'Deathlok the Demolisher' (Astonishing Tales #25, 10 August 1974).
Rich Buckler was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, mostly active during the so-called "Bronze Age of Comic Books" in the 1970s and 1980s. He worked on nearly every important superhero comic book by Marvel and DC Comics during this period, often as a cover artist. He is probably best-known for his run on Marvel's 'Fantastic Four' in the mid-1970s and as the creator of the cyborg antihero 'Deathlok the Demolisher' (1974) in 'Astonishing Tales'. In 1981, he co-created DC's superhero team 'All-Star Squadron'.
Early life and career
Born in 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, Richard Buckler entered the comic world through the local fan scene of the 1960s. He regularly attended the annual Detroit Triple Fan Fair, and, between 1969 and 1970, ran the convention in collaboration with its originator Robert Brosch. Buckler's first published comic story was the four-pager 'Freedom Fighters: Washington Attacks Trenton' in the King Features comic book 'Flash Gordon' #10 (November 1967). In 1967, he self-published one issue of the fanzine Intrigue, for which he created the characters 'Captain Liberty and Doc Darkness' with Steve Perrin. These comics have been reprinted by Hamster Press in the 1990s. Buckler also contributed stories to Sal Quartuccio's fantasy magazines Phase (1971) and Hot Stuf' (1974). As his main influences, Rich Buckler cited Jack Kirby, John Buscema and Neal Adams, although early in his career, he also took inspiration from Joe Kubert, Wallace Wood, Angelo Torres, Frank Frazetta, Burne Hogarth, Will Eisner, Jim Steranko and Gil Kane.
Between 1970 and 1975, on a more professional basis, Rich Buckler drew stories for James Warren's black-and-white horror comic magazines Creepy and Eerie, and additionally appeared in similar titles published by Skywald Publications, such as Nightmare, Psycho and Scream. During this period, he also became a frequent contributor to both DC and Marvel, and continued to alternate between the two publishing giants in the following decades.
'Fabulous World of Krypton', from Superman #251 (March 1972).
DC Comics
In 1971, Buckler made his first appearances at DC in the mystery titles 'The Unexpected' and 'House of Secrets'. Buckler and writer Mike Friedrich created back-up features with "boy wonder" 'Robin' in the 'Batman' title from February to June 1972, while Buckler also drew installments of 'Fabulous World of Krypton' (1971-1972) in 'Superman'. His other early work was the 'Rose and the Thorn' (1971-1972) back-up feature with writer Robert Kanigher in DC's 'Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane'. During the 1970s, Buckler had no long stints on any of the DC titles, and his production was limited to single stories with 'Batman', 'Hawkman' (in 'Detective Comics'), 'Jonah Hex', 'The New Gods' and 'The Flash', and many covers. Between 1978 and 1979, he made four issues of 'Star Hunters' with writer David Michelinie.
'All-Star Squadron' #4 (December 1981).
For the All-New Collectors' Edition (1978) and World's Finest Comics (1979-1981), Buckler drew crossover stories of Siegel and Shuster's 'Superman' with 'Shazam!', 'Mr. Miracle' and most notably 'Batman'. In the early 1980s, he also created solo stories with the "Man of Steel" for the 'Superman' title. With writer Gerry Conway, he had a semi-regular run on DC's superhero all-star team 'Justice League of America' from March to June 1981, and again from January to March 1983. In August 1981, the title also featured the first appearance of the 'All-Star Squadron', a World War II superhero team co-created by Rich Buckler and writer Roy Thomas. After an initial story in JLA #193, the team received its own title in the following month. Buckler provided the pencil art for the first five issues until January 1982, after which Adrian Gonzales took over. Rich Buckler's later DC credits include issues of 'Warlord' (1985), 'Tales of the Teen Titans' (1985), 'The Omega Men' (1986) and 'Hardware' (1993-1994).
'The Black Panther', from Jungle Comics #8 (January 1974), art by Rich Buckler and Klaus Janson.
Marvel Comics during the 1970s
Buckler's first work for Marvel was a story in the May 1972 issue of the anthology title 'Where Monsters Dwell'. He then made four issues of 'The Avengers' with writer Roy Thomas (issues #101 through 104 in 1972). In the 'Fantastic Four' title, he was the penciller of the solo feature of 'The Black Panther', the first black superhero created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. In 1973-1974, Buckler drew the first original stories by Don McGregor in 'Jungle Action', before beginning his two-year stint as the regular artist of 'The Fantastic Four', working subsequently with the writers Gerry Conway, Len Wein and Roy Thomas from January 1974 (#142) to June 1976 (#171). His work was inked by Joe Sinnott, while George Perez became his assistant during this period. In the meantime, Buckler and Conway had a three-issue run on 'Thor' (#227-230) in 1974.
