Tag John Buscema

Why did the original Silver Surfer run fail? #1-18

A little more than two years after the first book hit the stands it was part of a Marvel wave of cancellations due to poor sales (Nick Fury, Doctor Strange, and The Silver Surfer) and suspensions (X-Men & Captain Marvel) and it was gone. I can’t say I was that sorry to see him go. What happened? There are a gazillion reasons and theories why the Surfer failed in his first solo effort. I will list some of my own reasons I thought the book failed and then we will take a look at the high’s and lows of the run itself. For anybody who thinks this run is not a failure I say this – when you are cancelled and the Sub-Mariner continues you have done something wrong.

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Conan The Rogue

One of the best examples of Big John Buscema's Conan is probably the one that has been seen by fewer fans than any other. In 1991 Marvel released the graphic novel "Conan the Rogue" which was a story that was plotted, penciled, inked and coloured by Big John Buscema. He got his long time collaborator Roy Thomas to script the story, which he had plotted and oh what a job these two did on this book! It had a relatively low print run and was never really promoted from what I understand.

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Epic Illustrated

Last week I came across an almost complete run of the 1980's Marvel Magazine Epic Illustrated in ultra- high grade raw shape. So I bought them all! Now Epic Illustrated has been on the radar ever since it was announced that Marvel was doing a movie version of Jim Starlin's Vanth Dreadstar character from Metamorphosis Odyssey.

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Heritage 2014 Feb 20-22 Comic Art Signature Auction

This week Heritage wrapped up its 2014 February 20 - 22 Vintage Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, covering a large array of classic covers and stunning artwork. A nice mix of silver age covers, modern classics and a range of strip art. The big winner was the cover to Action Comics issue 15 for $286,800.00, but these five pieces caught my eye.

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The Art Of Collecting Original Art

One of the most exciting things for me in my collecting adventures has been the discovery of the original art market. Now we all collect comics for different reasons. For some it is the stories, for others it is the art, and then others collect runs or story arcs because of the creative team. Byrne/Claremont on X-men, Adams/O'Neil on Batman etc.

For me it was always the art first then the story. When I was rebuilding my collection I discovered original art for sale. One of the reasons we collect comics is the rarity of the issue. With original art, it is the ONE and ONLY kind of rare.

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