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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11492
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 7:39am | IP Logged | 1
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To use J.B. as an example, Chris Claremont could be wordy
on Uncanny X-Men, but J.B. made the conversations
interesting with different angles and facial expressions,
there was always something to catch your eye. Some of the
20th century stuff by other writer/artist teams was just
talking heads in grids, which i found boring. A lot of the
art i have seen of today's comics isn't to my taste either.
A lack of the smooth kinetic style of Byrne,Perez, Romita,
Davis to name a few. it's been a decade at least since i
regularly bought new comics.
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Craig Earl
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1644
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 11:43am | IP Logged | 2
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Spot on, Bill (I instantly conjured up an image of Logan crushing a beer can in the background!).
Chris seemed to use an awful lot of wordy thought balloons in those days too.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135458
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | 3
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Chris Claremont could be wordyon Uncanny X-Men, but J.B. made the conversationsinteresting with different angles and facial expressions,there was always something to catch your eye.••• To be clear, you understand the pictures came first? Marvel method, plot-pencils-script.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135458
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | 4
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Chris seemed to use an awful lot of wordy thought balloons in those days too.••• I noted at the time that Chris’ characters always thought in paragraphs.
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Scott Gray
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 August 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 74
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | 5
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I can't imagine most artists get into comics with dreams of drawing talking heads scenes. But most comics writers don't have strong visual imaginations, so when they're writing full scripts, we get a lot of talky-talky because it's much easier to do than describing visually complex actions and settings.
I'd say about 98% of the truly great comic books and comic strips - the ones that remain in print for decades and are immensely influential - have been created by writer/artists. They've always been the ones to push the medium forward. The comics industry doesn't like to acknowledge that, though, because it puts too much power in the hands of a single individual.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135458
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | 6
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I’ve noticed for decades that many writers do not know how to think in pictures. Too often when writing full scripts they ask for real movement and multiple camera angles in the same panel. That was how I came to do those multiple figure shots in IRON FIST. Many fans ordering commission pieces would often do the same. It got to the point where Jim Warden and I had to stop accepting their descriptions of what they wanted!
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Scott Gray
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 August 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 74
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | 7
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Yeah. One of the most important elements of comics that has to be grasped by a professional is that it is a STATIC medium. All the pictures are frozen. The only movement taking place is in the reader's mind.
That's also the primary magic of the medium, of course. Because when we read a comic by Kirby or Herge or Schulz we DO see that movement.
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8278
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 8
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I would love for the Marvel method to return. There are a
few comics that I still enjoy such as Geiger and Redcoat,
but so much of what is produced does not appeal to me art
wise.
I could read them for free on Marvel Universe, but still
don't. When I have tried, I have nor found them engaging
at all.
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16311
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | 9
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Not only is the talking heads stuff visually and plot-wise boring (and not necessarily interesting dialogue-wise either), but it is insanely quick to read because there is nothing to stop your eye. often the panels look almost xeroxed from one to the next, so your eye just runs through the words. That's not comics!
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Brian Floyd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 8806
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | 10
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I also miss the days when covers weren't pinups. Or, if they were, they actually had something to do with the story inside.
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Craig Earl
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1644
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| Posted: 01 January 2026 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | 11
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I also miss the days when covers weren't pinups
---------------
Or when panels weren't pinups, for that matter. There was a period in the nineties when every panel with a female character seemed to feature the Brokeback pose.
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Peter Hicks
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 2091
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| Posted: 02 January 2026 at 12:39am | IP Logged | 12
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“ Gene Colan drew three pages of Captain America walking down the street. Just walking down the street. Stan filled it with contemplative commentary from Cap”************ I recall an interview with Colan where he said he sometimes completely messed up the pacing by using “The Marvel Method”, ie, Stan briefly told the penciller what would happen and then the penciller had to work out the details. Colan said he often spent too many pages on the non superhero conversation pages, and then realized he had very few pages left for the big battle at the end of the issue.
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