This post is a direct attack on the world’s biggest Silver Sable fan.
Time to finish up that 1984 “Battips” distributor flyer from Bud Plant, with ordering suggestions for retailers. (Here are parts one and two.)
HARSH. This issue of Daredevil probably sold okay at the time. That’s kind of an eye-grabbing cover.
Well, that was almost two years’ worth of “Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger,” the post-Secret Wars stories of the Thing toolin’ around the Beyonder’s battleworld. Now, I recently reread those stories in ye olde Thing Omnibus, and I think they hold up. BUT using this one data point provided here I suppose in “real time,” as these issues were coming out, folks were getting a little tired of this change-of-pace storyline and wanted Bashful Ben back in his usual stomping grounds. (See also “The Trial of the Flash,” another paitence-testing storyline.)
I do still get occasional requests for both this one and the Life of Pope John Paul II, but “Pope Comics,” and this person put it, must have sold a whole lot more since I see those in collections and Mother T. — well, not at all.
Don’t know if that was a typo or a change in plans, as #265 is the actual first appearance of Silver Sable (and even got a 2nd print to ballyhoo the fact). It’s possible the story was pushed back, as #264 has “fill-in issue” written all over it. Anyway, nobody cares about Silver Sable anymore, sorry.
“Steady on” nuthin’. RAISE THEM ORDERS, TRUST ME
Interesting to see the note here that sales were “softening” on what was essential Marvel’s flagship title. And the implied “long, continued storyline (derogatory).” As far as stories being “too grim” — friend, hold onto your beanie, 1980s X-Men comics will look like the Care Bears compared to what’s to come.
This story is great, by the way. Track these down if you can.
Oh, I think this is the issue where we get Byrne’s retelling of Doom’s origin that kinda/sorta incorporated the “single scar” theory of Jack Kirby’s. Anyway (SPOILER) this is the Kristoff version of Doom (sigh…long story) and not the real Doom but it’s fairly surprising that even then, an appearance by Victor Von would be enough to get those orders bumped up way high.
Oh, come on. I won’t stand for this slander of our pal Sal. The man did fine work on Simonson’s Thor, and his style was a nice match to Simonson’s own art. The book looked great for that entire run.
Here’s a panel from this very issue:
Sal Buscema is fine.
“There’s no way this character would ever become popular with the general public via a series of movies that will literally make billions. ORDER LOW”
I admire the honesty. Anyway, big clue as to how unique a comic this was. I suggest seeking out pal Tegan on Tik Tok and seeing her short videos about this very series.
It honestly surprises me that people thought this way about Coyote. I know it didn’t last long, but thought it was held in higher regard than that. Ah, well. It seemed like an okay comic.
Whoooops, hate to tell you this about that Galactus story, but….
Pretty safe to say that Alan Davis went on to become a funnybook artist of Some Note.
And that’s it for that distributor flyer. Tune in next time, when…I’ll probably find another one to discuss!
In the meantime, I do want to note the passing of a couple of important individuals.
James Earl Jones passed away at the age of 93, which, if one must pass away, that’s a good old age to do. I know he’s done so much in so many varied roles, but c’mon, I’m the exact proper age to remember him most fondly as the voice of that most evil of heavy breathers, Darth Vader. That deep, rumbling voice epitomized Space Evil in a way very few could have.
Mark Evanier has a nice story about when he and the Garfield cartoon crew encountered Mr. Jones. And I’ve been recommending that folks check out that one episode of Big Bang Theory on which Jones guest-stars. I know comic fans aren’t…big on BBT, but Jones is clearly having a great time in this very silly and hilarious episode, and you should at least watch it for his performance. (And the other Star Wars guest star who shows up.)
The other passing is that of John Cassaday, a superior comics artist whose sense of design classed up any comic he worked on. He supplied countless covers, he drew Astonishing X-Men, he drew Planetary, he did so much, and I’m sorry he’s gone so soon. My conlences to his friends and family.
This may be my favorite cover of is…granted, it’s not the most dynamic of his illustrations, but that great Wolverine face tells a story all its own:
So long, James and John.
That’s harsh on Sal Buscema, if I remember correctly, the artwork has awesome and inked by the fantastic Akin and Garvey who were inking Sals pencils on Rom at the time – a very underated art team as highlighted by the recent Rom volume 2 omnibus.
I agree that Sal Buscema deserves more respect here. I remember his run on New Mutants fondly. Maybe his name unfairly became associated with “fill in art” at some point, which, if anything, is a testament to his speed and professionalism.
If I recall correctly, that X-Men issue was part of a year or so where Claremont was kind of all over the place. I had a subscription at the time, and I wasn’t sure what was going to show up in the mailbox from month to month. The surprise was always interesting and exciting, but the lack of a sustained story was sometimes confusing.
It’s been a few days, and I still can’t believe that John Cassaday died. He was much too young to go.
I agree that Sal Buscema gets a tough break. I feel like he was still being compared to John, when his style was different. I love his Thor work.
If I remember correctly, Doom had been dead at the time that FF book came out, so having him in it would be a sales driver…even if it was Kristoff.
And finally, if I remember correctly again, X-Men 193 was where Nimrod got introduced, wasn’t it? Thus the idea that it could be the beginning of a long storyline, not just an issue where a young me started feeling weird about the sapphic vibes between Kitty and Rachel and I’ve said too much. ;-)
RIP John Cassaday and James Earl Jones.
Re: the’80s DC and Marvel “classic story runs” reprints, I remember digging “The Shadow of The Batman” which was mostly comprised of Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers’ Batman stories, along with a Walt Simonson story, as I recall. There was also Howard Chaykin’s “Ironwolf,” which is a fun read and features Howard’s early Kaluta-esque sinewy art style, before his art style became blocky and Art Deco. Also , there was the Brave and Bold reprints of early Bob Haney/Neal Adams stories–another fun read. And let us not forget the two issue micro-series reprints of the classic Frank Frazetta Shining Knight stories. One head scratcher is that DC didn’t bother to reprint any of the classic Teen Titans stories at this time…they could have done something where the first issue reprinted the first team up of Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad from Brave and the Bold, and the first full team appearance with Wonder Girl from Showcase comics. The second issue could have reprinted the second full team appearance with Wonder Girl from Showcase comics and also Teen Titans no.1 The third issue could have reprinted the first guest appearance of Speedy with the Teen Titans, and the guest appearance of Beast Boy. The fourth issue could have reprinted the issues of Teen Titans that Neal Adams drew that guest starred Hawk & Dove, and the fifth issue could have featured the stories where Lilith and Mal join and the TT work for Mr. Jupiter.
As far as Marvel reprints in the ’80s, the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams X-Men, and Avengers Kree-Skrull War cones to mind –but I always wondered why Mike Zeck drew the covers? Was Neal Adams boycotting Marvel at the time due to the Jack Kirby lawsuit? There was also the reprinting of the classic first down issues of The Micronauts, with new covers by Butch Guice.
I have yet to read Moonshadow but recently re-read some of J. M. DeMatteis’ Captain America run with Paul Neary and those are quite good–especially the Cap vs Red Skull story arc around Cap no. 300.
Sal Buscema I appreciate much more now that I am older–he is actually a very talented artist and could get the work done quickly. And, his late ’60s and early ’70s art is fairly refined. I think Marvel made him the new Kirby workhorse during the later ’70s and ’80s and had him churning out a ton of work– so, in the era where Byrne and Perez were all the rage it was easy to think of Sal’s
art as somehow not as good, but if you look at his art panels in terms of storyboarding, he tells clear visual stories with a variety of “camera angles” and a lot of dynamic action in the once upon a time vaunted “How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way” method–nowadays so many artists draw completely boring, static pages, by comparison. Sal, his big brother John, and Jazzy John Romita Sr were basically THE Marvel House Style of the Bronze Age of comics. And Sal is still with us at age 88–I wish the powers that be at Marvel and DC would give him work, if he still wants to draw.
