The exhibition was held inside the Original Comic Art “pavillion” of Lucca Comics, best known as a 14th century church. The two complete issues are a good choice: an early Conan story (issue #29 the fifth drawn by J.B.) and a pretty early J.B. Thor issue (#197). Both have many action scenes and two great title splash pages.
The Conan pages are interesting to see, Buscema still hadn’t developed the Conan face we all know, and the art is full of small details, beautifully rendered by Ernie Chan. I’m more used to the sparse Conan pages he’s drawn later in the run, so this is a perfect issue to read from the Original Art.
Also of interest is that most of Conan’s Mouths were whitened out and redrawn in a classic Romita Sr. style.
Some of the redrawn Conan mouths of this issue (probably drawn by Romita Sr.).
The Thor issue is also a good one, as almost all pages are action/fight scenes. It’s also a better-than-usual Vince Colletta inking job, with several great panels.
View of the church with the Original Comic Art booths (first on the left is Cart Gallery with the other Buscema pages).
The other Buscema pieces of original art in the exhibition were possibly even better, with 3 Conan Covers, a Silver Surfer page, a great Thor splash and more.
That’s all, and if you want to see all of the best comic art pieces being auctioned each week you can subscribe to the Original Comic Art Tips newsletter by going to the home page! (and here’s this week’s newsletter if you want to read it).
Comments
Great stuff! Keep up the good work.
thanks, Mark!