How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way
With Stan Lee and John Buscema
Anchor Bay Entertainment

With the passing of John Buscema last year, this disk takes on an entirely different character.

The "how-to" aspect gets lost and it instead serves as a tribute to Big John, who’s dynamic, naturalistic style made him the worthy successor to Marvel’s original powerhouse penciler Jack Kirby. Buscema took over Marvel’s flagship title, The Fantastic Four, at the conclusion of Kirby’s famed 100-plus issue run on the title. He made the Avengers his own and is probably best known for his pencils and occasional inks on the various Conan series--the books he enjoyed doing most.

The disk is a reissue of a 1980s videotape that was itself inspired by a best-selling book penned by Buscema and Marvel Comics Publisher Stan Lee back in the 1970s. And it provides us with a few priceless glimpses of Buscema at work with pencil, pen and brush. Even if it’s only a snippet here and there and it’s interrupted by Lee’s nerdy "Marvelisms," it’s a wonderful document of one of the medium’s best artists at work.

I gave up all hope of being a comic book artist a couple of decades back. In fact, my inept attempts to draw like Buscema with a pencil in one hand and a copy of the original "How to Draw the Marvel Way" book in the other probably made me realize I’d never make it.

I don’t know if this DVD will inspire future comic book artists or just reside on the shelves of aging Bronze Agers like myself. I hope so. It’d be nice to see some young artists emulating Buscema, who could tell stories with his pencil, instead of the "hot" artists who fill up the pages of today’s comics with their ultra-detailed but ultimately stiff and dull work.

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way