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This article is about the comic book writer and artist. For the Victoria Cross recipient, see John Byrne (VC). For the Scottish painter, see John Byrne (Scottish artist).
Uncanny X-Men #135 (1980), cover by Byrne

John Byrne (July 6, 1950 - ) is a British-born Canadian (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. As of June, 2005 he is writing and drawing Doom Patrol and Blood of the Demon as well as pencilling Action Comics for DC Comics.

Biography

John Byrne was born on July 6, 1950 near West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom. His first exposure to the American superheroes that would dominate his professional life was at the age of six when he first watched The Adventures of Superman on the BBC. In Britain, he was able to read domestic comics such as The Eagle, as well as the occasional DC Comics reprint, but it was not until 1958 when his family immigrated to Canada that he first experienced the full breadth of America comic books [1]. His first encounter with Marvel Comics was in 1962 with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #5. He later commented of the book 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 of Byrne and he has chronicled many of the characters Kirby created. This included a stint on the Fantastic Four than some fans consider to be second only to Lee and Kirby's run. Byrne has also stated that his early artwork was heavily influenced by the realistic style of Neal Adams.

In 1970 Byrne enrolled at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, but he left shortly before graduation to pursue a career in the comic book industry. At college he produced his first full-length comic story, The Death's Head Knight, as a promotional item for a show of comic book art. That book was seen by a fellow Canadian comics fan who put Byrne in contact with people in the fanzine community and at Marvel Comics. While still living in Canada he split his time between working for a local advertising agency and illustrating books for Charlton Comics. Byrne coined the phrase "Byrne Robotics" to credit a group of assistants he occasionally used for his Charlton work, the phrase was later adopted for the artist's official website ("Byrne's Robots", (March 2001), Comic Book Artist #12, pp54). Byrne began illustrating full-time for Marvel Comics in the mid-70s. He was often paired with writer Chris Claremont and in 1978 Byrne took over the artwork on the Uncanny X-Men from Dave Cockrum. The pairing of Claremont and Byrne on the X-Men is considered by fans to be one of the high-points of the series. Byrne moved from Canada to the United States in 1980 when he married the photographer Andréa Braun Byrne.

In the early-1980s Byrne had moved on to other books at Marvel, including the Fantastic Four, but by mid-1980s he had became frustrated with the management style of Jim Shooter, Marvel's then editor-in-chief. In 1986 he accepted an offer from DC Comics to help spearhead the overhaul of their failing Superman franchise. The relaunch was a commercial success and that version of Superman is so strongly identified with the artist that it is sometimes called "John Byrne's Superman". Byrne returned to Marvel in 1988 where he turned his hand to comedy with the fan favorite Sensational She-Hulk series. In the early 1990s Byrne began produced several creator-owned books (as distinct from working on other people's characters) published through Dark Horse Comics and he eventually left Marvel to devote himself to these books. Byrne collaborated with his ex-wife's son, Kieron Dwyer, on a back-up series called Torch of Liberty in his Danger Unlimited book.

As the 1990s comics bubble burst Byrne returned to DC Comics (1995) and then again went back to Marvel Comics (1999). One of the themes of Byrne's work at this time, and for much of his later career, has been the exploration of untold elements of popular character's origins and histories. Several of his more revisionist works (see discusion on DC Phase II and Marvel Phase III) were not as broadly well received as his other more successful work and some fans disliked his treatment of plots that had been introduced by writers other than the character's creators. During this time Byrne began to introduce new elements into his art. He expanded his use of computer models to augment the drafting of cityscapes and scenes. He also began experimenting with diagonal panel arrangements. John Byrne's work, particularly his later work, his opinions, and his relationship with collaborators has become a subject of interest and debate amongst fandom. These discussions can become heavily polarized by the fans perception of Byrne the Person over Byrne the Artist. One interview noted that "Byrne's self-admitted lack of faith in humanity has kept him at arm's length from some and some may take [it] as a narcissistic conceit. He has many an opinion about the lack of vision and leadership for the comic book industry. He is well-informed, literate and not one to suffer fools well." [3]

Byrne's Career

Fanzines and Charlton Comics

Byrne produced his earliest work while attending the Alberta College of Art [4]. His first published comic book was The Death's Head Knight from ACA comics. He also created 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.

Byrne made his first professional sale in 1971 to The Monster Times. In 1975 his first assignment at Marvel Comics saw publication in Giant-Sized Dracula #5. Meanwhile, Charlton Comics editor Nicola Cuti published Byrne's fanzine character ROG-2000. This led to Byrne's first full assignment in Charlton's Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, followed by Doomsday+1, Space: 1999 and a single issue of Emergency!.

