Comic News Recap: Sal Buscema Tribute, Supergirl goes global, and Absolute reprints - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 487

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intro music plays

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Yo, Short Box Nation. Hello again. Welcome back and thank you for pressing play today. If you're brand new, welcome to the show.  I'm your host, Badr Milligan,  and this is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about your favorite comics with the people who put their blood, sweat, and tears  in them making them. Or in this case, because I don't have  a celebrity guest or creator on the show, this is a conversation with your favorite fanboys talking about.

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your favorite comics. And notice I said fanboys, right, emphasis on the plural part, because I'm not doing this episode solo. I don't know if you guys would even want to hear that. I'm doing this episode with someone riding shotgun with me. He's a longtime friend, a longtime co-host of the show. You haven't heard from him in a minute. There's reasons for that. But he's also an overall badass artist. I'm talking about, oh my god, I'm just so excited to even just say his name. I'm talking about the return of Edmund Dansart. Ed is here with me  in the studio.

01:22
Recording this episode. What up, Ed?  Hey, I'm here for my annual appearance. uh Oh, my bingo card was which one of us was going to make the Ed's annual. I'll surprise us early January. Let's get it out of the way. Twenty twenty six. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I got a budget I need to  spend for the year is over. But uh Ed's back, man. How awesome is that? Now get this. He reads comic books.  Oh, my God. More drops.

01:50
That movie alone, Catch Me If You Can, is chock full of great sound drops about comic books.  But look,  Short Box Nation, we got Ed back on, right? If you're a long time listener, this is a very welcome surprise. mean, it's been a,  literally been a year since you heard from him. I think the last episode, Ed, you were on was last year when we did episode 450 and we got the entire band back together for one special happened to those guys?  Kids.

02:16
That's what happened to Children, adults. Haven't heard from them since. Yeah, responsibility, life, all that. But you know what? Ed is here. We've got, and we're taking it back old school, right? We used to do these episodes all the time. We've got a bunch of  comic news and headlines that we're catching up with. I'm gonna have links to everything we're talking about in the show notes. So you want to get some more context, more information, or look at the sources we're referencing, it'll be in the show notes.  We're gonna talk about a couple of news, comic news and headlines.

02:45
from the last month. And obviously, and I would be remiss if I didn't, I should have said, or should have led of this, is that we also want to pay tribute to a comic legend who recently passed. I'm talking about Sal Buscema, uh famed  Marvel artist.  Me and Ed are gonna go really into it here in a sec, but we also wanted to pay tribute to Sal Buscema who passed away on Monday, January 26th, which in a weird way, Ed, I...

03:13
I have been thinking more and more about bringing back our artist spotlight series, because I just, you know, some of our best episodes, some of our most  popular episodes among the listeners and just episodes I loved doing myself.  Um, so this is like a weird primer to get like back into that. Unfortunately, you know, it took the, the passing of a, of a legend to, know, uh, get that idea off the ground. But you know, Sal Bacema is someone for me that has played an integral role in my comic book journey.  Um, so I'm excited to talk about him.

03:42
But first, before we do that, I want to go ahead and give a shout out to our amazing sponsors, all right? The folks that help us keep the lights on here at Short Box HQ, including IDW Publishing. Your boy's in the big leagues now, right? IDW is a proud sponsor of this year's show.  IDW is the award-winning publisher of comics, graphic novels, and books like TMNT, Star Trek, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Godzilla. And I also want to give a big shout out to Collective Con, Northeast Florida's premier anime comic book and pop culture event.

04:10
It's taking place again here in Jacksonville, on March 27th through the 29th. It'll be their 11th year show and you can get tickets at collectivecon.com. Ed, you got any conventions planned? What's the last convention you've been to? How about that? Oh my God. Start off with that. It's been a minute. don't know. You're saying that we have recorded more episodes together than you have been at a convention. Over the last couple of years, probably. I've been to like a couple of those little Ramada Inn toy show things. I love those.

04:40
Yeah, those are cool. stakes right here in the neighborhood. But as far as, yeah, it's like after from years of doing them, I've just kind of gotten away from going out and kind of enjoying my time off on the weekends. And I'm going start calling you Master Roshi because you've become the hermit master. I know. I'm getting, I'm totally hermit in my, in my advanced age. just, it's just like, I, it's, you know, I'm glad they're around. I'm not.

05:08
you know, anti-convention, but it's just my social battery is so low nowadays.  So I'll go to like a few small things, but yeah, I don't know if I'm going to be going to like a mega con anytime soon unless there's someone I really want to see,  but, uh or like an artist I really want to  see.  Um, yeah, man, I don't know if I just dealing with all of that,  just all of the stuff. It's not the convention. It's everything  that

05:31
leads into going to the hotel, traffic, money. Oh my God, Money. I'll just say, yeah, the money. The money for sure. Obviously, I'm going be at Collective Con, but there is a new one that I'm going to for the first time later this month. It's called Original Art Expo. Have you heard of this one at all?

05:52
It's down there in Orlando, it's taking place. It's February 22nd. heard of this. That I would probably be interested in. Yeah, so this is their third year show. They're hosting the Jack Kirby Awards, I think is what the awards are called. And my mutual friend of ours, Eli Schwab from Cosmic Lion, is one of the panelists or judges. So I'm going meet up with him down there. My understanding is that this is more so a convention about comic book art and original art. See, that's more up my alley now, for sure.

