Two of my favorite comic book adjectives “Incredible” and “Spectacular” also apply to legendary artist Sal Buscema. He passed away on Friday January 23rd just a few days short of his 90th birthday on Monday January 26th. Buscema had a record 10 year run on the Incredible Hulk from issue number 194 to 309. He then returned to the book he launched and penciled Spectacular Spider-Man for 100 issues, those include issues #134-218. Sal was a workhorse and the Marvel Universe is a better place for it. He also was very generous with his time to this life-long fan.
You have to be careful when you meet your heroes. They can just as easily disappoint you as impress you. When I had a chance to interview Sal Buscema for the podcast he not only impressed me, but made me love the man even more. Back in 2009 I wanted to produce a podcast that honored his 40th anniversary working at Marvel Comics. I had previously interviewed writer Tom DeFalco and penciler Ron Frenz and they agreed to join the party. I then reached out to Stan Lee and was surprised that even Stan was game to celebrate “Our Pal Sal.” This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Crawlspace podcast and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to top those three episodes. The conversation or more like “party” went on for three full hours. You can listen to those three episodes below.
The next time I had a chance to talk to Sal was back in 2020. During Covid we started doing move live streams and one of the fun ones celebrated Spider-Girl. We had several Spider-Girl cosplayers on the broadcast including the biggest Spider-Girl fan I know, Crawlspacer Kelly. We had writer Tom DeFalco on the cam, Ron Frenz also appeared dressed as Thor himself and we had Sal. Unfortunatly we had some tech problems getting Sal’s webcam to work on his ipad so I got Sal on the phone and just held it up to my mic so we could hear him. Going live isn’t always perfect, but Sal was a good sport and as always was humble by the love he was shown during the show. Here’s the video and audio of the show below.
The last time I talked to Sal was back in 2022 when I produced the 50th annivesary celebration of Tom DeFalco working in comics. I asked Sal if he would like to record a message to Tom and he was more than happy to celebrate him. Again, Sal was humble and always ready to celebrate others. I’ve cued up the video to where Sal appears. I’ve also attached the audio version.
Sal’s Incredible Hulk is the default version I see in my head. It’s well known my love of Spider-Man, but the Hulk is my second favorite hero. I was introduced to the character through the Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno tv series. The very first Marvel comic I ever picked up was Marvel Team Up Annual #2 back in 1979. I was four years old, loved watching Spider-Man on the Electric Company and Hulk on CBS. When I saw that comic on a spinner rack I had to have it. Inside Sal grabbed me with his visuals and I’ve never put the comics down some 46 years later. Every comic is someone’s first, mine just happened to be one of Sal’s. Thank you Sal for your contributions to the comic medium. Thank you for being a nice guy letting a fan take some of your time away from your amazing family. I will forever be grateful to you. Rest in peace, and keep on smashing and thwipping.
Here is Sal’s wikipedia page. Scroll down to the list of comics he’s done in his career, it is staggering!
Here’s a gallery of some of my favorite Sal Buscema covers and interiors, including a certain cereal box.
English (US) · 