M O D E R N M A S T E R S V O L U M E S E V E N :

JOHN BYRNE

By Jon B. Cooke and Eric Nolen-Weathington

 Modern Masters Volume Seven:

JOHN BYRNE
Table of Contents
Introduction by Walter Simonson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Part One: Drawing with a Ballpoint Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Part Two: The Fantastic Climb up the Marvel Ladder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Part Three: Up, up, and Away from Marvel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Part Four: A Legend is Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Part Five: Storytelling and the Creative Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Part Six: John Byrne Takes On... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

3
Part 1: Drawing with a
Ballpoint Pen

JON B. COOKE: Where are you originally from? JOHN: Quite a bit, yeah. In fact, I said to Mike Carlin a
while back—this was when I was doing the John Cleese
JOHN BYRNE: Well, I was born in England and I lived Superman project [True Brit], and so I’m calling up all my
there for about the first eight years of my life. Then we old memories of England, because the gag is what if
immigrated to Canada, and I lived there until I was Superman landed in England rather than the United
about 30. Then I came to the States. States. And I said, “Y’know, people are going to discover
JBC: Do you have any brothers and sisters? my secret, here.” Because I have this reputation for being
able to draw the ’30s and the ’40s so very well, and all I’m
JOHN: No, only child. really doing when I do that is drawing the England that I
remember. So now I’m drawing the England that I
JBC: What did your parents do? remember as England. So people will know my dark secret.
JOHN: My father is a town planner—zoning, architec- JBC: What year were you born?
ture, that kind of stuff—and my mother is a housewife.
JOHN: 1950.
JBC: What got you guys to make the move to Canada?
JBC: So England was still in a post-war kind of semi-
JOHN: Land of opportunity. They wanted me to have Depression...?
a better chance than they’d had, and they thought they
could find it there. JOHN: Pretty much. I have false memories of
World War II because all my relatives talked about
JBC: Was it pretty much a middle-class life style? it so much when I was a kid. It took me a long
time to realize that I had not actually lived
JOHN: Mostly, yeah. Maybe nudging
through World War II, because I have such.... A
toward upper-middle-class. But my
few years ago, when people started talking
father was, by the end of his career,
about false memory syndrome,
fairly highly-placed in the city gov-
I went, “I know what that is! I
ernment in Calgary. He was the
know exactly what that is!”
City Clerk, which is a lowly-
sounding term for what is the JBC: Did Birmingham suffer
highest non-elective office. So much damage?
he was powerful. I didn’t realize
how powerful when I was a JOHN: Quite a bit, yeah. The
kid, but... we lived all right. street that I lived on in West Bromwich
until I was about eight, I would go down the
JBC: Where you were born? street around the corner to walk to school,
and two houses in, there was a vacant lot
JOHN: I was only born where I
which was a bomb site. It was a house
was born. We lived in a town called
that had been completely taken out
West Bromwich, which is just north
by a German bomb in World War
of Birmingham.
II. It was just around the corner
JBC: Is that pretty much in the cen- from where my grandparents lived.
ter of the country?
JBC: So the Blitz really went that far in—?
JOHN: Yeah, the Midlands, in fact,
JOHN: Yeah. And in fact, when I was
it’s called.
about nine years old, we had a funny experi-
JBC: Do you have much memory of it? ence. Late at night a truck drove by and
backfired, and I heard this tremendous
6
thump in the next room, my parents’ room. the same cos-
My mother had actually, in her sleep, tumes—costumes
jumped out of bed and rolled under the bed. being the key
word—the same
JBC: Something she had done before? architecture. It’s a
JOHN: Yeah, an instinctive movement, very different
and now we’re talking close to ten, 15 years urban environ-
after the war. ment from what
Edmonton was,
JBC: Was there any rationing in the ’50s? because
Edmonton is
JOHN: A little bit. I didn’t feel it much. much further
north, like 120
JBC: Socialism was kind of coming—
miles north.
JOHN: Working its way in, and we were You’re starting
sort of aware of changes. That was probably to get into the
one of the key reasons that we moved to cold parts.
Canada. Calgary, yeah,
is much more
JBC: Was your father a Tory? open. They
think they’re
JOHN: Weeelll... yeah, I suppose so. He’s
cowboy.
sort of apolitical, but he would lean con-
They’re not,
servative.
but they
JBC: Obviously the climate of Calgary think they
must have been worlds different. are. [laughs]

JOHN: Well, yeah. Calgary’s better than JBC: How did

Edmonton, which is where we first landed. you come across the Pond? Did you fly?
I mean, Edmonton is that Canadian winter
JOHN: No. We took the big boat. In fact,
that people think about, where it starts in
we came over, we went back, we came
September and ends in May. [laughs] And
over again.
the skies are gray the whole time. And
then we moved to Calgary when I was 16. JBC: Why?
Calgary is in the foothills of the Rockies,
and it gets these warm winds that are JOHN: My mother decided she didn’t like
called Chinooks, and they come down it, possibly because when we came over the Previous Page: Panel
over the Rockies and the temperature will first time she had appendicitis and Dad detail in pencil form from
literally go from 40º below to 40º above couldn’t find work and I had a bone disease True Brit.
overnight. And that will last for a week or and she sort of said, “I don’t like this!” So Above: John’s old
so, just like spring, and then the winter we went back. And then we decided that, memories of England
all things considered, Canada was better. So provided nice details in
these pencils for page 47
comes back. I was there from age 16 to 30.
we returned.
JBC: Isn’t Calgary out west? of True Brit.
Superman ™ and ©2006 DC
JBC: How long was the return to
JOHN: That’s the good image for it. England? Comics.
They think they’re cowboys.
JOHN: Two years in Canada, two years
JBC: But they’re certainly more back in England, and then we returned to
“American” than the rest of Canada. Canada when I was eight. So I usually skip
the part where we went back and forth and
JOHN: Yes. Very much. In fact, the first
just say I’ve been in Canada since I was eight.
time I visited Dallas, I thought, “Wow! This
is Calgary, but bigger!” And then I thought, JBC: What was the experience of being
“Well, of course. It’s the other end of the on a boat ride for that long? What was, it,
pipeline, isn’t it?” It’s the same people, it’s five days?
7
Below: Jack Kirby, Alex
JOHN: Five days. It was wonderful. It’s the We crossed on the Queen Elizabeth, the
Toth, Steve Ditko, Ross
only way to travel. I was a tiny little kid; it’s Queen Mary, and a little boat that nobody’s
Andru, Frank Bellamy, and
a hell of an adventure. I was four or five the ever heard of called the RMS Ivernia—that
Neal Adams are but a
first trip and then seven, six-and-a-half or was the three trips. It was five days each way.
few of the legendary
whatever it works out to, and eight. We had And then, of course, a long way by train get-
comic-book artists to cross without my father, and my mother ting out to western Canada. Although that’s
whose stellar work was hideously seasick the whole trip. I had one of my favorite little memories, too, is
crowds the walls of the free run of the boat, and it was wonderful. that when I was four years old, we came in
Byrne sanctuary (not to All the stewards and whatnot took care of through New York. And I have a vivid mem-
mention spectacular art me, and I was eating in the dining room all ory of Grand Central Station from when I
by some spectacular by myself, because everybody was seasick. It was four years old. And I’ve often said Grand
comic-strip masters as was like an Atlantic crossing worse than Central Station is the only thing that hasn’t
well, including Charles
Schulz and Roy Crane).
anybody—this was on the Queen Elizabeth. gotten smaller. I stand in the middle of
The proud owner poses
Grand Central Station sometimes and I go,
JBC: It was rocky water?
before a mere portion of
“It’s still big! It’s every bit as big as it was
the breath-taking JOHN: Oh, yeah, boy. And I have one when I was four years old!”
collection at his former vivid memory, which is that I was going to
home in Fairfield, Conn.
JBC: Did you get to know other people?
the dining room. I’m four years old and I’m
Next Page: Preliminary
Were you social at all as a kid?
out there wandering around this boat by
sketches and ideas for
the Generations mini-
myself, pretty much, because everybody’s JOHN: No, I was very much a loner as a
series. As with John’s love
back in their cabins throwing up. I zigged child. It was sort of forced upon me. My
for comics, it
when I should have zagged, and I stepped parents had major wanderlust, so we moved
started with Superman
through these doors and I was out on the all the time. I don’t think the police were
and Batman.
deck. I can still see it: the sky was gunmetal, actually chasing us, but we moved all the
and the sea was actually crashing over the time, with the result that I went to nine
schools in eleven years.
And I did not live in the
same house two
Christmases in a row
until I was 16. So I pret-
ty much had to learn to
live inside my head,
which I did. I had these
comic books which
helped me a lot. They
were my friends. Which
is pretty sick and twist-
ed, I suppose, but....
I’m an only child and
did not really have a lot
of friends growing up,
because I was always
the new kid in school.
We always moved in
November, for some
reason, too. I would
start at the beginning of
the year in one school,
side of the boat. And I don’t know how my but then two months later I would move. So
little four-year-old brain worked that fast, I was very much introverted, and very, very,
Batman, Superman ™ and
but I just stepped straight back in the very shy. It probably would have helped if I’d
©2006 DC Comics. direction I’d come. I didn’t even turn had—I’ve often said that if I’d had a brother
around, and the door was, of course, or a sister, I’d probably only have half the
closed. But I can still see that. neuroses. Although perhaps I’d have twice as

8
many, who knows? But, yeah... the num-
ber of people I’ve called “real friends” over
my life I can still count on one hand.

JBC: Were you unhappy?

JOHN: I don’t think I was smart enough to

be unhappy. I know I hated it that we moved,
because I was always trying to catch up.
Somehow, they always managed to be ahead
of wherever I was in school. I always did very badly
in school; I always had bad grades. Years later, my moth-
er read an article that said, gosh, you know, if you
move a lot, your children’s grades will suffer. And I
just kind of sat there going, “Really? No! Honest?” quite read yet, but I did rec-
ognize the logo. So I thought,
JBC: Did you ever tell your parents how you felt? “Well, this must be like the
TV show.” So I got my mother to buy it, and I could sort
JOHN: Oh, yeah. “Do we have to move? I
of work my way through the stories. And that introduced
don’t wanna.” They were always taking me
me to Superman. Then several months later I saw what
away from whichever girl I decided I was
Dave Gibbons has since identified for me, it must have
in love with, too. [laughs] I think that was
been this Australian reprint called Supercomics, which had a
why they did it! So I kind of got used to
Superboy story. That was why I got it, because I figured
living in my own head and then living
Superboy must be connected to Superman somehow. It
through the comics and making my own comics and all
had a Johnny Quick story and it had a Batman story, and
that kind of stuff, which I guess most of us emotional
that was the first Batman story I ever read. Superman
cripples do.
introduced me to comics, and Batman made me an addict.
JBC: Comics were your friends. When’s your first
JBC: And you were reading an Australian reprint?
memory of seeing—?
JOHN: I was reading an Australian reprint. It was 1956
JOHN: In 1956. I worked this out with my parents a
then, so the story was at least four years old. I now have
while ago. I was introduced via the Adventures of Superman
a copy of the original American publication, which I got
TV series with George Reeves, which turned up on the
from Dick Sprang, from his personal collection. I have
BBC when we were still in England. And then walking
his copy of that comic, but I still don’t have a copy of
down the high street one day in West Bromwich I saw
Supercomics. [laughs]
one of these black-and-white hardcover annuals that they
used to do in England, and it said “Superman.” I couldn’t JBC: So Dick drew the first story?

9
Part 2: The Fantastic Climb
up the Marvel Ladder

JBC: What happened once you said, “Okay, I’m going showed it to various fanzines and they started running it.
to be a comic artist now”? And out of that, Nick Cuti at Charlton saw it, saw “Rog
2000,” and asked me if I would like to do “Rog 2000” as a
JOHN: It took me about three years to become an back-up in E-Man. And that was really my first ongoing
overnight success. I was pounding the pavement. I actually series. My first sale, my first professional sale—not count-
got a job at an outdoor advertising company in Calgary ing the Monster Times—was to Marvel, but the first stuff that
called Hook Signs as their art department, basically. I was was published on a regular basis was with Charlton.
designing all these billboards. And I cringe every time I
say “billboard,” because that’s not what they’re called in the JBC: You did go down
business, but that’s what civilians call them. to New York and show
your work, right?
JBC: What do
they call them? JOHN: Oh, yeah. I
visited all the offices. In
JOHN: They’re ’71 my parents bought
called “super- me a trip to New York
boards.” [Jon for my 21st birthday. I
laughs] That’s right. went to Marvel and I
Everything is went to DC and I went to
one step down. Warren. And they all
A show card is said, “Go away. Come
a poster and a back when you’re good.”
poster is a bill-
board and a bill- JBC: Were you
board is a super- good?
board, and all that
was drilled into me. JOHN: No.
So every time I say [laughs] I thought I
that I used to design was! [laughs] When I look
billboards, I go [whis- at people’s work now,
pers] “No, I didn’t!” Twitch, when people at con-
twitch! And I worked ventions show
there for about a year. me their
work and
JBC: Did you do calligraphy? whatnot, I
realized that
JOHN: No, I didn’t do that, that was the there are two
other department, but I would indicate it. And ways of being
then I started to get stuff through the fanzines, CPL and bad. There is the “A” way and the “B” way, as I call them.
all that stuff that Roger Stern and Bob Layton were And I was bad in the “A” way. And everybody I know,
doing back then. Jerry Ordway, George Pérez... I’ve never seen Walt’s stuff
JBC: How did you hook into that? from that early, but I bet he was bad in the “A” way.

JOHN: This was again this guy in Calgary, John JBC: Which is...?
Mansfield, who was Canadian Army. He was able to travel JOHN: I can’t really describe it, unfortunately.
all over the world and he was a big comic fan. And he was
the one who introduced my stuff to various people and JBC: It’s got something, you mean?

19
 JOHN: You can tell that there’s some- stand, they don’t get it. I mean, that’s the
thing there. And then the people who are simplest way to express it. They just don’t
bad in the “B” way, there’s a softness to it. get it. And unfortunately I’ve said this in a
It’s like they don’t have bones in their fig- couple of interviews, so now people will
ures and they all sort of look inflated and show me their stuff and they’ll say, “Am I
there’s a weird mushiness to it. And I don’t bad in the ‘A’ way or the ‘B’ way?” And I go,
know anybody who was bad in the “B” way “Oh, geez, the ‘A’ way, you’re bad in the ‘A’
Below: A 1975 Iron Fist who ever got to be good enough to way. No, you’re bad in the ‘Q’ way, man.
convention sketch. become a professional. You’ve made up your own....” Geez.
Next Page Top: A
humorous look back at JBC: There’s a foundation in the drawing? JBC: Did it deter you at all that they said
Rog-2000’s family tree. to come back?
Next Page Bottom: At JOHN: Something. There’s some under-
one time John thought standing, some basic thing that’s missing. JOHN: No. Well, I did go back to
penciling Iron Man might One of the funny things I’ve noticed is that Calgary and get a job at Hook Signs—that
be the most he could in the “B” way they always seem to have was sort of, “Oh, this’ll just be my hobby.”
aspire for, and in 1979 he strangely inflated feet, these big puffy feet.
finally made it there— And it always looks like they’re wearing JBC: But you were going to go back?
although, two years after
becoming a success on
bell-bottoms. It’s very weird. But I remem- JOHN: Well, it was.... There’s a psycholo-
X-Men. Page 2 of Iron
ber some very early Jerry Ordway stuff that gy book I have on the shelf, the title of
Man #118. Inks by Bob
he showed me one time and I went, “Yeah, which is If I’m So Successful, Why Do I Feel Like
Layton.
this is bad like I used to be bad.” And I look a Fake? And I bought it simply for that title,
at my old stuff now and I say, “Yeah, I can
Iron Fist, Iron Man ™ and
because that’s sort of my mantra. Because
see that this is bad in this particular way. I
©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. everything that happened at the early part
Rog-2000 ™ and ©2006 understand the structure, I’m just not exe- of my career just seemed to happen by
respective owner. cuting it yet.” And the people who are bad dumb luck. The right people saw the right
in the other way, they just don’t under- thing at the right time. Like, Nick Cuti saw
“Rog 2000” at just the moment
Steve Ditko said, “I don’t
want to do the back-up in
E-Man anymore.” So
Nick said, “Do you
want to do this?” And
then Chris Claremont
saw some of my stuff
at just the moment
that Pat Broderick’s cat
had thrown up on the
latest issue of Iron Fist or
something, and persuaded
John Verpoorten to call me.
“See if this guy wants to do....”
It was all these dominoes falling
over, which I guess kind of scared me
about my career sometimes, because I feel
like I’ve had no direct control over any-
thing that’s ever happened in my career.
Like, where the industry is now, I really feel
like I have to grab the tiller and do some-
thing about my life and my job. But if I do
that, I’ll hit the rocks, because I’ve never
been able to control the stuff that hap-
pens—it just happens. And that’s really
what happened at the beginning, just a
series of very fortuitous dominoes toppling.
20
JBC: What Nick was doing was just fun; there was a lot of
enthusiasm that was going on. A lot of it was really trashy, but
there was just an enthusiasm to it that was just fun. So I think
my brother and I saw you right at the start. We still have back
issues of Wheelie and Chopper Bunch, and we didn’t buy any of the
Hanna-Barbera stuff.

JOHN: Well, that was my first whole book. And I thought,

“Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch?” I'd never even seen the show; it
wasn’t running in Canada. And I just said, “Okay, if this is going
to be it, then I’m going to be the Carl Barks of Wheelie and the
Chopper Bunch.” And I put all my energy into that first issue. Then
Hanna-Barbera saw it and they said, “This is too scary. Tell him to
dumb it down.” So I dumbed it down for the second issue and it
just sucked the life right out of me, which is why I only did two
issues of the thing. It was so simple, the stuff that I had to do to
meet what Hanna-Barbera wanted, that I felt—this is going to
sound weird—but I felt wrong taking the money. It was 50 bucks
a page for pencils, inks, and lettering, right? But I just felt wrong
taking—and that’s what I said to George Wildman when I called
him. I said, “Well, I can’t do this.” And he said, “Why?” And I said,
“I just feel bad taking the money. Give me something real to do.”

JBC: And that’s when Doomsday came?

JOHN: Doomsday, and later Space: 1999.

JBC: Did
you feel
this was a project that fit in with your sensiblities?

JOHN: I really liked Doomsday +1. My expectations of where I

was going to end up in funnybooks was much lower than
where I actually ended up. I used to think that if I was really
lucky I would end up as the #1 guy of the second tier. And the
way I saw that in my mind was I’d be penciling Iron Man.
Somehow I figured that was as high as I would ever get—I
would be penciling Iron Man. And in fact when Howard
Mackie got me to write a few issues of Iron Man a few years
ago, I said, “Well, I finally made it!” It was one of those weird
things where, “That’s as high as I’m ever gonna get. So over
here at Charlton, they’re letting me do all kinds of stuff.
Wow, that’s really cool! And they’re not really watching me
all that closely.” And Joe Gill, who was the writer on
Doomsday, I asked him if I could rewrite a couple of little
things along the way, because I was lettering it as well.
And he said, “Oh, rewrite whatever you like.” Okay! So
from that point on I was rewriting the whole thing. I
mean, I wrote most of those issues after the second one.

JBC: Yeah, I was very surprised to realize re-reading

them later on, it felt like all you.

JOHN: Yeah, well, it pretty much was after the first

issue. And Joe sort of gave me permission. I would take
the framework of his story and just try to turn it into a
Marvel book, basically.
21
 artists who, if you give him X
amount of time to do X amount
of pages, he will get two thirds
of the job done. So if you give
him a year to do three pages,
he’ll do two pages, and if you
give him a month to do 90
pages, he’ll do 60. [laughs]

JBC: He’s probably not unique

in that. There’s a lot of artists
like that, right?

JOHN: It’s just the way that

seems to work. And Dave just
couldn’t quite get there to do a
monthly book. And that was one
of the reasons he was sort of...
“invited to leave” is a subtle way
to say it, I suppose.

JBC: Did you see team books as

your specialty? I mean, X-Men is
a team book and it’s crowded.
You and George Pérez were
coming out at the same time, and
you actually were two guys who
seemed to like the team books.

JOHN: I love team books. I’ve

always said that George and I
are at about the same level, artis-
tically. We have different
strengths, but we obviously both
hit the page with the same kind
of enthusiasm, the same kind of
mentality. George was off doing
Avengers and Teen Titans and all
that stuff, and of course I did the
FF and the Avengers and the X-
Men all at the same time at one
point. Which led to the famous
panel, which I caught before I
sent it in, but I did a shot of the
X-Men flying in the quinjet and
“Is this why people think my stuff doesn’t sell anymore?” I had the Scarlet Witch instead of Storm. [laughter]
JBC: It was bi-monthly when you started! JBC: Really?
JOHN: When I started, it was bi-monthly. It was about JOHN: Yeah. “Whoops! I’ll have to erase that!” That was
six issues, maybe less, maybe four issues in, that it went when I used to have my drawing board in one of the bed-
monthly. Dave Cockrum just couldn’t do it on a monthly rooms of my two-bedroom apartment, and I had a closet—
basis. one of those louvered-door closets. I would tape the pages
to the closet as they were done, so I could look up at them.
JBC: Why not? The closet would just take a book except for the last page.
JOHN: Jim Shooter once said that Dave is one of those And of course the last page didn’t need to be taped up,

29
because it was the last page. I had done that issue of the X- sudden—it’s like Springsteen’s appeal. It started like “he's
Men and I was sitting there doing the next-to-last page and ours,” and when Born in the USA comes out, “Yahh! You
I kind of looked up and literally did a double-take. “What don’t get it!”
the hell is that?” I walked over and looked and there was
the Scarlet Witch sitting in the back seat instead of Storm. JOHN: The funny thing is that the X-Men seems to have
But yeah, the X-Men was always one of my favorite books crossed that line without ever crossing that line, because
when I was a kid. Actually, whatever book I was reading at I would bet money that if you grabbed the average X-
that precise instant was my favorite book when I was a kid. fan, who is fully aware that there are 500 X-titles and
We know how that that they each used to
works. But the X-Men sell a billion a month,
always spoke to me. they would still tell
you it was “a special
JBC: Really? book that only I am
reading.” Because that’s
JOHN: Yeah. the mentality that that
JBC: I was born in book generates. It’s
1959, so we’re a bit like, “This is my book
separated in age. But it over in my corner.”
became a dry book Again, going back
after a while. to what Roger said,
that’s what the charac-
JOHN: Oh, yeah. ters are. They are the
Well, I didn’t last long. outsiders, they are off
I only lasted for the to one side. They aren’t
first six issues. That’s the Fantastic Four; they
the timing. aren’t the Avengers.
There was some appeal.
JBC: Oh, right, and I mean, I was the loner
then you were out of guy, obviously, so....
comics.
JBC: What was that
JOHN: Then I was big issue with you
out of comics. In fact, I behind the Dark
think the last issue I Phoenix story? Was
read was the one that emotionally a big
where they graduated. issue for you?
I would always yell at
Shooter when he’d say, JOHN: Oh, yeah. At
“It’s about a school.” I’d the time it was huge.
say, “They graduated Number one, it was a
in, like, issue eight! big, big story that we’d
C’mon! Give me a been building to for the
break!” I loved that. better part of a year.
At some point I And then right at the
found out about the new X-Men book being in the end—even after the end, really, as far as Chris and I were
works, and I sent in a bunch of X-Men drawings to try concerned—Shooter had to come in and, as I so discreetly
and get the job, because I didn’t know it was going to be phrase it, piss on it and make it his. There we were, with
new new X-Men. Then Cockrum ended up doing it, and this thing that had been worked out, plotted out, he knew
I was reading it and enjoying it, and Chris was doing about it, everything had been detailed. And then all of a
some interesting stuff. And I basically made it known sudden it had to be a different story. And, just to really
that if Dave ever left and I didn’t get the assignment, frost me all that much more, what came out of all that was
people would be hurt. There would be blood. The a better story. [laughs] Chris has never been able to accept
streets would run with blood. that, that yes, the death of Phoenix, that whole thing, was
better than what we originally had planned. When the
JBC: I guess one of the things that made X-Men cool emotional thing settled and it finally came out and I read
was that it was so un-cool for a while. And then all of a the printed book, I said, “Yeah. This is better.”
30
 “Warlock” about diamonds was extraordinary. Glynis won me over
in the garbage? Diamonds with a single panel. I’d always liked Glynis’
mixed in the garbage. And stuff, but the one that really made me go
there was so much “wow” was where the Beast and Phoenix
crap at Marvel back have escaped from where the X-Men fell
then. The X-Men, into the Savage Land and they’re up on the
just from the sheer ice cap—it was the last page, I think—and
energy of it, just the Beast is holding Jean. So it was his
shined. face, her hair, her face, and I think his
hand. As I was penciling it, I was thinking,
JBC: I guess it was the “Y’know, I’m going to get a coloring job on
enthusiasm of you two this and there’s going to be 15 shades of
really coming out. blue and 25 shades of red.” And Glynis
JOHN: Well, we were colored it blue, red, flesh, boom. Just
both a couple of really boom, boom, boom. And it was just per-
sick guys, too, at the fect. That’s exactly right. That shot would
time. have been ruined by modeling. And I think
she’d maybe not colored me much before
JBC: What did you that, but I just said, “Yes! This is what I
think of Terry’s want.”
inks?
JBC: Was your star rising while you were
JOHN: Well, doing X-Men? Did your page rate rise?
the funny thing
is, Terry and I,
artistically, are
totally differ-
ent. My
stuff is very
organic and Terry’s is very mechani-
cal. And I would never in a million
years have picked Terry. I mean, I
wanted Sam Grainger to continue
Above: Cyclops and a on X-Men, because he was inking
sultry Dark Phoenix. Inks Cockrum. In part, I wanted to make
by Terry Austin.
Right: For the cover of
it as easy a transition as possible for
Fantastic Four #250, John
the fans. And they said, “No we’re
included all the major
going to give you Terry.” And I go,
characters of his young
“Oh, this isn’t gonna work.” There
career, including
is not a single page of the X-Men
Superm—er, Gladiator. that Terry inked that looks the
Inks by Terry Austin. way it looked in my head, but it
Next Page: John sure looks sweet, doesn’t it? I
recreated the famous don’t know how it worked, but it
“Wolverine in the sewer” really worked. And yet we were
panel for a Spanish X- on opposite ends of the spec-
Men portfolio. trum as far as our styles.
Captain America, Cyclops, Dark
Phoenix, Fantastic Four, JBC: That’s some incredible
Gladiator, Spider-Man, Wolverine, energy, really—and even Tom’s
X-Men ™ and ©2006 Marvel
lettering with Chris’ writing, it
Characters, Inc.
all came together—

JOHN: And Glynis’ color-

ing. I mean, Glynis’ coloring

36
JOHN: Yeah, somewhat. Eventually, my star rose. The [laughter] That was funny. So, yeah, Chris is verbose,
initial reaction was, “Oh God, get rid of this guy, bring that’s his style. And sometimes it works. Chris is the
Cockrum back.” And that lasted for the first four or five only writer I’ve ever worked with that managed to make
issues, really. And then what really seemed to win the me cry reading a page that I had drawn.
fans, the fans really came over with the circus issue that
ended with the splash of Magneto going “Hello dere.” JBC: Really?
And from that moment on, people went, “Okay, this guy JOHN: That was a page in Iron Fist. When I got to that
doesn’t suck. I think this guy will be okay.” And then, of page and read what he had written, I actually teared up.
course, we went off and did all the crazy stuff. It was beautiful. So give the guy his props. Chris
Wolverine in the sewer, which I will spend the rest of Claremont is the best damned Chris Claremont out
my life living down, because it’s “the greatest panel in there. No doubt about it.
the history of comics, ever” to hear
some people talk.

JBC: My brother was always an X-

Men fan, and if he was into some-
thing, I would have to be into some-
thing else. He was into Kamandi, I was
into the Demon. He was into Spider-
Man, I was into Fantastic Four. So I
wasn’t into X-Men. But I distinctly
recall the “Wolverine in the sewer”
shot.

JOHN: Yeah. That was really the

shot.

JBC: You could tell Terry labored

over that one so long.

JOHN: I labored on it, too! [laughs]

JBC: There was just this layer upon

layer and it all worked, the characteri-
zation, too.

JOHN: Supposedly—I haven’t seen

it, but I’ve heard that somebody’s
doing one of those little model things
they do of that shot. One of those lit-
tle dioramas. When I first heard about
it, all I thought was, “But it only
works from one angle!” [laughs] If you
turn it, it won’t work! “You can look at
this model, but only from over here.”

JBC: Was Tom [Orzechowski] used

as the letterer because he could letter
really small?

JOHN: Well... Tom lettered “Star-

Lord”—I think that was the first time
we worked together—and there was a
line in “Star-Lord” where one of the
characters says, "Star-Lord, you talk
too much.” And in the margin, Tom
had lettered “Letterers’ Lament.”
37
Part 3: Up, up, and Away
from Marvel

JBC: How did the Superman Left: Pencils for the final
deal come about? page of the Man of Steel
mini-series.
Superman ™ and ©2006 DC
JOHN: Basically from me
shooting off my mouth for Comics.
ten years. After the first
Superman movie with
Christopher Reeve, I just
went around saying,
“See? They knew how to
do it right. DC doesn’t
know how to do it right.”

JBC: But you had

already done Legends of the
Batman at that point, right?

JOHN: Yeah, but on

that I was only the art
robot. And I only pen-
ciled the first issue.
JBC: Just quickly, how
did you....

JOHN: How did I get

that? I was at a convention
in Chicago, I heard they
were doing it, and I
went to Jack Harris,
who was the editor, and
I said, “I hear you’re doing a
Batman thing. I’ve got a hole
in my schedule. I’d like to
do that.” And they said,
“Great.” Unfortunately, it
was a three-month hole in my schedule, and it ended
up taking Len something like nine months to write it,
so I was only able to do the first issue.
With Superman, I kept saying they don’t know
how to do it, they don’t know how to do it. I was
under exclusive contract to Marvel and I went off
contract.... I don’t know why. I think I
maybe sensed that I was
going to have to jump.
And almost the instant I
decided to go off con-
tract, the phone rang. It
45
 was Dick Giordano, and he said, “Okay, wise guy. Put your
Right: Early Superman money where your mouth is. We are, in fact, going to reboot
sketches from John’s Superman. Tell us what you want to do.” So I put together
sketchbook.
Below: Once the
what I called my “List of Unreasonable Demands,”
kryptonite conundrum
which was like 20 things, as I recall. I turned it
was solved by Jenette
in, and they liked 19 of them. So, [laughs] 19 of
Kahn, John proceeded to
them were not unreasonable, as it turns out.
kill off Krypton in a
The one thing they didn’t like—and I ulti-
more traditional manner mately agree—I said if we’re starting from
than he had originally scratch, if we’re starting from the bottom
intended. Pencils for page line, here’s our problem. It was a prob-
7 of Man of Steel #1. lem all along, really, if you thought
Next Page Top: John about it, but... Superman is the
further explored the sole survivor of the doomed
history of Krypton in the planet Krypton. That was one
1987 mini-series, The of my main things: he’s the only
World of Krypton.
Next Page Bottom: A
one. How do we know
ghost from the past. A
Kryptonite can kill him? I mean,
panel from page 17 of
that’s kind of a test to
Man of Steel #6.
destruction, isn’t it? If we’ve
got this green, glowing rock
Jor-El, Lara, Superman ™ and
©2006 DC Comics.
here, this will kill
Superman. But we don’t know that anymore, do we, if this
is a brand new scenario?
So we need a way to
show that Kryptonite
will kill Superman, without
killing Superman. So what I
had come up with was, it is
not the baby Kal-El who is
launched away, it is the pregnant
Lara. She arrives on Earth pregnant.
She gives birth to Superman on Earth. She’s
found by the Kents, she’s taken in by the
Kents. She gives birth. And then she finds that piece of
Kryptonite that came along, and she dies. And that’s how
we know.

JBC: That’s mean! [laughs]

JOHN: Yeah! Then Jenette [Kahn] said—and I thought

this was good; she was smart to say this—she thought that
took it a little too far away from what we knew. And then
she demonstrated a surprising knowledge of the characters
that I didn’t realize that she had. She said, “If the explosion
was caused by all these pressures inside Krypton, and if it
was those pressures that fused the native elements of
Krypton into Kryptonite—which is the story—perhaps it
was already happening before the planet blew up. Perhaps
there was already Kryptonite in the core, and that radia-
tion was already killing people on Krypton before
Superman is launched away. And I said, “That’s brilliant!”
And in my opening, that’s what Jor-El discovers is that the
mysterious plague that’s killing everybody is Kryptonite
radiation from the pressures in the core.

46
JBC: Did the Superman JBC: That’s not bad.
deal launch you into a
different stratosphere, JOHN: Yeah. But it
financially? means I can still live in
this house even though
JOHN: No, no, not the royalties are usually
at all. non-existent these days.
JBC: Were you JBC: You obviously
already there? grew up on Superman.
JOHN: I did make JOHN: I had a book
a nice piece of called Superman: Serial to
change of the first Cereal, and they covered
Man of Steel, because every single manifestation
it was the first of Superman. It had a very
comic in like a spooky picture in it, too: a
hundred years to Kelloggs Cornflakes or
have sold a mil- something ad from the ’40s
lion. Not since the that had a painting of
’40s had we seen Superman with some kids,
those kinds of and it looked exactly like
numbers. But, no, Christopher Reeve. Exactly.
I got my regular
page rate. And in JBC: Did you ever meet
fact I wasn’t ink- Reeve?
ing the book. JOHN: Twice. That was fun,
A funny little too. Well, I met him at DC
sidebar story: The fans, even back then without the and we talked about the fourth
Internet, were saying, “Well, Byrne’s leaving to do the movie. And then for the 50th anniversary, there was this
Superman bit for the money.” So I said in an interview big show at the Smithsonian. I went down for that
somewhere, “Actually, I expect to make less doing
Superman, because I won’t be inking it.” I had
no idea what the royalties would be like, but I
knew that DC books generally sold a lot less
than Marvel books. Superman at that time was
selling half of what the Fantastic Four sold.
I was Ralph Macchio’s office one day, and he
said, “You know, John Buscema was in here the
other day.” I said, “Oh, yeah?” And Ralph said,
“He said, ‘I heard Byrne’s gonna do Superman and
he’s gonna make less money.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ And
Buscema said, ‘Schmuck.’” [laughs] And I thought,
“Well, at least he knows my name.” [laughter]

JBC: So there’s royalties on the books that...?

JOHN: Well, most of my money has always

come from the actual doing of the job, because of
the amount of pages that I do. I mean, my page
rate got to a certain level. There was a while
there, around ’92-’93, where the royalties, because
of the direct sales and the speculation and every-
thing else, they really took off. But for the bulk of
my career, about a third of my income has come
from royalties. Which is why—
47
 because they invited me. He came over and intro-
duced himself to me. “Hi, I’m Christopher Reeve, we
met up at the DC offices.” “Really? Let me just
think....” [laughter] And I chatted with Margot for a
while because we were bonding on being Canadians.
And... three years ago? I went to the Sundance Film
Festival with a couple of friends.

JBC: Just for the heck out it?

JOHN: Just for the heck of it. These friends go

every year and I decided to go with them. And we
were walking out, having seen this movie with
Margot Kidder in it, and Margot Kidder walked past
me going down the aisle. We went on a couple of
paces and I turned to my friends and I said, “See
that? These Hollywood people, they just walk right
past me like we’ve never even met.” [laughs] Of
course, how long ago was it, 15 years? It was fun.

JBC: So basically you did

two titles, you did Action
Comics, which was a
team-up book, and
you had the
Superman title....

JOHN: And I
ended up writing
Adventures of
Superman when
Marv... departed.

JBC: Were you ostensibly the Superman editor at that time?

JOHN: Well, not really, no. Ostensibly, that was Andy Helfer. And
that turned out to be another situation where I didn’t get along
This Page: John’s Lois with the editor. Helfer is at that end of the spectrum where
Lane was both everything has to be changed. Mike Gold made a comment
glamorous and one tough one time, he said Helfer would change the spelling of his
cookie—much as Margot
Kidder portrayed her to
own name in the credits if he could think of a way to do it. I used to
be in the Superman
movies. Pencils from Man
of Steel #4 and an early
design drawing of Lois.
Next Page: A brilliant
page from Superman #1.
You can almost feel
Superman’s pain through
John’s pencils.
Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Metallo,
Superman ™ and ©2006 DC
Comics.

48
Part 4: A Legend
is Made

JBC: From Superman, did you just go right back to then. He asked me to do a new She-Hulk book, but he
Marvel? asked me to come up with something that hadn’t been
done with the character before—something new and dif-
JOHN: Um... yeah, I think I did. ferent. I thought about it for a while, and then I thought,
JBC: The next thing you did was West “Well, how about she knows that she’s in a comic book.
Coast Avengers, right? We’ll break the fourth wall.” And Mark loved it. Mark
was one of those guys who, number one, loved to
JOHN: Yes, West Coast Avengers, but I take risks, and, number two, was a very funny guy
actually pitched Hidden Years before that. himself, so he could immediately see the poten-
tial. So it was really not a hard sell at all.
JBC: You pitched an X-Men book in the ’80s?
ENW: Most writ-
JOHN: Yeah, I pitched Hidden ers I’ve talked to
Years. I didn’t have that title find humor hard-
then. And it was actual- er to write than a
ly killed because of straight-ahead
X-Factor. Because action/drama.
they said it would Did you find that
be the same team to be the case as well?
as X-Factor and it
would be confus- JOHN: I didn’t really think
ing. Tom of it as a humor book.
DeFalco had That was part of the
this great line, trick, I think. I didn’t
“Another book set out to be funny
called X-Men ha-ha; I set out to be weird
would be too and strange and wonky, and to try to
confusing.” I keep it light-hearted. And that, of
wish I had that course, manifested itself as my own
in writing. twisted sense of humor. So, no, I did-
n’t find it particularly hard to write,
ERIC NOLEN- and now people will tell me that’s why
WEATHINGTON: it wasn’t particularly funny. [laughter]
Over the past 30
years or so, with a ENW: How well do you think it
few rare excep- fit in with the overall Marvel
tions, humor scheme of things at the time?
books don’t tend to
do very well. How JOHN: Well, it fit in
were you able to sell fairly well, I think,
Marvel on the idea except for those few
of Sensational She-Hulk? occasions when other
writers would use the character
JOHN: It started with and they’d try to carry the “breaking the
Mark Gruenwald—he fourth wall” thing into other books. And
was second-in- we’d just have to say, “Well, no, don’t do that,
command back because that destroys the only thing this

56
book has that makes it different.” She doesn’t break
the fourth wall when she’s in the Fantastic Four; she
doesn’t break when she’s in the Avengers.
But for the most part I think it fit in quite well.
In fact, the only time I had Marvel fans rolling in
the aisles convulsed with apathy was when I had
Santa Claus appear. They always hate it when I have
Santa Claus appear, which is why I do it as often as I
can. [laughter]

ENW: It’s not like Santa Claus doesn’t appear in

other books, though.

JOHN: I've always found it really amusing. They’re

okay with Satan, but they can’t deal with Santa Claus
being real. [laughter]

JBC: I want to talk to you about Legend, how that

came about.

JOHN: It came about because of Image having started

this imprint, which seemed like a good idea. Frank
called me up and said, “A bunch of us are doing this and
we thought we’d feel bad if we didn’t invite you to be

part of it.” Originally it was

called Dinosaur, and there
Previous Page: Unused
were a whole bunch of peo-
and unfinished pencils
ple, including Chris. And
intended for X-Men: The
then one day Frank sort of
said “It should be just artists Hidden Years.
who write.” Our phrase Left: The Ringmaster
became “death to those who conveniently (for the
cannot draw.” reader) quizzes
Somewhere along the way, She-Hulk on her origin in
Frank and I almost simultane- She-Hulk #1.
ously said, “We’re going to Above: She-Hulk breaks
the fourth wall—along
with the panel borders!
shoot ourselves in the foot if
Pencils for page 7 of
we call ourselves Dinosaur.”
She-Hulk #4.
[Jon laughs] And then we said,
“Let’s call it Legend! Because
that’s what these things are, Blonde Phantom, She-Hulk,
X-Men ™ and ©2006 Marvel
Characters, Inc.
they’re legends!” And that of
course became “a bunch of self-
declared legends are forming an
imprint,” and the imprint died
in about six minutes.
57
 JBC: You weren’t there
that long?

JOHN: I was there longer

than anybody, actually. But
that was the problem. I
Right: Opening splash got pissed off when I
page of Next Men #3. noticed that I was the only
Included in the margin are monthly presence. “Where
John’s notes to Legend’s are the rest of you guys?”
group editor, Barbara
Kesel.
Frank was doing stuff
Below: Next Men #14,
every once in a while, but
page 10.
then a bunch of people
Next Page: Bethany, aka
were coming in who hadn’t
Hardbody, in a commis-
done anything yet. Like,
sion drawing and in the Walt Simonson had just
pages of Next Men #7. joined, but he hadn’t done
anything yet.
Next Men ™ and ©2006 John
Byrne. There was talk about
doing a card set, and that we should
have Walter in the card set, and I said,
“Well, no, remember we said we
wouldn’t solicit anything that hadn’t
appeared yet? So Walt’s book should
come out before he’s part of the
Legend card set.” And it just went
back
and
forth
and up
and down and then finally the industry crashed. And I said,
“Okay, I need a real job.”

JBC: What was the thinking behind Next Men?

JOHN: I wanted to do an independent thing. I think Dark

Horse was doing three. I wanted to be safe; I wanted it to sort
of smell like a super-hero book even though it wasn’t going to
be a super-hero book—it was going to be science fiction. So I
gave them super-powers and I gave them a name that sort of
sounded like “X-Men” as sort of a signal to everybody. It did
very well. Actually, it was funny, because the first issue was the
best-selling direct sales market book ever to that point. And
this is where I go wrong, this is where I make mistakes. The
first issue’s initial orders were 109,000. And there were some
orders here and some orders there, and by the time all was
said and done, I think it got up to about 150, 175.

JBC: Wow!

JOHN: Yeah. And that was huge back then. The best any-
thing had done was, like, 30,000. Dark Horse wanted to pro-
mote that. I said, “No, don’t promote that. Because then the
speculators will think it’s a big seller, and they won’t buy it.”
Because I was stupid, and I thought speculators actually
thought like people who were logical. [Jon laughs]
58
 Part 5: Storytelling and the
Creative Process

JBC: How long did you work at that sign company again? ENW: Do you plan it out in your head beforehand, or
do you just sit down and draw?
JOHN: About a year.
JOHN: The way I try to describe it to people, when I was
JBC: Did you get a good, solid feel for professionalism, a kid teaching myself to draw, and I didn’t know about
for being on time, getting the job done? drawing it in pencil first so you could erase, I used to draw
JOHN: I think so. Most of that I think actually comes everything straight with pen. Which meant that every line
from self-application, because I was working at Charlton at had to be the right line the first time. I developed that
the same time I was working at Hook Signs. And when I habit of drawing very, very tightly, very, very carefully.
quit Hook Signs, my first reaction was, “Great! I can sleep And the way I describe it is I’d get
until noon and I can do what I want!” And it only took a a snapshot in my mind of the
couple of three o’clock in the morning hitting the deadlines image, and I’d sort of project
for me to kind of go, “You know, this is a job isn’t it? I that onto the page and trace it.
should treat this like a job.” And I have ever since. It’s get And that’s what I still do, even
up in the morning, get to with a pencil. This has served
the drawing board....” me well over the years.
When I first started out,
JBC: When do you stop? when I was still in my fan
Is it a nine-to-five thing? days—because I stopped
doing thumbnails even
JOHN: It’s seven-to-four, before I turned pro—the
actually, with maybe a thumbnails were kind of
half an hour off for binding, because having
lunch. put that onto paper, that
was what I was required
JBC: And do you stay
to draw. Whereas with
up late watching movies
the snapshot in my
or something?
mind, I can mess with it
JOHN: No, I go to a bit. I can move things
bed at nine o’clock. around; I can change
things. So it keeps it much more
JBC: Really? spontaneous; it keeps the energy
level higher. And that’s the main
JOHN: And I get up at,
thing I’ve always been con-
like, five.
cerned about is keeping the
JBC: You have a dog? energy level high.

JOHN: I have a dog. And ENW: Is there any extra thinking involved
a cat, somewhere. I let the dog out and I stagger around when you’re working with another writer?
like a zombie for a while. Do you read the entire script before sitting down at the
board, or do you take it a page at a time?
JBC: How many pages can you do in a day?
JOHN: Generally speaking I will flip through the script—
JOHN: It varies. Two to three pages a day. or the plot, if it’s broken down page by page—just to see if
there’s anything there that’s going to surprise me. But then
ENW: You don’t do thumbnails at all, right? I’ll just start drawing on page one. There’s a funny quirk
JOHN: Oh, no. I haven’t for 30 years. that I have, if I have a picture or a panel or a page in my

70
 Previous Page: Self-
illustration from 1985.
Left: John’s page break-
downs for X-Men #137.
Below: Partially finished
Justice League piece that
was never used—but it
does provide some
head, it will fester if I don’t get to it. So I really insight into John’s inking
don’t like to know for sure what’s on page 18 process.
when I’m starting on page one, because by the
Batman, Flash, Hawkman,
time I get to page 18 it will have turned into Superman, Wonder Woman ™
something disgusting in my head and I won’t be and ©2006 DC Comics.
able to draw it. I prefer to just start on page one,
though sometimes on my own stuff I frequently
draw the pages out of order. I’ll sometimes do
that with
a full script, too—just open it to a random page and
draw, and just keep doing that until the pages are done.

ENW: How do you work when you’re inking your-

self? Do you ink a page as soon as you finish the pen-
ciling, or do you work in batches?

JOHN: I usually finish a page in pencil and then ink

it. There are several layers to it, because I’ll do the
pen work, then I’ll do the brush work, and then I’ll
fill in the blacks.

JBC: Do you have any current favorite artists?

JOHN: Who counts as current? I love... I call them

the Dodson twins [Terry and Rachel], although I
know they are husband and wife. Nobody else is
doing Adam Hughes right now, so they might as
well. So them—

JBC: Did you see CBA #21 [featuring Adam

Hughes]?

JOHN: Yes, I thought it was a terrific issue. In

fact, it was that issue that finally pushed me over
the edge to say, “I’ve got to fatten my line.” I’ve
been thinking about fattening my line, and looking
at the way Adam does it. I thought, “Why not?”

JBC: Do you use the computer as an artistic tool?

JOHN: I’ve been using the computer to do a lot

of 3-D modeling, and I’ve found a way—

JBC: Does it look like Byrne drew it?

JOHN: Oh, sure. I found a way to do models

that look like line drawings, so I’ve been doing
71
Part 6: John Byrne
Takes On...

JBC: There’s a British reserve. Did your parents have that? JOHN: Yeah, there are so many idiots online that my
threshold is, like, zero. And of course, you can’t read
JOHN: I’ve often said that when a British baby boy is tone of voice into that stuff. And I will slice people up
born, they take this expanding steel rod and they shove online and then kind of go, “Hmmm, maybe I read that
it up his rear end and it just gets longer as he grows up. wrong.” [laughs] But by then it’s too late. But, no, for the
And I’ve struggled to get rid of that. I’m not sure I’ve most part, as the people who have figured me out have
been entirely successful. said, I just don’t suffer fools gladly.
JBC: You find it hard to loosen up, so to speak? JBC: But you’ve got to get into it, right?
JOHN: Somewhat. I’m not nearly as stuffy as I used to JOHN: A little bit. I enjoy the interface with intelli-
be. gent people and those who are there for the correct
JBC: Did you have any children? reason, which is to talk about funnybooks. I don’t like
the people who try to bring my personal life into it, I
JOHN: No. Not of my own, no. My don’t like the people who imagine
ex had two step-kids. Kieron Dwyer themselves to be telepathic. “Oh,
used to be my stepson. I think that’s you’re doing this because
how it works. He used to be blah.” No, I’m not! And the
my stepson; I don’t think people who... as I’ve said
he is anymore. [laughs] on a couple of occa-
sions, I’ve
JBC: I first met you never heard a
when I was proba- rumor about
bly 13 years old, myself that
and this was was true. Not
just in your even the
first brush good ones.
with the And these
Charlton stuff. You people who
were just incred- come in
ibly enthusias- armed to
tic. My little the nines
brother, he because
must have they “already
been eleven know what an
years old, and ogre John Byrne is,”
he talked with well, yeah, they’re prob-
you. You asked ably going to meet an
him to get you some coffee or some- ogre. I play the cards I’m dealt.
thing and you’d draw a few sketches for
him, something like that. JBC: I have to admit, I’d got
into... we were talking about
JOHN: I don’t know how the reputation Kirby and I was relatively fanatical
of “John Byrne, the ogre” has grown up over the years— about it at the time, “Oh, Kirby is God!”—
JBC: You know, that actually surprised me. But I did JOHN: Well, he is. But it’s a pantheon. [laughter]
have some encounters with you online which were very
sharp and— JBC: Stan certainly played a role.
77
JOHN: Yeah, yeah.

JBC: I’ve gotten much more pragmatic

and I think more realistic about it. I went
to the message boards for a while, but
I’ve never gone to that message board
again, because of that ambiguous
tone—it turns into a monstrous explo-
sion. And people are such asses.

JOHN: You betcha. It’s the anonymi-

ty. They’re all behind their little secret
identities, because “FuzzyBunny” can
say something that Joe Smith would
never dare.

JBC: You’re obviously not anony-

mous, though. Is the Internet an
attraction for you?

JOHN: It’s human contact in one

way, of which of course I don’t get
much. It’s a way of reading the audi-
ence, and we need that. I don’t do
as many conventions as I used to,
so this has replaced the convention
as a way of getting vibes from the audience.
And you kind of have to filter through a
JBC: Did you ever just say, “I don’t like
lot—it’s kind of like panning for gold. Previous Page:
An unfinished piece which
this anymore.”
Because obviously people will do things and
say things online that they would never in a JOHN: Oh, yeah. was intended for Jack
million years do. The worst convention Kirby’s Fourth World.
experience I’ve ever had doesn’t come with- JBC: Do you periodically stop? Above: In X-Men: Hidden
in light years of these bozos online. It’s the Years #8, Joe Sinnott—FF
JOHN: Oh, yeah. I’ve gone cold turkey a inker for most of Jack and
Stan’s classic run—inked
anonymity. You get these clowns tearing a
couple times, but I always find myself
the FF throughout the
strip off me and saying, “Well, the next con-
creeping back.
issue (Tom Palmer inked
vention, boy, you’re gonna get a piece of
the rest).
my mind.” They never turn up. Yeah, it’s JBC: I was amazed, I did some online
easy to pretend you’re Batman lurking in the
New Gods ™ and ©2006 DC
chats with you—you were actually instan-
Comics. Fantastic Four, X-Men ™
shadows, but when you actually have to taneous in your response. I think we did a
face somebody, it just doesn’t happen. 5000-word interchange in a half an hour. and ©2006 Marvel Characters,
Inc.

79
John Byrne
Aurora, Invisible Woman, Marrina, Snowbird
™ and ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Art Gallery
Solomon Grundy ™ and ©2006 DC Comics.
Wendigo ™ and ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

99
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE
LINK BELOW TO ORDER THIS BOOK!

Modern
Masters:
JOHN BYRNE
From the death of Phoenix to the
rebirth of Superman, Byrne is one of
the most influential comic book
artists working in the business. On
the X-Men, he penciled the greatest
stories in the history of the title and
helped propel the X-Men to their
current household-name status.
His work as writer and artist of
Fantastic Four returned the group
to prominence within the Marvel
Universe. And his reboot of the
Superman mythology brought
national attention to the comic book
industry. Modern Masters Volume 7:
John Byrne features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with
rare and unpublished art, as well as a large sketchbook section. Experience this look at
his incredible body of work on such titles as Captain America, Alpha Flight, She-Hulk,
Superman/Batman: Generations, and his creator-owned Next Men, and it’s easy to
see that John Byrne deserves the title Modern Master intimate portrait of one of
comics’ most inimitable talents!
Darkseid,(128-page
Superman Trade
™ andPaperback)
©2006 DC$15.95
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