Marvel Phase I

The X-Men

In the latter 70's Byrne became a regular artist at Marvel. Byrne was teamed with writer Chris Claremont on several of the company's lower-profile publications, like Iron Fist, Marvel Team-Up and finally the X-Men in 1978. On the X-Men Byrne was penciller as well as Claremont's co-plotter. Their collaboration was critically successful, producing ground-breaking stories such as "The Dark Phoenix Saga" and "The Days of Future Past" that were to influence the superhero genre for decades after.

Byrne later likened his partnership with Claremont to Gilbert and Sullivan's. A source of friction arose from the duo's use of the Marvel Method, a process whereby the artist and writer would agree on a plot that the artist would pencil before delivering to the writer for final scripting (followed, of course, by inking and lettering). Byrne felt that at times Claremont's dialogue alterated the tone and narrative that they had previously agreed upon; Claremont less contentiously noted that Byrne regularly changed agreed-on plot details as he penciled the stories. One example cited by Byrne is the conclusion to "Days of Future Past" where his original intention was that the X-Men should escape their post-apocalyptic destiny but Claremont's scripting cast ambiguity on that outcome. (Claremont later explained to interviewers that Byrne had added several deaths of major characters to the story, making a darker outcome more appropriate.)

The Fantastic Four

In 1981 Byrne took on Marvel's Fantastic Four as both writer and artist. His five-year run of stories was commerically and critically successful, compared by many to the original classic stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Byrne's approach to the FF was a mix of traditional characterization and experimentation. For example, the Thing was originally a troubled loner but subsequent writers turned him into a comedic character. Byrne gradually returned the Thing to a tragic figure, spinning him off into solo adventures, replacing him on the team with the She-Hulk, and having his girlfriend Alicia Masters leave for the Human Torch.

Byrne made the Invisible Woman a more assertive, self-confident, modernized woman (it was he who renamed her from "Invisible Girl"). She would also discover her powers to be greater and more versatile.

Byrne tried to give arch-nemesis Doctor Doom a more consistent characterization. For example. Lee and Kirby disagreed about the extent to which Doom's unmasked face was disfigured. Lee thought Doom had horrible scars but Kirby felt it was only a minor scar. Byrne resolved these viewpoints by revealing that Doom originally had a small scar but put on an iron mask while red hot, causing horrific disfiguration. Also, Byrne felt that Doom's guest appearances in other books was mischaracterized (such as in Chris Claremont's X-Men) so robot doubles of Doom were revealed to have appeared in those instances instead.

Alpha Flight

In 1983 Byrne launched a new Marvel title Alpha Flight, starring his original creations first introduced during his tenure on the X-Men. This team of Canadian superheroes was to become a cult favorite, though Byrne felt that Alpha Flight was an artistic and creative low point for him. Alpha Flight is also notable for featuring the first openly gay superhero character, Northstar (though his sexuality was only hinted at in Byrne's stories.) After two years Byrne traded his Alpha Flight assignment with writer Bill Mantlo for the Incredible Hulk.

Licensed Work

Also in 1983 Byrne began an Indiana Jones series. Lucasfilm turned out to be a very demanding licensor, asking for story changes even after the art had been finished. Frustrated, Byrne left the book after the second issue. Byrne would rarely work with licensed properties afterwards.

Conflicts with Jim Shooter

During these years at Marvel, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter left a profound creative impact on much of Byrne's stories. For example Shooter's objections to Byrne and Roger Stern's plans for Captain America led to the duo's resignation from the book. The tragic conclusion to the "Dark Phoenix Saga" was not Claremont and Byrne's original intent, but Claremont's protest against Shooter's story demands. Against Byrne's wishes, his emotional Fantastic Four story "Hero" featured Shooter's creation the Beyonder.

None of this sat well with Byrne. While he once complimented Shooter's job performance, he had become critical of Shooter's perceived micromanagement. Shooter had alienated several other comics professionals in the past, and Byrne ended up joining that group.

In 1985 Byrne accepted DC Comics's offer to work on Superman while retaining his assignments at Marvel. Though this was given the blessing of Marvel's president, Byrne suspected Shooter opposed it. Then in 1986 Byrne abruptly left Marvel, soon claiming his departure was due to Shooter's interference with his storylines, and would not return to Marvel until after Shooter departed. He participated in parodying Shooter's characters while at DC, and remains critical of Shooter to this day. However, in a 1999 interview, Byrne declared that he left the Fantastic Four, his principal Marvel assignment, because, after six years, "it simply started to get old," and that he cited the editorial disputes simply as an excuse.