06:22
And mean, have the exhibitors too. I'm trying to look for them. So it's the Kirby's Award are taking place. OK, the artist list is insane. know, this being an art centric expo and event. mean, you got Simon Bianchi, Eric Canetti, Mark Giarello, Amanda Conner will be there, Sean Crystal. Who else is going to be there? Vanessa Del Rey. know.

06:48
I might be able to convince Walt to go, that's his girl right there, but that's no worry. Alan Davis is going to be there. Terry Dots. I the list goes on. It's crazy. And I haven't even started really scrolling. But yeah, original art expo. I'll be there for sure. That's cool. All right, Ed, I guess speaking about artists, let's get into our big main topic, which is our tribute to Sal Bissema, which we spoke a little bit before we hit record. We feel like we have heard.

07:11
Sal, Buscema, Bushima, all different types of pronunciations, but I believe the correct one is Buscema. So we'll try to stick to that one for this. I wanna give a little quick overview for anyone that's listening that might not be that familiar, even though I feel like Sal Buscema, the Buscema name at least, I think is one of those names in comics that has so much weight to it. To me, it's almost like the Q-Berts, right? When you hear Q-Bert, I think the next question you probably...

07:38
possibly ask us which one, you know, is it Joe, is it Andy, is it Adam? I think Buscema is along those same lines of like  royal  names,  royal family names in comics.  It's funny that you say that because uh like years ago at HeroesCon, I met Stephanie Buscema. Buscema, Stephanie. Is that her daughter?  I asked, and her style is completely different. She's a fantastic illustrator.  the first thing I asked her was, are you related to Sal?

08:08
That's the first thing I asked her. And then she goes, he's my great uncle. So she is John's granddaughter. Okay. So, she is, if you haven't seen her work, she does some comic book stuff, but she's, her stuff is like very, she uses like animation cell paint.  is, yeah, she's on Instagram as Steph Buscema.  She did a really cool series of covers. She's done a few comics, but she did a really cool series of Red Sonja covers in that kind of cartoony style.

08:36
Yeah, I'm noticing like a Halloween horror vibe to her stuff. So when she said that, it's like, oh, he's my great uncle. And I said the same thing. It's like, you're like comic book royalty. That's That's dope. That's dope. OK, so Sal was saying, I'm going to just try to give some quick highlights. Ed, if I miss anything, feel free to chime in. And big shout outs to my references here. mean, when he passed, he had hella write ups from the comic journal.

09:01
Forbes wrote a really good write-up as well as Comics Beat Marvel.com obviously had an article. So all my stuff is kind of like an amalgam of all those. But um I really like how Forbes described,  they had a line that said, Sal Bacema is one of the last surviving comic creators who career dates to the Silver Age.  Just that line alone was like, damn, we're losing recipes. When people say that, we're losing recipes.  Yeah, these guys that live through the Silver Age.

09:30
you know, like the  1960s, know, the, you know, Marvel being what it is and, know, the height of like superhero comics and things like that. Like, yeah, these guys are, are up there, you know, like Sal Busema would have been 90. He passed away on, Friday,  on a Friday. And then Monday, January 26, that following Monday, January 26, he would have been 90. The  dude was 90 years old. And I think he was still like, had just,  was, I mean, like his last,

09:59
body of work was not too far behind, you know? But yeah, Sal Busema, one of the last surviving comic creators who career dates to the Silver Age. He passed away on a Friday at age 89, only a few days before his birthday, he would have been 90. He's best known for his work on the spectacular Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, which he did a 10 year stint as the artist on the Incredible And eight years on Spider-Man too. and I think at least 100 issues on Spectacular Spider-Man. He also...

10:27
drew for Captain America,  the Defenders. He was the interior artist on ROM, the Space Knight.  It's safe to say he has drawn every single  Marvel character that you can think of, if not twice, at least maybe, if not thrice, at least twice over.  I mean, an insane amount of characters he's worked for.  He broke in uh Marvel in 1968, inking uh Silver Surfer, so  his brother, John's. ah He was the inker on his

10:57
Brother John's pencils for Silver Surfer.  He inked Avengers, I think was also one of some of his early stuff too in 1968.  He's known as Comics' Fast and Furious Artist. mean, the name says it all. He was fast and very good.  I've heard uh editors describe him as just like super reliable, know, like something that is highly revered in comics, especially like, you know, big to work, being fast, good, and reliable. So he got a lot of work because he was so fucking reliable.

11:25
Yeah, it was funny. I listened to an older interview with him and he was saying like, yeah, when I started out, I wasn't that fast.  And then the interviewer was like, what do mean? Like just a page a day or something like that. It's like, yeah, I was only doing like maybe two pages a day, which is  insane by like today's  standards. And he's kind of the glue guy. And especially during the seventies, like you mentioned Rom was like, nobody wanted to draw Rom was  the one who wanted to draw this dumb toy comic.  And he's like, I'll do it. And he did like.

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50 issues of it.  His clarity, his storytelling, panel to panel. It's like, appreciate this stuff more. I  like more  the oddball artists and more stylized people, but the older I get, the more I appreciate how consistent and clear and you never are confused when you go through the pages. Ed, I was thinking about this earlier, because my first conscious exposure to Sal Bacema is because of my dad.

