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Rich Buckler, Prolific Marvel and DC Comics Artist, Dies at 68: Buckler died Friday after a long battle with cancer, bleedingcool.com reported on Saturday. Marvel's official Twitter account confirmed the news in a tweet: "Marvel is deeply saddened by the loss of artist Rich Buckler. We offer our condolences to his family, friends, and fans worldwide." I was always conflicted about Buckler's art. On one hand, it was always competent and told a story well. On the other, he was possibly the worst " swipe artist" of the bronze era. You could read one of his stories and spot overt swipes from Kirby, Adams, Buscema, Aparo and others from page to page. In fact, my first exposure to Buckler was a Batman story (Issue 265) where there were so many swipes, and Batman looked so different from panel to panel (even with Berni Wrightson doing the inking), that I assumed "Rich Buckler" was a psuedonym for a group effort, not unlike when "D Hands" would pencil or ink an issue.
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brother from another mother 15000+ posts
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Good! Glad he's dead! Hated that guy!
"My friends have always been the best of me." -Doctor Who
"Well,whenever I'm confused,I just check my underwear. It holds most answers to life's questions." Abe Simpson
I can tell by the position of the sun in the sky, that is time for us to go. Until next time, I am Lothar of the Hill People!
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Man, they're dropping like flies! Re-reading the 100-page "Manhunter" issues of DETECTIVE (issues 438-443) I was struck by how many of my favorites have died in recent years. Dick Giordano, Jim Aparo, Joe Kubert, Carmine infantino, Marshall Rogers, and just recently Berni Wrightson. I always enjoyed Buckler's work, despite the obvious swipes. Particularly on Batman, virtually every artist, including Giordano, was swiping Adams' style anyway, just not quite as obviously (Grell, Brunner, Buckler, Byrne, Nasser...) I love that Batman 265 issue, with Buckler inked by Wrightson, a one-time only collaboration, and surprisingly Wrightson's style does not dominate, it just looks like a very cleanly inked Buckler. My first sample of Buckler's work was a Robin backup series in BATMAN 241 and 242. I recall a Buckler interview (probably in COMIC BOOK ARTIST) where Buckler described editorial criticism of his early 70's work, that it morphed from story to story and didn't have a distinctive "voice" and individual style. And when he started imitating Neal Adams, they ironically said "You've found your voice!" Compare, for example, the 1971-1972 work of Buckler's on the Robin backups in BATMAN, and his simultaneous "Rose and the Thorn" backups in LOIS LANE, that are almost unrecognizable as the same artist. Buckler's first pro work for DC was a HOUSE OF SECRETS 90 issue in 1971, where Neal Adams inked the story to help Buckler make that first sale to DC. Buckler was one of many "hack" artists at Marvel in the early/mid 1970's, that just churned out stuff in the house style. I think Buckler's main series was FANTASTIC FOUR (roughly 140 to 180, Buckler, Perez and J Buscema alternating the art chores). Buckler's most distinctive and individual work was his DEATHLOK series with writer Doug Moench in ASTONISHING TALES 25-36, circa 1973-1976. (Concluded much later in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 33, in 1977) Another was an early McGregor Killraven story in AMAZING ADVENTURES 25, in 1974. Buckler also did a few issues of McGregor's Black Panther series in JUNGLE ACTION 6-24 in the same period. After that Buckler went over to DC and for a while was their primary cover artist from 1977-1982. The series I recall most of his from that period was his run in WORLD'S FINEST(nice art but very unmemorable stories by Haney, O'Neil and others), and a few scattered but really nice issues of TIME WARP, JONAH HEX, DC SPECIAL (Captain Comet, with dinosaurs), JLA, and BATMAN. In that same period, Buckler was doing a lot of work for Continuity Associates (which is to say Neal Adams) so not surprisingly his work increasingly came to resemble that of Adams. That was a job requirement at Continuity. As seen at Continuity comics through the 80's and 90's, even artists as distinctive as Rudy Nebres would draw like Neal Adams. While I wouldn't point to Buckler as one of my absolute favorites such as Adams or Wrightson or Kirby, Buckler did do some nice and solid work, that I enjoy and occasionally re-read. I think only Keith Giffen rivals him in the shameless art swiping category, though.
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 An early cover by Buckler, from 1976. Both Buckler and Perez did nice work on this series.
