Monday, February 22, 2016
Our Pal Sal: "For Sale: One Planet--Slightly Used!" by Wein, S. Buscema, and Janson
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Here's one of Ol' Groove's all-time fave issues of The Defenders (ish #13 from February 1974, to be exact)! Written by Len Wein with art by Our Pal Sal Buscema and Klaus Janson (I do believe this is their first collaboration?), "For Sale: One Planet--Slightly Used!" has everything yers trooly loves in a super-hero classic! Great heroes (Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange, Valkyrie), awesome villains (Squadron Sinister and the debut of Nebulon), a villain-becoming a hero twist (Nighthawk, baby!), a wild plot, freaky title, and in-FREAKIN'-credible art! All that under a Gil Kane/Frank Giacoia cover for a quarter? Whee-o! No wonder we looooooooove the 70s!
Yeah, just a fantastic comic with all the great elements of '70's Marvel. I love Sal's depiction of this epic clash. The Hulk vs. Hyperion: OUCH!!!!
ReplyDeleteA pleasure to see this again!
M.P.
...inspired by the Bowie song, maybe?
Wein, Buscema and Janson on a mainstream title? Yep, the 70s were great!
ReplyDeleteFantastic issue, like you said, all of the elements that made Marvel so great in the 70's. Side note, I really loved the little blurbs they put at the bottom of the pages hawking other titles.
ReplyDeleteKlaus Jansen's thin, technical inks were perhaps not the best match for Sal Buscema's streamlined, cartoonish pencils, but it still looks good. Sal is such an underrated artist. For someone who is often regarded as repetitive, look how his 2-page splash is impressive and imaginative. He is able to cram seven to nine panels into most of the pages but the panels still look interesting and the story telling remains clear and ultra dynamic.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the two-page splash is actually one page of original art printed sideways at same-size!
ReplyDeleteMarvel instituted the policy to save money by paying for one less page of art per issue while keeping up the page count!
Look at the various Marvel titles within a couple of months of this book (May, 1974).
They all have a two-page spread or two consecutive pages of half-page panels, all looking less-detailed than the rest of the issue...because they were printed same-size as the original art as opposed to the reduced 2/3 size of the original art the other pages were printed at!
I will never get tired of seeing that fantastic 2-page spread. The first 50 issues of Defenders are among my favorite comics of all time.
ReplyDeleteMan oh man... I don't remember the cover but I really, really seem to remember the page 1 splash. So help me out? Was that a "common" type of splash page for Sal such that I am thinking of another comic? Cheers.
ReplyDeleteNow this was Merry Marvel at its best here! Great Defenders story; anything with the Squadron Sinister and Nebulon is tops in my book. Hulk could really call Nighthawk 'birdnose' in this costume! :)
ReplyDelete- Mike from Trinidad & Tobago.
One of my favourite villains, that squadron supreme!!
ReplyDeleteCharlie, check out Captain America #178.
ReplyDelete...yeah, that scene looked familiar to me too.
Cheers, M.P.
Thanks buddy! I definitely had Cap 178 as I was a big Cap collector (How much $ did I spend with Richard Alf who was always advertising back issues?) But Charlie does NOT have a copy of #178 handy! And google isn't obliging either, lol! Looks like a trip to the Library to see if they have the "Archive."
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