12:23
My dad might still have all those spectacular Spider-Man comics uh in his collection.  We're talking over a hundred issues of the spectacular Spider-Man. And then we mentioned what, 10 years  as the uh main artist for Incredible Hulk in the what, 70s, I believe 70s, 80s. Yeah. I mean, and that's a big deal too, because  a lot of people who watch the show, the Lou Ferrigno show,  he was the guy drawing Hulk during that time. So a lot of people that would just see the Hulk on the show, find out it's a comic book.

12:53
He's the guy drawing it. Yeah. He was one of my dad's favorite artists.  I think second to John, think me and my dad both really bonded over John Buscema. think John Buscema is, I think they are night and day, but I love what Sal brings to  comics with like very- John's big bro. mean, he's a big brother. Eight years apart too. And I've also, I was reading an interview today with Sal and the way he talks about his big brother, man, is so endearing. You know, like he's, he's like, he's, he's okay being little brother.

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You know, like he looks up to John, I mean, John literally got him into comics, right? Like, hey, little bro, come over here with me to comics, ink my stuff, you hey, come with me to the advertising agency. And then John leaves the advertising agency, go back to comics, and he's like, yo, Sal, come back. You know what I'm saying? It's like, I don't know. Being a big brother myself, I found that really endearing. In the interview, by the way, speaking about  just like longevity,  the interviewer asks,  Sal, he's like, hey, do you remember like what page rates were going for, you know, like  60s?

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And he's like, yeah, I always use, he said, I use John as my benchmark because if he was making this much and I was making this much, know, I like, I could gauge whether it was a good deal. If I'm looking at the top dog, where am I at? And he was saying, I think, I think this was like a quote for the sixties. He was like, it's like $35 a page up to 45.

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maybe even 50 of you are also inking. 50 bucks a He made some money. Yeah, he was that's pretty good. Yeah, he was like, hey, look, if you are consistent. Some people will do that now. Way less. Yeah, so I found that interesting, like how much he lived through, you know, like he was born in, I got this somewhere, born in 1936. So he not only saw like,

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pre-code comics.  saw like, you know, the seduction of the innocent, know, comics being burned and banned. He uh got to see World War II.  Then he got to see the rise of, you know, like how many decades he was involved in, how much like, how much history he got to see,  how much history he saw like in comics change, I think is remarkable, man. I mean, to 90 years old and to devote so much of your life.

15:07
to comic books, especially in just one company. mean, I think in total, he worked for Marvel for like 30 years, 30 plus years. One new thing that I learned along the way was I am unfamiliar of his DC work. I guess in the  90s, he took a break from Marvel and did like a brief stint with DC, just working on- Like two or three years, not too compared to Marvel.  But yeah, I wasn't either. That was one of the things I've always thought he was  career Marvel. And I was actually-

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shocked that he wasn't like office, like he wasn't an editor slash, you know, he wasn't in  the office. It's like you were technically freelance for this long, which is wild. I thought he would be up there, you know, not only drawing, but kind of assigning people, you know, kind of doing both,  just drawn a lot.  In that same interview,  he talks so highly, he  talks so highly about his love of inking. He's like, I just love inking. I am happy being an inker.

16:04
He's got like, he doesn't try to romanticize the role. mean, he, in that interview, he's like, it's easy compared to like what the pencil's gotta do.  You know, he's like, you know, the pencil's gotta come up with like the story, the design, the look, the feel. He's like, as an anchor, I'm getting that stuff and I'm just adding inks to it, baby. I love it. But he does say like, I also equally love penciling, but inking is like my bread and butter. And I, I just, I don't know, just to see someone so adamant and passionate about the inking role, a role that I think, you know,

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is sometimes like the butt of jokes, you know, for someone to take that job so seriously. And it's like, he doesn't have that ego, you know, there's no ego.  Yeah, yeah, he's happy doing whatever. He was inking, like the interview I listened to him was,  I want to say 2004, which is a while ago  to now. And he was still, you he was inking, I think Spider-Girl. Yeah. And he was like,  I'm supposed to be retired, but you know, this is all I'm going to be doing.

17:02
I think that's cool as hell to find something that you like the thing that you're you're  you accept Hey, I'm going to die doing this. I think there's a certain beauty to that Yeah, and it's like cuz  you know, we grew up with where The big artists had that ego,  you know, and then they became like the Celebrity, but it's like almost like a generational thing. It seemed like that generation didn't really chase that spotlight. They were just working like even Kirby

17:31
But  I think it's cool that what you said about how humble he was, considering that, you know, look, he's a little brother in there today. He could have had little brother syndrome easily with all the comparisons to how much, you know, John was beloved and, you know, all the accolades he gets.  I do feel like sometimes people forget like how, and I guess even for me, this, you know, doing the research here, it was a very great reminder of like just how much of a staple he was, man, to Marvel, to  think comics in general.

18:02
Yeah, would call him and I've seen some articles call him. He's like definitely the Bronze Age Marvel. He's like, you know, I would say him and John and  like, and then John Romita senior, those guys were like the pillars  kind of developing this kind of house style  that, know, consistent style all the way through. then, and then you start getting into like the mid eighties. Once you see kind of the more stylized people come into play and then everything changes in the nineties, but  just to have that consistent run.

18:31
And I was reading, he was doing, he could be doing up to like 40 pages a month,  like easily, like two books worth of stuff.  just, you know, when they say, um, mean, both kind of work in corporate kind of like settings. this is like a world of difference, but you know, like how they'll tell you like, be careful about how good you are at your job or else you become like,

18:53
the catch-all, like, hey, we know Ed is reliable, so let's give this to him. Hey, this is a deadline that so-and-so dropped the ball on, but we can go to Ed. Oh, boy. So, you know, that was in the forefront of my mind reading this, that Sal was so fucking reliable that it's like, hey, let's give it to Sal because he'll get the job done. Looking at some of the other stuff that he did. So, and it turns out, I guess he went like kind of back and forth to DC. It says in this Comics Journal article,

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that he ended up going back to DC in 2011 to do some comics on DC retroactive The Flash, Superman Beyond. He also did some inking for IDW on a GI Joe annual, some Dungeons and Dragons, I guess, role playing games as well. So he kind of got around outside of just Marvel for a certain point too. And there was a lot of great things being shared about him from some of his longtime collaborators like Jim DiMatteo talking about.

19:49
spectacular Spider-Man, Jim Dematius called him a perfect comic book storyteller. He goes on to say, quote, really loved the two years on Spectacular Spider-Man that I wrote with Sal Busema drawing. Talk about underrated. Sal is one of the best storytellers and a wonderful collaborator. And that was the other thing too. He's not a troublesome creator. He doesn't have like baggage or drama. He seems like someone that was really pleasant to work with too. Yeah, he's the anti-Todd.

20:17
I would be curious though, you know, being someone that was so kind of like company man ish. Yeah. I would be curious about his thoughts on like the rise of image and more emphasis on, on creator and artists rights. Yeah. don't know. I like said, I, the interview,  he just seems like just a pleasant guy, like nothing bad to say like, uh, about anybody. Um, but even, know, with his style, he did update his style, you know,

20:45
towards the nineties and stuff. can tell like that 70s style and then later he did adapt,  you know, he didn't completely change his style, but he did. You could see like a difference. You could see kind of a, almost like a,  uh, like a John Romita Jr. Type influence and things like that. And yeah, it's, uh, he, um,  I'm trying to think. I haven't heard him  say, you know, cause like I said, he's not like a John Byrne or.

21:14
Peter David like yelling at clouds. Yeah. So I, I, yeah, I have no idea. I know he had like a run in with a Jim shooter. did a full issue of secret wars and Jim shooter just like totally rejected it. So there's like an unpublished fully penciled issue of secret wars that, and he didn't even like said he didn't, he's like, all right, whatever. so, yeah, I know you, you can't work that long and not have any, you know,

21:44
run ins with other coworkers.  yeah,  he never really trumpeted like, these guys don't know how to draw, these guys don't know how to tell us stuff. wasn't a hater. No, yeah, exactly. He wasn't a hater. I do want to mention the amount of characters that he created. I guess, know, drew the first appearances. I would credit him as a co-creator, but some of those first appearances of characters that he drew included Starhawk and the Squadron Sinister.

22:10
as well as the first modern team up of Marvel's golden age heroes, the invaders.  I know he actually had a lot more. I gotta find that other article that listed that out a little more. um But while I'm doing that, Ed, I wanna go back to something you said about him, about just the clarity of his storytelling. I was thinking about that earlier today, about how Sal Wusima reminds me of my dad's comic collection, because he had  his spectacular Spider-Man run. So a lot of those covers are like,

22:38
burned in my memory. But I think my dad also had like his Captain America run because he wrote that  Sal Busema drew that famous uh Captain America  story article, Steve Engelhardt called Secret Empire.  So there's that one that comes to mind for me. But I was thinking about like picking up one of Sal Busema's comics, one that where he drew, I knew that I was going to be able to follow along with the pictures at the very, even if the story was maybe over my young mind at the time.

23:08
I knew I was going to be able to follow along with the uh visual narrative, because Sal Busema is that guy when it comes to telling a clear, concise story, layouts, and panels.  There isn't no gotcha element to it, versus, say, my dad's Bill Sinkevich New Mutant comics, where I was like, don't even know what I'm looking at.  Yeah, exactly. And I love Sinkevich. He's one of my favorites.

23:36
Some of this stuff gets really abstract and kind of hard to understand. Yeah. think the other thing I think of when I think Sal Busema is Spider-Girl. Those Ron friends, uh Spider-Girl with Tom DeFalco. ah Now I know that I think Sal Busema was mainly just an inker on Spider-Girl and Ron friends was the main artist, but I think they might've, you know, like that's the thing about that Spider-Girl series is when Sal Busema as inker,

24:01
It's like, almost like his style almost like overpowers, think sometimes depending on who he's inking, but his inks are very, they very, he's got a signature ink style. And I think that, that, I don't know how many other inkers I know their style just from that. But when a Sal Busema is inking, I can tell. I that's a good one. Okay. Yeah. yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, for sure. And it's strange cause I remember going to a,

24:29
I think this was at HeroesCon as well. might've been the same one where it was basically  a panel of inkers  and they were telling me, they were basically kind of explaining exactly what they do. I went to an inking one and a colorist one, which was really eye-opening as far as  what they have to work with.  And I don't know if they like throw anyone under the bus, but there's some like inkers that do all the backgrounds. Like sometimes they'll get a pencil where it's just figures  and that's it.

24:57
And then one of them said that like, uh, yeah, this guy doesn't draw hands at all. So you just get like all these,  all these pencils, nobody has hands.  then I,  I, the anchor has to draw the hands. So it's what you think is  everything is fully penciled marked what to ink and basically they can embellish and whatever, but that's not the case, you know,  so something the anchors can do a lot more of the heavy lifting than you would realize. Same thing with the colors too.

25:26
You know, so it was  interesting to  hear those stories  and I'm not sure how it was. And I know that he has done, there's some artists where he was, when his inking jobs were, he would do the backgrounds  and  not everything  is always penciled out for you as an inker.  I'm looking at some of his black and white, Salva Samah's black and white artwork.  And it's like, it doesn't even need color. there's so much.

25:54
clarity in the story and the figures. uh It almost doesn't need colors. he  drew  brightly colored  heroes  for most of his career. So I think the color is integral. yeah, man, it's like  visual storytelling uh mastery. I did find the section I was talking about in the Comics Journal article, there's a section where they break down all the characters that first appearances and that he helped co-create. Just some of those include,  it says, Buscema and Steve Engelhardt.

26:23
Yeah, Engelhardt created the Defenders Super Team in 1972, adding Valkyrie to the group with the fourth issue. With Ryder Roy Thomas, he co-created the Squadron Sinister and the Super-Villain Lyra for the Sub-Mariner title. With Steve Gerber, he succeeded Engelhardt on the Defenders. Buscema co-created Starhawk. In 1976, Buscema co-created Graviton in the Avengers Number 158 with Jim Shooter. During his long tenure on the Incredible Hulk, Buscema collaborated

26:53
collaborating with writer Bill Mantelow, co-created the UFOs and the Soviet super soldiers, so on and so forth. Oh, and it says here that his run on the Hulk was from 1970 to 1985. he described it as, Sima described it as, probably one of the most enjoyable experiences of my career. The fact that the Hulk is my all-time favorite character might be a contributing factor.

27:18
I never tired of the character. Every story was a new challenge. It just seemed like he loved what he did. That was the of like the-  that run too, that's the first Rocket Raccoon appearance.  Oh, okay. Yeah, he drew that too. there's like, it's weird that like all the comics that my dad would get, like the more I think about it, the more I was looking at it, it's like, oh, he did that too? He did that too? I had that. I had that comic. I had that-

27:41
that cool cover with Tarantula and Spider-Man where he's getting the spiky shoes. Oh, I love that. He's drew about 80 % of the comics I grew up  with. And I think for anyone, Sal Basim is one of those artists that subconsciously enters your brain and you don't realize how much of his work you've been exposed to or seen or enjoyed,  whether it be like his  pencils themselves or inking contributions. I think he's one of those artists that

28:11
has touched and been involved in all of our comic journeys, whether we know it or not. One of the funnier things that I, and I remember these, that he did a lot of those hostess ads.  Yes! The hostess,  like,  it's ridiculous ads, but I thought they were cool, because, you know, like we don't really have this problem nowadays, but nothing really sucks  when you're reading the comic and then there's a shitty ad  in the middle of it, but.

28:40
With a hand-drawn ad by him, it's just like this ridiculous... It's a little more palpable. You're like, okay, I'm not mad This is entertaining. is like another story. It's like a... I'm in anthology now. Yeah, I just typed in Sal Bussama hostess ads, and this dude drew a good bit. I don't think he drew all of them, but he drew a majority of them. There's a Hulk one. I think they did an ad with just about every character. A Hulk one, a Captain America, a Spider-Man version. And that's another thing, as silly as that is. Could you imagine...

29:09
having to do that on top of like three other titles. Not only having to do that, but could you imagine like asking Todd McFarland to do that?  What he would say to you?  And I love Todd McFarland. I'm not trying to, you know. He'd probably tell you go fuck yourself. Yeah. But it's like, it's, such, those are like the most polar opposite, like artists I can think of, you know, there's a lot of those 90 guys and then you have this kind of blue collar artist. It's just, you know, I wonder how much of that.

29:35
comes from, because Sal Busema is among that class  of artists, from that  generation of artists that...

29:44
that where comics shouldn't have been the final goal, but was for a lot of them. And a lot of them were either trying to pivot to, or either came from, or were trying to get to design agencies, or those type of jobs that paid a little more, that were maybe a little more consistent. I mean, like Neil Adams comes to mind. Oh my God, Jim Sterenko also has that design advertising It's like Alex Toth, the guys like that, yeah. I wonder if that...

30:14
Contributes to a lot of them being like, you know head down. I'm just gonna work You know what I'm saying as long as I get paid I'm not gonna cause a ruckus or anything like that. Yeah, I think it was there were I Know with like, know Kirby and those guys especially it was just like a it's a job the more pages I knock out the more money I get and it's on to the next thing on to the next thing It's just like just keep pumping them out. Keep busy. Stay busy

30:37
I was thinking about, I  guess in closing on this part, I was thinking about lasting influence and like what can aspiring creators or new fans learn from a career like Sal Busema, like this long tenured career. You know, and especially in a day and age where the spotlight  and awareness of creator rights,  the lack of rights that a lot of creators get from working, you know, technically work for hire with like a company like Marvel or DC, how a lot of them are like a little more conscious of that.

31:06
because of  the stories of like your Jack Kirby's, the  list goes on and on. So it's like, what can someone learn from Sal Bacema, who was for the most part like a company man and pretty happy about it. I think  it's such a different industry  now, just the way that IP works. And I don't think anyone  is gonna have a career like this in comics. I don't think that's going to exist. But what I think people...

31:34
can learn, especially artists people can learn, is just kind of that work ethic and just that consistency and that  clarity and storytelling that never goes out of style, really.  It's just, then being consistent, being able to keep working, it's a... professionalism. Professionalism, yeah, exactly. I think that's something that you hear a lot from editors of like, yeah, you're good, but you're slow or you're a pain in the ass to work with. You're not a team player. I think you look at someone like...

32:02
Sal Bissellma where it's like he hit his deadlines. He was, he was consistent. He was really good. He did stuff no one wanted to do or gave up on and  he would do it. Yeah. All those things, consistent, likable, good at your craft. guess open to opportunities as well. Cause you never know where those lead to. I was talking to  Stephanie Williams a couple of episodes ago and we were just talking about all these random promo comics that she gets to do and how she's like, Hey, these pay pretty damn well. And a lot of times other

32:32
Art writers don't want to do them, and I'll take them because I can get it knocked out. really do put myself into the work, and I try to deliver.  And so  in a weird way, I think about her  approach to it and professionalism and someone like Sal Busema, where it seems like he was liked by all because he was just,  he accepted his role and was damn good at it. Yeah, even like Stan Lee  pretty much said the same thing.

33:02
kind of weird is,  you know, of all the people he's worked with, said, he never got to work with Stan Lee, even though their  careers are a little bit parallel.  But yeah, he said like, that's the one writer that,  you know, all the good, like Len Wein, he said was one of his favorite, like all the guys. He's,  he's very like, I don't know if I forget somebody.  It's a long time ago.  But he said that the one writer that he would like to  work with is, you know, Stan Lee, which is  interesting. That's cool.

33:31
Man,  not to end this on a morbid note, but  Sal Bershema's passing makes me think that,  like I said earlier, he is one of the last surviving comic creators who remembers the Silver Age, the 60s, and beyond, even earlier than that. And I don't know how many of those creators we still have with us. I know it's not a long list, but it does make me, uh just I appreciate them a little more in their stories and what they've learned and what they can still contribute to the industry today.

34:01
I think with that being said, let's move into our comic news recap. I asked you to uh find an article or two that piqued your interest from the last month. It had to be this year.  Maybe something that, you know, an article headline that you feel like did not get enough attention.  Ed, I'll let you go first. What you got?  Oh man, let's start with the, how absolute the series from DC is just killing it with reprints. I'm looking at, was reading the  article  and Batman,

34:30
And these are, you know, this is on issue 14 already and they're going into an  11th printing of issue one. Holy shit. Insane. And of all the titles  that they have out now, you know, up to issue 14, that's like the longest running title  so far. They're in  all the back issues are in at least their third printing, which is  insane to me. It's like, I don't know  how Scott Snyder is not in the DC office.

34:59
Cause I was looking that up. It's like, he's gotta be, he's been running Batman for the last, all the Batman else world stuff for the last 10 years, like Dark Knight metal, you you did the court of owls, the new 52 stuff, one of the highlights of the new 52.  And since then it's like, he's been kind of really  in charge of Batman for almost the last 15 years or so. think it's crazy to also consider with the success of  the absolute comics.

35:28
that he did not even really want to write Absolute Batman. Or he didn't want to put his name out there.  Have you heard him say that?  And I think he might have said in the interview, uh we did with him, but I know he's mentioned a couple times where he was like, I didn't want to write Absolute Batman because I thought maybe everyone was tired of me writing Batman. Maybe give someone else a shot. Apparently not. It's been their most successful launches for a while. Are you caught up with any of the Absolute stuff? Are you pulling anything? Are you reading any of it?

35:58
Um,  one of my favorites from last year is Absolute Martian Manhunter. That's probably my  top pick, I guess, of 2025. feel like Absolute Martian Manhunter is the, is the artist choice.  You being an artist and a couple of artist friends I know all point to Absolute Martian Manhunter. So good. And it's such a different take on the character. And it's just, I love Javier  Rodriguez's art. I love the Zatanna series he did the year before.

36:24
He did a Defenders series. Everything he's done, I've been a big fan of. What do you think it is? Because the absolute line is not a brand new idea.  You can go just to point out something. If we're looking at the  distinguished competition, Marvel had the Ultimate Universe. And I guess I'd be curious.  I wasn't collecting comics like that when the initial Ultimate Universe came out. So I don't remember. So I just don't know if it was that big a hit. Is it just that people love alternate?

36:53
takes and stories or is there some special secret sauce in the absolute stuff that is making, you know, like a 10, 11 reprints? I don't know, but I've picked up a couple issues of the Batman and I'd like the Wonder Woman. picked up a couple issues of that, but I haven't really looked at any of the other books. Something is, something's working. I mean, I really like the Wonder Woman kind of raised in hell. She has a cool design, cool look. They're just getting really good teams together and

37:23
Batman is such a completely new take on it. You know, it's so different from  what everybody knows. You know, it's basically we're going the opposite direction. He's not rich guy. know, Diana was raised in hell, not paradise.  Martian Manhunter is not an actual shape-shifter. It's,  they're, twisting it enough, but I think keeping the elements there  that  the people will still recognize it and then not having to worry about all the canon and all that stuff. can just jump in.