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From Buckler's first year of Marvel and DC work, Buckler did Man-Thing stories in FEAR 11 and 12. Issue 11 is Buckler pencils, inked by Jim Mooney. (With a really nice Neal Adams cover! Adams covers at Marvel were few and far between.)  Issue 12 is Starlin pencils, inked by Buckler! (with a Starlin /Trimpe cover) 
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Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
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If the cop is going to kill Man-Thing and the escaped convict anyway, why not just shoot them (and the snake) right then and there?
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I guess he wants to enjoy the fight before he shoots.
And good luck trying to kill Man-Thing with a gun anyway!
I was more focused on the rare early Starlin/Trimpe art combination.
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 Here's the DC SPECIAL 27 issue with Captain Comet that I mentioned, from 1977, with 34 interior pages of Buckler art. It was during the period when Buckler was working for continuity, and was reaching the peak of his clonal Neal Adams stage. Although Buckler was far from the only guy working in a Neal Adams style. I recall John Byrne saying when he worked for Charleton, and he did a DOOMSDAY PLUS ONE poster (looking very much like a Neal Adams page) , and Neal Adams visited the Charleton editorial offices and saw the Byrne page, and said to the editor "This is very nice... what can HE do?"
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One of the nicest art jobs Buckler turned in was this story from TIME WARP 1. While the short twist-ending stories in TIME WARP 1-5 were pretty standard fare, and harken back to the late 1950's /early 1960's Marvel and DC S-F short stories, they were still enjoyable, and presented a nice spectrum of artists. And the sophisticated pulp-era styled Kaluta covers were to die for. I see the later MYSTERY IN SPACE 111-117 revival as a continuation of TIME WARP after its cancellation. Apparently the dollar-size book wasn't selling, so they tried it again with a 50-cent version. Alas, to a similar lack of sales.
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One of Buckler's covers from DC for SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE 32, Jan 1981, inked by Bob Smith.  Buckler covers on SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE issues 32-40. Bob Smith is actually one of my favorite inkers on Buckler. Some stories Smith inked over Buckler are JLA 190 (Buckler pencils in 188-191, from 1980-1981) and the above linked full 8-page story from TIME WARP 1, that I found on posting it, was miscredited to Dick Giordano, but was actually Bob Smith! 37 years later, the proper credits revealed.
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I was feeling kind of Rich Bucklery today, and pulled up a chronological list of all his work at comics.org. The first covers he did were on AVENGERS, most covers from 101-113. And for ASTONISHING TALES (Kazar, Man Thing), FEAR (Man Thing) and others, from roughly late 1972-1973. I was struck how generically Marvel they were, aping John Buscema and the other Marvel hacks of the time. It was not until around 1974-1975 that his work really took on a distinctly Buckler linestyle. The titles I recall reading where his work had a clear distinctive look were AMAZING ADVENTURES/Killraven, JUNGLE ACTION/Black Panther, and a DOC SAVAGE pulp adaptation series. Here's a cover Buckler did for AMAZING ADVENTURES 24, May 1974:  ...which is still, while nicely finished by Janson, in the generic Kirby/Buscema/Kane Marvel house style. Here is a DOC SAVAGE 7, Oct 1973 cover, that to me looks much more distinctly Buckler: 
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Man, they're dropping like flies!
Re-reading the 100-page "Manhunter" issues of DETECTIVE (issues 438-443) I was struck by how many of my favorites have died in recent years. Dick Giordano, Jim Aparo, Joe Kubert, Carmine infantino, Marshall Rogers, and just recently Berni Wrightson.
I always enjoyed Buckler's work, despite the obvious swipes. Particularly on Batman, virtually every artist, including Giordano, was swiping Adams' style anyway, just not quite as obviously (Grell, Brunner, Buckler, Byrne, Nasser...)
I love that Batman 265 issue, with Buckler inked by Wrightson, a one-time only collaboration, and surprisingly Wrightson's style does not dominate, it just looks like a very cleanly inked Buckler. I was recenly going through some of Buckler's work, and thought I would update this topic with some new working links, for easy access to Buckler's stories. Here are his two BATMAN stories, that I thought were quite good issue 265, by Fleisher and Buckler/Wrightson.... https://readallcomics.com/batman-v1-265/ July 1975 issue 297, by Reed and Buckler/Colletta............. https://readallcomics.com/batman-v1-297/ March 1978 ![[Linked Image from blogger.googleusercontent.com]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6F9IB6BDF6yLFj83gVCYpijvhgeoYsga2GQ35XNvu1iQoAdGllTDonVX1l4flqtHFvpmRxnDx6o1O6y38PfJvLA038-fuMzhijEr5AA2V4Mh5qlPWhcC4PYMQsPlz2SXyDBYUEH7MNw/s1600/Batman265.jpg) BATMAN 265 cover, Buckler/Giordano artMy first sample of Buckler's work was a Robin backup series in BATMAN 241 and 242.