DC Phase I - The Superman Revamp

Main Article: The Man of Steel reboot

In 1986 Byrne and DC rebooted the story of Superman for the first time in the character's publishing history. In The Man of Steel mini-series Byrne introduced many changes while retaining core elements of the character's personality and mythos. For the next two years Byrne would act as writer and artist on most of the Superman comics.

Byrne was very successful in sales on his Superman run, but ended up leaving Superman suddenly. He did not discuss the details at the time, but later said that he felt DC comics didn't support his changes. When both the fan press and mainstream press interviewed DC about the changes, he felt that the management did not back him up and distanced themselves from the project, and was concerned that his changes had little effect on the numerous licensed Superman projects. Frustrated, he abruptly left the property without notice, disrupting DC's publishing schedules, and returned to Marvel.

Marvel Phase II - Post Shooter

After Superman, Byrne returned to Marvel, working mostly on minor, low-profile titles. He took over West Coast Avengers, renaming it Avengers West Coast, and started several storylines on this book. Byrne caused some fan controversy when he retconned the Vision's origin and removed the Scarlet Witch's children, which changes the tone of the characters very soon after Englehart's Vision and Scarlet Witch maxi-series. Byrne eventually was given the core Avengers title, and worked to tighten coordination between the two teams, and also pitched the idea for Acts of Vengeance, one of Marvel's recurring line-wide crossovers. He also created the characters dubbed "The Great Lakes Avengers", and restored the Golden Age Human Torch to the Marvel Universe.

Another book Byrne wrote and produced breakdowns for was Star Brand, a New Universe title. While Byrne's takeover/revamp boosted sales, neither his title nor the overall line was well-received in the market. Star Brand was cancelled after Byrne's ninth issue.

File:Ssh31.png
Byrne's first issue on his return to She-Hulk, number 31. Also pictured are Byrne himself and the book's editor, Renée Witterstaetter.

He also launched The Sensational She-Hulk series, at the request of Mark Gruenwald, who wanted a unique take on the character. For the latter series, Byrne wanted to do the book as a comedy, making She-Hulk self-aware of her status as a comic book character, and had the character break the fourth wall at times, and dealt with a supporting cast of bizarre minor characters in the Marvel Universe. Byrne's initial run on the title was cut short; he quit the assignment because Marvel would not allow him to control the She-Hulk's use in other titles. He returned to the title two years later, but could not recover the initial run's momentum.

Byrne also left both Avengers titles suddenly also from conflict with Shooter's replacement, Tom DeFalco. Byrne had pitched a storyline centered around the Scarlet Witch, and had already built sub-plots around it. Byrne had pitched the peak of this storyline as a crossover event, but DeFalco rejected the proposal. DeFalco, after discovering Byrne was working on this storyline anyway, ordered it cancelled. Byrne felt he could no longer work on either Avengers title and left suddenly.

Despite Byrne's problems with DeFalco, he did not immediately leave the company like he did under Shooter's run, and Byrne then developed the Namor series and did writing chores on Iron Man.

Namor was a different take on the Sub-Mariner, featuring the corporation he established back in the early days of Fantastic Four. It dealt with the business world and business-related villains. He also used the book to restore Iron Fist to life, since he felt the character was killed off in a poor manner.

His Iron Man run, mostly drawn by Paul Ryan, restored The Mandarin as Iron Man's chief rival (backed by Fin Fang Foom, a revived character from Marvel's "monster" comics in the the pre-FF era).

One of the final ill-fated projects he worked on at his second tenure at Marvel was scripting Uncanny X-Men. After 17 years as writer on the series, Chris Claremont had been fired, due to conflicts with the editorial staff. Byrne had started making plot plans for the book, and was even interviewed by Patrick Daniel O'Neil in both Wizard and Comics Interview with these plans; he was even featured in an Entertainment Weekly article about the book. However, Byrne was never assigned any duties on the title beyond dialoguing already-plotted stories, and X-Men groups editor Bob Harras terminated the assignment after only six issues.

Sideline at DC: OMAC

When wrapping up his second tenure at Marvel, he also worked on a limited series for DC, a revamp of OMAC. OMAC was unusual as it was a prestige-format book entirely in black and white. The series was relatively well-received, but sales were disappointing.

Creator-Owned Projects, Legend, and Dark Horse

Byrne decided to do several creator-owned titles, published through Dark Horse Comics. His first projects were the serialisation of his Next Men in Dark Horse Presents and the related John Byrne's 2112 graphic novel. These were followed by the John Byrne's Next Men series. Byrne's core fans were pleased with his work, but the title's sales stagnated, particularly in comparison to the new lines of comics from Image and Valiant.

