Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: John Byrne

John Byrne — World’s Fair(est)

Original Art and The Artists

Superman & Batman: Generations #1, January 1999

It happened at the World’s Fair.

Sort of.

Superman and Batman — along with Robin — first appeared together on the cover of the 2nd annual issue of World’s Fair Comics in 1940, issued to commemorate the 39/40 World Fair in New York City.

Shortly thereafter, that comic morphed into the ongoing World’s Finest Comic, and Superman and Batman appeared together on the covers all time.

But inside? Separate stories featuring DC’s most popular characters.

It wasn’t until 12 years later (1952) that The Caped Crusader and The Man of Steel actually met in one story. (More on that in our next post on Thursday.)

Meanwhile…

John Byrne creates an adventure that involves the aforementioned World’s Fair in his clever Generations series from 1999. 

This is my favorite page from the series. It features all three heroes, plus Lois Lane, and sure enough, in that top inset panel, Lex Luthor as well.

Has there ever been another page this iconic in nature? All five characters in one small panel. And a gigantic splash of the four main ones. I missed acquiring this page once previously,  but fortunately, I didn’t make the same mistake the second time around, albeit with a bit more pain in the wallet.

Worth it.

Sal Buscema — Hulk (& John Byrne) On The Run

Original Art and The Artists

Incredible Hulk Annual #14, December 1985

This Hulk story — from Incredible Hulk Annual #14 — is a direct outcome of one of the oddest creative moments in Marvel Comics history. 

Why so odd? The creative teams on Alpha Flight and The Incredible Hulk did a complete switch with each other. And naturally, they did a crossover to bring readers up to speed. Also, the Secret Wars sequel is involved.

But as always, we digress.

John Byrne, who had been on Alpha Flight, commenced his (ultimately brief) run with issue #314 and this annual, simultaneously. (Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola went over to Alpha Flight.) And, as prolific as John is, even he can’t produce that many pages at once, so he enlisted art support from Sal Buscema, who penciled and inked the full double issue.

Sal Buscema on the Hulk? Always great.

Sal Buscema on everything else? Always great, too.

After a crossover — and a Secret Wars tie-in — creative teams on The Incredible Hulk and Alpha Flight fully flip-flopped, a first in comics history.

John Byrne — No Shrinking Violet

Original Art and The Artists

The All New Atom #3, November 2006

John Byrne pretty much wrapped up his 21st century run at DC with the launch of The All New Atom in 2006. Great art and storytelling, but John only drew the first three issues in the series (with nice finishes by Trevor Scott) before departing.

This might have been bad news for DC’s Byrne fans, of course, but, selfishly, it was good news for us at IDW Publishing. Byrne’s Next Men ultimately returned, and John found time for some additional Star Trek series and a fun Jurassic Park mini, among many others.

Gail Simone created the character and wrote this Atom series, and like all of Gail’s work, it was a fun take, with Ryan Choi as the Atom’s alter ego, replacing Ray Palmer.

Also, Gail is one of the liveliest and funniest (and prolific) comics creators on Twitter. 

Trust me on this.

See you back here next Tuesday. Have a safe and fun Holiday weekend!

Brandon Peterson — It’s Clobberin’ Time

Original Art and The Artists

Commission, 2010

Continuing our celebration of the 60th anniversary of the debut of Fantastic Four #1. (August 8, 1961)

How many brick walls has the Thing crashed through? That’s not some sort of rhetorical question — I have no idea what the answer is.

I do know, when I saw this cool commission, it reminded me in high concept (minus the silly tank top) of John Byrne’s great cover of the ever-lovin’ Thing’s return in Fantastic Four #274.

The Thing. Breaking through a wall. And smoking a cigar.

Works for me.

Nuff said.

John Byrne — WandaVision

Original Art and The Artists

West Coast Avengers #42, March 1989

John Byrne takes over The West Coast Avengers with a storyline entitled “Vision Quest.” The Vision is missing — the government is secretly reverse engineering him — and when it’s all done, we witness the introduction of the “White Vision.”

Sound familiar? Many of these ideas and threads (and of course many, many others) appear in Disney’s WandaVision.

Byrne makes the visual most of an exposition page here. (The dreaded “talking heads” scenario.) Nearly all of the Avengers are represented, and John uses multiple angles (medium vs. close-up shots) and characters’ points of view to keep the page visually interseting.

Nice detailed inks from Mike Machlan, who used a very fine line — much easier to discern in the original art than in the printed page.

I don’t recall how often we caught a glimpse of the full exterior of the West Coast headquarters, but it reminds me of a Santa Monica luxury hotel. 

California Dreamin,’ indeed.

