I was very sorry to hear that longtime comic book artist Sal Buscema had passed away on January 24th, just two days short of his 90th birthday. As I have written on several occasions on this blog, “Our Pal Sal,” as he was affectionately referred to by his fans, was one of my all-time favorite comic book creators.
Sal Buscema was born on January 26, 1936 in New York City. Sal was the younger brother of acclaimed comic book artist John Buscema. Enduring some harsh yet undoubtedly effective critiques from big brother John, Sal entered the comic book field in 1968, working for Marvel Comics, where he would remain for the majority of his career.
Buscema initially intended to focus on inking as his speciality, and among his earliest jobs was embellishing the pencils of his brother on the Silver Surfer series for several issues. However, Buscema soon transitioned into penciling, replacing his brother as the artist on Avengers in 1969. Avengers was undoubtedly a baptism of fire for Buscema, as it was a team book with multiple characters, requiring clear storytelling so that the action was not confused or cluttered. Buscema immediately rose to the occasion, turning in dynamic pages that were easy to read, a quality that would remain a hallmark of his for the entirety of his career.
Throughout the next three decades Buscema had lengthy runs on a number of Marvel titles, among them Captain America, Defenders, Incredible Hulk, Rom Spaceknight and Spectacular Spider-Man. Buscema was also called upon to provide fill-ins for numerous late books during the 1970s. Described as a workhorse, he never missed a deadline.
As I’ve previously recounted, it was via his work on Incredible Hulk that my seven-year-old self first discovered Buscema’s work in 1983, and I immediately became a fan. His pencils on Incredible Hulk #285 were powerful and dynamic, making a huge impression on my young mind.
I did not really get into comic books regularly until 1989, when I was 13 years old. By that point in time Buscema was doing full artwork, pencils & inks, on Spectacular Spider-Man. Paired up first with writer Gerry Conway and then with J.M. DeMatteis, Buscema did some of the very best work of his career on Spectacular, and it was a title that I followed regularly.
DeMatteis’ writing on Spectacular Spider-Man culminated in the epic issue #200 (May 1993) which saw the tragic death of Peter Parker’s longtime friend Harry Osborn at the end of the issue. DeMatteis was so impressed by the power of Buscema’s artwork & storytelling that he chose to have the two pages appear completely dialogue-free, allowing Buscema’s pictures to carry the emotional scene all on their own. I cannot think of a greater testament to Buscema’s work than that.
As the 1990s rolled around, I frequently attended comic cons, and I was able to pick up a lot of Buscema’s earlier work on Captain America and Rom Spaceknight, two other titles on which he had excelled.
After the comic book market crashed in the mid-1990s and Marvel filed for bankruptcy, Buscema went to work for DC Comics for a few years, working on a variety of titles there. On some he was providing layouts for up-and-coming artists, on others he was doing inking, and on a few stories he did full artwork. The jobs where Buscema got to illustrate Batman were, in my opinion, especially good. One of my favorites was “The Prison” in The Batman Chronicles #8 (Spring 1997) which was penciled by Buscema and written & inked by John Stanisci.
Entering the 21st Century, Buscema mostly retired from penciling, concentrating mostly on inking. He was paired with penciler Ron Frenz on a lengthy run of Spider-Girl at Marvel, among other projects.
Buscema also worked frequently with artist Guy Dorian Sr. on a variety of books. These included a short return to Rom Spaceknight, which was now being published by IDW. The work of Dorian & Buscema on Rom for IDW was definitely of a high quality, and they made an effective art team. The two continued to work together right up until Buscema’s passing.
I was fortunate enough to meet Buscema on a couple of occasions. I used to have a few pages of artwork that he did, but I regrettably had to sell them years ago to pay the bills. But I am happy that I still have the two convention sketches that I obtained from him. One was of the Green Goblin, and it can be viewed in my Spider-Man sketches blog post. The other sketch is of Captain America, and it can be seen below.
As I’ve written before, for an extremely in-depth look at Sal Buscema’s career, I highly recommend picking up the excellent book Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast & Furious Artist, written by Jim Amash & Eric Nolen-Weathington, from TwoMorrows Publishing. The print edition is unfortunately sold out, but it is still available digitally.
In a career that lasted nearly six decades, Sal Buscema produced a huge and, more important, highly impressive body of work. I regard him as one of the finest craftsmen in mainstream comic books. In certain respects he was underrated, as he was one of those good, solid, reliable artists who the industry was heavily dependent upon for many decades. I’ll always be a fan of his work.
Having previously taken a look at the Marvel half of the first intercompany crossover between the Big Two in over two decades, I wanted to take a brief look at DC’s contribution. Marvel’s encounter between Deadpool and Batman was relatively straightforward superhero action… well, as straightforward as any story involving Deadpool can be. In contrast, DC / Marvel: Batman / Deadpool is a decidedly unconventional tale.
“The Cosmic Kiss Caper!” is written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Alejandro Sanchez, lettered by Todd Klein and edited by Marie Javins with Andrew Marino. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I first discovered Morrison’s work on Doom Patrol in the early 1990s, where they collaborated with penciler Richard Case. Morrison & Case crafted some remarkably bizarre stories on Doom Patrol, and Morrison returns to that sort of surreal cosmic weirdness in the Batman / Deadpool special.
Prior to Doom Patrol, Morrison wrote an acclaimed run on Animal Man. I have not read those stories, but I am aware of how the run ended, with Morrison breaking the fourth wall and having Buddy Baker meeting an author insert for Morrison himself. As Deadpool is notorious for his own fourth wall breaking shenanigans, it makes sense for Morrison to bring back the Writer in “The Cosmic Kiss Caper!”
For the story’s antagonist, Morrison utilizes Cassandra Nova from their New X-Men run. I will admit, I did find Nova’s appearance a bit abrupt & confusing, and I got the impression that Morrison is acting under the assumption that readers are going to know who she is. It might have been a good idea for Morrison to have provided at least a little bit of backstory for the character. But other than that, I did find this crossover tale to be an interesting & intriguing read.
There are several back-up stories in Batman / Deadpool, and I have the same criticism that I had for the Marvel half of this event, namely that most of these stories are just too short, and in a few cases I wished they had been their own separate publications.
That is definitely exemplified in the meeting between John Constantine and Doctor Strange. “A Magician Walks Into A Universe” could have been its own separate book, but instead we get a mere 10 pages pairing up these two drastically different sorcerers. It’s a bit surprising that it took three different writers, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV & Joshua Williamson, to pen such a short tale. At least the artwork by Hayden Sherman and colors by Mike Spicer are really well done. Lettering is by Frank Cvetkovic.
Probably the most satisfying of the supporting features was “Sticks & Snikts,” a team-up between Nightwing and Laura Kinney / Wolverine. It’s a nice little tale of two characters who have found themselves having very big shoes to fill finding common ground with each other. It’s written by Tom Taylor, drawn by Bruno Redondo, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Wes Abbott. I am not familiar with Redondo’s work, but I definitely liked his art here.
There’s a very short, comical Harley Quinn and Hulk tale by writer Mariko Tamaki, artist Amanda Conner, colorist Tamara Bonvillain and letterer Dave Sharpe. It’s a slight bit of humor, mostly silly. At a mere five pages, it’s probably just the right length. Conner’s artwork is always cute & fun, so it was nice to see it here.
Finally, we have a Static and Ms. Marvel story rounding out the issue. Also five pages long, this one was waaaaay too short. I really wanted to see these two characters interact more. It’s written by G. Willow Wilson, penciled by Denys Cowan, inked by Klaus Janson, colored by Francesco Segala and lettered by Steve Wands. At least Cowan & Janson do their usual stellar work on this segment, but I really was left wanting more.
So, I would not call Batman / Deadpool an unqualified success, due to the slight, underwhelming feel that some of the supporting features had. Nevertheless, it was a fun issue, and it was cool to see these various characters from the DC and Marvel universes meet. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 20 years for the next crossover between the Big Two.
Longtime comic book writer Peter David passed away on May 24th after a lengthy illness. He was 68 years old. I was definitely a fan of his work, and was very sorry to hear of his death. I wanted to put together a short tribute to David and his work.
David entered comic books via the direct sales side of the business, but he always had an interest in writing. One of his earliest assignments was on Incredible Hulk. As he explained in an interview several years ago, he became the writer of the series through an unusual set of circumstances:
“[Marvel editor] Bob Harras couldn’t find anyone else to write it. That is literally accurate. At the time there was some hostility toward my writing from the editorial department because I worked in direct sales, and they felt that someone in direct sales had no business being involved in the creative side.”
David’s first issue of Incredible Hulk was #328 in late 1986, and he became the series regular writer with issue #331 in early 1987. He remained on the series for 12 years, with his last issue, #467, coming out in mid-1998. During that decade-plus run, David completely revitalized the series. He took the subplot that Bill Mantlo had previous established of Bruce Banner being the victim of childhood abuse and delved deeply into the psychology of the Hulk, revealing that the character suffered from multiple personality disorder, explaining the character’s various unstable iterations, ultimately merging all of the Hulk’s aspects into a single being.
During his run on Incredible Hulk, David worked with several very talented artists. Among them were Todd McFarlane, Jeff Purves, Dale Keown, Gary Frank, Liam Sharp, Angel Medina, Mike Deodato Jr. and Adam Kubert.
David actually intended to remain on Incredible Hulk much longer, but as his run had progressed, he came to experience greater and greater levels of editorial interference, and he reluctantly departed from the title.
Although Incredible Hulk was one of the cornerstones of David’s career, it was certainly not his only milestone. At Marvel Comics he also revamped X-Factor with a brand-new line-up of characters, and with penciler Rick Leonardi he created Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of the future in the pages of Spider-Man 2099.
Over at DC Comics, David applied his touch to another moribund character. Working with pencilers Marty Egeland and Jim Calafiore, he successfully updated Aquaman for the 1990s, giving the character long hair & a beard and replacing his left hand with a harpoon. Some longtime fans derided these changes, but the fact is that for the first time in many years Aquaman became a must-read series. It was one that I definitely enjoyed. David also had long, successful runs of Supergirl and Young Justice at DC.
David’s writing style was very distinctive. He could tell stories that were poignant & tragic, that delved deeply into the psychology of his characters. Yet he was also possessed of a very strong sense of humor, and there was a comedic element that ran through all of his works.
David’s humor really came to the forefront with Soulsearchers and Company, published by Claypool Comics. Running for 82 bi-montly issues from 1993 to 2007, Soulsearchers and Company was set in Mystic Grove, Connecticut, aka “Fear City,” and featured the misadventures of a ragtag group of supernatural investigators. David co-plotted the series with editor Richard Howell, and a succession of talented artists worked on the series, among them Amanda Conner, Dave Cockrum, Al Bigley, Gordon Purcell, and Joe Staton. Conner, paired with inker Steve Leialoha, drew all 82 covers for the series.
I definitely feel that Soulsearchers and Company is something of an undiscovered gem, one that allowed David to really stretch his comedic sensibilities and turn in some genuinely hysterical stories. If you’re a fan of David’s work and have never read Soulsearchers and Company, I strongly urge you to seek out the series.
David was also closely associated with the Star Trek franchise, working on the comic book series from DC Comics, as well as writing several novels. I always enjoyed David’s contributions to the Star Trek mythos. One of his most noteworthy novels for the franchise was The Next Generation novel Vendetta, which was published in 1991. Vendetta pitted the Borg against the planet-killing weapon from the original series “The Doomsday Machine.”
At the time that Vendetta came out, it was subject to a certain amount of controversy, as it featured a female member of the Borg, something that Star Trek continuity cop Richard Arnold, (a longtime thorn in David’s side) argued was impossible, because supposedly there were no female Borg. This was just a few years before the introduction of Seven of Nine and the Borg Queen, so history would prove David to be correct after all.
David was also involved with Babylon 5, writing two episodes of the television series, novelizing two more episodes, and writing the canonical sequel trilogy Legions of Fire from an outline provided by B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.
I was fortunate enough to meet Peter David on a few occasions at comic book conventions and store signings. He was one of those creators who always seemed to make time for his many fans. It’s a real tragedy that he experienced so much medical & financial hardship in his final years. He will definitely be missed.
Jack Kirby, the legendary king of comics, was one of the most imaginative, prolific creators who ever lived. Even towards the end of his career in comic books in the mid-1970s, when he was in his late 50s, he was doing really great work. One of the stand-out projects of this era was The Eternals, published by Marvel Comics.
The Eternals is a series I’ve wanted to read for quite some time now. Back in 2020 Marvel released the trade paperback Eternals by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection, and at last I’ve obtained a copy.
The Eternals was written, penciled & edited by Jack Kirby. John Verpoorten inked the first four issues and Mike Royer inked the remainder of the series. It was lettered by Gasper Saladino, John Costanza, Irving Watanabe & Mike Royer and colored by Glynis Wein.
It’s important to put The Eternals within the context of Kirby’s career. He had departed Marvel in 1970 under a cloud, unhappy with the lack of creative control, accurate credit, and fair financial compensation. Kirby had hoped to find all of these things at DC Comics, Marvel’s chief competitor. And while he did indeed create some of the absolute best work of his career at DC during the first half of the 1970s, ultimately his tenure there proved to be a very frustrating & disappointing experience, so much so that he eventually felt forced to return to Marvel.
The Eternals was one of the projects Kirby worked on during his mid-1970s tenure at Marvel. The first issue was released with a July 1976 cover date. The Eternals would ultimately run for 19 monthly issues, with an Annual also being produced by Kirby during this time.
With The Eternals, Kirby was very much tapping into the pseudoscientific theories of Erich von Däniken, who popularized the idea of “ancient astronauts” in his book Chariots of the Gods? Running with the idea that primitive human civilizations had been influenced by alien visitors, Kirby devised the Celestials, towering, mysterious “space gods” who periodically visited Earth throughout the millennia.
During the Celestials first visit, the space gods experimented on apes and created three separate branches of human evolution: ordinary human beings, the genetically unstable, warlike Deviants, and the super-powered, immortal Eternals. The Deviants are responsible for humanity’s superstitions about the Devil, demons & other monsters, while the Eternals are the sources of inspiration for mythological gods & heroes around the globe.
Kirby was setting up some ambitious, wild concepts & ideas. What happens when humanity discovers that they are not alone, that in fact they share the planet Earth with two other intelligent species? What happens to all three groups – humans, Eternals and Deviants – when they are faced with the fact that the “gods” who shaped their development countless thousands of years ago have returned to judge if their “experiment” is a success or failure?
At this point in time Kirby very much just wanted to do his own thing. He wanted the freedom to write, illustrate & edit his own titles, without any outside interference. And it seems pretty clear that Kirby intended for The Eternals to take place outside the regular Marvel universe. After all, the entire concept really doesn’t work if you already have godlike beings such as Thor, Loki, Hercules and Galactus showing up on Earth like clockwork.
Unfortunately, Marvel editorial reportedly pressured Kirby to begin using characters & concepts from other titles in The Eternals. Early on a few agents of SHIELD show up and Nick Fury’s name gets dropped, but it’s not really intrusive, because these guys might as well be working for the FBI or CIA or some other agency.
No, it’s what happens next that really causes problems.
For the first 13 issues The Eternals really hums along nicely, with Kirby coming up with all sorts of great new characters, exploring the Eternal and Deviant civilizations, hinting at the mysteries of the Celestials, showing humanity’s reactions to all of this craziness. I found it absolutely riveting.
And then the Hulk shows up. Except that it’s not the really Hulk; it’s a robot duplicate of the Hulk created by a couple of college students which accidentally gets imbued with cosmic energy from the Eternals’ mental gestalt “uni-mind” and goes on a rampage. We then get two and a half issues of the Eternals fighting this “cosmic powered Hulk” and while it’s well-drawn (it IS Kirby artwork, after all) it just completely grinds the story to a halt. The momentum that Kirby was barreling along on just goes totally off the rails, and in the remaining few issues after the “Hulk” there’s just something lacking. It was as if the whole thing threw Kirby off his balance, and in the short time he had left he didn’t have the opportunity to regain it.
In spite of its flaws, though, I really enjoyed The Eternals. I think it speaks to Kirby’s immense creativity & imagination that even in this period of time when he was deeply dissatisfied, he could not help but create an amazing cast of characters. Ikaris, Sersi, Makarri, Thena, Kro, Karsas and the Reject were all interesting & full of potential.
I also want to offer up The Eternals as evidence that Kirby really could draw beautiful women. I’ve heard it argued that his women were unattractive, but just taking a quick look at Sersi and Thena will put the lie to that scurrilous accusation.
I’m not certain if The Eternals was cancelled due to low sales, or if Marvel simply decided to end it after Kirby made the decision to leave for the greener pastures of the animation industry, where at long last he was able to obtain health benefits & a pension. Whatever the case, within a few years the characters & concepts from The Eternals were fully integrated into the Marvel universe. Like a lot of people, I feel that the execution of this was a case of trying to put a square peg into a round hole. But after the fact the Eternals, Deviants and Celestials have regularly appeared throughout the Marvel titles.
In 2021 an Eternals movie was released by Disney as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I watched it after finishing the comic book series. While I liked parts of it, I felt in a lot of areas it strayed too far from the original Kirby concepts & designs, so ultimately it was something of a disappointment. But I hope that at the very least it led to Kirby’s family getting a nice fat check from the House of the Mouse.
If you haven’t read The Eternals, then I definitely recommend picking it up. It really shows the boundless imagination of Jack Kirby, and features some incredible artwork by him.
Although it only lasted five issues, Wild Thing from Marvel Comics was a fun, underrated series that I really enjoyed. Coming in at the very end of the 1990s, the last two issues of Wild Thing had January and February 2000 publication dates although, as per the GCD, the actual release date for #5 was December 1, 1999. So, this series just makes it into the criteria I’ve set for the It Came from the 1990s feature here on my blog.
Wild Thing was part of Marvel’s short-lived MC2 imprint, which spun out of What If…? #105 (cover date Feb 1998) by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz, which introduced a reality in which Peter & Mary Jane Parker’s newborn daughter was rescued from the Green Goblin. A decade and a half after her birth May “Mayday” Parker becomes the costumed crime fighter Spider-Girl, following in her father’s web-slinging footsteps.
