John Byrne is overrated

[Figuremod73]

Theres been periods where John Byrne's work was the only comics I read. I'll say he's rated just about right. Frank Miller on the other hand....

[palitoy]

I was a big fan of many of Byrne's comic runs and still remain so today, particularly Superman, Legends and Alpha Flight. Can't say I'm a big fan of his personality though.

As for Cockrum, I am unaware of any "My dad can beat up your dad" silliness that goes on with X-Men readers but he's very talented and I enjoy his work.

[hedrap]

Byrne's 80's work is great stuff, imo. The guy saved Hulk so he always gets the benefit from me. Met him once, small show, mid-90's. We talked movies.

[Mr.Marion]

[Mego Magyar]

I started reading X-men and Avengers when Byrne was the artist and will always love his work ( especially when inked by someone else like Austin ). Cockrum was fine too but Byrne's X-men is what I picture when I think on them.

I always thought Jim Lee was the over rated one myself, the art was just way to busy with unnecessary lines for my taste.

[samurainoir]

[Mego Milk]

Huge inspiration for me.
John Byrne is not over-rated.

[Mr.Marion]

^And the best short Captain America run EVER. That Baron Blood two-parter...my GOD what a great book.

Yeah he did have a run on Cap. 80's Cap was hit or miss ( mostly miss )

The Deathlok crossover storyline was good stuff.

[The Bat]

HATED Dave Cockrum ! Byrne kicks has Arse all over the place! "Nuff said!"

[The Bat]

the guy that gave us the second best Fantastic Four run in the 50 plus year history of the book is not over-rated.

Well said Joe!!

[Mr.Marion]

You can put your pitchforks away. John Byrne I would compare to Star Wars. Star Wars is a very great film, just like Byrne is a very capable artist. But Star Wars also signaled the decline of the sci-fi films of the 60's- 70's like (the Illustrated Man, Logan's Run, etc) and mego toys also. After that everything became a rip off or at least was influenced by SW. After Byrne everything became very grim, realistic, and long story arch epics (someone mentioned Jim Lee). I like self contained stories and some silliness (Bob Haney,Kirby,etc)
Most people here will say they like Star Wars but at the expense of what the cinema and the toyline industries could have been without the phenomenon. I'm not as sure.

[enyawd72]

I still say this is the greatest splash page of all time.

CA2540001.jpg

[thunderbolt]

^^ You can't hang the grim and gritty 12 issue story arcs on him, he mostly did 1-2 part stories with subplots running. Not all that different from the silver age stuff.

[Figuremod73]

I think the long story arcs was more the editors. No one I can think of was more confusing with those than Chris Claremont. I can sort of see what you mean by other artist trying to copy his grim n' gritty although I think it was worse with Miller.

John Byrne's Next Men is probably my favorite from him. Long story arcs but many issues had very little action in it. Byrne could actually tell a pretty good story with little words.

[Confessional]

Scapegoating a movie or an artist for the whims of our America cult of personality isn't reliable by any means. The only expense is ego.