the Avengers/Defenders crossover).
    Elf with a gun, etc.

    I loved those issues!

    The Garden of Earthly Demise splash is so clearly etched in my mind!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 8, 2010 at 6:15 AM

    Defenders was off beat book&Buscema-Janson art was great.

    ReplyDelete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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