John Buscema: More than a Jack Kirby Clone

I have always loved the way Buscema drew the Silver Surfer.
Great artwork that looks excellent
also in black and white ( as the SS
stories were published in Sweden
back in the 1970's )!

I love your intro

Buscema's Surfer was tha best one. It's Buscema that put the Silver Surfer on the map.
But, Berry Windsor Smith is thee CONAN THE BARBARIAN illustrator.

John Buscema is a way superior artist than Kirby.

I've been a comics fan since the 70's and have never once heard Big John described as a Kirby Clone. I appreciate the subject matter - but the red herring is unnecessary.

Big John was just as important if not more so to the development of Marvel than Lee and Kirby.

Barry Smith on Conan: "The book sold fine."

????

It won awards year after year after year for Smith's storytelling innovations & Thomas' moody scripting. When Buscema became the artist, it lost all of its unique charm for ornate fantasy backdrops & mystical atmosphere. It became more debased, something more typical of the genre: bloody & violent. I stopped reading it then.

Even years later, after understanding that Buscema gave Conan the more bulky adult physique that was necessary as he evolved through the years, the stories still do not match the flair, suspense & supernatural flavor of Barry Smith's Conan epics. They had more of a DC 'Tarzan' quality to them, at least to my eyes.

Buscema had a swing about his artwork that was always bang on! Fabulous artist.

“Jack Kirby clone”. Are you kidding??? He had a style all his own. Buscema needed no Kirby.

Kirby was the better artist and professional, no question. His ability to create coupled with his ability to make deadlines(across multiple iconic titles, especially Journey Into Mystery and Fantastic Four), makes him untouchable. That being said, John Buscema’s work on Silver Surfer and Conan the Barbarian makes him my favorite Silver Surfer artist, over Jack and my second favorite Conan artist behind Barry Windsor Smith. When you drew the cover for Silver Surfer #4 and the 1st appearance of Mephisto, you’re a true badass haha. 😎

Buscema was so prolific and so so good. Sublime ability to do forced perspective combined with dynamic poses. He really was the Michelangelo of comics.

Love his and Sal's work on the Silver Surfer Also his amazing work on Conan and Wolverine! Nobody draws like that anymore! Finally I learned alot about studying how to draw comics the Marvel way!

Buscema had a far better grasp of human anatomy, he relied on fewer repeat elements to define his style, and had a much more natural style vs Kirby’s increasingly flat and blocky drek. (Not a Kirby fan, if you can’t tell)

The "bad" Buscema stories, imo, were in the FF. He admitted that SciFi didn't interest him, which is probably why his Conan and Thor runs appealed to me so much more.

I think it's a gaffe to call Silver Surfer a co-creation between Kirby and Lee. FF certainly was, but it was Kirby who drew the Surfer and concocted the character's role with Galactus. Stan had to ask Kirby who this was when he received the pages. The SS was entirely Kirby's idea.

There's an artist who perfectly emulates Buscema's style and he also draws Conan - it's Roberto De La Torre. Great draftsman. Anyone who misses Buscema should check his work.

John Buscema was good,but Burne Hogarth was better. Kirby’s later art was bombastic and cartoonish. Jack drew faces flat and he drew hands wrong. Jack’s earlier works for Marvel were phenomenal and trail blazing.

Who are these idiots who think John Buscema was a Kirby clone? They really do have a vision problem. I've been reading comics for a long time and I've never heard or read anyone claiming such stupidity. You can't get much more different in terms of technique and style. They are the opposite of each other. He learned from Kirby, but he never just copied him. Not to mention the fact that Buscema was a hundred times better at mastering anatomy, whereas Kirby deliberately chose to free himself from it. And finally Buscema mastered much better perspective, storytelling, gestures and expressions, lighting, rendering clothes etc...

John Buscema was much more influenced by Alex Raymond and Hal Foster, as anyone can see from his drawings, even before starting at Marvel. If you're talking about a Kirby clone, you've got Tom Scioli. But it wasn't just Buscema who defined the Marvel style in the 60s and 70s. John Romita, who retouched a lot of other artists' work, was just as influential as Buscema, and Gene Colan was one of those who counted at the time.

