John Buscema (1927-2002) literally wrote the book on being a Marvel artist namely, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way and few were better qualified. By the time of his retirement in 1996, Buscema had penciled nearly every Marvel title including over 100 issues of his personal favourite, Conan the Barbarian. Roy Thomas joined Marvel as a writer and editor under Stan Lee, scripting key runs of nearly every Marvel title: The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, The Sub-Mariner, Thor, The X-Men and more. He wrote the first ten years of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan; and launched the Defenders, Iron Fist, The Invaders and Warlock.