- This article is about the comic book artist. For the Victoria Cross recipient, see John Byrne (VC). For the Scottish painter, see John Byrne (Scottish artist).
Uncanny X-Men #135 (1980), cover by Byrne John Byrne (born July 6, 1950) is a writer and artist of comic books. Byrne is known for his dynamic, flamboyant style of artwork (which has been heavily influenced by Jack Kirby), and also for his often-controversial new perspectives on established comic series, and for his harsh attitude towards criticism.
Overview
Byrne was born near West Bromwich, England, but emigrated with his family to Canada in 1958. He attended the Alberta College of Art in Calgary for a few years, where he produced some of his earliest work when he created the superhero Gay Guy for the college newspaper, The Emery Weal. However Byrne and the school eventually realized that his interests lay elsewhere. He made his first professional sale in 1971 to The Monster Times.
In 1974 he got his first assignment with Marvel Comics, in the form of a short story ("Dark Asylum") which eventually appeared in Giant-Sized Dracula #5, a year or so later. Meanwhile, editor Nicola Cuti asked Byrne to do the fan character ROG-2000 for Charlton Comics, and this led to his first full title assignment Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch. Wheelie was followed in short order by Doomsday+1, Space: 1999 and a single issue of Emergency!. He eventually moved on to Marvel Comics and DC Comics where he has handled nearly every major character at one time or another.
Partnership with Chris Claremont and X-Men Years
Byrne ended up doing art chores for Chris Claremont on several projects, including Iron Fist and Marvel Team-Up, and eventually replaced Dave Cockrum as the artist of Uncanny X-Men. Byrne and Claremont worked in tandem, with Byrne contributing a lot of plotlines for the book. Their work can be best described as a collaboration between artist and writer in terms of plot-lines, similar to how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked. For instance, in the famed Hellfire Club/Dark Phoenix storyline, Claremont had the idea to use the club, Byrne contributed specifics, including the use of Mastermind in the "Jason Wyngarde" persona, both of which were influenced by an episode of The Avengers televison show, and actor Peter Wyngarde).
While their work was successful, Byrne describes his working relationship with Claremont as a Gilbert and Sullivan relationship, and while the collaboration was successful, he became very frustrated with the creative process and the lack of final control over plot. For instance, Byrne completely plotted the storyline which was dubbed "Days of Future Past". His original intent was a battle the X-Men won at the end, but Claremont's scripting made it seem like a downbeat failure.
Despite Byrne's dislike of Claremont's plots and elements of his characterization, both during and after his tenure on the book, he has also complimented Claremont. In one interview for Comics Interview, he stated if he was Editor-in-Chief of Marvel, he would let Claremont do what he does. And he has complimented Chris on making the X-Men a success, noting that sales skyrocketed after he left the book.
Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, and other Marvel Work
After Byrne left the X-Men, he took over the Fantastic Four as both writer and artist. His run was well-recieved by fans and critics, and ended up increasing his popularity. His run is considered by many critics to be the best since Lee and Kirby, and some would argue the FF is the peak of Byrne's work. Byrne's take on the X-Men was a combination of exploring the classic themes and characters of Lee and Kirby with some unique twists. For instance, the famed "Aunt Petunia" of The Thing was revealed to be a quite young and sassy lady instead of what might have been considered a much older person. He shook things up by replacing the Thing with the She-Hulk, and having The Human Torch fall in love with Alicia Masters.
One notable way of paying homage to both creators of the book was his recap of Doctor Doom's origin. Lee and Kirby disagreed as to the deformity behind Doom's mask. Lee thought his face was horribly scared, but Kirby felt that Doom should only have a minor scar, and his vanity was the reason for his mask. Byrne combined these viewpoints--Doom originally had a small scar after a lab accident, but when he had his mask forged, he placed it on his face while scalding hot, thus causing the total disfiguration of his face.
Byrne also became a stickler for what he considered the proper characterization of his books cast. For instance, when Chris Claremont had Doctor Doom appear in the X-Men, the villain Arcade lit a match against Doom's armor. Based on past characterization, Byrne felt that Doom would have killed Arcade for that insolence. So Byrne invented the "Doombot", robotic simularicums of Doctor Doom that would explain away inconsistant characterizations of Doom in other books. He also wrote the "Trial of Galactus" storyline after Claremont, without permission, wrote a small segment featuring the Fantastic Four getting chastized by Princess Lilandra for saving Galactus.
In the midst of this success, Byrne was also offered the total creation of a book based on a super-team he created during his X-Men tenure, the Canadian supergroup Alpha Flight. While Byrne was happy to do this and was creating from a blank slate, he soon became bored with the characters--they had less appeal to him that other characters like the FF. So after 2 years, he ended up swapping books with Bill Mantlo, with him taking over the Incredible Hulk from Mantlo and Mantlo taking over Alpha Flight.
Conflicts with Jim Shooter
Byrne became increasing critical of Marvel under Jim Shooter's regime. He felt Shooter was micromanaging things at Marvel. His first complaint came during a short-lived run he had on Captain America with writer Roger Stern. Stern and Byrne wanted to have a three-part story involving The Red Skull. Shooter had recently instituted a policy that storylines should only take 1 or 2 issues to tell, and would not approve a three-part storyline, so both Stern and Byrne left the book. He disliked being forced into the Secret Wars crossovers, particularly incensed that an emotional story called hero had to involve the Beyonder.
He also noticed that Shooter was increasing his input into storylines. For instance, he originally wrote a sequence explaining the resurrection of Jean Grey and the difference between Jean Grey and Phoenix. Shooter ended up ordering changes by Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice, and the original art pages were replaced. (Though this may have simply been to make sure the wishes of the X-Men editors and creators were consulted in the return of an X-Men character).
Byrne decided to accept a Superman assignment from DC, one where he would re-tell and expand the origin and general theme of Superman after DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths. When Byrne accepted the Superman assignment, he claimed that Jim Shooter started interfering with his work on Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk. Because he felt he could not work unhindered, Byrne stopped doing all his work for Marvel, requiring sudden replacements on already started storylines.
Superman Revamp
Byrne worked on the 1986 revamp of Superman, The Man of Steel. He instituted several important changes to the character while keeping a lot of the traditional elements of the character. Freed of all Marvel work, wrote virtually all Superman titles for 2 years or so. Byrne treated the title as a new title, and wrote the title as if Superman was encountering the villains for the first time.
Byrne also did a few other projects for DC, including Legends. He also took a few shots at his former employer, by portraying a villain who could "create a New Universe" and looked a lot like Jim Shooter, as well as a Beyonder parody in Superman.
Byrne ended up leaving Superman suddenly. He did not discuss the details at the time, but later revealed that he felt DC comics didn't support his changes. When both the fan press and mainstream press interviewed DC about the changes, he felt that the management did not back him up and distanced themselves from the project, and was concerned about how his changes would affect the numerous licenses. Frustrated with this, he ended up leaving the series and going back to do Marvel work.
Other Projects
After Superman, Byrne returned to Marvel, and ended up working on the second She-Hulk series, as well as The Avengers and Avengers West Coast. He then worked on Namor and Iron Man. He also worked on a limited series for DC, a revamp of OMAC.
He has also produced his own creator-owned projects for Dark Horse Comics, including John Byrne's Next Men, Danger Unlimited, and Babe. Byrne ended up abandoning creator owned work after the comic market collapse of the mid-1990s.
Byrne first returned to DC to work on a revamp of Wonder Woman, and then later New Gods. He then returned to Marvel to work on several projects, including a revamp of Spider-Man, , a series called , and X-Men: The Hidden Years. In the meantime, he worked on a prestige project for DC, . After an editorial shake-up at Marvel, the editorial staff cancelled his X-Men title. In disgust, Byrne decided to stop working for Marvel and refuses to work for the company until the editorial management changes.
Byrne did 2 sequels for Generations at DC, though both were not as successful as the prestige project. He also created a short-lived creator-owned series for DC called Lab Rats.
The most recent works John Byrne has created include a revamp of Doom Patrol and The Demon, and doing art for Action Comics.
Non Comic Book Projects
Byrne drew ten weeks of the comic strip Funky Winkerbean while its creator, Tom Batiuk, was recovering from foot surgery.
In addition to his comic book work, Byrne has published three novels: Fearbook, Whipping Boy and . He also has short stories in the Hotter Blood and Shock Rock anthologies. Fearbook was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers of America as "Best First Novel".
Family
His stepson is comic book artist Kieron Dwyer and they collaborated on stories featuring the character Torch of Liberty, part of the Danger Unlimited universe.
External links
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