What If…? #105 was an unexpected success, and it led Marvel to launch MC2 in the summer of 1998 with three titles: Spider-Girl (featuring Mayday’s further adventures), A-Next (a new generation of Avengers) and J2 (starring Zane Yama, the son of the original Juggernaut). Spider-Girl continued for a good long run, becoming a cult classic. A-Next and J2 both ended after their initial planned 12-issue runs. There was a poll for readers to vote on which MC2 characters should replace them with new series. The winners were the Fantastic Five and Wild Thing.
J2 had been written by DeFalco and penciled by Ron Lim. In issue #5 DeFalco & Lim had introduced Rina Logan, aka Wild Thing, the teenage daughter of Wolverine and Elektra. Wild Thing then appeared in nearly every issue of J2 from that point on, and she clearly made an impact on readers, given that she was one of the winners of the poll.
Wild Thing actually launched with a special issue zero co-published by Marvel and Wizard magazine. Wizard was, in its way, the quintessential comic book trade magazine for the 1990s, as it encouraged the worst trends of the decade, such as “hot” artists, bad girls, ultra-violent anti-heroes, and speculating on “hot” books. Wild Thing #0 came packaged with an issue of Wizard, which explains how I missed it, since I only occasionally picked up the magazine. It was such a superficial publication, but for a while there, for better or worse (usually worse), it really was a trend-setter.
It took me quite some time to finally find a copy of Wild Thing #0. “Curse of the Wendigo” was co-plotted by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz, scripted by DeFalco, penciled by Frenz, inked by Sal Buscema, colored by Tom Smith and lettered by Jack Morelli. The cover was a homage to Incredible Hulk #181, the first cover appearance of Wolverine, with Rina taking her father’s place in facing off against the green goliath.
Wild Thing #0 is basically a big long fight scene between Rina, her father, the Hulk, and Doctor Strange against a horde of Wendigos in the Canadian wilderness. Frenz & Buscema are both what I’d describe as “old school” superhero artists, and they do an excellent job with the action. This is one of the earlier pairings of Frenz & Buscema, who went on to have a lengthy run on Spider-Girl, and to work together on several other series.
There’s also four pages of developmental sketches by Ron Lim, showing his designs for Rina and the Uncanny X-People, and his cover roughs for J2 #5. I found the material to be pretty interesting, especially as I’m a huge fan of Lim’s work.
Zero issue aside, the Wild Thing series gets going properly with issue #1. Interestingly, the writer was not DeFalco, who had scripted the entire MC2 line up to this point. Instead, it was Larry Hama, who had previously written a Wild Thing back-up story in J2 #11.
At first, I was surprised at the choice of Hama, but with some consideration I realized he was actually an ideal choice. Hama had written the ongoing Wolverine series for seven years, from 1990 to 1997, during which time he penned one of the definitive versions of the character. Hama had also written Elektra as a guest star in Wolverine establishing a connection between the two characters, followed by several issues of the ongoing Elektra series in 1998. So, at that exact point in time it made perfect sense for him to be the one to write the adventures of their teenage daughter.
Hama makes a couple of interesting choices with Wild Thing. He focuses as much on Rina’s school life as he does her superhero adventures. And he chooses to make Rina a rather shy, introverted social outcast who really comes alive when she puts on her Wild Thing costume. It’s a bit like early Amazing Spider-Man comics, where donning the costume allowed a young Peter Parker the freedom to be a wisecracking smartass.
Of course, it’s still jarring that the first issue opens with snobby trust fund brat Cameron Bryce-Jones slamming the door of a locker into Rina’s head. If anyone did that to her father, well, they’d no doubt quickly find themselves disemboweled. And given what we’ve seen of Wild Thing to this point in the pages of J2, I expected Rina to follow in her father’s berserker footsteps. Instead, she just shrugs it off, telling her friend Colin that she’s a fast healer.
A decade ago The Unspoken Decade, a blog dedicated exclusively to comic books from the 1990s, had a post about Wild Thing. I commented on the seeming incongruity of Rina not eviscerating Cameron over the locker door incident. Unspoken Decade big cheese Dean Compton offered his thoughts on this:
“Why isn’t Rina more of a hellraiser? It makes little sense. Then again, I suppose we all do rebel against our parents, and if our parents were two of the biggest and loudest baddasses in Marvel Universe history, mayhap we would also decide to be lowkey.”
Ha ha, that’s as good an explanation as any! Somebody send Dean a No-Prize!
In fact, that incident with the locker aside, mean girl Cameron is probably the most ineffectual school bully ever. Rina may not be her school’s queen bee, but in general her classmates appear to like her, and it seems like everyone just finds Cameron’s attempts to insult Rina’s family to be silly. Plus, after Cameron gets kidnapped by an armored supervillain who wants to ransom her off for $25 million, and her greedy father tries to negotiate it down to $10 thousand in cash plus $20 thousand in stock options, everyone’s basically just embarrassed for her.
Given that he’s best known for G.I. Joe, writing a teen comedy may seem to be out of left field for Hama. But he’s a creator who’s much more versatile than he’s typically given credit for. After all, as he’s recounted in interviews, Hama only wrote G.I. Joe in the first place because literally no one else at Marvel wanted to do it, and he saw it as his chance to finally break out of being pigeonholed as an artist (he likes to describe himself as “a penciler with a word processor”). In the process he made that title into a certifiable hit that four decades later is still going strong.
Hama also co-created Bucky O’Hare and Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham, and wrote a Howard the Duck Holiday Special, which shows how multifaceted he can be. So, yeah, I definitely see him possessing the faculty to do a superhero series with one foot set in the teen comedy stylings of Archie Comics.
Hama appeared content to write a series of fun stand-alone stories for Wild Thing. The second issue sees Rina at the mall with her mother, the latter of whom is targeted by an old enemy of hers Hama previously introduced when he was writing the Elektra series. Rina’s obsession with playing a VR video game ends up leading to a really unconventional team-up with her mom against the Hand assassin who is out to get her. The third issue has Rina having to save Cameron from a cyborg Sentinel sleeper agent left over from Operation: Zero Tolerance. Issue #4 has Rina and her father hanging out in Central Park at night, where they’re attacked by a member of the demonic N’Garai. And in issue #5 Rina has to fight a giant alien robot that crash-lands on Earth.
Reportedly the decision to cancel Wild Thing was very last minute, and issue #6 was at least partially completed when the ax fell. When the Wild Thing series was finally collected in a digest format as Spider-Girl Presents Wild Thing: Crash Course in 2008, it included the cover for the unreleased issue #6. It’s unfortunate that Marvel didn’t take the opportunity to complete that sixth and final issue for inclusion in the trade paperback.
Probably the strongest issue of Wild Thing was the fourth one. Hama had previously done a fantastic job writing the father-daughter dynamic between Logan and Jubilee throughout his Wolverine run, so it makes sense he’d also prove adept at scripting the character’s interactions with his actual daughter. I feel like that’s one of the great missed opportunities of Wild Thing getting canceled so quickly, we missed out on seeing Hama continue developing Rina’s relationship with her father.
Ron Lim is the penciler on Wild Thing. As I’ve previously recounted, I’ve been a huge fan of his work ever since he penciled Captain America in the early 1990s. As with everything else he’s worked on, Lim did really solid work on Wild Thing. He really is such an underrated artist. Lim’s storytelling and characters do a great job bringing to life the more comedic elements of Hama’s scripts.
Lim has always been extremely strong at rendering dynamic superhero action. That was one of the qualities that first made his Captain America work stand out for me. Lim really captured Cap’s athleticism. That skill served him equally well first on J2 and then on Wild Thing, where he depicted Rina leaping at & dodging around a variety of foes. The above page from Wild Thing #4 featuring Rina tangling with the N’Garai is an excellent example of Lim’s work.
Inking Lim on the first issue is the legendary Al Williamson. Cover inks on are by Al Milgrom, who becomes the interior inker starting with the next issue, although Williamson hangs around long enough to contribute a fantastically detailed variant cover. Lim and Milgrom had previously worked together on Infinity War and Infinity Crusade, and they made a good art team. Milgrom’s inking was a nice fit for Lim’s pencils.
As I explained in that prior blog post, the one time I met Lim, the only book I had on hand to get signed by him was Wild Thing #1. Lim was definitely surprised by that choice, but I was happy to get his signature on it because, as I’ve just finished elaborating, it was a fun series, and he did good work on it.
I had the opportunity to meet Hama this week when he did a signing at Forbidden Planet in Manhattan to promote the relaunch of G.I. Joe at Image Comics. I brought along a few older books to also get autographed, among them Wild Thing #1, adding his signature to it. I told Hama that I’d liked the series, and he indicated he enjoyed working on it.
Maybe Wild Thing didn’t set the world on fire, to say the least, but I still enjoyed it. Re-reading it again earlier this month, I found it was still a fun book. If you happen to come across the digest collection or the back issues, definitely give it a try.
Normally I blog about interesting or unusual comic books from the 1990s. Today’s entry actually concerns comics from the previous decade, the 1980s… but all of this will eventually lead to another “It Came from the 1990s” piece. So bear with me and enjoy the ride.
Back in the early 1980s Marvel Comics partnered with Scott Adams – no, NOT the cartoonist who eventually went full right-wing crazy, but the computer programmer & game designer – to create a series of text adventure computer games featuring Marvel characters. Adams, working with acclaimed writer & artist John Byrne, developed the concepts for the Questprobe series. In conjunction, Marvel Comics began publishing a Questprobe comic book series that was projected to run for approximately 12 issues, with a new issue coming out each time Adams released a new installment of the computer games.
Keep in mind that in the early 1980s personal computers were still very much in their infancy. The options available to programmers were extremely limited. I think this is very well illustrated by the letters column from Questprobe #3. Danny Bertinato of Gloucester, Ontario writes in to ask if the Questprobe games will be available for Commodore Vic-20. Adams responds with some bad news:
“QUESTPROBE requires a computer with a minimum of 16k of memory to run. The standard Vic-20 has only 5k of memory. Since very few people ever get the memory expansion to 16k for the Vic-20, I doubt we will ever put QUESTPROBE on the Vic-20. Sorry.”
Yeah, let that sink in. There used to be PCs with only 5 kilobytes of memory. And I make that observation while writing this on a brand-new laptop I purchased last month which has 8 gigabytes, a laptop that will, give it a decade or so, undoubtedly one day be just as much of an antiquated dinosaur as a Commodore Vic-20. It’s simultaneously amazing and frightening the lightning speed at which technology can develop.
Speaking of antiquated dinosaurs, my father’s first PC was an Apple 2E. Back in the mid 1980s I was 9 years old and just starting to get into comic books on a semi-regular basis. I saw the ads for the Questprobe games in Marvel books and I asked my father to buy it for me. I ran Questprobe featuring the Hulk on that Apple 2E… and I found it almost impossible to play. I just ended up going around in circles for hours, barely getting anywhere. It was definitely a frustrating experience.
I recently found a Walkthrough for Questprobe featuring the Hulk and looking at it there’s no possible way nine-year-old me would have been able to figure out the majority of this 38 years ago. Perhaps I was too young… but I also think the game was hampered by the sheer primitive nature of the PCs at the time.
UPDATE: There’s a website where you can play the text version of Questprobe featuring the Hulk online. I just spent half an hour going in circles. Almost four decades later this game is STILL impossible!
But enough about the computer games; I’m sure you came here for the comic books.
The Questprobe comic from Marvel only ran for three issues and was canceled when Adams’ company Adventure International went bankrupt in 1986. Each of the three issues corresponded to a released game, with the first issue featuring the Hulk, the second Spider-Man, and the third the Human Torch and the Thing. Adams was working on a fourth Questprobe game featuring the X-Men when Adventure folded; a corresponding fourth Questprobe comic book story starring the X-Men was completed and saw print in the anthology series Marvel Fanfare a year later.
The concept behind the Questprobe comics actually has a certain potential. In a far-distant region of the universe the mysterious alien Black Fleet is ravaging through space, destroying world after world. A utopian planet of scientists sees the Black Fleet inexorably approaching and wonders what, if anything, they can do. This civilization long ago abandoned violence, and most of its members have resigned themselves to destruction by the Black Fleet. But one of their number, Durgan the Philosopher, is determined to fight back, a stance that causes him to be labeled a mad heretic.
Undaunted, Durgan resolves to find a way to save his planet. Having studied the far-distant Earth, he has observed the numerous super-powered beings who populate the planet. Durgan creates the Chief Examiner, a dome-headed, cloaked construct that he dispatches to Earth to locate the most powerful super-beings, study them, and replicate their powers by getting them to pass through a black portal. (John Byrne apparently designed the Chief Examiner.)
There’s also some stuff going on with these mysterious, cosmic-powered “Bio-Gems” that are apparently parts of a larger entity, one that’s even more evil than the Black Fleet, but it’s fairly confusing how all of this was supposed to tie together. Perhaps if the games & comic books had lasted longer it would have become clearer.
The first issue of Questprobe, featuring the Hulk, was released with an August 1984 cover-date. It was written by Bill Mantlo, definitely an appropriate choice. Mantlo had previously done a stellar job taking licensed properties such as the Micronauts and Rom Spaceknight and developing them into highly intriguing ongoing comic book series for Marvel. He had also been writing The Incredible Hulk series since 1980, so was intimately familiar with the character.
Questprobe #1 has pencil layouts by Mark Gruenwald. Although he was much better known for his writing & editing at Marvel, Gruenwald did occasionally also draw, and he had a solid grasp of storytelling. The inking / finished artwork on issue #1 was by the legendary John Romita, who at this point was synonymous with the Marvel house style. Letters were by Joe Rosen and colors by George Roussos. The series editor was Bob Budiansky.
The first issue is a fairly basic story, one that is competently done and which establishes the premise in economical fashion. I’m sure that if I had bought it when it first came out in the Summer of 1984 it would have been perfectly geared to my eight-year-old sensibilities and I would have enjoyed it.
By the way, having seen on Wikipedia a photo of Adams taken in 1982, putting it side-by-side with Gruenwald & Romita’s art from this issue, it’s very obvious that Durgan’s appearance was modeled on the computer programmer.
And, yes, white guys really did used to wear their hair like that.
One last noteworthy item: The cover of the first issue features the blurb “by Bill Mantlo, Mark Gruenwald and John Romita” which was practically unheard of in mainstream comics at the time.
Moving on to Questprobe #2 (January 1985) featuring Spider-Man, this one is written & penciled by Al Milgrom. That’s another apt choice, as Milgrom was the writer & artist on the Spectacular Spider-Man series at this time. I’ve always found Milgrom to be a good, solid, underrated artist, and I think he did quality work on the Spider-Man character. Looking at his layouts & storytelling for Questprobe #2, some of it is reminiscent of Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko’s work.
Inking this issue was Jim Mooney, another talented artist who, among his numerous credits, had a lengthy association with Spider-Man during the Bronze Age. Milgrom & Mooney make a good art team. One of my all-time favorite letterers, Janice Chiang, worked on this issue, and George Roussos is back on colors.
Milgrom has always had a very offbeat sense of humor, which no doubt suited him to writing an irreverent character like Spider-Man. In this story he gets a lot of mileage out of the fact that the Chief Examiner has a remarkable resemblance to Spider-Man’s old enemy Mysterio. Hijinks ensue.
By the way, this story also gave me a newfound appreciation for Mysterio. I used to think he was a pretty stupid character, a special effects artist who wears a fishbowl on his head. But reading this issue Milgrom really sells the idea that Mysterio is highly intelligent and a master planner, and that he very effectively uses psychology & trickery to keep much more powerful adversaries like Spider-Man off-balance.
Questprobe #3 (November 1985) features the Human Torch and the Thing from the Fantastic Four. David Michelinie is perhaps an odd choice for the writer on this one, as he was already much more associated with Iron Man and the Avengers, and I don’t think he’s ever worked on a single issue of the Fantastic Four series. Nevertheless, Michelinie has always demonstrated himself to be a talented writer, and he ably steps in to handle the characters. He does a fair job, especially since he has to work around the inconvenient fact that the Torch and and the Thing never actually meet, as at the time Ben Grimm had quit the FF and was hanging out on the Beyonder’s planet from the Secret Wars miniseries.
The artwork, on the other hand, is quintessential FF, with penciling by Ron Wilson, the regular artist on The Thing solo series, and inking by the legendary Joe Sinnot, the man who inked / embellished the Fantastic Four series for a decade and a half, from 1965 to 1981. I guess you could say that Sinnott as much as Romita helped define the look of Marvel Comics during the Bronze Age. Rick Parker lettered the issue and Julianna Ferriter did the coloring.
That brings us to the X-Men story that was originally intended for Questprobe #4 and which saw print in Marvel Fanfare #33 (July 1987). It’s written by longtime, groundbreaking X-Men writer Chris Claremont. “Shadows on the Soul” takes place during the time when the X-Men’s arch-nemesis Magneto was attempting to embrace Professor Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, and the master of magnetism was reluctantly tasked with leading his former foes, much to the X-Men’s understandable skepticism.
Pencils are by one of my favorite artists, Power Pack co-creator June Brigman, and inking is by Terry Austin, who famously embellished John Byrne’s now-classic run penciling X-Men. Brigman and Austin have worked together a few times over the years, and they’ve always made a superb art team. Letters are by Rick Parker and colors by Glynis Oliver.
I’m wondering how far along this story was when the Questprobe series was canceled. “Shadows on the Soul” runs a few pages longer than the typical Marvel comic, so it seems possible that Claremont, having learned that his story would now be appearing in the advertisement-free Marvel Fanfare, expanded it slightly. Certainly the gorgeous wraparound cover by Brigman & Austin must have been commissioned specifically for Fanfare.
At times Marvel Fanfare was dismissed as a dumping ground for inventory stories. Perhaps it was, but it did enable some interesting & unusual work that otherwise might never have been printed to see the light of day. Besides the fact that Fanfare editor Al Milgrom had previously written & penciled Questprobe #2, giving him a personal interest in seeing the fourth issue finally get completed, it would have been a no-brainer to run this story. Uncanny X-Men was an absolutely red-hot series in the late 1980s, so running an X-Men story, especially one written by Claremont, the writer who helped propel the characters to super-stardom, must have been an obvious choice for Milgrom.
