Saturday, October 29, 2005
Comic Art
Just a few more weeks and we will be through the Honorable Mentions, but this week we are still looking at them and today the man in question is John Byrne.There was a time when Byrne was everywhere -- I mean everywhere. He was almost inescapable. He was good, but enough already. He certainly did some of the most important and best selling stuff in the heyday of the '80's, which is why he was used so much.
Generally I liked him, but it was his stint on FF that started to make me think twice. He is probably the "anti-Kirby" in terms of style and for the FF had been so definitively associated with Kirby that Byrne's style just did not seem to fit.
Alpha Flight is the first book I remember where he was given complete reign, but don't quote me on that. He had been doing X-Men for a long time, but Chris Claremont was esconsed as the writer. Alpha Flight was a spin off of the X-Men.Vindicator - pictured here whomping on Wolverine - was Byrne's design and I think he has a great look for a nation associated character (note the Canadian maple leaf) The clean lines of the costume were, as you would expect, a great match for Byrne's style.
I have to confess that his writing on this series was a little weak, but it was enjoyable
Far and away, it was Byrne's reinvention of Superman that is the most important work he has ever done. He certainly revivied a character that was on the verge of dying altogether --something that simply could not be allowed to happen to "the prototype." His Kryptonian stuff was a little so-so, but he made a significant contribution by making Superman more human and less god-like.Supes had gotten to the point, where being against him was just a waste of time. Byrne gave him some weaknesses without giving up the essence of the character.
But it was the stuff that Byrne did on X-Men that put him on the map. He pretty well defined the look of the "new" X-men.He drew the whole Phoenix/Dark Phoenix saga, which may be the most widely recognized comic book story arc ever.
This cover is also one of the more recognizable in all of comics and again it was Byrne.
Like I said, he was everywhere -- he almost defined the Marvel "look" for a while. Maybe he did not make my tops list because there was just too much of him, I don't know. He is good, he is important, and he is everywhere.
