John Byrne

John Byrne 1992

John Lindley Byrne (born July 6, 1950 in Walsall , England) is an American comic book author and illustrator.

life and career

Byrne was born in Walsall, England in 1950 to Frank and Nelsie Byrne. At the age of eight, after living with his grandmother for a time, he moved to Canada with his parents. It was there that Byrne, who has been color blind since birth, began studying at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary after finishing school. He left this after only two years of studies to work as a freelance artist.

Artistic beginnings at Charlton and Marvel (1973–1985)

In 1973 Byrne hired the small publisher Charlton Comics, for which he was responsible for the series Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch and Doomsday + 1 . In 1974 he was hired by the publisher Marvel Comics , for whom he designed series such as Iron Fist and Champions until he took over the job of permanent draftsman for the ailing series Uncanny X-Men in 1977 as the successor to artist Dave Cockrum (starting with # 108). Byrne's Compagnon on this series was author Chris Claremont . The partnership between Byrne and Claremont turned out to be extremely fruitful: together they created effective stories like the Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past . After working exclusively as a draftsman, Byrne increasingly appeared as a co-author. Together, the duo developed well-known and popular characters such as Sebastian Shaw or the Canadian hero troupe Alpha Flight . Due to its enormous popularity, the latter even got its own series in 1983. Byrne finally left the Uncanny X-Men after artistic differences with Claremont with issue # 143. The series had now become the most commercially successful comic book series on the US market.

In addition to his work on the Alpha Flight series , which he created , Byrne also took over the Fantastic Four series in 1981 , which he designed both as an author and as a draftsman. His work on this series enjoyed great popularity with both the general readership and critics, with Byrne's stories and drawings often hailed as the best interpretation of the characters in more than twenty years, since the first stories about the hero team. Other works from this year were six issues of the Hulk series (# 314-319)

Byrne's middle years (1986-1999)

In the mid-1980s Byrne was commissioned by Marv Wolfman to overhaul the traditional comic figure Superman and to work out a completely new interpretation of the character that was "adapted to the modern present of the 1980s". The draft that he finally submitted was endorsed by Jenette Kahn , then President of DC Publishing , who holds the rights to Superman, and her Executive President Dick Giordano , and Byrne in 1986 as the new regular artist in the Superman series (s) involved.

In the same year, DC published the six-part miniseries " Man of Steel ", in which Byrne retold the story of the origin of the iconic forefather of all superheroes. He cleverly mixed classic elements with contemporary modernisms, which were adapted to the conditions of the 80s: Byrne wrote numerous old characters - secondary characters such as villains - out of the series, gave others a new personality, a changed appearance or a different background story Compared to the old version, Superman's hometown Metropolis and its home planet Krypton have been redesigned and the Superman series has also been enriched with numerous new characters such as Maggie Sawyer, the head of the special police unit in Superman's hometown Metropolis, the scientist Kitty Faulkner, the demon Skyhook, the Aliens Psi-Phon and Dreadnought, the scheming dwarf Sleez and the insane Professor Taddaeus Killgrave. Byrne's "reboot" of the Superman material met with extensive media coverage: In 1986, for example, the New York Times reported on the project and Time Magazine was Byrne's work on Superman on the occasion of the comic character's 50th "birthday" in the year 1988 even worth a cover story.

During his nearly two-year run on Superman, Byrne created the monthly ongoing core series Superman and Action Comics , a kind of Superman team-up series at the time, both as a writer and as an illustrator. Added to this were the three four-part miniseries World of Metropolis , World of Krypton and World of Smallville and finally, for a short time, after the departure of Marv Wolfman, who had previously supervised the series, the authorship of the third monthly Superman series, Adventures of Superman . From the workload of writing three series a month and drawing two of them - Byrne's stories for Adventures of Superman were illustrated by Jerry Ordway - Byrne finally felt overwhelmed, so he gave up working on Superman entirely and doing writing and drawing jobs for all series submitted. While Ordway also took on the authorship of the Adventures of Superman in addition to his duties as a draftsman , Byrne gave the actual Superman series to his friend Roger Stern , while George Pérez took over the action comics .

In 1989, Byrne finally returned to Marvel Comics, where he took over the series " Avengers West Coast " and " Wolverine " as a writer and illustrator. Then he devoted himself to the underwater comic Namor the Submariner and the humorous series " She-Hulk ", which enjoyed great popularity because of its tongue-in-cheek comedy. This was followed by work on the Marvel series Iron Man (# 258-277), for which he collaborated with illustrator Paul Ryan , as well as some independent projects such as Next Men (thirty issues), Babe and Danger Unlimited . For these projects, Byrne founded together with Frank Miller and Walt Simonson the imprint Legends for the publisher Dark Horse Comics , which marketed these comics, while the rights were with Byrne as a private individual.

In the mid and late 1990s he designed series such as Jack Kirby's Fourth World , around the extraterrestrial race of the New Gods , Wonder Woman , the four-part miniseries Genesis (1997) and the four-part mini-series, Genesis (1997), created by his great idol Kirby in the 1970s. Prestige Series, Superman & Batman: Generations (1998). The attempt to overhaul the Marvel hero Spider-Man in the late 1990s, like Superman in the 1980s, met with little success: Byrne's work on the restarted series Amazing Spider-Man - which he drew as a partner of author Howard Mackie - was rejected by the majority of readers, as was the newly created series "Spider-Man: Chapter One". The series Marvel: The Lost Generation and X-Men - The Hidden Years , conceived by Byrne together with the author Roger Stern, were quite popular. He then worked as a draftsman for the Orion series .

He also wrote the novels Whipping Boy and Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses .

Recent projects

In 1999 Byrne again took over the writing duties for the Marvel series Hulk , but left it again - as in 1986 - prematurely after there were artistic differences with the publishing house management about the direction he intended to take with the main character. He only completed seven editions and one annual of his one-year run, which Ron Garney implemented in drawings. This was followed by almost two years (1999-2001), twenty-two issues comprehensive work on the series X-Men: The Hidden Years .

From 2004 to 2006, Byrne wrote and drew the fantasy series Blood of the Demon about the demon Etrigan, invented by Jack Kirby . This was followed by engagements as a draftsman for the first three issues of the newly launched superhero series Atom , as well as five issues of the JLA series (# 94-99) and nine issues of Action Comics (# 827-835) written by Gail Simone .

Artistic style and reputation

Byrne is one of the most controversial characters in the US comic industry. On the one hand, he is admired and respected because of his dynamic drawing style - which can be recognized by the classic style of Jack Kirby and the naturalistic ductus of Neal Adams and is particularly noticeable for his poorly detailed realism - and his undoubtedly fertile and productive imagination; on the other hand, many colleagues throw and Reader Byrne, as the supervising author and draftsman of ongoing series, disrespectfully treats the work of his predecessors, which he often deliberately ignores after taking over series. He also has a reputation for being an egomaniac and unduly self-confident.

Artists who claim to have trained their own style on Byrnes' include Todd McFarlane , George Pérez and Jim Lee .

Family and private person

Byrne, who was married to photographer Andrea Braun Byrne for fifteen years, is divorced and has lived in Connecticut ever since.

Prices

Byrne has received numerous awards for his work over the years. In 1985 and 1997 he received the "Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award" for the most popular author (a total of 6 nominations) and in 1992 the Squiddy Award for the most popular cartoonist. He was also nominated five times for the "Comic Buyer's Award" for the best cover picture and twice for the best ink work.

bibliography

Working for Marvel Comics

• Alpha Flight (1983–1985)
• Avengers and Avengers West Coast (1989-1999)
• Captain America (1979–1980, draftsman)
• Fantastic Four (1979-1986)
• Iron Man (1990-1992, Author) # 258-277; Annual # 10 (draftsman, 1989)
• The Incredible Hulk # 314-319 (author / illustrator, 1985-1986)
• Hulk # 1-7 (Author, 1999); Annual 1 (Author, 1999)
• Marvel: The Lost Generation (2000-2001)
• Namor the Sub-Mariner (1990-1992)
• New Mutants vol. 1 # 75
• She-Hulk (1989, 1991-1993)
• Spider-Man: Chapter One (1998-1999)
• The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 # 189, 190, 206 (draftsman); 249, 268, 296 (cover artist); 440-441 (author, 1998)
• The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 (1999-2000; author of issues # 1-18; author of # 13 and 14)
• Uncanny X-Men (1977–1981 co-author and illustrator; 1991–1992 author)
• X-Men: The Hidden Years # 1-22 (author / illustrator, 1999-2001)

DC Comics

• Action Comics (1987–1988 author / draftsman; 2005–2006 draftsman); Annual 1 (Author, 1987); Annual 6 (1994, author / illustrator)
• Adventures of Superman # 436-442, 444 (Author, 1988); Annual # 2 (Inker, 1990)
• Blood of the Demon # 1-15 (author / illustrator, 2005-2006)
• Doom Patrol # 1-18 (author / illustrator, 2004-2005)
• Man of Steel (author / illustrator, 1986) (6 issues, miniseries)
• Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale (author and illustrator, together with Larry Niven), 1992, ISBN 1-56389-026-7
• Jack Kirby's Fourth World # 1-20 (author / illustrator, 1997-1998)
• JLA (2004, "Tenth Circle" storyline, jointly Chris Claremont)
• Lab Rats (2002-2003)
• Legends (1986, # 1-6, miniseries)
• New Gods (vol. 4) # 12-15 (Author / illustrator)
• OMAC (1991, miniseries)
• Superman (vol. 2) (1986–1988 as an author and illustrator; Author # 1-22; illustrator # 1-17, 19-22); 50 (draftsman); Annual 1 (1987, writer);

Annual 2 (1988, writer and illustrator of the backup story)

• Superman: The Earth Stealers (1988, Author)
• Superman & Batman: Generations (1999, 2001, 2003;)
• World of Krypton # 1-4 (1987, miniseries) (writer and cover artist)
• World of Metropolis # 1-4 (1988, miniseries) (Writer and Cover Artist)
• World of Smallville # 1-4 (1988, miniseries) (Writer and Cover Artist)
• The All-New Atom (2006)
• Wonder Woman (Volume 2, # 101-136, 1995-1998)

Working for Dark Horse

• Babe (1994)
• Danger Unlimited (1993)
• John Byrne's 2112 (1991)
• John Byrne's Next Men (1992-1994)

Novels

• John L. Byrne's Fear Book. 1988 ISBN 0-446-34814-7 .
• Whipping boy. 1992, ISBN 0-440-21171-9 .
• Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses. 1997, ISBN 0-7615-0483-4 .

Webcomics

• You Go, Ghoul! (2004)

Remarks

1. ↑ Other artists whose style Byrne states they influenced him include Gil Kane , Steve Ditko , Jean Giraud , Frank Hampson , Frank Bellamy , Gene Colan , Frank Miller , John Berkey , Syd Mead and Giles.

Web links

• Literature by and about John Byrne in the catalog of the German National Library