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Topic: Q for JB: Sasquatch Post Reply | Post New Topic
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Michael Arndt
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 26 April 2004
Posts: 8553
Posted: 20 October 2021 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Hi JB,
When you started on Alpha Flight as a monthly did you already have in mind Sasquatch's connection to the Great Beasts?
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 20 October 2021 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Nope. AF was plotted on the fly. Almost issue to issue.

Really walking a tightrope!

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Bruce Eaton
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 09 June 2019
Location: United States
Posts: 31
Posted: 20 October 2021 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

JB - I am curious. Did you prefer the more carefully crafted story arcs or the issue to issue, plot as you go, method of creating comics?
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Marc Baptiste
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3655
Posted: 20 October 2021 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

JB,

Amazing!! You could have fooled me; you wove the stories so seamlessly that in retrospect, I thought you had Sasquatch in mind as one of the Great Beasts from as far back as issue 1 when you introduced Tundra!

Marc
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 7:05am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

ALPHA FLIGHT assembled itself almost as a series of building blocks, one laid upon another. And, of course, the growing forms suggested more places to go and things to do.

Thru the first year, the single solid spine I worked off was Mac's death, which I knew would happen in issue 12.

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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3104
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 8:02am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Maybe this working method was one of the reasons the book resonated so differently than anything I was reading at the time. I've mentioned here before that your run on Alpha Flight was a pretty important bridge for me between 'comics as entertainment' and 'comics as art form'*.  

The unhurried plotting; the quieter character moments; the open feel of the environs; the sense that this was the work of a single writer/artist establishing his own world; etc. It all pointed me in a direction of wanting more books with that flavor, and not finding them within the Marvel/DC books I was reading exclusively.

*Noting here that I don't place a value judgement on either of those classifications, and I still read comics for both reasons - but it's always nice when a book is entertaining and also artfully done.
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Jonathan A. Dowdell
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 July 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 416
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 9:19am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

One of the things about Alpha Flight I noticed as a kid was that Sasquatch's foot in X-Men appearances was human and in early Alpha issues was ape-like. I always wondered if that was a plot point or just artist's prerogative? 

p.s. this memory may be faulty, I did not recheck this before posting...
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 9:25am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I chose to give Sasquatch a more apelike foot by invoking the most revered of comicbook traditions: BECAUSE I COULD!

There was no subtext to it, tho.

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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15729
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 9:50am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I really liked the way the big things unfolded in Alpha Flight. Makes me wonder what might have come next and how things would have panned out between Talisman and Shaman had you stayed another year. Did you have any plan for what was next for Walter?
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Marc Baptiste
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3655
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 11:16am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

The biggest "unknown" that I was waiting to find out what who Nemesis was!! Yes, JB, I saw that pointy ear (just like the twins have) that you had showing through her hair!!

Marc
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3104
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

For some reason, I keep thinking of this Garfield strip from 1982: 






Edited by Dave Kopperman on 21 October 2021 at 12:59pm
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 21 October 2021 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

From when I first heard it, “Sasquatch” sounded like a sound effect to me. Like what you might hear if the Hulk punched the Man-Thing.
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