Yes, there’s a Damn problem!
Can’t imagine that the entire comics-loving’ world hasn’t already seen this, but just in case…

Interlude — Planet Money Podcast

Original Art and The Artists

Who wants to sell these guys a superhero?

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/12/967425295/we-buy-a-superhero-origins

Doorman? Yep, he and the rest of these oddball characters launched in Marvel’s West Coast Avengers #46, courtesy of our pal John Byrne.

Planet Money is our favorite economics podcast (Freakonomics is a close second) and we were pleasantly surprised to see the most recent episode (likely part one of a two-parter) discuss superhero economics. Or at least the part that deals with the intellectual property valuation of superhero ownership. 

We’re extra delighted that our old pal Alex Segura, co-president of Archie Comics is the featured interview.

And yes, the hosts do get it in their head to try to buy Doorman, an especially — and purposely — lame character, from Marvel. 

Listen… and subscribe. 

John Byrne — Powered Up

Original Art and The Artists

Fantastic Four Commission (20x 30), 2003

As discussed previously here, John Byrne does (or did?) some amazing commissions. The reason I’m not confident on my verb tense here is that I hear John stopped creating them when he put his artistic efforts behind his X-Men “fan-fiction” project.

One of most interseting facts about these commissions is that John has done them as large as 30×40. That’s slightly bigger than a movie poster! 

This terrific one here is 20×30. I’m the second owner, as the first one sold his entire collection all at once. Right place, right time for me; I’m a big fan (no pun intended) of the Super-Skrull.

I commissioned Len O’Grady to color the piece for me, and he did a terrific job. If I recall correctly, we sent it over to JB, who approved it as well.

(And if my recollection were incorrect about that, it would not surprise me to hear about it. John is not shy about offering his opinion.)

Some of the many additional Byrne Fantastic Four commissions in the hands of fans and collectors.
The first appearance of the Super-Skull, followed by an issue of Thor where I first encountered him as a young Marvel reader.

    John Byrne — Happy 70th!

    Original Art and The Artists

    John Byrne’s Next Men #1, December 2010

    Wait… John Byrne is 70 today? How old does that make me? Yikes.

    Continuing our celebration of “Independents” month with a bonus entry by Byrne.

    John started his Next Men series at Dark Horse in 1991, ultimately stopping in 1994, during an epic industry-wide sales implosion.

    In 2010, after some wrangling, John restarted the series at IDW and this beautifully detailed art was used for the announcement at SDCC, along with one of the cover variants.

    Happy Birthday, John!

    Published cover and original promo for SDCC.
    Dark Horse #1 launch issue from 1992 along with Dark Horse Presents #54, featuring the team’s first appearance in 1991.
    Byrne in 2017 at NYCC, his first convention appearance in many years.

    John Byrne — “Gronk”

    Original Art and The Artists

    Jurassic Park: The Devils in the Desert #1, January 2011

    I have no memory of how I acquired a few pieces of art. A chance dealer transaction at a convention perhaps … or possibly a last minute sweetener in a trade? Too much art probably, too many years definitely, and as they say…. hard drive almost full.

    But this art’s provenance I remember very well.

    NYCC about 5 years ago.  I had heard a lot about John Byrne’s house and all the various art collectibles that made up some of the décor, but hadn’t had a chance to get up to the wilds of Connecticut to check it out.

    This time I was determined.  So, one rainy day at the end of the convention day, Chris Ryall and I trudged our way through monsoon-like rain (no exaggeration) to the train station, missed our connection, but eventually made it up to John’s town. After a nice Chinese meal, we headed back to John’s house.

    It was everything as described. Great collectibles and memorabilia, and some great art hanging in his studio by comic book legends John admired. (No surprise, lots of Jack Kirby.)

    Chris had already a direct working relationship with John, and in fact had been to his house previously. But I had actually not seen John since the early 90s, and he had no memory of our meeting, nor should he. 

    As many colleagues can share, John can be reserved at times. Regardless, he was gracious to his publisher, and he definitely warmed up a bit as we discussed art in detail while I enjoyed the tour.

    At the end of the night, He pointed us to his flat files of art and told us to each take something. These file were a potpourri of recent projects, pieces he had yet to give to his art representative Jim Warden to sell for him.

    Chris found a page from DC’s OMAC series that John was especially proud of. I was a bit more interested in something that we had published at IDW, and after some deep digging, I came up with this great Jurassic Park double-page spread from the mini-series John created for us.

    He was delighted that I admired it, and I, of course, was delighted with his generosity. It is a great piece, and to date, I walk past it every day and smile. Permanent collection, for certain.

    Getting it back to California from New York wasn’t easy, but that’s a story for another day.

    Thanks again, JB!

    I love the way the covers link up, especially issues #1 and #2.