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John Byrne (comics)

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For other uses, see John Byrne (comics) (disambiguation).

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Uncanny X-Men #135 (1980), cover by Byrne

John Lindley Byrne (born July 6, 1950) is a British-born now naturalised American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero. His most famous works have been on Marvel Comics's X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics's Superman franchise. During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He is currently working mainly for DC Comics.

Early life and career

Byrne was born in Walsall, England and his family moved to Canada when he was eight. His first exposure to the American superheroes that would dominate his professional life was reruns of American programs like The Adventures of Superman on British television. In Britain, he was able to read domestic comics such as The Eagle as well as reprints of DC Comics. [1].

His first encounter with Marvel Comics was in 1962 with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #5. He later commented that, "the book had an 'edge' like nothing DC was putting out at the time." [2] Jack Kirby's work in particular had a strong influence on Byrne and he has worked with many of the characters Kirby created or co-created. Besides Kirby, Byrne was also influenced by the realistic style of Neal Adams. [3]

In 1970, Byrne enrolled at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. He created the superhero parody Gay Guy for the college newspaper which poked fun at the campus stereotype of homosexuality among art students. Gay Guy is also notable for featuring a prototype of the Alpha Flight character Snowbird. While there, he also published his first comic book, ACA Comix #1, featuring "The Death's Head Knight". [4]

Byrne left the college in 1973 without graduating. He began working for Charlton Comics, starting with the publication of ROG-2000 in the pages of E-Man. Byrne worked on the books Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, Doomsday +1, Space: 1999, and Emergency!.

Marvel Comics

Byrne's first story for Marvel Comics was "Dark Asylum" (written by David Anthony Kraft), published in Giant-Sized Dracula #5. He began drawing Marvel's lower-selling titles, including Iron Fist, The Champions, and Marvel Team-Up. For many issues, he was paired with writer Chris Claremont. In 1978 he joined Claremont on the Uncanny X-Men and their work together would make them both fan favorites.

Art Style

Byrne has stated his major influences on his art style are Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, and Jean (Moebius) Giraud, as well as British comics artists Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy and cartoonist Giles. He later described himself as "a Frank Miller sponge," and told several interviewers of his desire to incorporate influences from Miller and Gene Colan into his style. He has also cited science fiction artists John Berkey and Syd Meade as contributors to his style.

Byrne's original work has been noted as being rough, with his drawings emphasizing curves over straight lines. Byrne has himself admitted to straight lines being "his least favorite artistic element."Template:Fn

His original style of inking his own art lacked the smooth lines achieved when others inked his work, as can be seen in his run on The Fantastic Four. His inking style was generally seen as crude by comics fans, especially during the times he used fine-point markers rather than standard inking pens. After he left Marvel to handle the Superman revamp at DC, he typically worked with strong or experienced inkers like Karl Kesel and Dick Giordano.

He tends to favor large panels--in the mid-1980's his individual panels tended to be larger than the panel layouts used by his contemporaries in the field. During the mid-1980s Byrne's work was influenced by that of French artists. He also makes good use of Negative Space in his art.

Ron Goulart has called Byrne's artwork "an eminently acceptable mix of bravura, complexity and storytelling clarity."Template:Fn

In the book Understanding Comics, Byrne is charted on McCloud's "Big Triangle" along with other comics artists. McCloud's placement of Byrne within the triangle identifies his style as contemporaneous to Gilbert Hernandez and Jim Lee. McCloud's placement makes the point that Byrne's line style is realistic without being too detailed.

Byrne is, in 2005, an accomplished comic book creator, and is capable of producing all aspects of a book except for coloring, although he does still produce work in collaboration. While he experimented with his own hand-developed lettering fonts in the early 1980s, he now utilizes a computer font based on the handwriting of the letterer Jack Morelli.

Byrne's artistic style, his layouts and his storytelling have been sources of instruction and inspiration to many comics artists; George Perez [5], Jim Lee [6], Todd McFarlane [7], Bryan Hitch [8] and Marcos Martín [9] have all cited him as influences on their work.

Selected bibliography

A complete bibliography of Byrne's comics work is maintained at the Byrne Robotics Checklist.

Marvel Comics

DC Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Novels

  • John L. Byrne's Fear Book (1988; ISBN 0446348147)
  • Whipping Boy (1992; ISBN 0440211719)
  • Wonder Woman: Gods And Goddesses (1997, ISBN 0761504834)

Web Comics

References

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