Buckler additionally contributed to several of Marvel's mystery/horror titles, such as 'Vampire Tales', 'Supernatural Thrillers', 'Journey into Mystery' and 'Fear', and drew single issues of 'Doc Savage' (1974), 'Conan the Barbarian' (1974), 'The Invaders' (1976), 'Power Man' (1976), 'Black Goliath' (1976) and 'Battlestar Galactica' (1979). However, he most notably established himself as a productive cover artist for most of Marvel's 1970s titles. In this capacity, he has drawn nearly every character in the Marvel universe, from 'The Incredible Hulk' and 'The Defenders' to 'Tarzan' and 'Howard the Duck'. With Alan Weiss, John Buscema and Sal Buscema, he was one of the pencilers of Steve Gerber's 1977 superhero comic book based on rock band Kiss.
'The Fantastic Four' #159 (June 1975)
In 1972, Buckler's first contribution to Marvel's anthology title 'Astonishing Tales' were two stories about jungle hero 'Ka-Zar', though most of the pencil art was provided by John Buscema. Buckler remained a regular in the title from August 1974 to July 1976 with his own creation 'Deathlok', a cyborg, reanimated in a post-apocalyptic future, in this case the then-faraway year of 1990. In his previous life, Deathlok was a soldier called Luther Manning, who was seemingly fatally wounded. At the start, Buckler collaborated on the scripts with Doug Moench, although he later wrote most of the stories on his own. This rendition of the character made appearances in the 'Fantastic Four' and 'Captain America' titles until the early 1980s. Deathlok remained in the Marvel Universe, but during the 1990s and 2000s, the character was reused by other creators for three different characters with different back stories. Later in life, Buckler stated that many later cyborg super soldiers were modeled after his creation, specifically naming the movie franchises 'Robocop', 'The Terminator' and 'Universal Soldier'.
'The Man-Thing' and 'The Mighty Thor'.
In 1979, Buckler briefly took over the newspaper comic strip 'The Incredible Hulk' (1978-1982) from Larry Lieber, which was based less on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's comic book series and more on the popular TV series, with which it ran in parallel. The characters in this specific 'Hulk' strip were also modeled after the real-life actors on the show. After a while, Buckler passed the feature to Alan Kupperberg, who continued it until 1982.
'Saga of the Sub-Mariner' #3 (December 1988).
Marvel Comics during the 1980s
Although with longer intervals, Rich Buckler remained active for Marvel Comics during the 1980s, starting with several issues of the 'What If?' title (1980-1981). Throughout the decade, he contributed a 'Hulk' story to 'The Incredible Hulk Annual 1982', drew eight new issues of 'The Fantastic Four' (1989), and contributed to 'Iron Man' (two issues, 1985), 'The Avengers' (three issues, 1989), 'The New Mutants' (two issues, 1989) and 'Captain America' (two issues, 1980, 1989). With debuting writer Peter David, he made the 'The Death of Jean DeWolff' storyline in 'The Spectacular Spider-Man' (October 1985- January 1987). His first issue was #107, in which the character began wearing his black costume. Notable work by Rich Buckler was for the 12-issue maxiseries 'Saga of the Sub-Mariner' (November 1988-October 1989), made with inker Bob McLeod and writers Roy and Dann Thomas. Known as Marvel's oldest mutant, the Sub-Mariner was created in 1939 by Bill Everett. The Saga title provided a retrospective of the past adventures, and tried to resolve loose plot threads and contradictions that had accumulated over the years. Buckler and Roy Thomas made a similar effort for another Marvel character from the "Golden Age of Comic Books" on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of 'The Human Torch'. The four issue mini-series 'The Saga of the Original Human Torch' (1990), recapped the career of the original version of the character, created in 1939 by Carl Burgos.
With writer Howard Mackie, Buckler made the 'Pharaoh's Legacy' story (1989), starring the 'X-Men' character Havok for Marvel Presents. Buckler provided lay-outs, Joe Rubinstein the finished art. With Tony DeZuniga, Buckler penciled the two-issue movie tie-in comic book 'Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street', based on Wes Craven's movie franchise in that same year. Still in 1989, Buckler created pencil art for the 'Spider-Man'/'Captain America' crossover 'Dr. Doom's Revenge', which came with the video game of same title from Paragon Software. Rich Buckler remained active for Marvel until the early 1990s. His final work included issues of 'Black Knight' (1990) and a long story with Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero 'Conan the Barbarian' in 'The Savage Sword of Conan' (1991) with writer Doug Murray and his regular inker Romeo Tanghal.
The first issue of Galaxia Magazine (June 1981) and 'Reagan's Raiders' (1987).
The Demon Hunter
In addition to his work for DC and Marvel Comics, Rich Buckler was also associated with a host of smaller publishing houses. During the first half of the 1970s, he contributed to the horror magazines of Warren Publishing and Skywald Publishing. and in 1975, he joined Atlas/Seabord Comics to create 'The Demon Hunter'. Although intended as a series, only a single issue was published in 1975, as the publisher went out of business. Two years later, Buckler revived the character as 'Devil-Slayer' in Marvel Spotlight #33 (April 1977), after which he became a member of Marvel's 'The Defenders'. In June 1981, Rich Buckler and Tom Sciacca edited the sci-fi/fantasy magazine Galaxia Magazine through Astral Comics. Launched in June 1981, Buckler served as the title's editorial director, and also provided comic stories with the characters 'Sojourner' and 'Bloodwing', the latter being another rendition of his 1975 'Demon Hunter' creation.
Editor/artist
During the 1980s, Buckler expanded his collaborations as his work for Marvel slowly dried out. In 1983 and 1984, he worked for the Red Circle Comics superhero line of Archie Comics, mostly editing, writing and drawing 'The Mighty Crusaders', as well as some stories with 'The Fly'. Buckler's team on Red Circle further included artists and writers like Rudy Nebres, Carmine Infantino, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, Trevor Von Eeden, Robert Kanigher, Jack C. Harris, Robin Snyder and Cary Burkett. In 1987, Buckler was the editor of a short-lived line of comic books by Solson Publications, for whom he created 'Reagan's Raiders'. This obscure and peculiar comic featured U.S. President Ronald Reagan and members of his government administration as a superhero team. Through a technological experiment, all of them received muscular young bodies and instant combat training. Reagan and his team fought "evil" and most of the dialogue referenced his movie career. Too serious and respectful to be interpreted as satire, 'Reagan's Raiders' proved as ridiculous as it was pointless. The comic flopped after three issues and nowadays lives on as a curiosity.
Visage Studios
In the 1990s, Rich Buckler teamed up with his son Rick Buckler and Walter McDaniel to form Visage Studios. Starting as a training ground for up and coming comic book artists in the New York area, Visage eventually became an artists' network, working as a packager on both solo and group projects. With Rich Buckler as art director, the group was reinforced by John Orlando, Naser Subashi, Winston Blakely and Vernel McDade. During this period, Buckler drew two issues of 'Hybrids: The Origin' (1993) for Continuity Comics, the comic book company of Neal Adams. With his team, he inked the celebrity comic 'Mr. T and the T-Force' (Now Comics, 1993), starring famous TV and film actor Mr. T. and produced the sole issues of 'Forever Warriors', 'Hyper Violents' and 'The Invincibles' for CFD Productions, all in 1997.
With scriptwriter Ron Fortier, Rich Buckler made the sci-fi feature 'The Big Bang' for several titles published by Big Entertainment in 1995-1996. His last known comics work was a 'Red Sonja' story for Dynamite Entertainment in 2015.
Non-comics activities
In addition to comics, Buckler was also active in film productions and stage shows. In the 1980s, he started a martial arts actors' repertory group in New York City, for which he wrote and directed several shows. He was later also active as a painter of surreal oil paintings.
'All New Adventures of the Mighty Crusaders' #2 (May 1983).
Controversy
Although Buckler is the author of the books 'How to Become a Comic Book Artist' (1986) and 'How to Draw Super-Heroes' (1987), his career was not without controversy. He was regularly accused of copying other artists' work, most notably that of Jack Kirby and Neal Adams. In the August 1983 issue of The Comics Journal, Buckler was accused of plagiarism and discrimination in his work for Archie Comics. The writer, Bob Greenberger, stated that the artist completely swiped panels and entire pages drawn by Jack Kirby from the original Red Circle Comics line, and even signed them as his own. Buckler reacted in the November issue of that year, expressing his annoyance over Greenberger's aggressive tone, and stated that he tried to pay homage to the comic book greats and his "reasons for emulating Kirby were personal", although he "hasn't made a career out of it." The January 1984 issue mentioned that Buckler was suing the paper and two of its editors for libel, but dropped the suit by September of that year.
Death and legacy
The controversies left no lasting mark on Rich Buckler's career, however. Through his Visage Studios, he has been a major influence in the comic book industry, and he has helped to launch the careers of Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Mark Texiera, Klaus Janson, George Perez, Jackson Guice, Richie Acosta and many others. By 2015, he became an Inkwell Awards Ambassador. Rick Bucker passed away from cancer on 19 May 2017, at the age of 68. The same year, the Joe Kubert School established a scholarship named after him.
Rich Buckler's work for Marvel has been preserved for new generations through its inclusion in the 'Essential' series in the 2000s. In 2010, his 'Black Panther' work was collected in the 'Marvel Masterworks' series, and in 2014 a complete collection of 'Deathlok the Demolisher' was released. Much of Buckler's DC work has appeared in the 'Showcase Presents' reprint series.
Self-portrait.