Coyote is very underrated, and probably suffered from having too many artists… too bad Marshall Rogers or Steve Leialoha didn’t stick with it longer. I think Todd McFarlane’s first professionally published comics work was in a Scorpio Rose back up story in an issue of Coyote. Sabre, and Swords of the Swashbucklers likewise suffered from a lot of artist turnover–but all of those series would make interesting streaming series if adapted well.
Alan Davis and Brian Bolland are my two favorite British Invasion artists–they are rock stars of drawing!
Dr. Doom’s origin in FF #278 was enough to get me to buy my first Fantastic Four comic, an immensely important comic for me. The panel of Doom putting the mask on for the first time is… seared* in my memory.
AND they blew up the Baxter Building, which I later came to regard as a huge mistake. Having the She-Hulk in it definitely didn’t hurt either.
Sal Buscema more than his brother or Romita is the 70’s house Marvel style in my mind. That’s not a good thing necessarily, because I associate it with artwork that is totally competent, but not exciting. It tells the story well, but usually leaves me thinking how much better it would have been if his brother drew it. That said, I think his mid 80’s onward work is much more exciting than his late 60’s and 70’s work – I guess we’re of opposite minds on that Sean. To me, the ersatz Simonson/more angular look and sparser line coupled with the pen as opposed to brush inking really highlights his strengths. I completely agree with you about his storytelling capability and the camera angles.
I don’t mean to sound harsh; every company needs a couple of Sal Buscemas in their stable. More than his style I truly appreciate his speed and professionalism. How many fill-ins did he do? It seems like a million. God knows he probably only had a couple of days to turn out those stories.
Cassidy was my age… damn. I need to get more of his stuff.
* Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
I’ll cut Sal Buscema a lot of slack because he drew the debuts of Razorback and Ursa Major, as well as Rocket Raccoon’s 2nd appearance. In his later career he also succeeded in sharpening his style without turning into a Liefeld clone.
@LouReedRichards
I should probably check out more of our Pal Sal’s late ’80s and onward work …I stopped buying comics around the late ’80s and only returned to the hobby around 2011, so there is a lot of later Sal stuff I haven’t seen–but most of his ROM work looked pretty good to me–especially when inked by Akin and Garvey, as Chris B. mentioned.
I think we can both agree on Sal’s speed and professionalism, and that’s why I think of him as occupying the place in the Bronze Age at Marvel that Kirby had during the Silver Age…the guy that could just churn out the pages quickly…of course, sometimes it was just roughs or layouts, so the mileage would vary depending on who the embellisher was…like a Klaus Janson embellished Defenders page of Sal’s art looks better to my eye than a Captain America page of Sal’s art inked by Vince Coletta. But I really like the late ’60s pages of Avengers that Sal drew which were inked by Sam Grainger….that is some slick looking, highly polished art! Also, Sal’s inking on early Conan the Barbarian issues circa 1970 over Barry Windsor-Smith’s art looks fantastic. So, I believe that Sal had/has great talent and flair, but Marvel had him grinding out work at an accelerated pace and he had to streamline his style to a much more bare bones approach.
I also have more appreciation for Don Heck’s art as I grow older. I have been rereading some of the late Bronze Age JLA issues that Heck drew, and at the time it was a letdown to loose George Perez as JLA artist and have Heck as the replacement artist; but re-examining those issues, Heck has nice panel arrangements, staging, and angles, and he draws an attractive Zatanna and very heroic looking Superman and Aquaman. And when Brett Breeding or Romeo Tanghal is the inker, Don Heck’s JLA art really pops. Also, he’s one of the key early Marvel artists along with Kirby and Ditko, and his work on Atomic Age horror comics is very good and those Pre-Code Horror books he drew the covers for are now selling for thousands of dollars. What the Heck!
Interesting article–was Jack “King” Kirby the real saving grace of Martin Goodman’s floundering comics line…?
