By Heidi Sutton

The Harvey Awards, one of the comic industry’s oldest and most prestigious awards, inducted five comic book artists, including the late John Buscema, into its Hall of Fame at the 36th annual awards ceremony at New York Comic Con on Oct. 18. The other inductees included Arthur Adams, Larry Hama, Sergio Aragonés, and the late Akira Toriyama. 

Born in Brooklyn, John Buscema was inspired by Sunday comic strips like Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon. He graduated from Pratt Institute and began his career in 1948 at Timely Comics in New York City, which later became Marvel Comics. 

In 1958, he moved his young family to Port Jefferson and worked with some of the most famous illustrators of the time including Bob Peak at Chaite Advertising for 8 years before returning to Marvel Comics after receiving a job offer from Stan Lee. 

What followed was an illustrious career working on the artwork of The Avengers, The Mighty Thor, The Thing, X Factor, Captain Marvel, The Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, The Incredible Hulk, Wolverine, The Punisher, Tarzan,  Conan the Barbarian and many others. He also created many superheroes including Ultron, Vision, She Hulk and Ms Marvel and  illustrated the world-famous 1978 book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, written by Stan Lee. 

Buscema received numerous awards in his lifetime including the Shazam Award for Best Penciler in 1974, the Alley Award and the Inkpot Award. He retired in 1996, and died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 74. His obituary stated that he was buried with a pen in his hand.

“We posthumously induct the esteemed John Buscema, a prolific artist whose work helped shape the look of Marvel Comics throughout the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s,” said John Lind, co-chair of the Harvey Awards, via a press release provided to Comic Book Club. 

Reached by phone, John Buscema’s daughter, Dianne Buscema Gerogianis, said her father “would have been honored to have accepted the Harvey Award.”

“Dad was known as the Michaelangelo of comicbook art. He enjoyed drawing all of his covers, although he is most famous for his work on The Avengers (issue #57) and The Silver Surfer (Thor #4). His favorite character to draw was Conan, as he was realistic and he really enjoyed that,” she said. Those drawings later became the model for the Arnold Schwarzenegger films.

Indeed, Stan Lee once said of Buscema, “If Michelangelo had elected to draw storyboards with pencil and pen, his style would have been close to that of Big John’s. I had only to give him the briefest kernel of a plot, and he would flesh it out with his magnificent illustrations.”

Buscema drew superheroes from his home studio in Port Jefferson. “My parents decided to take a drive out on Long Island one weekend in 1958. They drove out on 25A and came upon Setauket and Port Jefferson. My parents fell in love with the area and decided to buy a house here. Dad said the area reminded him of a Norman Rockwell painting!” said Dianne who still lives in the area.

“In the beginning Dad had a courier delivering  his pages. Afterwards, he would deliver his own work to Marvel every month or so. It was a great way for him to get together and collaborate with other artists there,” she explained.

Buscema also had a School of Comicbook Art in the 1970’s. “He would drive into NYC two times a week after a full day’s work to teach. Although he loved it, it became too much back and forth, and he gave it up after a few years. A few of his students currently work for Marvel and DC,” said Dianne, adding that “Dad was also an avid and the John Buscema Sketchbook was published with his artwork.”

Dianne and her younger brother John Jr. have many wonderful memories of their father. “Growing up he would always paint a holiday poster for my classes during elementary school, be a guest speaker for my art classes … and spent countless hours helping to design and paint for my Senior Prom,” said Dianne.

In his later years, Buscema and his wife Dolores traveled quite frequently throughout Europe. 

“Dad was invited to many Comic Cons. His favorite country to visit was Italy,” said Dianne. 

But ultimately his family was the most important to him, said his daughter.

“My children were blessed to have their grandparents living 4 houses away from our house — more time spent there than our home! In Dad’s studio, next to his drawing board, he set up a small table for my two children to draw and create! Both my son and daughter are creative. How lucky we were to have Dad with us day and night, every single day.

Photos courtesy of Dianne Buscema Gerogianis