Customer Reviews

JOHN BUSCEMA SKETCHBOOK PB (Popular Artist Sketchbook)

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I am not a huge comicbook collector, though I have bought comics off and on. However, I just couldn't pass up this collection of sketches from the mind of one of comic's and illustration's well respected figures. I always appreciate sketches for they are the rawest and most direct manifestations of artistic creativity, as is such in this book. I recommend this book to all interested in drawing, comics, figurative works, etc. You wont be disappointed.

I happened to discover this book at a local comic book store. After flipping through the first couple pages I knew I had to get it. John Buscema is an amazing artist. His knowledge of the figure is uncanny. The drawings speak for themselves. This book seriously makes me want to take out a pencil and start sketching away. I highly recommend this book

That book is a show! Big! A little than John Buscema could do with a pencil. He was magic, as it was in whole its works. A book marvel to have and to consult whenever it is looking for inspiration. Wonderful!

When I first began collecting comics back in the mid-1970's, one of the first books I bought was Conan the Barbarian #42. The cover featured Conan battling a winged gargoyle, high above a city, while the gargoyle also held a comely wench. That book would begin a life-long love affair that I would have with the art of John Buscema. In today's comic scene where it seems all the artists can do is produce splash pages of abnormally large-breasted women, Buscema's art displays the qualities of a true master storyteller.

Vanguard Productions has released this wonderful sketchbook of Buscema's art, another in their outstanding series of sketchbooks featuring some of the all-time great comic book artists. With an introduction by the legendary illustrator Jim Steranko, and a book-length interview with J. David Spurlock, we learn of Buscema's early career as he was hired by a young Stan Lee at the then Timely comics. He would work on a freelance basis for Timely/Atlas and also work for other comic publishers, notably Western doing books such as "Roy Rogers" and "Indian Chief". Buscema would leave the comic business in the late 50's and move into advertising until a call from Stan Lee brought him back to Marvel for good in 1966. And we can all be thankful that Stan made that call. While Jack Kirby clearly set the tone and style of Marvel art of the 1960's, it was Buscema who took the reins in the 1970's, developing a different style than Kirby's, but no less dynamic. Ironically, John initially had trouble grasping the Marvel style when he returned until Stan gave him a number of Kirby titles to look over. Buscema would even go on to write the bible of Marvel art "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" which is still widely read over 25 years later.

John would go on to do many titles at Marvel over the years including a long stint on the Avengers where he would create the look of the android Vision for the classic Avengers #57. He also worked on Thor, The Silver Surfer, and countless others, but it was his work on Conan that captivated me. No artist, not even Frazetta (whom Buscema acknowledges as THE Conan artist) ever captured the true essence of the grim, brooding warrior of Robert E. Howard like Buscema did. Buscema reveals how he took over Conan after Barry Smith left and barely can contain his disdain for Smith's youthful, slender version of Conan. He would draw Conan in both the color comic, and the B&W Savage Sword of Conan magazine for some 25 years.

This wonderful book is loaded with sketches, some finished some just rough layouts, from throughout his illustrious career. Buscema's women are not the pencil-thin waits, giant bosoms of today's comics, but REAL women; sensuous, often buxom and with his trademark pouty lips. Buscema's characters were real characters. His expertise at drawing anatomy and movement correctly almost a lost art in today's splash page heavy, "in your face" style of art. There's a wonderful story John tells during the interview about how Stan Lee criticized John's art on the now celebrated Silver Surfer #4, featuring one of the greatest covers in history. Years later, Stan would tell John that it was their best work together and he never recalled his earlier comments. You gotta love ol' Stan!

Buscema is a true comic hero of mine and a man who left us all too soon. His works will live on however and be continued to be loved and appreciated for generations to com. This sketchbook is a marvelous item for fans and collectors of his work.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

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As a long time comic reader and a big follower of the long career of Bohn Buscema I really looked forward to this book. I was disappointed. Not only was this not a great sketchbook showcase into the man's work but it was also a tepid interview. John deserved beter, deserves better. While there is some rare work in this collection you'll find thumbnails on eBay that are as interesting and for sale to own. John was an incredibly adept illustrator and comic artist who unfortunately married his work to the drawing of Conan. Conan is an otherwise vital character which through the years John almost ruined with an approach to drawing the Cimmerian warrior, thief, buccaneer and, eventually, king, with the same furry loincloth, brown tunic and broadsword that was such a pat image that it led to the casting of bodybuilder Schwartzenegger (sp?) to be be miscast in the lead role of the terrible films. John was often seen doing gorgeous doodles on the backs of comic pages he'd drawn that looked better than the finished work on the other side. This sketchbook has little of those gems and focuses on his lapsed career as an illustrator and his popular comic work. This was a terribly missed opportunity to show people not the staid, workaholic illustrator chained to a drawing table putting out work rather than creating compelling imagery. No the compelling images are still locked away somewhere. Some of his comic pages are truly gorgeous. This book showcased none of those. To be sure there are some good samples of John fluent lines and character studies as well as a few finished pieces in this volume. The shame is that it looks like the art used was the stuff he gave away as opposed to the gems he created and nurtured with loving brush strokes until they breathed, moved and danced across the panels. This man was a master in the field of sequential storytelling. This book only gives meager hints at the power, passion and grace that was the greater body of John's contributions to the medium. John deserved better. Here's hoping we get to see a volume truly dedicated to his talent at some point in time.