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/the-tears-of-stan-lee-an-extract-from-stan-lee-lied-by-chaz-gower/
Sal Buscema is one of the best Spidey artists of all-time. He was perfect for the slightly older version in the late 80s/early 90s… which was when I started reading.
“Anyway, nobody cares about Silver Sable anymore, sorry.”
*I care!*
I don’t care about Silver Sable, but I’m all about the Wild Pack!
…said nobody ever.
Looking back at my post, I came off sounding harsher than I meant to about Sal. Firstly, almost any professional comic book artist working in the pre-Image age should be respected for their abilities. I’m sure most people here have tried drawing/laying out a comics story and can appreciate all the various skills that a comic book artist must have. Being able to draw horses, elegant women, believable cars, landscapes/cityscapes, and a million other things are difficult skills individually, and a comic book artist must be able to competently draw all of them, keep them consistent, on the proper eyeline, in perspective, from different angles AND make panel transitions that advance the narrative – it is an immense undertaking.
AND – when I think of the Hulk it’s Sal’s version I see in my mind.
So, all of that is just to say that yeah, Sal was an extremely solid and dependable creator, not the flashiest, not the most innovative, but at the very worst you might get a middle of the road comic from him.
In a way some of those middle of the road comics, like an average issue of Marvel Team-Up, are some of the coziest comics to me. There is a feeling of safety and familiarity in their slight blandness – almost like living inside a Hostess ad.
@Sean
I’ve not seen much of his ROM work, but I do like Akin and Garvey (attorneys at law) quite a bit, so I can image they elevate his work. Your point about finishers is a good one, and one of the reasons that I STILL haven’t read the whole “Secret Empire” Engelhart storyline – that’s on me though. I have a Hulk story with Alcala inks that is very nice. like the DC Comics Presents story with Alcala finishes over Jose Delbo pencils that Mike recently spotlighted, the combination really works and elevates the pencils.
I agree about Heck. He is one of those artists who would be regarded a lot higher if superheroes weren’t the dominant genre. His early Iron Man stuff looks nice, the women are gorgeous, and the men look dashing and stylish. Like Sal, I think his somewhat scratchy style worked best with pens. I think he was paired with many inkers who just didn’t fit his style. I’ll have to look again at Heck with the Breeding inks, he’s a great inker!
I guess he doesn’t count as a British invasion guy, but Mike McMahon is my favorite of the English lot. I love how his style evolved.
“That’s kind of an eye-grabbing cover.”
That IS a good cover! I dunno if he’s suited for DD, but he did MANY YEARS worth of ROM & Incredible Hulk that I enjoyed/still enjoy!
“Well, that was almost two years’ worth of “Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger,”
Good storyline, but that was probably enough. Trial of the Flash, on the other hand, went on WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long! Like a YEAR too long!
“Interesting to see the note here that sales were “softening” on what was essential Marvel’s flagship title. And the implied “long, continued storyline (derogatory).””
I swear, there’s some Claremont era stories that never DID get finished!
” Thor, and his style was a nice match to Simonson’s own art.”
He no Simonson, but who the hell is? His art DOES look tighter, and more Simonson-like there. I dunno if it’s the inker, or Sal deliberately changing things up a bit.
“There’s no way this character would ever become popular with the general public”.
I never would have guessed a character that wacky would get so popular! When was the last time we had a NEW Funny animal character get popular? I know he’s in the world of superheroes, but he is essentially a Funny Animal character, like Heckyl & Jeckyl!
“The other passing is that of John Cassaday”.
Gawddammit! He did excellent work on BOTH of those titles.
“Rom volume 2 omnibus”
thanks for mentioning this! MUST BUY!
“Captain America run with Paul Neary and those are quite good–especially the Cap vs Red Skull story arc around Cap no. 300”
That’s a CLASSIC issue as far as I’m concerned! and a great ending to the Cap/Skull rivalry. I think they should have LEFT the Skull dead after that, not brought him back.
“but I do like Akin and Garvey (attorneys at law)”.
Consultations are FREE!
@Snark Shark
I prefer DC’s Space Ranger to Ben Grimm as “Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger.”