Byrne's 60th birthday

[madmarva]

Here's a blog entry in tribute to John Byrne's 60th birthday.

If you fondly remember's Byrne's work from the 1980s, you'll probably enjoy reading through this.

I know some have been turned off by his work for the last decade or so, but there was a reason why he was the biggest name in comics for awhile.

[The Toyroom]

Byrne's always been a draw for me when he's been on a book...for the most part. Sadly his work for DC in recent years (Doom Patrol, The Atom, Action Comics, Demon) was uneventful to even get me to pick it up.

But his outstanding work outshines his mediocre stuff.... Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Superman/Action Comics, Hulk, Sensational She-Hulk, Alpha Flight, Wonder Woman, Superman/Batman:Generations, Captain America are all favorites of mine.

[Random Axe]

I go back and forth between Byrne and Perez as my all-time favorite artist. I don't think I could definitively pick one over the other, they were both a huge part of my formative years and major influences on me personally. It's not even close to meet them in person as George is a gentleman and a true man of the fans. Byrne...not so much.

Scott

[The Toyroom]

If I had to pick a favorite artist out of Byrne and Perez, then I'd go with Perez. Perez seems to get better with age...Byrne, not so much. And Byrne had that DREADFUL period where it looked like he was inking everything with a big fat black magic marker.

[madmarva]

While I love Byrne's art, I may appreciate his writing and plotting even more.

I remember as a kid when I read somewhere (fanzine or Bullpen Bulletine) that Byrne was going to write FF, I naively asked what does an artist know about writing. My immature mind couldn't comprehend someone talented enough to do both. But he proved me wrong. Not to mention the other greats who had done both since the golden age.

Byrne's FF was great and his departure from X-Men is when that book began to go off the tracks story-wise, in my opinion. Claremont was never as good as he was with Byrne.

Anthony I echo your thoughts on all the comics you mentioned. Stern and Byrne's Cap stories are why I love the character.

Looking at their overall output, I'd rank Perez's art ahead of Byrne's, but at his best Byrne was hard to beat. Perez did work in the 70s and 80s that at the time I really liked, but if you go back and look at his early Avengers, JLA and Teen Titans work, it pales compared to his later Titans and Crisis work. Even Perez's Wonder Woman work in later issues (he wasn't doing full pencils) were lackluster. But the stories were solid until War of the God flopped. But now that he's given all the time in the world, everything he does looks great. His story in Wonder Woman 600 looks marvelous.

From Iron Fist through Superman, Byrne's work was very strong and consistent. He always made his deadlines, too, usually while working on more than one book. But the quality of his work has varied quite a bit the last 15 years.

But, the guy does some incredible commission work. If you've never looked at his commission website, do yourself a favor. I hope to own one someday. Byrne commissions

[Random Axe]

Those are sweet. I'd hate to see the pricing, though. FOr a standard 11 by17, I'm guessing it's in the few thousands. Still, to have an original Byrne on my wall...

Scott

[The Toyroom]

Byrne's FF was great and his departure from X-Men is when that book began to go off the tracks story-wise, in my opinion. Claremont was never as good as he was with Byrne.

I agree...imagine my culture shock when Dave Cockrum came back on board (especially since I had no idea he was there BEFORE Byrne).

[Bruce Banner]

Love all of Byrne's stuff, especially his stints on X-Men, FF, Hulk, Cap, and of course his Superman run and the mighty Alpha Flight.

[The Bat]

I'm a big John Byrne Fan...when he has the right Inker(Terry Austin). Byrne's inking looks like he's doing it with a magic Marker.

Love his runs on: X-Men, X-Men:The Hidden Years, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Marvel Team-up w/Spidey, Superman, Captain America, and more...

[spamn]

I'm gonna say it - he hasn't done anything good in 20 years. His ego is far bigger than his talent. His writing has become terrible.

And it's a damn shame because everything he did in the 80s was gold.

[Earth 2 Chris]

The last thing I kind of liked was his Wonder Woman stuff. I thought it was pretty good. The first Superman/Batman:Generations was fun, but then it just went on and on and got silly.

I liked most of his Superman stuff, and loved his Cap run with Stern. Great stuff!

Chris

[The Bat]

I'm actually waiting for his Star Trek Romulan story to hit TB. It's a retelling of "Balance Of Terror"...from the Romulan's perspective. And I've seen some Pages...the Artwork looks quite good.

[madmarva]

I agree...imagine my culture shock when Dave Cockrum came back on board (especially since I had no idea he was there BEFORE Byrne).

I respect Cockrum's work, particularly his costume designs for the X-Men and Legion, and his layouts, but I liked Legion better when Grell took over and liked X-Men better with Byrne.

His style's never been my cup of tea. I do like his cover of Dr. Doom and Storm, maybe issue 145, on his second X-Men run. Harkens back to Kirby.

Thinking about it, I guess I enjoyed the X-Men through about issue 200. I liked the Paul Smith stuff, but once the book started shifting more toward Rouge and Pyslocke and Gambit, it lost me. There were so many mutants that it seemed there were more mutants and super heroes in the Marvel U than normal folks.

[kingdom warrior]

I have a love/hate with him, while as a kid i absolutely loved all his work. He was as a big influence on my artwork. Iron Fist, X-men,Captain America,Fantastic Four,Alpha Flight,Hulk,Superman She-Hulk was his golden run.

Since then he's been hit or miss. His Ego clearly always bothered me and the fact that his artwork kinda loss some edge to it and yes he was using a marker style brush that made his work look weird. His WW was alright but that was coming off Deodato's run so for me it was lack luster. His Spiderman reboot was Horrible!!!

I thought Jerry ordways Inks overpowered Bryne's pencils when he did JLA.....his Doom patrol,Demon run was for me uneventful....

[samurainoir]

Like everyone else, Byrne's eighties stuff ruled the roost on my reading pile. I prefered his Marvel stuff over the DC, but it was still solid.

He's done a pretty good job on licensed properties in recent years. I've enjoyed his Angel books over at IDW, and I believe he did a Star Trek Assignment Earth mini as well.

For one of the books, they published straight from his pencils.