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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135754
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | 1
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When I was a kid, “Bob Kane” was my favorite artist. After all, he drew Batman (and was one of a handful of people who had an actual credit on the first page).One thing I found intriguing was his use of subtly—and sometimes not so subtly—different styles for different stories. I assumed he did it for the “atmosphere” of each tale, and decided I should do the same. Years later I learned those different styles were actually different artists, but by then the damage was done. Giving each series its own “flavor” had become an unconscious compulsion. I could not have made ELSEWHEN look like OMAC no matter how hard I tried.
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8372
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | 2
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I've just started OMAC for the the first time ever due to
this thread. There seems to be an interesting blend of
several Byrne styles in this strip.
The explosions in issue 1 remind me of Next Men.
Loving it so far.
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Jason K Fulton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 September 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 820
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | 3
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I would think having different flavors would keep the work interesting for you as well? 12 year old me wanted you to do the FANTASTIC FOUR forever - but 35+ years later, I realize doing the same work in the same way every day can be absolutely miserable. And creating comics is clearly WORK.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135754
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | 4
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Well, it’s a JOB, something too many people fail to grasp.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31903
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | 5
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Well, JB, aren’t you a titleholder of Rushton, after all?
(I know your dad was a Lord, but I don’t know if that title transfers to you or
if you’re called something else, being his son.)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135754
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | 6
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I am, indeed, Lord of the Manor of Rushton. Or Lord Rushton if you’re, er, in a rush.
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Steve Coates
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 November 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 918
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | 7
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My Lord,
How did working with assholes affect your daily page rate?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135754
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 1:19am | IP Logged | 8
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Sadly, I am one of those “sensative” types whose environment deeply impacts his work. :-( (Incidentally, since I am not your lord, “your lordship” is the proper form of address—Chris Claremont notwithstanding.)
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4954
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 1:36am | IP Logged | 9
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Back in the 70's some of the work by stalwarts like Sal Buscema, Don Heck and Jim Mooney was labeled as "rushed" by fans. And in some cases it might have been to fill in to meet a deadline, but once we heard that too many of the fans felt they were expert enough to identify that in someone's work. But we never new how much was the actual pencils and what might have been inferior inking.
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8372
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 7:00am | IP Logged | 10
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I never knew when a comic was rushed.
I did often know when a comic was taking too long - because there was a fill
in or the comic was really late.
For me, the first ‘what on earth is going on here, just finish it already’ was
Camelot 3000. Issues started to creep later and later until issue 12 ended
up taking about a year.
Dark Knight and Watchmen were the next times I really noticed it.
The Image boys wore lateness like a badge of honour and brought a level of
unprofessionalism to the business that I could not believe would have been
allowed had they remained at the big two. But instead, the big two seemed
to embrace that model, rather than fight against it.
Me? I would have used that in my advertising and made damn sure my
books were on time - this month and every month!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135754
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | 11
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Of all his sins, Todd McFarlane’s greatest must surely be selling consumers on the idea that late books were due to the creators working extra hard—“growing roses”.Declaring that he and his cronies could “crap out a book every month” not only insulted artists who had been producing work on schedule for decades—myself included—but played directly to the growing number of fans who wanted to work in comics without having to actually WORK. Hitting deadlines was only for those content to produce inferior material. All of which led inexorably to Joe Quesada declaring that fans didn’t EXPECT the books to come out on time.
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