The first real "moment" was at a New York convention in 1974, when Tony Isabella, then an editor at Marvel, and Nic Cuti, then an editor at Charlton, both gave me work. Due to publishing schedules, the job I did for Charlton (the first professional ROG-2000 story) saw print before the Marvel job ("Dark Asylum"). Charlton also managed to print the pages in the correct order, which somehow eluded Marvel, even tho the story was only, like, six pages long!!

That little story was the only work I got from Marvel for a while, and in the meantime Charlton gave me WHEELIE, and DOOMSDAY, and SPACE: 1999. While that was going on, Chris Claremont was getting regular work, and when the opportunity presented itself, he asked for me as the penciller on IRON FIST. So that happened.

••

Yes, I first met Chris when he was a gopher up at Marvel.

I know many years are put in before an artist hits the mainstream, but for a casual reader like me, it felt like JB burst onto the scene.

I was very young at the time, and it seemed like *every* book I liked was pencilled (or had been pencilled) by JB. To me, his take on X-men, Cap, FF, Avengers were the way the characters were "supposed" to look. (Same for Aparo and Batman, for me).

It must have been the right time/right place.

**edited to revise 1st grade grammar to 3rd grade grammar**

(Holy crap! Forty years since the "publication" of THE DEATH'S HEAD KNIGHT!!)

Wow! Not many can claim 4 decades in their field of choice... particularly a creative field.

Congratulations JB, and a sincere thank you for your superb work.

To me, his take on X-men, Cap, FF, Avengers were the way the characters were "supposed" to look

***

When I discovered comics, JB's work was so all-over-the -place in the Mavel universe (he was drawing FF and Hulk and so much of his work was in the OHOTMU books, among other places) that his style was what I thought of when I thought of Marvel. Largely, it's stayed that even decades later. While there are tons of artists I've learned to appreciate over the years and I now have many favorites who worked on those characters both before and after I started reading comics, when my brain pulls up a Marvel character, there's a very high chance that the image in my head will be a JB depiction of that character.

To me, his take on X-men, Cap, FF, Avengers were the way the characters were "supposed" to look

Shouldn't this read, "To me, his take on X-men, Cap, FF, Avengers were the way the characters ARE "supposed" to look"?  :)

Since my younger days, I've been of the opinion that if an artist and/or writer is doing something other than the way JB did it, then they're just getting it wrong.