And “Shadows on the Soul” is really good, probably the best of the four Questprobe stories, so I’m glad Milgrom got it printed. Claremont does fantastic work with Magneto and the Chief Examiner. In the previous three stories it was pretty much taken for granted that Durgan is doing the right thing trying to save his world, and the rest of his race are fools for wanting to adhere to their pacifism. Magneto, however, has a tremendous amount of skepticism for Durgan’s actions.
Magneto points out that in attempting to save his world by stealing the powers of other beings Durgan is in danger of becoming just as evil as the Black Fleet, and that there is also a nobility to his people being willing to die for their beliefs. And it makes complete sense for Magneto to be saying this because he’s walked the exact same path as the Chief Examiner. Again and again Magneto has done the wrong thing for ostensibly the right reasons, and in the end was left pondering if he actually did make things any better for mutantkind.
The whole Questprobe storyline did eventually, and quite unexpectedly, get picked up again several years later. Mark Gruenwald always enjoyed utilizing obscure continuity, and he was the layout artist for Questprobe #1 so of course he would have been familiar with the series.
In 1992 Gruenwald brought back the Chief Examiner and the Black Fleet in the pages of his series Quasar. Gruenwald even names the Chief Examiner’s world “Scadam” after Scott Adams. It was perhaps a perfunctory wrap-up, one in which Quasar himself plays no direct role, with the girlfriend Kayla Ballentine, the unwitting recipient of the awesome cosmic power of the Star Brand, being the one to finally destroy the Black Fleet.
Last month Michele and I went to the Society of Illustrators to see the Comic Art Sale and Exhibit. It was a great opportunity to see a very impressive & diverse selection of original artwork from comic books was on display, both from mainstream and alternative creators.
Here are just a few highlights from the Comic Art Sale and Exhibit, which ran from July 15th to October 23rd…
The unpublished cover artwork originally intended for Avengers #37 (Feb 1967) drawn by Don Heck for Marvel Comics that was eventually used as a cover by editor Roy Thomas for his comic book history magazine Alter Ego #118 (July 2013) from TwoMorrows Publishing.
A page from the Doctor Strange story “The Many Traps of Baron Mordo” drawn by Steve Ditko from Strange Tales #117 (Feb 1964) published by Marvel Comics.
The cover artwork for Green Lantern #56 (Oct 1967) penciled by Gil Kane and inked by Murphy Anderson, published by DC Comics.
The cover artwork for Hawkman #8 (June-July 1965) drawn by Murphy Anderson, published by DC Comics.
Two pages from Fantastic Four #116 (Nov 1971) penciled by John Busema and inked by Joe Sinnott, published by Marvel Comics.
A page from Incredible Hulk #196 (Feb 1976) pencil breakdowns by Sal Buscema and finishes by Joe Staton, published by Marvel Comics.
Two pages from the underground comix series The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers created by Gilbert Shelton.
The cover artwork for Laugh Comics #182 (May 1966) drawn by Dan DeCarlo, published by Archie Comics.
A daily installment of the newspaper comic strip Sky Masters penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Wallace Wood that ran from September 1958 to December 1961.
“Aqua Nut” illustration drawn by Rat Fink creator Ed “Big Daddy” Roth in 1963.
The cover artwork for Not Brand Echh #9 (Aug 1968) drawn by Marie Severin, published by Marvel Comics.
A page from Red Sonja #6 (Nov 1977) drawn by Frank Thorne, published by Marvel Comics.
While I definitely enjoyed this exhibit, it was slightly sobering to realize that in many cases the artists sold their original artwork many years ago for a fraction of the current asking prices. In some cases some of this artwork was given away by the publishers as gifts to fans, or flat-out stolen. It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances. So I can certainly understand why in recent decades comic book artists have chosen to sell their original work at much higher prices.
Sal Buscema, one of my favorite comic book artists, celebrates his 85th birthday on January 26th. I’m going to take a look back at how I discovered Buscema’s work as a young comic book fan. (Part of this retrospective is based on a couple of posts I did several years ago. I guess you can consider this a “director’s cut” or something like that.)
Appropriately enough, I first saw Sal Buscema’s artwork in two issues of The Incredible Hulk, one of the series with which he is most closely associated.
On several occasions Sal Buscema has stated that the Hulk was his favorite character to draw. As he related to Jim Amash in the book Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast & Furious Artist, published by TwoMorrows in 2010:
“I identified with [the Hulk]. Do you know what I liked about the Hulk? … He’s totally unique. He’s monstrous, lumbering, huge, unbelievably strong, and he gets even stronger when he gets angry. He has the mentality of a child. It’s so completely different from anything that you’ve drawn before. Is there another character as unique? … He’s an anti-hero, and yet because of his unbelievable power… look at all the fantastic things he’s capable of doing and usually does. That’s the fun and the constant stimulation that I had with this character.”
Buscema was the penciler on The Incredible Hulk from issue #194 (Dec 1975) to #309 (July 1985), an astonishing nine and a half year run. During that time Buscema missed only seven issues. I believe his 109 issue run on the series has never been surpassed by any other artist.
The very first issue of The Incredible Hulk that I ever read was #285, cover-dated July 1983. It would have been on sale in early April 1983. I was six and a half years old and my parents bought it for me.
The Incredible Hulk #285 was topped off by a fantastic cover drawn by artists Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnott. As a kid, I thought it was an amazing image. The Hulk was fighting this giant orange figure seemingly made out of flames. I hadn’t seen anything like that before. And, oddly, instead of striding around in his usual torn-up pants, on this cover the Hulk was wearing a shirt, tie, jacket and shoes. That said, his pants were still purple, so not everything about him had changed!
Flipping open the comic, I came to the first page of “Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life.” The creative team was writer Bill Mantlo, penciler Sal Buscema, inker Chic Stone, lettered Jim Novak, colorist Bob Sharen and editor Al Milgrom. This splash page again had the Hulk wearing a jacket & tie, his hair neatly combed. Rather than running around on a destructive rampage, he is seated at a desk, narrating his memoirs into a Dictaphone.
Over the course of the next several pages the Hulk recounts how Dr. Bruce Banner created the Gamma Bomb. While attempting to save the life of teenager Rock Jones who had wandered onto the test site, Banner was caught in the explosion of the weapon he created. The radiation now caused Banner to transform into a savage monster whenever overwhelmed by stress or anger. I distinctly recall that my seven year old self was surprised that in this flashback Banner’s assistant Igor, who set off the Gamma Bomb in an attempt to kill the scientist, was a Soviet spy, rather than an alien robotic infiltrator as he had been depicted in the animated episode “Origin of the Hulk” the year before.
Buscema drew an absolutely savage depiction of the Hulk in this flashback, as Banner transformed into the jade giant for the very first time, on the striking splash page seen at the top of this blog post.
Following this was an amazing two page spread by Buscema & Stone that illustrated the chaotic life of the Hulk over the next several years, the long and winding road taken by a green goliath who was more often than not hunted by humanity. Among the numerous characters glimpsed in this flashback montage, my seven year old self recognized from the animated series the villainous Leader and his pink artificial servants, Betty Ross, her father the militant General Ross, and the equally belligerent Major Talbot. Of course I also knew who Captain America was.
I was surprised to find out that Bruce Banner’s identity as the Hulk was public knowledge, since in the cartoons it had only been known to Rick Jones. Years later I learned that the Hulk was probably the earliest major super-powered protagonist to have his secret identity revealed, way back in Tales to Astonish #77, which was cover-dated May 1966.
At the end of this montage, we come to the Hulk’s current status: At long last, after all this time, Bruce Banner has managed to gain control, to retain his human intelligence when transforming into the Hulk.
While the Hulk has been busy recounting his life, a crew of workers from Stark Industries headed up by Scott Lang, the new Ant-Man, has been constructing Northwind Observatory, a laboratory where Banner can resume his scientific studies. Turning back into his human form, Banner joins Lang to supervise the installation of the laboratory’s power core. At the last minute, Banner discovers that the power core was not designed by Stark Industries, but acquired from a company called Soulstar. Banner immediately recognizes the name, but before he can prevent it, the power core is hooked up, there is “a massive electromagnetic discharge,” and a strange being emerges.
This creature, we are informed, is Zzzax the Living Dynamo (aka the guy guaranteed to always get the very last entry in the Handbook of the Marvel Universe). Looking something like a humanoid lightning bolt, Zzzax is a creature that feeds on the human life force. Before the monster can consume the stunned construction crew, Banner transforms back into the Hulk and tackles this old enemy.
Unfortunately the Hulk comes to a realization: In his old savage, child-like persona, the angrier he got, the stronger he became, but now, guided by Banner’s rational intellect, the Hulk cannot easily become angry, meaning his strength is limited. And so the gamma-spawned giant realizes that, instead of relying on brute force to defeat Zzzax, he must now find a way to out-think his fiery foe.
As a kid, I thought The Incredible Hulk #285 was a fantastic issue with an amazing bad guy. Yep, the idea of an intelligent Hulk was unexpected, but I just shrugged and read on. Mantlo’s script was a really good introduction to the character of the Hulk, neatly surmised through the plot device of Bruce Banner penning his autobiography. The second half, with the Hulk fighting Zzzax, was really exciting.
