Only days away from his 90th birthday, legendary Spider-Man artist, Sal Buscema, passed away today at the age of 89. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
Sal was a kind man, and a wonderful artist; he was a penciller, as well as an inker. I had the pleasure of getting to meet Sal, having him sign a few books, and even getting a sketch from him at a comic convention. His wife came to join him in the middle of his sketching, and when he turned to talk to her, he nearly spilled Mountain Dew on the sketch! Fortunately, the man’s spider-reflexes saved the say, and it’s been a prized possession I’ve treasured for over 20 years! While Sal is fondly remembered for a lengthy run on “The Incredible Hulk”, he’ll no doubt also be remembered for his long tenure on “The Spectacular Spider-Man” in the 1990’s, not to mention its first issue way back in the 1970’s! Sal also had well-regarded runs on “Captain America”, “Rom: Space Knight”, “Thor”, and “The Defenders” (to name a few), with plenty of other issues on other Marvel comics over the years.
What’s your favorite work or memory of the legendary Sal Buscema? Sounds off in the comments section below!
@ Big John
I had to have the omnibus shortly after it came out because I’d been waiting too long to have Sal’s and JMD’s run collected all in one place.
Not exactly an unpopular opinion, but Sal’s run on SPEC with DeMatteis is still an underappreciated gem (clunky-Vermin stuff, and all).