I was sad to hear about the passing of Sal Buscema last week at the age of 89.
Sal was a comic book artist mostly at Marvel Comics and I will be blunt, I did not care for his art when I was a younger Dave-El.
I found it too cartoony, too messy, too... some other third thing I can't think of.
But I didn't care for it. And I wasn't the only one to not think highly of Sal's art. Which was a shame as the problem with Sal Buscema's art wasn't always Sal Buscema's fault.
Sal was a very fast artist who could deliver pages very quickly so Marvel frequently pressed him into service on multiple books and a lot of last minute fill ins. Sal would provide breakdowns and layouts for the inker to finish in the details. Which meant that the final product was at the mercy of whatever inker was available.
Which was OK if for example he was inked by one of the Bobs (McLeod or Layton) but no so good he got the short straw and was inked by say Mike Esposito or Vince Colletta.
From an older and wiser perspective, I found that when Sal was on his A-game and he and his work were treated with care and respect, he was a powerful, dynamic and expressive storyteller.
I think the first time I really appreciated Sal's talent was on Rom: Spaceknight, a series that was just a tie to an unsuccessful toy line but was elevated in comics form by writer Bill Mantlo with art where Sal Buscema had the option of inking his own work
Sal also had a long run working on Spider-Man as well
I'm sorry, Sal, it took me so long to truly appreciate your gifts and talents.
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