I woke up today to the news about Sal Buscema‘s passing. There goes another piece of my childhood.
For some reason, Sal was always unfavourably compared to his brother, John, penciller for some of the most important titles released by Marvel over various decades. There is no justifiable reason for this. John had a more refined line art, sure, but Sal worked on as many top titles as his brother. Maybe even more.
Born Silvio Buscema, on the 26th of January, 1936, he was the youngest among four brothers. Along with brother John, Sal studied fine arts in New York and graduated in 1955. From 1968 onwards, he followed in John’s footsteps and started freelancing for Marvel Comics on what would be a long career in sequential art, first as an inker, his initial dream job, and later as a penciller.
I would be hard pressed to say where I first got acquainted with Sal Buscema’s art — when you are a kid in the 1970s, at age 8 or 9, you don’t really pay much attention to the creative team. But, in hindsight, Sal seemed to be simply everywhere.
I remember the first few stories of The Defenders, a dream team made of Dr. Strange, the Hulk, the Sub-mariner and the Silver Surfer. Sal’s demonic villains were frightening, the action scenes epic. Sal would be on the title for almost 30 issues. And who can forget that fight between Hulk and The God of Thunder?
Sal’s Spider-Man was very much, well, both amazing and spectacular – he had a chance to work for both main titles for the character. He pencilled many stories for the Avengers and had a long stint on Rom, Spaceknight. One of his most recognizable works was on The Incredible Hulk, in which he was on and off (but mostly on) for more than ten years. There, Sal had many chances to use his almost trademarked “guy being thrown back by a punch”.
At some point or other, he was on Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Master of Kung Fu, The Man Called Nova, Sub-Mariner, Iron Man and even Conan, the Barbarian. He was fantastic in Fantastic Four and divine in Thor. The list goes on and on.
But my favorite of his works will always be the high-energy run on Captain America with writers Gerry Conway and Steve Englehart, one of the most memorable periods of the title, with battles with the fake Captain America, the Serpent Society, Dr. Faust… Some of my favorite memories of reading comics when I was 8 or 9 were from reading the Steve Rogers adventures of the time.
For instance, I will never forget the “Secret Empire” storyline (the Watergate scandal of the Marvel Universe), in which Cap finds out corruption at the White House, leaves his role as the patriot hero and becomes a new superhero, the Nomad! An adventure for the ages and heavy stuff for a kid’s “funny book” in the 1970s!
Sal Buscema was still active and working as an inker for some independent projects as recently as 2022. By now, he is probably trading stories with the likes of Kirby, Lee and his brother in that big bullpen in heaven.
His style and professionalism will be sorely missed.
GALLERY:
