John Byrne
From Cassius Comics
| John Lindley Byrne | |
| Occupation | Writer/Artist |
| Most Recent Work | - |
| Birthdate | July 6th, 1950 / Walsall, England |
Backstory
Born in the small town of Walsall, England, John Byrne was exposed to the world of superheroes at a young age through local British comics and the "Adventures of Superman" television series. Byrne immigrated to Canada with his family when he was eight years old, and at the age of twelve, he read his first Marvel comic- Fantastic Four #5 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This new product immediately drew Byrne's interest, as he saw a story with an edge that no other comic published at the time could match.
Byrne enrolled in the Alberta College of Art and Design at age twenty. He began to self-publish for the first time, creating "Gay Guy", a parody of the stereotype that all art students were homosexuals. After three years at the school, Byrne dropped out and began to do freelance work for Charlton Comics.
Byrne made his Marvel debut by penciling "Giant-Sized Dracula" #5. His work impressed Marvel enough to give him regular work on the low-selling titles "Iron Fist", "The Champions" and "Marvel Team-Up". It was on these titles that Byrne first collaborated with his fellow English creator, writer Chris Claremont.
Byrne joined Claremont on the floundering title "X-Men" (later renamed "The Uncanny X-Men") with issue number 108, and over the course of several years the duo brought the title from near-cancellation to the position of Marvel's biggest sales juggernaut. Byrne finally left the book with number 143 after frequent disagreements with Claremont over the direction the book should take. Byrne maintained a "cordial" relationship with Claremont but vowed to never work with him again, saying that it would be "too frustrating".
Besides his work on "X-Men", Byrne worked on a number of other notable books for Marvel. His nine-issue run penciling "Captain America" included a memorable story in which the title character ran for the U.S. Presidency. Byrne also wrote and drew an "Alpha Flight" ongoing series which was a critical and financial success. Byrne used "Alpha Flight" to reintroduce the character Snowbird, who he had developed in the pages of "Gay Guy" years before. He also created the speedster Northstar, implying that he was a homosexual. This was confirmed in another story several years later, making Northstar Marvel's first openly gay hero. Despite the popularity of "Alpha Flight", Byrne felt the book as "never much fun" and called the characters two-dimensional, leading him to eventually drop the title. Byrne also briefly wrote and drew "The Incredible Hulk", though he left after just six issues, claiming that editor Jim Shooter had vetoed ideas mid-run that he had approved before Byrne came on board the title.
Other than his substantial run as penciller on "X-Men", Byrne's most influential Marvel work was a six year stint on "The Fantastic Four" as both writer and artist, work which many considered to be the best run on the series since Lee and Kirby created the book. Byrne enacted a number of then-controversial changes that proved to be successful in the long run. Among these were the removal of series mainstay The Thing from the group, replacing him with She-Hulk; the Thing's adventures carried on in his own self-titled book, also penned by Byrne. Byrne treated The Invisible Girl as having power on par or even surpassing her teammates, and developed her into a strong, confident woman for arguably the first time since her creation. To these ends, he also symbolically renamed her The Invisible Woman. Less popular decisions saw him transplanting the team into a new headquarters (Four Freedoms Plaza) and creating a romantic relationship between The Human Torch and the Thing's ex-girlfriend, Alicia Masters. When Byrne eventually left the book, he cited "internal office politics", indicating that he may have clashed with his editor again. Byrne later said that working on "Fantastic Four" just "got old".
In 1986, Byrne began working for Marvel's chief rival, DC Comics. For his first work, Byrne was tapped to re-imagine Superman's role in the post-Crisis DC Universe. Byrne wrote and drew the six-issue "Man of Steel" mini-series, a project which drew the attention of such mainstream news sources as Time Magazine and the New York Times. Byrne made his mark by streamlining and de-powering Superman, eliminating elements of his character and environment such as The Fortress of Solitude, his dog Krypto, and his past as Superboy. Byrne also had Superman's adopted parents the Kents live to see old age, using them as supporting characters to Superman as an adult. Byrne attempted to give a scientific explanation for most of Superman's various powers, and emphasized Clark Kent and his American roots over Kal-El and Krypton, which Byrne interpreted as a sterile world and the complete opposite of everything Superman represents. Few of Byrne's changes would last to the present day.
Byrne followed "Man of Steel" with the relaunched "Superman" title and "Action Comics", both of which he wrote and drew. A year later, he also began writing "The Adventures of Superman", the renamed original "Superman" comic. Byrne left DC around two years after "Man of Steel", blaming DC for showing a lack of "conscious support" for his work. He has also stated unhappiness over the fact that images DC licensed out to represent Superman's likeness were not Byrne's artistic creations. Byrne said that he was "worn down" after two years of "nonsense", claiming once again that "the fun was gone".
Following his falling out with DC, Byrne returned to Marvel to write and draw "West Coast Avengers" (soon renamed "Avengers West Coast"). Before agreeing to come on the title, Byrne insisted he be allowed to write "his Vision story", stripping the hero of his humanity and drastically altered his origin. Byrne also drastically changed the character of The Scarlet Witch, though he left the title before he could complete his story.
Byrne also launched "Sensational She-Hulk", a book which he both wrote and drew. This comic was a much more comedic version of the character, a drastically different approach than the previous "Savage She-Hulk" series. Near the beginning of Byrne's run, he was asked for consultation on Dwayne McDuffie's "She-Hulk: Ceremony" Graphic Novel, but Byrne soon accused his editor Bobbie Chase of ignoring his recommendation and objections, and altering "Sensational" to more closely resemble "Ceremony". Byrne complained to Marvel's then Editor-in-Chief Tom DeFalco and was consequently removed from "Sensational" after just eight issues, though Byrne later returned for twenty more issues under a different editor.
Byrne also took over writing chores on "Iron Man", penning a second Armor War and re-establishing the Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom as major villains. When Marvel introduced its New Universe imprint, Byrne wrote and contributed to the art chores on "Star Brand". He also wrote 32 issues of "Namor, the Sub-Mariner", also penciling the first 25 issues.
In the early Nineties, Byrne joined with Art Adams, Frank Miller and Mike Mignola in co-founding the creator-owned Legend Comics imprint of Dark Horse Comics. Byrne soon launched a trio of comics set in a more real-world environment, "Next Men", "Babe" and "Danger Unlimited". Though all three books found loyal audiences, many have been quick to criticize these titles as thinly-veiled knockoffs of Marvel characters Byrne had previously worked on, specifically the X-Men, She-Hulk and the Fantastic Four. Next-Men lasted the longest with 30 issues before being put on hiatus. Though Byrne planned to return to the book within six months, this coincided with the comic industry crash of the mid-Nineties, and the book remains in "hibernation" to this day.
Since then, Byrne has continued to do projects for both Marvel and DC, but in his own words, he "no longer seek(s) regular employment". He now primarily does non-continuity stories such as "Marvel: The Lost Generation" and DC's "Superman & Batman: Generations". One notable exception to this was the thirteen issue series "Spider-Man: Chapter One", in which Byrne attempted to create a canonical re-imagining similar to "Man of Steel". Though Byrne built on "Chapter One" with a run on the relaunched "Amazing Spider-Man", both series were critical flops and Byrne's changes were quickly ignored or forgotten.
For the past few years, Byrne has operated his own website and forum, also writing a regular column entitled "In My Humble Opinion". He has also held a rather nasty feud with Wikipedia over content in the John Byrne entry.
Trivia
- Byrne has developed a reputation for being argumentative and difficult to work with, leading to public feuds with Peter David, Mark Evanier, Erik Larsen, Joe Quesada, Jim Shooter, Roy Thomas, Mark Waid and Marv Wolfman, among many others. Waid has also angered many fans with comments that have been interpreted as being racist or sexist and Byrne has always been quick to argue the validity of his points. He is also known for making inflammitory statements about terrorist groups, and was heavily criticized for offensive statements about Christopher Reeve made mere days after the actor's death.
- Byrne's controversial nature has led to numerous parodies of him by other creators. These included the character Cogburn in Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby's "Destroyer Duck and Johnny Redbeard in Larsen's "Savage Dragon".
- Though Byrne is an accomplished artist, he is also color blind.
- Byrne is credited for having inspired the art styles of Bryan Hitch, Jim Lee, Marcos Martín, Todd McFarlane and George Perez, among others.
- Byrne is a two-time winner of the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Penciller (1986 and 1998) and a winner of the Squiddy Award for Favorite Penciller (1993). He has also been nominated for CBG Fan Awards for Favorite Writer (six times), Favorite Cover Artist (five times), Favorite Inker (three times) and Favorite Penciller (three times)
- Byrne has written three books to date, "John L. Byrne's Fear Book", "Whipping Boy" and "Wonder Woman: Gods And Goddesses". He is also responsible for the web-comic "You Go, Ghoul!".
- Byrne has provided art for the magazines Arena Magazine, The Comic Reader, Comic Shop News, Comics Feature, Comics Interview, The Comics Journal, Previews Magazine and Time Magazine.
