What it is, Groove-ophiles! Yers trooly has been thinking a lot about Sal Buscema's
Avengers art lately. You know that it was Sal's amazing art (and yeah, Roy Thomas' spectacular scripting) on
Avengers 88-92 that turned Young Groove from an occasional comicbook reader to a comicbook freak, so I do that a lot. And besides, is there ever a bad time to plant our peepers on some sensational Sal B. original art? Here are a smattering of pages (plucked from all over the Interwebs) from some of Ol' Groove's all time favorite
Avengers issues. Hope you dig 'em, too!
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| Avengers68 |
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| Avengers 71 |
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| Avengers 88 |
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| Avengers 89 |
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| Avengers 89 |
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| Avengers 90 |
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| Avengers 91 |
I'm a hardcore Sal fan. It was fascinating to see him develop his style in those early years, from a lighter version of his brother's approach to something distinctively his own. As his career advanced his style became more and more pure Sal.
ReplyDeleteRip Off
Always nice to see Sal's art getting its proper due...
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Sal Buscema Avengers art is Wonder man vs The Vision. It looks much better in black & white, as Pablo Marcos's rich tones show up better without colour. Nearly 40 years ago, I considered it one of Marvel's greatest battles (along with Silver Surfer vs Human Torch, & a few others), not least because the outcome wasn't fudged, and despite 'losing', it made me think the Vision was more powerful than I'd ever considered him before. Incidentally, this is also true, after the Human Torch 'lost' against the Surfer.
ReplyDeletePhillip Beadham
An underrated artist for sure.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite art by Sal is his early years. On the Sub-Mariner, the Avengers & his Defenders. Even though I loved his art on Spidey, Nova, Rom & the Hulk too. He had fuller pencils and great inkers then. On Nova he had Joe Sinnott & Tom Palmer too.
ReplyDeleteIf I was trying to explain the greatness of Sal B to someone, these are the kind of examples I would show. Whether it was because of taking too much work on in later years, or just tired of grinding it out, his work weakened in these eyes to a lesser standard - maybe his earlier art showed a strong influence of his brother, but it's better work for it, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteEven though, technically, I think John Buscema was the better artist, I always liked Sal's work better. So much of John's art looked cranked out, whereas Sal always came across as a craftsman who really cared about his product. His first five issues of Avengers (68 - 72) remain my personal favorite as they were full pencils. And his Nova work, as a previous poster noted,really shimmered under the masterful inks of Tom Palmer. Honorable mentions: X-Men # 66 and the 3 issues of the Hulk finished by Joe Rubinstein.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how well Sal designs his pages. Just textbook stuff!
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