On the art side of things, the work by Sal Buscema was high quality. To the best of my knowledge, this was the very first comic book I ever read that was penciled by him. As I mentioned above, Buscema would eventually become one of my all time favorite comic book artists. A number of years ago when Our Pal Sal appeared at a NYC comic book show I had him autograph this issue. It was actually my second copy, since I read the original one so many times as a kid that the cover eventually fell off.
In regards to Stone’s inking, it is pretty good. Having subsequently seen a great deal more of Buscema’s work, I have to admit that there were others who did a better job finishing his pencils, among them Joe Sinnott, Gerry Talaoc, and Buscema himself. In the aforementioned Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast & Furious Artist he admits that he wasn’t overly enthusiastic about Stone’s inking. Looking back at it as an adult fan, yes, I tend to agree with him. That said, back when I was a little kid completely lacking in any knowledge of the subtleties of inking, I thought the artwork by Sal & Chic looked just fine. I guess that’s probably the more important thing.
Even though I really did enjoy The Incredible Hulk #285, because I was just a few months shy of seven years old I very seldom had a chance to go buy comic books on my own, so I ended up not reading another issue of the series for a couple of years. When I finally did, it was issue #309. And if I thought #285 was a bit odd, well, that next one was downright bizarre!
The Incredible Hulk #309 was cover-dated July 1985, exactly two years since the last issue I had read. And it was quickly obvious that a heck of a lot had changed in those two years!
The cover to issue #309 was by Mike Mignola. It’s a pretty early piece of work by the future creator of Hellboy. But you can certainly see his potential as an artist in this unusual cover image. This had to be the first time that I saw Mignola’s art. It certainly leaped out at me as a distinctive piece.
“The Triad” is written by Bill Mantlo, penciled by Sal Buscema, inked by Gerry Talaoc, lettered by John Workman, colored by Bob Sharon and edited by Carl Potts. The last time I had seen Bruce Banner he was in full control of his bestial alter-ego and had been accepted as a hero by the people of Earth. Now, though, the Hulk appears to be somewhere far, far from home, struggling to string together a simple coherent thought.
Within a few pages, Mantlo quickly brought readers up to speed. Buscema renders another of his dramatic flashback montages. I learned that the now-intelligent Hulk was haunted by Doctor Strange’s arch enemy Nightmare, who twisted Banner’s dreams to re-awaken the green goliath’s bestial alter ego. Nightmare hoped to use the Hulk as weapon against the Sorcerer Supreme. However, Strange was able to help the remaining spark of Banner’s consciousness strike back at the demon. Unfortunately the Hulk was left with no mitigating human influence, and became an uncontrollable monster. Rather than have to destroy his old friend, Strange exiled the Hulk to the extra-dimensional Crossroads, which linked up to a myriad of other realities.
And, wow, poor John Workman, a highly skilled letterer, had to try to squeeze all of this information onto a single page! I recall my eight year old self squinting as I read this recap, trying to make out all that tiny lettering.
Now, in the present, after some time wandering the Crossroads, traveling from one strange world to another, the Hulk’s sentience is very gradually awakening. And with this renewed awareness, the Hulk discovers he is now accompanied by a trio of unusual figures. The Triad is made up of a blue-skinned demon Goblin, a young orange-skinned girl Guardian, and a shining magenta star Glow. These mysterious figures were somehow linked to the Hulk, their purpose to help restore the Hulk’s psyche.
Walking through one of the Crossroads portals, the Hulk and the Triad are transported into the middle of a vast alien desert. Although the desolate sands stretch as far as the eye can see, and the harsh sun beats endlessly down, the Hulk refuses to activate the “fail-safe spell” cast by Doctor Strange that would return him to the Crossroads when he feels discontented. As a massive sandstorm sweeps in, the Triad attempt in vain to convince the Hulk to wish himself off this planet before they all perish.
Finally, having survived the brutal elements, the Hulk at last finds that which his inhuman senses had detected from far off: a lush oasis. The Triad realizes that the Hulk was not on a mission of suicide, but was driven by the will to find this oasis, meaning his mind is continuing to heal and come back together.
This was a really odd story to read as a kid. The Hulk was stranded on the other side of reality, fighting not some supervillain or the military, but the very elements, accompanied by an incredibly odd threesome. Mantlo really crafted an unusual story, having the Hulk’s struggle against nature juxtaposed against the Triad’s examination of and insights into his mental state. It is a very introspective tale.
At the time, I had no clue who the Triad was supposed to be. Within the next few issues, Mantlo would reveal that they were the splintered aspects of Bruce Banner’s subconscious mind given form and independent thought. Certainly this was a clever, innovative idea. Reading issue #309 with the benefit of hindsight, I can now see that Mantlo sprinkled the dialogue with a number of hints as to the true identity of the Triad.
Mantlo really broke a lot of ground with his run on Incredible Hulk. Having already given us an intelligent Hulk, he has now exiled the jade giant from Earth and begun to embark on an examination of Bruce Banner’s psychological background. A cursory glance at the Hulk stories that have been written in the decades since readily demonstrates just how much this influenced subsequent writers.
This issue’s artwork was absolutely incredible. The thing that really struck me was the depiction of the Hulk by Buscema & Talaoc. Obviously in other comic books and in cartoons the Hulk had always been a big, strong creature. But this was the first time I had ever seen him drawn as such a huge, bestial, imposing figure.
The depictions of the Crossroads and the desert planet that the Hulk and his strange companions visited were very vivid and detailed. Buscema did a great job on the pencils, crafting these alien environments. And the inking by Talaoc was absolutely superb. He created a tangible atmosphere of oddness for the Crossroads. On the desolate world, his embellishments bring to life a harsh landscape that alternates between cutting winds and a brutal sun.
Buscema stated in the Fast & Furious book that Gerry Talaoc was one of his favorite inkers to work with…
“Gerry Talaoc was a terrific draughtsman and… he drew better than I did. He probably still does. [laughs] And the look of the book was great. I loved what he did. To me the final product was what counted.”
I agree that Buscema and Talaoc went together exceptionally well. Talaoc really enhanced Buscema’s penciling without overpowering it.
Eight years ago I found out that Gerry Talaoc was retired and living in Alaska. I was able to mail a few comic books to him to get signed, and I made certain that The Incredible Hulk #309 was one of them.
On the letters page of The Incredible Hulk #309 editor Carl Potts revealed that this was Sal Buscema’s final regular issue penciling the series, ending his nearly decade-long run. I don’t recall if this meant anything to me back then, since I was just a kid and really wasn’t paying attention to the credits.
Years later, though, I would learn about the behind the scenes circumstances that led to Sal Buscema’s departure from The Incredible Hulk. Buscema and Bill Mantlo, who came on as writer with issue #245, had initially gotten along very well. Regrettably though, as Buscema recounted in Fast & Furious, after several years Mantlo started becoming much more hands-on and demanding in regards to the artwork & storytelling, requesting that Buscema draw pages in certain ways…
“What [Mantlo] was asking for was not good. I didn’t care for it at all, and I have to trust my judgment, because I’m the artist and he’s not. I hate to be this blunt about it, but the fact of the matter is that in many cases where Bill described what he wanted he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not an artist, because he had no concept – and I do not mean that derogatorily, but simply as a statement of fact – of the relationship of one object to another in a given space. He would ask me to draw things that were impossible to draw.”
Buscema reluctantly asked Marvel Comics to take him off The Incredible Hulk. It’s an unfortunate end to his historic run. Nevertheless, looking at his penciling for issue #309, it is apparent, to me at least, that Buscema was doing high-quality work on the series right up until his departure.
By 1985 it had become a bit easier for me to buy comic books. So fortunately I was able to pick up most the next several issues of the series.
Mike Mignola came onboard as the new penciler. A few issues later the entire team of Mantlo, Mignola & Talaoc relocated to the pages of Alpha Flight. After brief stints by John Byrne and Al Milgrom, The Incredible Hulk gained a new writer, Peter David, who had a lengthy, brilliant run that has some of its roots in Mantlo’s work.
Looking back on Mantlo’s run on The Incredible Hulk, it was innovative and exciting. Despite the difficulties he had working with Mantlo towards the end, the artwork by Buscema was superb. In 2012 a good portion of the Mantlo & Buscema run, issues #269 to #313, was collected in, appropriately enough, a triad of trade paperbacks: Pardoned, Regression and Crossroads.
From my recollection, the point at which Sal Buscema’s artwork really began to stand out in my mind was when he became the regular artist on Spectacular Spider-Man in 1988. His work on that series was outstanding. And so, when I later ended up looking back at those two issues of The Incredible Hulk that I had picked up as a kid, I now realized they had been penciled by Our Pal Sal, which only increased my appreciation for them. It’s great to re-examine them and really absorb the incredible skill Buscema displays with his dynamic layouts & storytelling. Just check out the action, energy and drama on display above, on page 20 of The Incredible Hulk #285.
I definitely recommend purchasing Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast & Furious Artist. It is still available from TwoMorrows Publishing.
Credit where credit is due: The format of this piece was partly inspired by Alan Stewart’s entertaining and informative blog Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books. Hey, as the saying goes, if you’re going to steal, steal from the best! You can read Alan’s entries on Sal Buscema, which so far look back at some of his work from the late 1960s and early 70s. And if Alan keeps blogging (and I certainly hope he does) perhaps in another six or so years he’ll be discussing Our Pal Sal’s work on The Incredible Hulk.