37:50
whole new world. None of this stuff matters. We don't have to bog down with 50 plus years of history.  And like I said, the books look great. The art is great. The writing's good. mean,  it's... Maybe it is as simple as that. It's like, alternate take, fresh take. Like you said, great creative team. It's not overloaded yet. It's not like New 52 where it's like, we're going to put out all this stuff and you've got to figure out what you like. There's like maybe 10 titles. So it's a lot of different things. I think also DC editorial, the editorial team at DC,

38:20
Not just this, but the black label stuff. think the main continuity, there's a couple of gems in there too. I think this is a case of everything firing on All Still Learn. They just kind of have everything going for them right now. uh Ed, will, uh are you done with yours? Is there anything else? Okay. Let me go ahead and do mine. And here's what we'll do too. Now that I'm looking at the, show notes and which ones you highlighted, and I see we both are bringing two. How about I'll do my next one. Okay. I've got one other one.

38:47
And then we'll save some of the other news articles for a Patreon episode. Okay.  I figured, look, we got you back on for your annual appearance. uh Why not treat our diehard listeners a little something extra? All right. So we'll save something for a Patreon. The article that I'm going to highlight  is this Supergirl article  about this new anthology coming out called Supergirl the World. And it's going to feature over 20 different comic creators, including writers and artists from 15 different m

39:17
countries around the world. over 20 different comic creators from over 15 different countries are contributing a short story to the Supergirl anthology called The World. It sets release simultaneously of that worldwide on June 2nd, which I think is a dope idea. It's not an idea that I think about a lot when it comes to like, oh, I'm going to the shop this Wednesday, go pick up the new issue, absolute Batman. That's not the case for the rest of the world, right? It's like someone in Brazil that loves it probably has to wait, whatever, a couple of weeks or a month or.

39:47
Maybe even longer than that. So I think this is kind of a cool idea to set a simultaneous worldwide release. Some more information on the anthology. It's going to be a 184 page hardcover book. It's going to be 25 bucks. It releases June 2nd, which is a couple of weeks removed from the Supergirl movie. Obviously, you know, the synergy there trying to promote the movie and get some more awareness on the character. The Supergirl movie comes out June 26th. This anthology is June 2nd.

40:13
uh Each country will also have its own cover apparently. So we're looking at what 15 different countries 15 different covers for this anthology, which I think is a good look uh In the article which a big shout out to AIPT comics.com This is where I'm getting all this information from apparently DC has a hell of relationship with a lot of different publishers and partners worldwide I'm thinking all these are done because that's a lot of coordination right get all this published Simultaneously put out so DC is working with panini press

40:42
which distributes or is a big publisher in like Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Colombia.  They're working with, and some of these I don't even know.  First time I'm hearing, Story House, Egmont, which is in Poland and Finland and then Zebra Comics is a publisher in Cameroon. Which you know that, like that's just kinda cool to say. You don't know about them? ah You can sleep behind the wheel, boy.  Some of the creators that are working, I do know to recognize some of these creators.

41:09
So representing Turkey, I feel like I'm talking about Street Fighter right now. Turkey  is Mahmud, it the Mahmud? Mahmood? Azra? I've now seen his work on like X-Men and a couple of Marvel comics, but he's gonna be the writer, artist, and cover  doing the Supergirl story for Turkey. uh Representing Japan, you got Satoshi Miwagawa, who is the writer. ah He's doing a story, or they're doing a story with Kai Katago, who's gonna be the artist.

41:37
Satoshi Miwagawa is the  person  that did the Joker 1 operation manga and the Superman foodie manga. yeah, you got a little bit of that. uh From Serbia,  Steven Subic is gonna be an artist for that Supergirl story. I'm sure you've heard of Steven Subic.  And then for United States,  the writer for the Supergirl story will be Mariko Tamaki.  Skylar Patriage will be the artist and Joelle Jones doing the cover for US.

42:05
So a lot of different options, a lot of different creators involved. uh Each story  will,  each chapter or story is gonna stand on its own. It's gonna range from like intimate street level stuff to like larger than life, big, you know, tales and stories. But together, they're supposed to create a version of Supergo that feels at once deeply personal and truly global. I think this is a cool less initiative. That's a cool idea. I think it's a cool way I love anthology, so this is  right up my alley. Yeah. And I think an anthology like this,

42:34
just reinforces that comic books, they're, you know,  superhero comic or whatever it may be, you know, the medium, the art form is a global thing. It's appreciated by people all over the world.  And I think this is just a good look for DC to establish a global footprint, you know, and representation for Supergirl and a cool way to promote the movie, you know, promote the movie ahead of its release. And like I said, we'll save our other two stories, our other stories.

43:03
for Patreon. uh So I guess for that being said, Ed, I want to get into something we haven't done in a while.  It's been so long since we did this segment of the show. actually don't even have the sound drop.  It's not even on here right now. I don't know what happened to it. But Ed, I want to get into kind of like a makeshift champion season.  I do a lot of talking on this show, as you know, or maybe too much talking. So I want to just focus specifically on you. I want to hear what you've been reading.

