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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132133
Posted: 22 June 2021 at 7:52am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

It's astonishing to me how much good work was being done even though in today's terms it was being "cranked out". Perez, Byrne, the Buscemas each had multiple books each month in the late 70s and were just rocking out great work over and over month in and month out.

•••

A lot of that, I think, had to do with there being no royalties, and for many of us what amounted to slave wages. We were there for the joy of the work, not on a quest to get the hottest titles and the biggest paycheck. Simpler times.

(I’ve told before of how Shooter called me one day to tell me he had wrangled a raise for me, and henceforth I would be receiving Marvel’s highest page rate “except for John Buscema.”

(“What does that mean?” I asked. “Am I going to be getting the highest rate or not?”

(“You’ll be getting the highest rate,” said Shooter, “except Buscema has it in his contract that whoever gets the highest rate, he gets more.”

(“Then I’m not getting the highest rate. Buscema is getting the highest rate—and deservedly so.”

(“But you get the highest rate of anyone else!”

(“Then call it that! I don’t care if Buscema gets ten times as much as me—just don’t tell me I’m getting the highest rate when I’m not!”)

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Daniel Gillotte
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 11 October 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2576
Posted: 22 June 2021 at 10:50am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I'm glad to hear that John Buscema was compensated decently. He was SUCH a huge part of Marvel in the 70s and 80s, but I'm sorry the rest of you weren't paid as well you deserved.

As far as you all producing so much work at little pay- I really appreciate when folks doing essentially "piece work" still put so much artistry and talent into it. Y'all didn't NEED to create masterpieces on the regular and yet many of you did, especially you, JB, the other JB and Mr. Perez.
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Steven Myers
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 10 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5619
Posted: 22 June 2021 at 11:00am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

It turns out I, too, am paid more than all the people who are paid less than me!
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4810
Posted: 22 June 2021 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

And the highest-paid except for those paid more Stephen!
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4810
Posted: 22 June 2021 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

JB - when we see the mountain of quality work produced in the 70's it's a testament to the work ethic of people like you, George Perez, the Buscemas, Ross Andru, Rich Buckler, Jim Mooney, Bob Brown, Don Heck, George Tuska, Gene Colan, and many others.

I don't think new fans are aware of the deadlines involved back then and how important it was to get the finished product to the printers to avoid fines.  Guys like Heck, Mooney, Sal Buscema, and yes, even Vince Colletta were invaluable to Marvel in their ability to get the work done fast.

No growing roses in the 70's!

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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6059
Posted: 22 June 2021 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Trying to stack the 70's against the 60's is kind of tough. I was there in the 70's. I liked it.

But when I read Fantastic Four 1-100, Spider-Man 1-100, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish -- I could easily remember almost every single issue.

If that's the standard, then yes-- the 70's fell FAR short of the mark.
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132133
Posted: 22 June 2021 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Every once in a while someone will present a list of the 100 greatest comics of all time. Even tho my work is usually in there somewhere, my response is “first 100 issues of FANTASTIC FOUR. Done!”
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4810
Posted: 23 June 2021 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

The main problem about comparing the 70's to the 60's is that they were cranking out so many more books and they weren't being produced because there were that many good ideas, they were just trying to force other publisher's books off the newsstand.

So we got our Human Fly, Black Goliath, Skull the Slayer, Man From Atlantis, Super-Villain Team-Up, etc.

I think Marvel's best work was done was DC was distributing their books and held their number of titles down.



Edited by Robert Bradley on 23 June 2021 at 3:35pm
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Daniel Gillotte
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 11 October 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2576
Posted: 24 June 2021 at 10:19am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Marvel really was the house of ideas in the 70s and 80s in that there were lots of ideas, many of them terrible.
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Jim Lynch
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Joined: 21 August 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 617
Posted: 24 June 2021 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

JB, from whom did Shooter have to wrangle a raise? Who set the rates for artists, if not the EIC?
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132133
Posted: 24 June 2021 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Exactly.
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Adam Schulman
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 22 July 2017
Posts: 1717
Posted: 24 June 2021 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

One person's list of their favorite Marvel comics of the '70s here.
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