Following the news that legendary Marvel Comics artist John Buscema had died Thursday, CBR News talked to comic pros who knew him for their reactions to his passing.

"John was one of those rare individuals who was just born to draw," writer Mark Evanier, who most recently sat on four panels with Buscema at last year's Comic-Con International, told CBR News on Friday. "It flowed out of him with an ease that made other artists envious, and he produced a staggering number of wonderful pages during his career. He was so good that I've come to feel that we, as readers, were robbed a little every time he got a bad inker (way too often) and whenever he was reduced to doing breakdowns for other artists (ditto) or felt he had to emulate Kirby. I wish we could have seen more of Buscema just being Buscema because when he was, there was nobody better."

"I remember how captivated I was as a young comic reader by the power of John Buscema's art work," Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada told CBR News on Friday. "Even at a young age I knew I was looking at something created by someone whose skill level was just that much better than his contemporaries. I had the pleasure about three years ago to meet Mr. Buscema in the Marvel offices and he was as powerful a presence in person as his work was on the page. We will all miss him."

"John Buscema was far more than one of our finest comic book artists," longtime collaborator and former Marvel Comics head Stan Lee said in a release issued by Marvel Comics on Friday. "If Michaelangelo had elected to draw storyboards with pencil and pen, his style would have been close to that of Big John's. But, even more than a superb illustrator, John also was a brilliant visual storyteller. Thinking back on all of the strips that we had done together, I had only to give him the briefest kernel of a plot and he would flesh it out with his magnificent illustrations so brilliantly that the stories almost seemed to write themselves. Happily, the legacy of artwork that my dear friend, the creative giant that was John Buscema, leaves behind, will bring wonder and enjoyment to generations of readers to come."

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