Fifty Years Ago!
Avengers 41 begins John Buscema’s truly iconic run as artist for this title, and it was his first work at Marvel. He was the regular Avengers artist through Avengers 62. I am just.so.damned.happy to have picked up five of the 22 pages from this first issue (rubs hands together, mumbling ‘mine all mine’).
Compared with the highly stylized artistic approaches used by Kirby, Heck, Ditko, et al., Buscema brought a photo-realist sensibility to the page, and this was quite the revolutionary move at the time. Alter Ego #9 (p 42) contains John Buscema’s unpublished character sketches for the 5 active male Avengers. Notes indicate that the Avengers were being compared/rendered as several prominent actors of the day. For example: Hercules=Steve Reeves, Quicksilver=Fred Astaire, Captain America=Burt Lancaster, Hawkeye=Anthony Quinn, and Goliath=Roger Culp.
The Black Widow reaches the East with the plane. There she meets Colonel Ying and Dr. Yen. He shows her his new invention, the Psychotron, which can trap enemies and fight them with their greatest fears. They trap Black Widow in it, believing she is still traitorous to them. Meanwhile, Goliath is sent the Dragon Man, a golem, to conduct tests on it. Diablo lures the Avengers away from Dragon Man long enough to reactivate him. The Avengers go into battle with them, and eventually beat them (naturally), but Diablo escapes with the Dragon Man.
Avengers 41 p 6 (June 1967)
John Buscema (1927-2002) and George Bell (Roussos) (1915-2000)
12.5 x 18.5 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection
Avengers 41 p 10 (June 1967)
John Buscema (1927-2002) and George Bell (Roussos) (1915-2000)
12.5 x 18.5 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection
Avengers 41 p 13 (June 1967)
John Buscema (1927-2002) and George Bell (Roussos) (1915-2000)
12.5 x 18.5 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection
Avengers 41 p 14 (June 1967)
John Buscema (1927-2002) and George Bell (Roussos) (1915-2000)
12.5 x 18.5 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection
Avengers 41 p 16 (June 1967)
John Buscema (1927-2002) and George Bell (Roussos) (1915-2000)
12.5 x 18.5 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection