| Posted: 21 April 2025 at 2:48am | IP Logged | 1
|
post reply
|
|
I got a weird thought in my head the other night that I wonder what a John Byrne Gambit would look like. It turned out that Bryne had rendered him in a panel once after all, in one of those early 90's X-Men relaunch issues that had 10 different artists doing random things. Not certain of his particular regard for Jim Lee, specifically, but am certainly aware that Byrne isn't particularly fond of most of the Image guys, nor likely particularly fond of their work, which somehow makes the idea of him drawing those types of characters more interesting and amusing to me.
I'd be interested to see his takes on certain things, especially if they're things not remotely associated with him, like maybe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Scud: The Disposable Assassin. If anyone has anything along these lines to share, maybe in the way of commissions or something, I'd be highly interested. Thanks.
((This thread is likely redundant, and worse yet, possibly annoying to John Byrne himself if he happens to read this, which may be cause to banish me. So, in that event, I just want to tell you, Thank You, John Byrne, for all your contributions to the comic book medium, all your awesome artwork, covers, splash pages, and clever title cards. Thank You for all your X-Men work. Thank You for Wolverine. I know he became the "Fonz" of the group, and his fandom could be considered generic, or unsophisticated, or whatever. But he's absolutely one of my favorite characters, and that is absolutely very largely attributed to you. You deserve creator credit for that character. That is a John Byrne character, as far as I'm concerned. He wasn't ISH until you got a hold of him. You defined him, fleshed him out, imbued him with pieces of shared Canadian heritage -- Mt. Logan, etc. -- and your attitude. I draw a lot of parallels between him and you, specifically, from stories and accounts of your many conflicts and disputes behind the bullpen. A loner-type, doesn't tend to play well with others, no-sugar-coating his opinions, abrasive, etc. All of which is awesome. Oh, and the Brown & Tan was definitely his best suit by far, and Jim Lee never should've retired it for his old bumblebee duds. Lastly, Thank You for Elsewhen. Pretty convinced I prefer your X-Men writing/direction to Claremont's. Not to take anything away from him. We need him there. His identity is all through the seminal material, and he did a lot of great stuff. He also did a lot of stuff I can't stand, and often really weighed a page down with meandering pretentious-ness, and had a really weird hang-up with demons and the occult. Your solo run reads like a breeze, tends to stick to more straightforward science fiction, and is just more fun. It was a real treat to read brand new vintage X-Men. That's it.))
EDIT: So, the forum is not letting me post my reply for whatever reason. It IS letting me edit this, but that's all it's letting me do. Not sure if I'm banned or what, but was quite prepared for that possible outcome, and figured it pretty likely John Byrne would find me annoying, haha. But that's OK.
The following is my attempted reply:
Thanks for the replies, everybody! And I am profoundly sorry to have misspelled Mr. Byrne's name an exceedingly obnoxious number of times! I'm not sure if it was purely me, or my stupid built-in autocorrect feature that was the culprit...
But, I'm inclined to think it was the autocorrect! Because I'm a huge John Byrne fan, I've consumed a great deal of his material, seen his written & printed name enough, as well as researched him fairly comprehensively over the years that I'd like to think I knew how to spell his name correctly before I joined his fan forum.
I meant no disrespect or irritation, and I will correct my OP.
Anyway: I had no idea Byrne ever drew Deadpool! That's awesome! Thanks so much for sharing! I must admit I am a fan of the character... though would like to clarify: that certainly isn't a credit to his creator's abysmal writing chops, but to some of his later writers such as Joe Kelly & Christopher Priest that wrote stories for him that were actually about something, and really defined him as a truly unique and interesting character, with stories that are very different from other characters. And he's certainly an offspring/spin-off of Wolverine's, and I always dug the whole Weapon X lore. So, while I'd concede he's pretty much a cartoon caricature not much worth anyone's time at this point, near as I can tell, there really used to be something a little deeper there going for him...
And even though Liefeld's inadequacies/issues are well-known, and I'd assume Mr. Byrne is no great admirer -- with every good reason -- I have listened to a few of Liefeld's podcasts detailing his comic fandom, and Liefeld genuinely loves and admires John Byrne's work dearly. Liefeld's favorite X-Men material is my favorite X-Men material, and he articulated the particular Byrne-factor that changed the whole character of the title and elevated it to the highest heights of comic book greatness very well. So, in my opinion, regardless of his own particular talent (or lack thereof), he does understand it. His love and fandom is very enthusiastic and genuine, so I'd bet he'd be very honored to know Byrne rendered one of his creations.
... even if Byrne was cringing and rolling his eyes the whole time, haha.
Edited by Daniel LaClair on 03 May 2025 at 9:08am
|