Gordon Robson sent me this question about the fine comic book artist John Buscema…
Hi, I found your post about Dorothy Parker saying she hated writing, but probably not meaning it quite thought-provoking. Do you think when John Buscema said he hated drawing superheroes that he likewise didn't mean it, or was he serious? He sure drew these strips fantastically well for someone who'd have preferred not to do them. Just wondered what you thought on the matter.
I didn't know John all that well but I think I knew him well enough to answer this question. John was a guy who loved making his living by drawing all day. During his long, glorious career, he drew thousands of pages of all different kinds of stories — not only super-heroes but romance, war, western, historic, etc. Obviously, he liked some of those assignments more than others and I think what he said was his way of saying that the super-heroes were generally not his favorite jobs.
He also didn't like drawing romance comics. He did a beautiful job on them but to him, the stories were devoid of action (unless you consider kissing "action") and interesting settings, and because he found most of the stories stupid.
He was the kind of guy who grew up only wanting to draw and if left to his own muses and desires, he would have depicted more swashbuckling, adventure settings and more realistic characters than most Marvel Super-Heroes…but that was the job that was offered. After some unpleasant experiences working in advertising, he was glad to have it.
He also would have preferred to do finished art on his own, rather than just pencil or do "breakdowns" for inkers he did not think did a great job finishing his work. He only liked one or two of them. (A lover of the art penciled by John and inked by one of those he disliked once accused me of lying when I told him John did not like the end product.) Buscema especially wished he could slow down and do finished art, taking more time, on Conan the Barbarian. That was what he usually said was his favorite work for Marvel.
But it served Marvel's purpose to deploy John the way they did and it was probably more financially beneficial to him and his family to pencil-only so many comics that were not his favorites to draw. He was sure good at all of them.
So I would say that "hate" is too strong a word. Aren't there parts of your job you enjoy more than other parts even though you do them all?