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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
I bought this four-issue limited series of BALDER The BRAVE back in 1985/'86 (wow - 32/33 years), but it's only in the last 15 minutes that I finally got around to completely removing the price sticker residue that blighted their appearance since I first got 'em. (Well, since I peeled the stickers off after getting the mags home more than three decades ago that is.) Read them at the time, but can't recall a thing about them, except that artist SAL BUSCEMA was emulating the drawing style of WALTER SIMONSON, who wrote the four-ish tale. (Walt drew the covers.)
Anyway, nothing profound (or even remotely interesting) to say, so I'll let you get on with appreciating the four covers on display here. Feel free to share your thoughts and observations with the rest of us, if you have any. You know where the comments section is.
6 comments:
How did you get the glue off? I never managed.....
I used a bit of soft toilet paper to rub the remnants onto another bit of paper placed alongside the affected area. When I tried it 30-odd years ago, the colours would sometimes smear, so I can only assume that time has diluted the adhesive properties, making it a less messy process.
If i remember rightly, these are four self-contained stories and very enjoyable ones too.
Sal Buscema's art really became so much more distinctive and detailed round about this period, partly as you say due to the Simonson influence, but also I think due to him slowing down and working on fewer comics per month.
His storytelling was always great, but Sal's art from, say, 1985-95 is so much nicer to look at than much of the preceding decade.
I always thought that the quality of Sal's art depended on what inker he had, DS. Some of his Spider-Man and Hulk tales looked a bit rough, but if he had a great inker who polished his art, it was sometimes easy to mistake it for his brother John's work.
Sal's early work, as with so many others, was his best. His early 70 runs on the Avengers. Sub-Mariner, Cap and the Defenders were top notch. His inks were also good. By the time he was the artist on Team-Up he dedicated himself to being a utility artist producing lots of breakdowns and layouts. The Balder series was his breaking away from this, but personally I prefer his earlier style.
I agree, S64, his earlier work was better. Just took a look at Avengers #89 on the blog, and his art (inked by Sam Grainger) is top-notch. Later on, as with so many artists, his work became looser and less detailed, probably (as you say) because he mainly did breakdowns and layouts. However, when he was good, he was very good.
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