I recall a Buckler interview (probably in COMIC BOOK ARTIST) where Buckler described editorial criticism of his early 70's work, that it morphed from story to story and didn't have a distinctive "voice" and individual style. And when he started imitating Neal Adams, they ironically said "You've found your voice!"
Compare, for example, the 1971-1972 work of Buckler's on the Robin backups in BATMAN, and his simultaneous "Rose and the Thorn" backups in LOIS LANE, that are almost unrecognizable as the same artist. Here are the Robin Backups. I'd forgotten the ones in 239 (which continues the O'Neil/Adams storyline from BATMAN 237 for one more story), and 240. And the other stories from 241 and 242 https://readallcomics.com/batman-v1-239/ (with supporting cast of Gerry Conway, Al Weiss, and Berni Wrightson !) Feb 1972 https://readallcomics.com/batman-v1-240/ March 1972 https://readallcomics.com/batman-v1-241/ May 1972 https://readallcomics.com/batman-v1-242/ June 1972 And concurrently, in the same months, Buckler's "Rose and the Thorn" backups in LOIS LANE 117-121 https://readallcomics.com/supermans-girl-friend-lois-lane-117/ Dec 1971 https://readallcomics.com/supermans-girl-friend-lois-lane-118/ Jan 1972 https://readallcomics.com/supermans-girl-friend-lois-lane-119/ Feb 1972 https://readallcomics.com/supermans-girl-friend-lois-lane-120/ Mar 1972 https://readallcomics.com/supermans-girl-friend-lois-lane-121/ April 1972 ( the same "Rose and Thorn" backup series ran in 105-130, with other episodes by Andu/Esposito, Morrow, Giordano, Roth, Buckler, Rosenberger, and Heck ) Buckler's first pro work for DC was a HOUSE OF SECRETS 90 issue in 1971, where Neal Adams inked the story to help Buckler make that first sale to DC. "The Symbionts", Wolfman story, Buckler/Adams art, 6 pages.... https://readallcomics.com/house-of-secrets-1956-090/ March-April 1971 Buckler was one of many "hack" artists at Marvel in the early/mid 1970's, that just churned out stuff in the house style. I think Buckler's main series was FANTASTIC FOUR (roughly 140 to 180, Buckler, Perez and J Buscema alternating the art chores). 140 (Buckler cover only), 142-144, 147-153, 155-159, 161-163, 166 (cover only), 168-169, 171 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-140/ Nov 1973 (Buckler cover only) https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-142/ Jan 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-143/ Feb 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-144/ March 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-147/ June 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-148/ July 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-149/ Aug 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-150/ Sept 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-151/ Oct 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-152/ Nov 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-153/ Dec 1974 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-155/ Feb 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-156/ Mar 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-157/ Apr 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-158/ May 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-159/ June 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-161/ Aug 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-162/ Sept 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-163/ Oct 1975 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-166/ (Buckler cover only) Jan 1976 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-168/ Mar 1976 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-169/ Apr 1976 https://readallcomics.com/fantastic-four-v1-171/ June 1976 Buckler's most distinctive and individual work was his DEATHLOK series with writer Doug Moench in ASTONISHING TALES 25-36, circa 1973-1976. (Concluded much later in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 33, in 1977) ( See also the one-shot DEMON-HUNTER 1, from 1975, published by the short-lived Seaboard-Atlas company. Buckler and Kraft brought that Demon-Hunter character back under another name at the end of the Deathlok series for Marvel, in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 33, but still clearly the same character by another name. https://readallcomics.com/demon-hunter-1975/ ) ( Also a new Deathlok story after , not Buckler, in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE 27 https://readallcomics.com/marvel-two-in-one-027/ ) May 1977 by Wolfman and Wilson / Marcos Aug 1974 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-026-1974/ Oct 1974 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-027-1974/ Dec 1974 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-028-1975/ Feb 1975 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-030-1975/ June 1975 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-031-1975/ Aug 1975 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-032-1975/ Nov1975 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-033-1976/ Jan 1976 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-034-1976/ March 1976 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-035-1976/ May 1976 https://readallcomics.com/astonishing-tales-v1-036-1976/ July 1976 and https://readallcomics.com/marvel-spotlight-v1-33/ April 1977 https://readallcomics.com/demon-hunter-1975/ June 1975 https://readallcomics.com/marvel-two-in-one-027/ May 1977 https://readallcomics.com/amazing-adventures-1970-024/ (Buckler/Janson cover only) May 1974 https://readallcomics.com/amazing-adventures-1970-025/ (full issue, McGregor story, Buckler/Janson art) July 1974 Buckler also did a few issues of McGregor's Black Panther series in JUNGLE ACTION 6-24 in the same period. July 1973 r AVENGERS 62, Thomas J.Buscema/Klein ( Romits Sr cover ) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-006/ Sept 1973 McGregor Buckler/Janson ( + Buckler/Giacoia cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-007/ Nov 1973 McGregor Buckler/Janson ( + Buckler/ Janson cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-008/ Jan 1974 McGregor Buckler/Janson ( + Buckler/Giacoia cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-009/ May 1974 McGregor Kane/Janson, + McGregor Buckler/Janson 4p ( + Kane cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-010/ July 1974 McGregor Graham/Janson ( + Kane/Giacoia cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-011/ Sept 1974 McGregor Graham/Janson (+ Kane/Adkins cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-012/ Nov 1974 McGregor Graham/Janson ( + Buckler/Janson cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-013/ Jan 1975 McGregor Graham/Russell ( + Kane/Janson cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-014/ March 1975 McGregor Graham/Marcos ( + Kane/Marcos cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-015/ May 1975 McGregor Graham/Green ( + Kane cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-016/ July 1975 McGregor Graham p & i ( + Kane cover ) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-017/ Sept 1975 McGregor Graham p & 1 ( + Kane/Giacoia cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-018/ Nov 1975 McGregor Graham/McLeod (+ Kirby/Janson cover) ) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-019/ Jan 1976 McGregor Graham/McLeod ( + Kane/Adkins cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-020/ Mar 1976 McGregor Graham/McLeod ( + Buckler/Adkins cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-021/ May 1976 McGregor Graham /McLeod ( + Buckler/Romita cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-022/ July 1976 McGregor Graham/McLeod, Mooney (+ Buckler/Giacoia cover) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-023/ Sept 11976 r DAREDEVIL 69, Thomas Colan/Shores ( + Byrne/Adkins cover ) https://readallcomics.com/jungle-action-1972-024/ Nov 1976 McGregor Buckler/Pollard ( + Buckler/Giacoia cover) After that Buckler went over to DC and for a while was their primary cover artist from 1977-1982. The series I recall most of his from that period was his run in WORLD'S FINEST (nice art but very unmemorable stories by Haney, O'Neil and others),.
And a few scattered but really nice issues of TIME WARP, JONAH HEX, DC SPECIAL (Captain Comet, with dinosaurs), JLA, and BATMAN.
In that same period, Buckler was doing a lot of work for Continuity Associates (which is to say Neal Adams) so not surprisingly his work increasingly came to resemble that of Adams. That was a job requirement at Continuity. As seen at Continuity comics through the 80's and 90's, even artists as distinctive as Rudy Nebres would draw like Neal Adams.
. I'll link Buckler's DC stuff in a later post.
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. While MikesAmazingWorld is often incomplete, it still gives a very nice at-a-glance overview of a writer or artist's work. Here's the one for Rich Buckler : https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/F231EB71A50CE9/features/creator.php?creatorid=97I prefer a lot of Buckler's early work, because that work shows his individual style, before he morphed into an imitator of first Jack Kirby (on FF and other Marvel work, circa 1973-1976) and then especially a longtime Continuity Associates-employed clone of Neal Adams (circa 1977 onward) for the rest of his comics career. Some beautiful work in those latter years too, but clearly influenced by Adams. So I prefer the 1972-1977 period where he showed what he alone is capable of, on Deathlok, Black Panther, Killraven, Batman, and in the below offerings, on Hawkman back-up stories in DETECTIVE COMICS 434 and 446 : DETECTIVE COMICS434 Hawkman: "Riddle of the Runaway Robber" ..... https://readallcomics.com/detective-comics-v1-0434/Bridwell story, Buckler/Giordano art, 8 pages, April 1973 446 Hawkman: "Mystery of the Flyaway Car" ............ https://readallcomics.com/detective-comics-v1-0446/Bridwell story, Buckler/Janson art, 6 pages, April 1975
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