In conclusion, I want to wish a very happy 85th birthday to Sal Buscema, and thank him for the many great, enjoyable comic books he’s worked on over the decades.
Welcome to the 11th edition of Comic Book Coffee. I’ve been posting these daily in the Comic Book Historians group on Facebook. The challenge was to see how many different pencilers I could find artwork by featuring coffee.
51) Wilson Tortosa
Exposure: Second Coming #2, penciled by Wilson Tortosa, written by David Campiti, lettered by Matt Thompson, and colored by Mickey Clausen, published by Avatar Press in October 2000.
I know some of you are probably saying “Coffee? What coffee?!?” Look, it’s right there. Those two lingerie-clad ladies are having their morning coffee. See, I told you so.
Exposure, created by David Campiti and Al Rio, featured the adventures of Lisa Shannon and Shawna Diaz, who investigate cases involving demons, vampires, aliens and other weird phenomena. Of course Lisa and Shawna deal with all of these unusual menaces while wearing skimpy outfits and stiletto heels. And in their free time they occasionally work as pin-up models. I guess you can consider it “The XXX-Files” or something like that.
Exposure was originally published by Image Comics in 1999 as a four issue series. It returned a year later with the two issue Exposure: Second Coming released through Bad Girl comic book publisher Avatar Press.
This back-up story in Exposure: Second Coming #2 was the first published work of Filipino artist Wilson Tortosa. He went on to draw Battle of the Planets, City of Heroes and Tomb Raider for Top Cow / Image Comics.
52) Casey Jones & Tom Simmons
Excalibur #99, penciled by Casey Jones, inked by Tom Simmons, written by Warren Ellis, lettered by Richard Starkings, and colored by Ariane Lenshoek, published by Marvel Comics with a July 1996 cover date.
Okay, since the last entry was heavy on the T&A, here’s one for the ladies. We have the very buff Brian Braddock clad in his boxers drinking his morning coffee. He’s deep in contemplation, preparing himself for an upcoming encounter with the London Branch of the Hellfire Club. Brian has redesigned his Captain Britain armor in anticipation of the conflict, and has mixed feelings about assuming his costumed alter ego again.
I definitely felt the best issues of Excalibur were the ones by Chris Claremont & Alan Davis, and the ones where Davis both wrote & penciled the series. Following Davis’ departure the book took a definite dip in quality. Warren Ellis’ run was a post-Davis highpoint, and he wrote some stories that I enjoyed.
Casey Jones was brought in to alternate with Carlos Pacheco on penciling duties. Pachecho was ostensibly the series’ main artist, but in practice Jones ended up penciling twice as many issues. I really liked Jones’ work. He’s a talented artist. This page definitely demonstrates his storytelling abilities. Jones has also worked on Outsiders, Birds of Prey, Fantastic Four and New Warriors.
53) Jack Kamen & Johnny Craig
“Hear No Evil” is penciled by Jack Kamen, inked by Johnny Craig, written by Al Feldstein, and colored by Marie Severin, from Crime SuspenStories #13, published by EC Comics with an Oct-Nov 1952 cover date.
Beautiful, ambitious Rita has married Frank Reardon for one reason: he’s incredibly wealthy. Frank is also completely deaf, having lost his hearing in the military. While Rita acts the role of dutiful, loving wife she mockingly tells him things like “From here on in, your my meal ticket” and “If it wasn’t for your dough I’d walk out on you tonight” knowing he can’t hear a single word she says.
Rita begins an affair with Vance Tobin, a business associate of Frank. The lovers try to figure out a way be together without Rita losing Frank’s money. Then one day Frank stumbles into the house, dazed & disheveled, having nearly died in a car accident outside. Inspiration strikes Rita, and in front of the deaf Frank she suggests to Vance a plan to poison her husband and forge a suicide note.
Rita retrieves some potassium cyanide from the garden shed. Serving coffee to the two men, Rita tells Vance not to drink the cup on the right s it contains the poison. A few minutes later, though, it is not Frank but Vance who abruptly drops dead on the spot, much to Rita’s horror. Wrong coffee cup, Vance! You can probably guess the twist ending, but I won’t spoil it.
“Hear No Evil” is a EC rarity, one of the few stories not drawn solely by a single artist. Instead, we have two EC mainstays collaborating, Jack Kamen on pencils and Johnny Craig on inks. They work well together, effectively illustrating Feldstein’s tale of infidelity and homicide.
Following the demise of EC Comics in 1955, Kamen went into the advertising field, where he had a successful career. He briefly returned to comic books in the early 1980s to draw the cover of the graphic novel adaptation of Stephen King’s EC Comics-inspired Creepshow, as well as the artwork featured in the actual movie. Kamen passed away in 2008.
Johnny Craig remained in comic books, but he found only limited success at both Marvel and DC, due to his style not aligning with the dynamics needed for superhero stories, as well as to his meticulous approach to drawing leading to difficulty in meeting deadlines. By the 1980s he had moved into a creative field where he was much more comfortable, drawing private commissions for fans of his now-classic EC Comics work. Craig passed away in 2001.
54) Sal Buscema & Jim Mooney
Defenders #62, penciled by Sal Buscema, inked by Jim Mooney, written by David Anthony Kraft, lettered by John Costanza, and colored by Bob Sharen, published by Marvel Comics with an August 1978 cover date.
Today’s entry is from the famous (infamous?) “Defenders for a Day” storyline. Would-be documentarian Aaron “Dollar Bill” English has put together a television special about the Defenders. In it, touting the Defenders’ “non-team” status, Dollar Bill enthusiastically states “Anyone with super-powers who wants to declare himself a Defender is automatically a member! It’s a snap… Don’t delay, join today!”
To the Defenders consternation, several dozen superheroes arrive on their doorstep ready to join the team. Valkyrie, attempting to be courteous, suggests they make coffee for all the guests, and attempts to enlist Hellcat’s aid, but Patsy Walker refuses, stating “No way, Val — this tabby’s through messing around with that cockamamie coffee pot!” Valkyrie is left with no one to assist her in making coffee but the Hulk… oh, gee, what could possibly go wrong?!?
Soon enough Val and the Hulk are serving up cups of what is apparently the strongest, most pungent black coffee ever brewed in the entire history of existence, leading Captain Marv-Vell to disgustedly exclaim “Not even Thanos could down this bitter beverage!”
Sal Buscema is one of my all-time favorite comic book artists. He is an accomplished storyteller, and as we see here he does an absolutely superb job illustrating David Kraft’s comedic story. Buscema’s pencils combined with Kraft’s script results in a laugh-out-loud issue.
Jim Mooney, another very talented artist, effective embellishes Buscema here. I love their scowling Hulk who orders the Paladin to “Drink it black!” The disgusted expression on Hercules’ face is also priceless.
55) John Byrne
John Byrne’s Next Men #30, written & drawn by John Byrne and colored by Matt Webb, published by Dark Horse with a December 1994 cover date.
Next Men was John Byrne’s first creator-owned series. A bleak sci-fi political suspense thriller, Next Men dealt with the survivors of a top secret genetic engineering project masterminded by Senator Aldus Hilltop.
By this point in the series the corrupt, ruthless Hilltop has ascended to the Presidency itself. Bethany, Nathan and Danny, three of the surviving Next Men, have learned that Hilltop is Danny’s biological father, and have traveled to Washington DC hoping to confront him. They are intercepted by Thomas Kirkland, a time traveler from the 22nd Century.
Over coffee at an all-night diner, Kirkland reveals to the Next Men that Hilltop is destined to become the vampiric cyborg despot Sathanas, who nearly conquered the world in the year 2112. Defeated, Sathanas traveled back in time to 1955 and met up with the young, ambitious Hilltop, advising him, giving him knowledge of the future, directing him to establish the Next Men project, all of this to ultimately insure his own creation. Kirkland has traveled back to the end of the 20th Century in an attempt to break this predestination paradox by assassinating Hilltop before he transforms into Sathanas.
Next Men was an intriguing and ambitious series. I consider it to be one of John Byrne’s best works from his lengthy career. The series went on hiatus with issue #30, ending on an explosive cliffhanger. Byrne initially planned to return to Next Men just a few months later, but the implosion of the comic book biz in 1995 delayed this indefinitely.
Byrne at long last concluded the Next Men saga in 2011 with a 14 issue series published by IDW. Hopefully I will have a chance to take a look at those issues in an upcoming blog post.
The challenge: Pick a subject and find a different artist every day for that subject. I chose “coffee.” From the work of how many comic book artists can I find examples of people drinking coffee? I post these daily on Facebook, and collect them together here.
31) Rich Buckler & Joe Sinnott
“The Mind of the Monster” from Giant-Size Super-Stars #1, penciled by Rich Buckler, inked by Joe Sinnott, written by Gerry Conway, lettered by Artie Simek, and colored by Petra Goldberg, published by Marvel Comics with a May 1974 cover date.
The Incredible Hulk leaps into Manhattan and passes out in a deserted alley. Transforming back into Bruce Banner, the cursed scientist heads over to the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building headquarters, hoping Reed Richards can find a cure for his condition. Only Ben Grimm, the Thing, is home, but he welcomes Bruce, telling him “Guy’s like us’ve gotta stick together.”
