Silver Surfer #1 ( Facsimile) - Stan Lee and John Buscema

Ever since I picked up my first Silver Surfer comic (issue 12) as a 10 year old in 1970 I have been a massive fan of the broody Sentinel of the Spaceways. So you can imagine my excitment to find out that Marvel will be publishing facsimile editions of the first 7 issues of his original series by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Today (Wednesday) I picked up the first issue (originally published in 1968) and I have to say that I was surprised to find out that it was such a thick book of around 50 pages of silvery fun. Although I have read these Surfer tales in various UK reprints its good to see these stories in full colour and in their original format.

In addition to the main 38 page Silver Surfer tale is a very nice 13 page Gene Colan\Stan Lee Watcher story which I seem to recall reading in a Marvel UK weekly many years ago.

Favourite comics: Nova #1 John Buscema , Marv Wolfman - A new hero or Spider-Man in space?

By 1976/77 I was 16 going on 17 years old and my interest in superhero comics was starting to wane. I needed something new that would be a fun and exciting read to retain my interest in the genre and that happended in June 1976 with the first issue of Marv Wolfman's brainchild, “The Man Called Nova” ( cover above by Buckler/Sinott). Of course the main selling point about Nova was that he had more than a passing resemblance to a certain Peter Parker, with a bit of Green Lantern in his origin. The fact that issue 1 ( and #2) was illusrtated by John Buscema and Joe Sinnot added even more fun to this origin issue.

From issues 3-14 the equally great Sal Buscema took over the art chores (with Tom Palmer and Frank Giacoia on inks) and from issue 15 until #25 (the final issue) Carmine Infantino was the artist. Although the first 4 issues showed great promise with issue 5 the storyline ( for myself anyway) took on a bit of a dip by trying to emulate Lee/Kirby/Ditko's trick of trying to bring the character into the "real" world by having him visit the Marvel bullpen in order to get them to give him his own mag - unlike Stan Lee's simialr storys this failed big time, and my interest in Nova began to wane- although when I saw the above cents copy on sale recently, it didnt stop me picking it up to replace my long lost 10p UK original .

Everything old is new again! - Savage Sword of Conan - Reforged #1 -John Buscema, Barry Windsor Smith

Titan comics, who currently hold the publishing rights to Conan, have released another new Conan book to add to their monthly colour "Conan the Barbarian" title and their black and white "Savage Sword of Conan magazine" that may be of interest to bronze age comic fans. "Savage Sword of Conan - Reforged" is a new magazine sized monthly that reprints coloured versions of the classic black and white tales from the legendary “Savage Sword of Conan" monthly from the 1970's, and the first issue is a decent package wrapped up in an actioned packed cover by Roberto De La Torre.

The main story in the first issue of "Reforged" is "Tower of the Elephant" by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala from Marvels "Savage Sword of Conan” #24 . I had missed this tale first time around in the US (and UK reprint) and had only previously read the Thomas / Smith version in "Conan the Barbarian" #4 - so I was more than happy to shell out £8.99 to read this. Below are a few pages from what I think is excellent magazine.

"Reforged" also features a newly coloured version of one of my favourite Conan stories, "The Frost Giants Daughter" by Thomas / Smith (originally published in black and white in " Savage tales" #1 and a coloured version reprinted in "Conan the Barbarian" #16).

This issue also sees a new coloured verion of the Robert E Howard poem "Cimmeria" by Barry Smith & Tim Conrad.

This new book is going to appeal to those bronze age Conan fans who don't have the original comics/magazines or those looking for a decent comic to read (like myself). Of course there will be those Conan/Marvel fans that don't approve or like the colouring and although I do not think the black and white versions will be surpassed, I did enjoy these coloured versions. Issue 2 features "The Devil in Iron" (from SSOC #15) which I will be picking up.

Favourite Comics: Savage Sword of Conan issues 16 - Worms of the Earth by Barry Smith & Tim Conrad

It was on a very hot summers day in 1977 when on a family weekend holiday to Blackpool with my mum and dad, that I spied a copy of “Savage Sword of Conan” #16 (Dec 1976) . At this time Conan was my favourite comic book character, so it was a no brainer, I was going to buy this issue without my customary check to see who the creators were. As it turns out this was a true comic book classic issue with artistic efforts by John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Walt Simonson, Barry Smith, and Tim Conrad, all wrapped up in a wonderful Earl Norem cover. Not only was this my first Conan black and white magazine it was my introduction to the then new art style of Barry Smith (with Tim Conrad) on the wonderful “Worms of the Earth” featuring Bran Mak Morn the legendary King of the Picts.

Of course the main strip in this issue featuring Conan was just as impressive with some of big John's and Alfredo Alcala's best art.

It wouldn’t be until around 1979/80 when I picked up issue 17 of "Savage Sword of Conan" which continued the tale of Bran Mak Morn this time with Tim Conrad completing the art chores, this still looked very nice but lacked the excitement and wonder that Barry Smiths brought to the previous tale. The Buscema / Alcala team as expected provided their usual wonderful work on the main Conan strip.

coan

Bring on the Back ups: When John Buscema drew Batman......and Superman

A big fantasy of my early fanboy teen years (mid-late 1970s) was the thought of some of US comics greatest artists working for both Marvel and DC on some of their top characters. Of course, it wasn't the case that this never happened back in the 1970’s as artists like Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, and others successfully worked to some extent for both companies. However, artists like John Buscema (who I imagine Marvel had under contract) didn’t make the move to try their hand at working on characters like Batman, Superman. Green Lantern etc. Well, that wasn’t until 2000 when Big John eventually took the opportunity (as did many others ) to work for DC. Although he did work on Superman (of sorts ) in the “Just Imagine Stan Lee creating….” series and provided (very) rough pencils for Gil Kane on the posthumously published “Superman: Blood of My Ancestors” book, he did provide full art on a one shot Batman black and white back up tale that appeared in "Batman: Gotham Knights" #7 (2000) -the the result as you would expect were pretty impressive. Sadly Big John passed away in 2002 only a couple of years after this was publsihed. Enjoy some of the last work of a comic book genius:

Above:The cover to "Batman Gotham Knights" #7 (2000) -Cover by Brian Bolland.

Above: The cover and splash page to "Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Buscema creating Superman" (2001) - Cover byJohn Buscema.

Above:The cover to " Superman - Blood of my Ancestors" - Cover image taken from the Grand Comics Database.