Byrne's work at Dark Horse was eventually published under the 'Legend' imprint. This line was not intended to be a universe, but more or less a label of like-minded creators, including Frank Miller and Art Adams. Mike Mignola's Hellboy was one of the other titles involved in the line, and Byrne provided scripts for the early issues, working from Mignola's outlines.

While doing Next Men, Byrne decided he wanted to try a more classic superhero project. He launched Danger Unlimited (DU) as a limited series. After this series was published, however, sales were a little lower than his Next Men sales. Byrne made a controversial statement that the book was not profitable for him. Byrne decided to launch another series, Babe. This series was a little more light-hearted comedy, similar to She-Hulk (although without breaking the fourth wall). Many fans felt disappointed with him dropping Danger Unlimited and were less thrilled with Babe. (Byrne did tie-in the Babe characters with the DU universe at the end of the Babe 2 series.)

By stating that his creator-owned work wasn't successful enough for him, it disillusioned some of Byrne's die-hard fans. Writer Steven Grant has theorized that this may have contributed to Byrne's decline in popularity [5].

Next Men came to an end in 1994. Byrne had intended for this to be a temporary hiatus, but around this time, the comic speculation market had caused a severe collapse, drastically reducing sales of such books across-the-board. Byrne says he will release the final twenty issues of the series when the market will support it, but has not defined those parameters.

DC Phase II - Wonder Woman and the New Gods

Byrne returned to DC to work on a revamp of Wonder Woman, and then later New Gods. His declared goal was to make Wonder Woman a "major player" in the DC universe. He tried to work with much of the mystical and mythological aspects of DC's library, overhauling the propety's supporting cast. He made Wonder Woman a goddess, established Darkseid as an enemy, introduced a new Wonder Girl, and retconned Diana's mother, Hippolyta, into a World War II-era Wonder Woman with the Justice Society of America. Byrne then took over New Gods, convincing DC to relaunch the title as Jack Kirby's Fourth World.

Initial sales were promising on both books, but neither title managed to "break out" beyond those levels. Near the end of his run, Byrne outlined a line-wide crossover for DC called Genesis, establishing that all DC characters got their powers ultimately from The Source. The project's reception in the market was no more than lukewarm, however. Byrne's departure from the titles coincided with changes in editorial staff, and some observers have speculate Byrne was unhappy over the likelihood that he would have to share control over major characters used in Grant Morrison's JLA revamp.

Marvel Phase III

Spider-Man: Chapter One

After wrapping up many projects at DC, he returned to Marvel to work on several projects. Byrne was hired first to do art on some of the Spider-Man books. The Spider-Man titles were in some disrepute among hardcore fans after the long drawn out Clone Saga, a commercial success but critical debacle.

The Spider-Man line was to return to basics. The editors at Marvel wanted Byrne to assist with this project, so they hired Byrne to do a revamp of Spider-Man's origin, similar to Byrne's prior work on Man of Steel. Spider-Man: Chapter One was a 13 issue series that refined elements of Spider-Man's origin, retelling a lot of the earliest stories and origin. Byrne ended up changing a few elements, most notably tying in the origin of Doctor Octopus with Peter Parker's. His revisions were controversial, and soon treated as non-canonical.

During this time Byrne created the third Spider-Woman, Mattie Franklin, who he later wrote in a short-lived spin-off series, which met with generally poor reviews.

The Lost Generation and the Hulk

With fellow friend and writer Roger Stern, Byrne and he wrote a limited series called Marvel: The Lost Generation, which followed the story of a new band of heroes dubbed The First Line that occupied the time between World War II and the Modern day. With the Marvel Universe originally starting in the 1960s, and the existing policy of only 7-10 passing years between the launch of the Fantastic Four and the current titles, both writers felt there must have been other events going on in the Marvel Universe between that time, so this series was to fill in the gaps between those two eras.

Byrne worked for a very short period on the Hulk, which lasted less than 10 issues, including a controversial annual, where he introduced a retcon establishing involving the Skrulls as being partially responsible for the Hulk's origin, later disowned from canon in Captain Marvel at the request of the editors. Byrne has refused to speak of the reasons for his departure from the book.

X-Men: The Hidden Years

Main article: X-Men: The Hidden Years

Finally, Byrne created a title called X-Men: The Hidden Years. Since Byrne felt alienated from the current X-Men title but wanted to work with those characters, Byrne made the proposal to write a series that took place between the last X-Men issue to feature the founding team and Giant-Size X-Men #1, which established the new roster. His appreciation for the work of Neal Adams led him to use a new style on Hidden Years of laying out panels in the format Adams frequently used, with angular panels instead of the usual square grid.

