The time I commissioned JOHN BUSCEMA - A Panel Page Art story! 1 1

[glenbru]

The time I commissioned JOHN BUSCEMA...

1999 - Tom Horvitz, who was friendly with Buscema at the time let me know that John was willing to do commissions--he would recreate any cover for $500. Or if you wanted to do an original drawing it would be a bit more.

First things first, I knew exactly what I wanted. I plunked down 1000 bucks and had him do a recreation of Silver Surfer 4 and Avengers King Size 2. They both turned out great as you can see. He finished them in a couple of weeks. All told, I think John must have recreated the cover to Surfer 4 at least 40-50 times. There are a ton of these floating around the marketplace. I always marveled at the fact that John was happy to crunch so many of these out to please the fans--and at such a low price point. I've seen them sell for as much as 10k now -- nineteen years later.

Next I wanted to do something different -- I had him ink the pencils to the unpublished Silver Surfer 5 cover. I forwarded a pencil print out I got somewhere -- the result was very powerful cover at a cost of only 500.

I then had him recreate an FF piece taken from the interior of the FF 126 book -- it cost me an extra 100 to add DOOM to the splash but at a total cost of 600 it was well worth it. I also had him add a KIRBY style Galactus to a third Surfer piece taken from a panel I liked in Silver Surfer 15.

My final commission through Tom Horvitz was something very special. I always loved the cover to FF 55 by Jack Kirby. I had John do his version of this cover in his own style. John felt this was a lot more work than simply recreating a cover and he wanted 700 for it -- I was happy to pay it. John knocked it out the the park as you can see.

The following year, John had a new rep in Owen O'Leary. Owen recognized the demand for John's work and set his prices a little higher -- still very reasonable. I think recreations were about 700 now. I decided I wanted one more special piece -- John's version of the KIRBY FF 72 cover. I wanted John, however, to make a change to the original and replace the Watcher figure with Galactus instead. I think John charged me 900 total and turned in a work that is simply a masterpiece. I had the piece hanging on my wall for 18 years, and only recently decided it was time to trade it to fellow Buscema fan and artist extraordinaire, Joe Jusko. Joe tells me it hangs above his art table and has assured me that it is in good hand. I have no doubt.

I've posted the SS 4 recreation here.  Please visit PANEL PAGE ART on facebook to see the other amazing commissions:

https://www.facebook.com/panelpageart/

 

Thanks!

Glen Brunswick

Edited January 22, 2018 by glenbru

[glenbru]

Quite a few!