Buscema was absolutely right about the inking. As Neal Adams said for his work, John Buscema was the best inker for himself. Apart from those he mentioned, there was also Dan Adkins, who did an excellent job on The Surfer. Vince Colleta didn't suit his style at all and Buscema was slaughtered by Ernie Chan on Conan. Tony DeZuniga and Alfredo Alcala denatured his style too much. The few Conan episodes inked by Neal Adams are fabulous, as is the story of Ka-Zar, also inked by Adams. Because as much as I like Conan by Buscema, I prefer the version by Neal Adams, who is an artist even one level above, or the ultimate artist, I should say.

And of course his most impressive work was on the Silver Surfer, which he made phenomenal with Stan Lee, when he was a grotesque parody by Kirby.

Never once heard Buscema called a Kirby clone. Sounds like a Straw Man clickbait.

Not a JK clone at all. Kind of a silly thing to say.

I would rate Big John up there with Frazetta and Boris and tbh his brooding Cimmerian is the one that comes to mind when I think of Conan. Imo Ernie Chan was his best Conan inker even better than his own (just quietly). While his superhero work was passable he thrived in the Hyborian Age.

His 60s Avengers rocked!!!!!

I've never understood what people saw in Kirby's art. John Buscema was leagues ahead of the man as an artist.

"Jack Kirby clone?" John's style was nothing like Kirby, and Kirby had nothing on Buscema. Buscema is MARVEL COMICS' greatest artist.

The best

i just started to read The Savage Sword Of Conan, and i am blown away how good it looks. The artwork in those books are absolutely amazing, with excellent detail and anatomy, beautiful female characters, amazing action, incredible art on every page. Its amazing. I cant put it into words how much i like it. It raised my standards of how good a comic should look like, and unfortunately there is nothing in todays comic industry, as far as i know, that comes even close to the quality artwork showcased in these Conan comics.

Such an amazing artist and storyteller. Love his work.

Already mentioned? The reference to N.C. Wyeth shows a painting by his son Andrew, Christina's World.

I really wish I could draw.

I do not understand the Kirby clone accusation. At all.

For me Konan doesn´t taste good without Barry Windsor Smith. I have all the reprints in which Barry was involved. I respect Buscema but I don´t like his style, too much pink, long faces not too much detail.

George Klein, not Todd. ;)

This made me go out and buy the conan epic collections

John is one of my goats.

The elmet design is soooo stupid: what is the point of having two spikes inside the elmet aimed directly at the wearer's eyes?

I miss this intro song ;-;

I think his style is quite distinctive from Kirby.

The Buscema bros are really underrated

He was a fantastic artist,. He really improved from his early work.

You could tell he didn't like to draw buildings. His buildings and skylines of cities always looked like they were blocky and looked like it was in the 1950s, even when it was in the 1980s or 1990s. He just didn't spend much time in drawing buildings and machines, etc.

Not a Jack Kirby clone. Just better than Kirby.

hmmm i know it is sacrilegious but I have never been a fan of Kirby or the Buscemas face work. maybe with modern colouring things could look better - Like Zeck's punisher covers.

"Kirby clone"?? Man, talk about a thought that never crossed my mind. He's a much better draftsman than Kirby, even if he can't touch Kirby's sheer imaginative power. The stamp he put on Conan, however, was akin to what Byrne did on the X-Men or Kirby on the Fantastic Four; that is, definitive.

I actually preferred Galactus the Devourer to his Wolverine, in terms of his last great marvel art.

Thank you for acknowledging Frank Giacoia’s superior inking skills. Sadly, he passed away before his immense talent was fully appreciated. As great an artist as he was, he was an even better man. I have been blessed to be married to his daughter, Margaret, for the last 47 years.

Buscema’s technique of drawing anatomically correct characters was better than Kirby’s.

John Buscema and Roy Thomas ruined Conan for me... I simply cannot read Conan made by another team.

Silver Surfer was mainly a Kirby creation. Stan saw his debut on the FF penciled page and asked Jack who the character was. (source: Jack Kirby Collector) Later Buscema was to draw the Silver Surfer solo book much to Jack's ire. Having seen Stan rewrite the Surfer's backstory was icing on the cake.

When Kirby drew Spider-Man, it was as one of the big, muscular characters that Kirby was used to drawing. That wasn't what Stan Lee wanted for Spider-Man. So Lee gave it to Steve Ditko, whose Peter Parker WAS what Lee wanted.