The Incredible Hulk #260 - Splash Page 1 Original Art

"Sunset of a Samurai" opens with Sanshiro Sugata making his morning pilgrimage to a prayer shrine — a moment of stillness before the inevitable collision with Bruce Banner's gamma-powered alter ego. Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema were the defining creative team of the Hulk's Bronze Age, and Buscema's splash pages carry a particular kinetic weight that reprints never fully capture. The Mantlo/Buscema Hulk run defined the character for a generation of readers, and this opening page reflects the quieter, human side of that collaboration. Letting it go is not easy.