The Thing asks the frazzled Banner “Ya want some java?” A grateful Banner accepts, and the Thing brews him a cup of coffee using some weird-looking Kirby-tech. “Don’t look at me, Banner — it’s one’a Stretcho’s dohickeys.” Yeah, leave it to Reed Richards to take something as simple as a coffee maker and transform it into a ridiculously complicated device!
The Think lets slip that Reed was recently working on a “psi-amplifier” to restore his lost humanity. An eager Banner decides that with a few modifications the device can cure both of them in one shot. Unfortunately they don’t wait for Reed to return before proceeding with the experiment, and of course something goes wrong. Next thing you know, we have another epic battle between the Hulk and the Thing, but with a twist: the Thing’s mind is in the body of the Hulk, and vise versa. Hilarity ensues… hilarity and several million dollars worth of property damage.
As explained by editor Roy Thomas in a text piece, Giant-Size Super-Stars was a monthly oversized title that would rotate through three features: the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and Conan the Barbarian. After this issue was released Marvel changed their plans. Spider-Man and Conan both received their own quarterly Giant-Size series, and Giant-Size Super-Stars also became quarterly, renamed Giant-Size Fantastic Four with issue #2.
The creators behind “The Mind of the Monster” were the regular Fantastic Four team: writer Gerry Conway, penciler Rich Buckler, and inker Joe Sinnott. They all do good work on this entertaining tale of swapped identities and smashed buildings. Buckler does a fine job showing via facial expressions and body language that the Thing and the Hulk have switched bodies. Longtime FF inker Sinnott does his usual great work finishing the art.
32) Rick Burchett
Presenting a double dose of caffeinated cliffhangers starring those two-fisted aviators the Blackhawks! Action Comics Weekly #632 is cover-dated December 1987, and Blackhawk #2 is cover-dated April 1989. Both stories are by the creative team of artist Rick Burchett, writer Martin Pasko, letterer Steve Haynie, and colorist Tom Ziuko, published by DC Comics.
I was sad to hear that longtime comic book writer Martin Pasko had passed away on May 10th at the age of 65. Among the numerous characters Pasko worked on was the revamp of the Blackhawks conceived by Howard Chaykin. Pasko chronicled the aviation adventures of Janos Prohaska and Co in serials published in Action Comics Weekly, and then in an all-too-short lived Blackhawk ongoing series.
Pasko was paired with the great, underrated artist Rick Burchett. I’ve always enjoyed Burchett’s art. His style is simultaneously cartoony yet possessed of a sort of gritty verisimilitude (I hope I’m articulating that in an accurate manner). Pasko & Burchett chronicled the Blackhawk’s post World War II adventures which saw the ace pilots becoming embroiled in the Cold War anti-Communist activities of the newly-formed CIA.
Within the pages of the Action Comics Weekly #632, the Blackhawks have been tasked with transporting chemist Constance Darabont to West Berlin to pick up an experimental batch of LSD. Unfortunately for Prosahka and his team Constance is murdered in Berlin and replaced by Nazi war criminal Gretchen Koblenz. On the flight back the diabolical Gretchen spikes the Blackhawks’ coffee with the LSD, pulling a gun on Olaf Friedriksen when her deadly ruse is discovered!
Blackhawk #2 ends on a much less life-threatening note, but certainly one that is just as dramatic. Over morning coffee Janos and the Blackhawks’ assistant director Mairzey ponder the current whereabouts of the missing Natalie Reed, as well as wondering what will become of Natalie’s infant son. Mairzey tells Janos that she has been considering adopting the baby. Suddenly an unidentified figure enters the room and announces “I was always afraid to tell you this before… but I’m the father of Natalie’s baby…”
The Blackhawk serials written by Grell & Pasko and drawn by Burchett were among the best material to run in Action Comics Weekly. I’m happy they’ve finally been collected together with the excellent Blackhawk miniseries by Chaykin. Hopefully a second collected edition will reprint the ongoing series by Pasko & Burchett.
33) Jack Davis
Today’s art comes from “Dig That Cat… He’s Real Gone” in The Haunt of Fear #21, drawn by Jack Davis, written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines, lettered by Jim Wroten, and colored by Marie Severin, published by EC Comics with a Sept-Oct 1953 cover date.
When I was a kid I preferred the sci-fi stories from Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, but as I got older I developed a taste for EC’s horror titles. I guess my dry, offbeat sense of humor came to align more closely with EC’s macabre pun-cracking horror hosts.
“Dig That Cat… He’s Real Gone” is the story of Ulric the Undying, who makes his fortune staging very public, very violent deaths from which he miraculously recovers each time. In a flashback, we see that Ulric was previously a nameless bum on skid row who was approached by Dr. Emil Manfred. Over a cup of coffee, Manfred claimed that he had discovered the secret of a cat’s nine lives, and offered to surgically transplant that ability into the bum, with the end goal of gaining wealth & fame. Manfred is successful and “Ulric the Undying” is created, but this being an EC horror story, of course things eventually take a very nasty turn for all involved.
Jack Davis was a frequent contributor to EC’s horror anthologies, illustrating many of their most famous, or perhaps infamous, stories. Davis was certainly adept at creating moody atmospheres perfectly suited to Al Feldstein’s scripts. His artwork was also appeared regularly in EC’s satirical comic books Mad and Panic. Following the demise of EC’s comic book line he drew trading cards for Topps. From the 1960s onward David, who was renowned for his caricatures, did a great deal of advertising work, movie posters and magazine covers. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 91.
34) Ross Andru & Frank Giacoia
Amazing Spider-Man #184, penciled by Ross Andru, inked by Frank Giacoia, written & edited by Marv Wolfman, lettered by John Costanza, and colored by Glynis Wein, published by Marvel Comics with a September 1978 cover date.
I recently learned of this storyline thanks to Brian Cronin of Comic Book Resources. In the previous issue Peter Parker had asked Mary Jane Watson to marry him, but she turned him down. A despondent Peter returned home, only to discover someone was waiting for him in his apartment! On the splash page of this issue, we discover who: Betty Brant, secretary to Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and Peter’s girlfriend from way back when. Betty, who is all glammed up, has let herself into Peter’s apartment and made herself a cup of coffee to await his return. Now that he’s home, Betty greets him with a very warm welcome.
There’s just one itsy-bitsy problem here: Betty married Ned Leeds a few weeks earlier, and she is supposed to be in Europe with him on their honeymoon.
Yeah, that’s the old Parker luck at work, all right. You propose to the woman you love but she turns you down, and when you return home you find your recently-married ex-girlfriend has broken into your place, raided your supply of coffee, and is looking to have a fling with you. Oy vey!
The subplot of Betty attempting to hook up with Peter, and Peter being very tempted in spite of that whole “just married” thing, went on for nearly a year. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that it all ends badly for poor Peter.
Penciling this tale of torrid emotions and pilfered caffeine is veteran comic book artist Ross Andru. After two decades of working for DC Comics on such titles as Wonder Woman, G.I. Combat, The Flash and Metal Men (the last which he co-created with writer Robert Kanigher), Andru came to Marvel in 1971. He penciled Amazing Spider-Man for five years, from 1973 to 1978; this was one of his last issues. Andru is paired here with well-regarded inker Frank Giacoia, who had previously embellished ASM during the early part of Andru’s half-decade run.
35) Alex Saviuk & Al Wlliamson
Web of Spider-Man #91, penciled by Alex Saviuk, inked by Al Williamson, written by Howard Mackie, lettered by Rick Parker, and colored by Bob Sharen, published by Marvel Comics with an August 1992 cover date.
Following up on our last entry, it’s another Spider-Man page featuring Peter Parker, Betty Brant, coffee and… oh no, Betty’s throwing herself at Peter again, isn’t she?
Okay, what’s actually going on here is that Betty has been working undercover on a story for the Daily Bugle. She’s investigating the organization belonging to the international assassin the Foreigner, the man behind the murder of her husband Ned Leeds. When Betty happens to run into Peter in the street she locks lips with him and drags him into a nearby diner so that she can give him the information she’s been collecting to pass on to Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Unfortunately the people who are following Betty see through her ruse and attack the coffee shop. What follows is Spider-Man spending the rest of the issue trading blows with a pair of the Foreigner’s armored goons in the java joint, which of course gets demolished. I hope the owners had their insurance premiums paid up!
Betty had spent a long time after her husband’s death traumatized & vulnerable. This was the beginning of a new direction for her, as she quit being Jonah’s secretary, became more assertive, and began a career as an investigative journalist for the Bugle.
The pencils are by Alex Saviuk, a really good artist who had a long run on Web of Spider-Man, from 1988 to 1994. I think Saviuk’s seven year stint on often gets overlooked because this was at the same time McFarlane, Larsen and Bagley were also drawing the character, and with their more dynamic, flashy styles they consequently receiving more attention. That is a shame, because Saviuk turned in solid, quality work on Web of Spider-Man. I enjoyed his depiction of the character.
As we can see from this page, Saviuk was also really good at rendering the soap opera and non-costumed sequences that are part-and-parcel of Peter Parker’s tumultuous personal life.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 