John Buscema Battles Stomach Cancer

By: Arnold T. Blumberg
Date: Thursday, August 09, 2001
Source: Marvel Comics

For those of us who just saw John Buscema one of Marvel's greatest living illustrators at the San Diego Comic-Con this past July, there was no real indication that anything was amiss. Unfortunately, CINESCAPE has learned that Buscema is facing a very difficult illness, and below we present the letter provided to us by Marvel Comics from Gene and Adrienne Colan. All of us at CINESCAPE wish to join the comic book community in offering our support to John Buscema and his family during this time.

"It's hard for us to tell you, but John Buscema had surgery for stomach cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in NYC yesterday. The doctors told his wife Delores that hundreds of tumors were found. They won't be treating him other than to keep him comfortable as best they can. The family is devastated. Delores is suffering.

John is expected to remain in the hospital for about two weeks. He went into surgery with high hopes because at that point the surgeons believed the tumor was self-contained and had not spread. Different story once they opened him.

John quit smoking sometime in the 1980s. That's a long time ago already. We don't know if his smoking contributed to his illness, but I'm sure it didn't help. You'd think that putting 15/20 years between you and ceasing to smoke would be enough time to reverse any problems. Any of you young men who are smoking, now would be a good time to quit.

Here's his address. We're sure your cards and words will mean so much to him and his family.


John Buscema
104 Oaklawn Drive
Port Jefferson, New York 11777

You might want to check out Vanguard's latest book, THE JOHN BUSCEMA SKETCH BOOK to see what a master artist can do. I idolize John. Always have.

I know we'll all be praying.

Gene and Adrienne"