Comics’Fast & Furious Artist by Jim Amash with Eric Nolen-Weathington Table of Contents Introduction by Walter Simonson. 4 Chapter One: Inspiration All Around. 6 Chapter Two: A Heroic Departurre. 17 Chapter Three: How to Break in the Marvel Way . 33 Chapter Four: The Workhorse Hits His Stride . 59 Chapter Five: A New Start with a Different Company . 87 Chapter Six: The Craft of Creating Comic Book Art . 97 Art Gallery . 110 DR. STRANGE, HULK, SILVER SURFER ™ AND ©2010 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC. 3 Chapter One Inspiration All Around Jim Amash: You probably don’t remember recollection from when I was five or six years when this happened, but I know you know old — when my brothers both painted a land- when and where you were born. scape of some kind. It was sort of a friendly Sal Buscema: Of course. [laughs] I was born competition. I think they may have been in Brooklyn, New York, on January 26, 1936. painting from a photograph. They were both My father’s name was John, and my mother’s working in oils, and having a good time. It was Sadie. My brother John was eight years was just a fun thing that they were doing. older than I, born December 11, 1927. John was always dabbling in this kind of stuff. He loved to draw and paint. I think Al JA: Do you have any other brothers or sisters? — there was a very friendly sibling rivalry (below) For many years, SB: Yes, though unfortunately they’re all between them. They were very close, very Sal participated in Friday deceased. The oldest, Al, was born on July 28, devoted to each other. They loved each other night live model drawing 1923. My sister, Carol was born on June 22, dearly, as we all did. Al may have been kid- sessions at a local college. While in his 1929. ding around and said, “Hey, I can do as well teens, he had to rely on or better than you can. I’m going to paint a drawing from the JA: Who was the first one to draw in your picture of this right next to you.” They both statues housed at the family? had canvas boards and a couple of easels. Metropolitan Museum SB: In so far as I can remember, it was John. of Art. ©2010 SAL BUSCEMA I recall a couple of occasions — and this is a JA: What inspired you and John to draw? SB: My maternal grandfather, whom I never knew — my mother was just 13 when he passed away — was a musician by profession. He taught music; I believe it was the accor- dion that he taught. He also made accordions, and was an amateur artist. According to my mother he was quite good. She described in great detail some of the work he did. I believe he worked mostly in charcoal. I remember one description she related to us about a drawing he did that was rather large of this young boy and young girl running through a forest in a wind storm with the trees blowing around them. The way she described it was quite impressive. Unfortunately, all his work is lost. We never saw it, so I only have her descriptions to go by. But that may be where we got some of the genes. The earliest recollection that I have is of John sitting at the dining room table drawing. He loved to draw. I would say that John was greatly responsible for me pursuing drawing. He always said that as a kid I was better than he was. I’m not sure I agree with that, because I always believed that John was maybe not necessarily more gifted than I — although his drawing was much better. I did not consider myself a really good draughts- man by any stretch of the imagination, and 6 John was definitely much more dedicated than I. John was definitely an inspiration, but I got my inspiration from other areas, as well. I loved to go to museums as a kid. When I was in high school, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art as often as I could. It was almost like a home away from home for me. I particularly loved the room they had devoted to Michaelangelo’s sculp- tures. Of course, primarily they were all reproductions, but excellent ones. I just loved that room. I spent hours in there draw- ing the sculptures. JA: What time period are we talking about? SB: I went to a junior high school that was actually the first year of high school. So when I went to the High School of Music & Art in New York, which is now the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts — John went there also, by the way — I was actually in my second year, which would put me at about 14 and a half. JA: When you were drawing the sculptures, what were you paying attention to? SB: At that age you’re really not paying attention, Jim, because you’re so young. You’re a neophyte in whatever you’re endeavoring to do. I was simply trying to reproduce what I saw. That’s all. I was just having fun because I enjoyed drawing. JA: There were two high schools in New York: Music & Art and the School of Industrial Arts. Why did you choose Music & JA: Would John ever critique your work to (above) Sal’s older Art? try to help you? brother, John Buscema, SB: Probably because that’s the school that SB: Absolutely, constantly. I remember one at his drawing board, John went to. [laughs] Being eight years older instance. There was a photograph of an circa mid-1970s. than I, you have to consider that I was just a Oriental man, a rather large profile shot in little kid when John was going to high school. Life magazine. I decided, “Oh, I’d just love to John was kind of a hero to me. Even in later draw this,” and I drew it on a pad with a reg- life he was a man that I greatly admired. If it ular #2 pencil. I always showed my drawings was good enough for John, it was good enough to John and the rest of my family. He just for me. In later years I somewhat regretted it, flipped over it. “Boy, this is just terrific!” and because Music & Art was devoted to the finer he explained to me why he thought it was so arts, whereas Industrial Arts was good; that the pencil strokes I had used gave devoted to commercial arts. And that was the flesh an almost breathable feeling. I’m what I wanted to be: a commercial artist. paraphrasing what he said, but words to that When you graduate from Music & Art, you effect. He was very encouraging. I remem- really don’t know anything about the com- bered what he said, and tried to apply it to mercial art industry, which is the field that another drawing that I did of a similar head, I wanted to enter. In the Industrial Arts but it didn’t come out nearly as good. [laugh- high school, you would have gotten some very, ter] So what I did subconsciously did not very pertinent training in that respect. work consciously. 7 Chapter Two A Heroic Departure JA: John had already come back to comics JA: What did you do? Did you make an before you got into the field. Why did John go appointment with Stan? (below) Opening splash back to comics? SB: I actually made up six pages of pencil page from The Incredible Hulk Annual SB: John lived in Port Jefferson, Long Island, samples — just a very simple storyline. I used #14. It is fitting that Sal used Hulk which is quite a distance from Manhattan. He the Incredible Hulk as the character. in the samples he drew had to commute, I think it was close to five Let me digress for a minute. I had to learn in order to get work at hours a day. Maybe not quite that much, but how to do comic books. I had never drawn Marvel. Sal went on to pretty close. It was really wearing him out. He super-heroes before. I had storytelling ability draw The Incredible Hulk would get home very late at night. It was the because of my training in film strips and that over an incredible ten- year run. type of business where if they asked you to kind of thing, but I had no idea how to do ART COURTESY OF EELCO work on the weekend, you had to work on the comics. So I went out and bought a whole VELDHUIZEN HULK ™ AND ©2010 MARVEL weekend. If he had to work at night, a lot of bunch of Marvel comics. I bought those drawn CHARACTERS, INC. times he would miss the last train going out to Long Island, and have to spend the night in the city. He really hated that side of it. He loved the work, but he hated the commute. It was a real conflict for him. Ironically, he ran into Stan Lee on the street one day. They got to talking and Stan said, “Hey, the comic book industry is begin- ning to flourish again, John. Come and see me. We need guys.” When he saw that opportunity of being able to work at home, it was no contest. He took it up right away. JA: Why did you leave Design Center to go into comics? SB: For the simple reason that I’d always liked them.