43:31
I didn't have a chance to talk to you about like the best of 2025, what comics made it onto your 2025 list. I guess tell me, what have you been reading, man? What do you want to champion? I didn't read as much as I usually do, but I did pick up a handful of things. Like I said, think Absolute Martian Manhunter was my pick of the year. ah But I'll also,  let's see,  Skybound and Image are doing like Universal Monster series. Yes. Yeah. oh

44:01
James Tinian the fourth and Danny the invisible man's really cool  Danny's art. I like a lot it reminds me awesome bump reminds me of a Kind of like an updated kind of Frank Miller Sin City, know like an evolution of that I'd say a little sprinkler Eduardo Riso. Yes,  I know coffin bound she did I follow her Instagram, but yet her work is really good She did a short story for the Harley Quinn and that like a black white and red

44:29
Super fire. She did like a super girl. think on the topic of super girls, she did like a super girl story. Danny is  one of those artists. I think she's like Greek too. Oh, look at that global comics, man. They reach from far and wide for these cool artists. Yeah. Her stuff is really sharp. I like her to work a lot. So the other one is a completely opposite style. James Stokoe's Orphan in the Five Beasts, Bath of Blood. It's basically like the second story arc of this from Dark Horse Comics. It's basically a kind of fantasy martial arts epic.

44:59
That's probably one of my other picks of 2025.  And what else do I got? got anything Jaylee draws I will get.  What is he doing that Snot covers? This ends tonight, the three issue mini series. Whoa, I've never seen this. Damn, Ed, you come at, real quick, Ed, wait, wait, let me go back. I mean, we're playing catch up now. Which shop are you shopping at? Oh, I'm different places. Okay, so you bounce in and out. Yeah.

45:27
Do you have a pull list anywhere? just know you go in, you're like, yo, whatever. have commitment issues. I kind of like,  I'll go,  I will go. And I told them that it's like, I'll go and you know, maybe every cause like, I don't read as much as I used to release new stuff.  Um, so I'll go just randomly and just kind of pick out a handful of number ones. And then I still have a stack of stuff I haven't gotten to yet, but that's basically how I shop.

45:51
Like every month or every couple of months I'll go in and kind of scan the shelves, pick up what seems interesting. this Jay Lee one is  sick. This ends tonight for anyone wondering. Yeah, it's ends tonight. It's kind of like Quentin Tarantino meets Thelma and Louise.  So super violent kind of assassin type tale, but only three issues. Cause like I said, he's  his money's in cover. So,  but those are the ones that I've really kind of stand out. I will do like a.

46:20
since I mentioned it, honorable mention to uh Absolute Wonder Woman. But yeah,  those are the ones that are kind of like my standouts. ah I had no idea that James Stokoe did a follow-up story to Orphan and the Five Beasts. That first one is  There's still three  beasts to kill.  Oh, wow. So yeah, this is like cool. It's like the next arc. so whenever that comes out, because  I know that takes a while to draw like Histo. I've been in a uh

46:47
And I mean, I think a part of me skipping my part on James Caesar is that I've mentioned this a couple of times, but all of my reading right now is just related to the show and research. I have been in a Cliff Chang mode lately. Oh, he's great. Yeah. Just because the interview was great. He was like super personal, very likable. It made me dive deeper into his work. He did that Catwoman series a few years back. Lonely City. Yes, that's really good. It's awesome. Yeah. And I love the oversized.

47:15
like magazine format of it. But I've been reading his one on the topic of Wonder Woman. I have been reading his Wonder Woman run.  And I gotta say, man,  I will attribute I've really been into Wonder Woman lately. I've just been in a Greek mythology  mode this entire like year so far. I think I contributed to the Odyssey trailer that dropped  reminding me how much I fucking love the Odyssey. I actually went to a Chamlins yesterday to go pick up a copy of the  Odyssey. So I'm reading that absolute Wonder Woman I think.

47:47
re-sparked my interest in Wonder Woman. Now I'm reading this Cliff Chang run and I'm like all about it. So now I'm looking for like more runs of Wonder Woman to like read. You can start playing God of War again. Actually I'm playing this game called Hades 2, which is all centered on Greek mythology. I, you know what, a couple years ago there was that trend of like, guys think about the Roman Empire every day. I'm like, bitch, I think about the Greek Empire. And you know what, I think with that being said,

48:15
Ladies and gents, this is the Shortblocks Podcast, and we just finished talking to our guy Ed, right? And  we talked about comics, god damn it, pure unfiltered comic book talk. We paid tribute to the late, great Sal Bucima. Rest in peace to a fucking legend. We talked about some recent comic news headlines, all We talked about DC Absolute going into its, which is it, 11th reprint? Yeah, Batman's going into the 11th. Insane.

48:40
We also talked about this new Supergirl anthology called The World, which is due to release on June 2nd.  We're not done talking comics, but this is all you guys are getting on the free feed.  We're going over on the Patreon  to give our hardcore fans a little something extra. We got some more comic news headlines and recaps  to go through.  We're also going to talk about... I want to talk to you about Steve Bissett. I see you brought a couple of issues of Tyrant with you, which Ed, I won't lie to you.

49:07
Those comics, you better shield them and protect them. They are not cheap. They're hard to find online. But I want to talk to you about Steve Bissett because  I've got a little something coming out soon  starring Steve Bissett. But listeners, that is all we've got for you. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. I hope you enjoyed hearing Ed.  We'll have more topics and headlines to discuss on the Patreon, which you can check out at patreon.com slash the short box.  You can support the show.

49:31
for like five bucks a month in return, get access to bonus episodes like the one that me and Ed are about to do. You also get access to me and Drew's spin-off podcast, save it for the pod. You also get access to the monthly comic book giveaway contest. There's a lot of rewards and perks  for being a member and supporter of the show. You'll have to check it out for yourself. I promise it's worth the very small fee. right,  patreon.com slash the short box. That's for my diehard fans  that want more short box content. All right, listeners, I'll catch you around. Peace.