The title was initially successful, but Byrne's storylines were again controversial. Fans disenchanted with the current version of the team enjoyed his more straightforward approach, but his stories were often criticized for working off the 1960s continuity and ignoring more modern story lines which affected (sometimes via retconning) the characters. Sales dipped substantially, declining to a level below the majority of titles in the X-line.

Byrne ended up leaving Marvel yet again due to disputes with the new management, now represented by Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas. The new administration was disappointed that the successful X-Men movie did not translate into an increase in comics sales, and complained that the X-books had become too self-referential and bogged down in a convoluted continuity. They ordered several changes to the line, and Marvel cancelled several of the peripheral X-titles, including Hidden Years, which they believed mostly took sales away from other titles in the X-line. Byrne felt that the management did not handle this well, and claimed the book was turning a profit while other titles that had worse sales like Spider-Girl were kept alive. Because of this, he has vowed not to work for Marvel until a new editorial regime is established, and refers to the current Marvel as M****l; Marvel's stock price remains undamaged.

Inter-Company Crossovers and Generations

In addition to his Marvel Work, Byrne wrote two notable inter-company crossover one-shots. Galactus/Darkseid, The Hunger, and Batman/Captain America. The latter work is one Byrne considers his best, and deals with Batman and Captain America teaming up against the Red Skull and the Joker.

Byrne worked on a prestige format 4-issue limited series for DC, Superman & Batman: Generations. Generations took place in it's own continuity. The story consisted of chapters in the lives of both characters, taking place in different decades, and paying homage to the creators and storylines of those times. The 1930's chapter, for instance, dealt with Superman and Batman as they were protrayed at that time, as vigilanties, while the 1950's chapter deal with Mort Weisinger-themed storylines. The storyline took place in "real time" as well, with the characters aging and offspring taking over their parents roles. This project was generally well received.

Byrne followed up these books with two sequels, the first dealing with other DC heroes in chapters in-between the stories of the first series. The second sequel was a 12 part time-travel storyline mostly taking place in between the years 2000-3000, dealing with much of DC's alternate futures. These follow-ups weren't as well-received sales-wise, perhaps because much of the special qualities of the first series weren't reflected in these sequels.

Recent Projects

Byrne created a creator-owned series for DC called Lab Rats. This project was not as successful as his prior creator-owned work, and was cancelled after eight issues. Byrne blamed the poor sales of the title on "bad retailers" who he said would not order enough of the book.[6]

At the suggestion of Mike Carlin Byrne teamed up with Claremont for a six issue Justice League storyline, The Tenth Circle, and they were joined by their old X-Men partners Terry Austin as inker and Tom Orzechowski as letterer. The series also ended up restoring the original Doom Patrol to modern continuity. The Doom Patrol was the subject of a reboot—this story established that this was officially the first appearance of the characters, with no attempt to explain it via a retcon. This caused some fan controversy, but DC allowed this because of the failures of the existing Doom Patrol projects and the desire to see the classic team back in action. The appearance of the Doom Patrol in JLA ended up launching the new Doom Patrol series, which Byrne still works on.

Byrne recently launched the title Blood of the Demon, featuring The Demon, as well as doing art for Action Comics with writer Gail Simone.

While current sales on Action are in line with those for other Superman titles, both Blood Of The Demon and Doom Patrol are selling very poorly, among the lowest-ordered mainline DC titles.

Non Comic Book Projects

Byrne drew ten weeks of the comic strip Funky Winkerbean while its creator, Tom Batiuk, was recovering from foot surgery.

In addition to his comic book work, Byrne has published three novels: Fearbook, Whipping Boy and Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses. He also has short stories in the Hotter Blood and Shock Rock anthologies. Fearbook was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers of America as "Best First Novel".

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 British comic 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 was very rough and his drawings emphasized a lot of curves over straight lines.

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. A common criticism of his work at this time was that he drew large panels without backgrounds in order to increase the number of pages he could turn out. It was also during the mid-1980s that Byrne was being influenced by the work of the French artists.

In the book Understanding Comics, Byrne is charted on McCloud's "Big Triangle" along with other comic artists. He is ranked low on the "picture plane", where most comic artists dwell. He is ranked leaning towards the realism side, with peers such as Neal Adams and Milton Caniff ranking as drawing more realistically, while others such as Trina Robbins, Roy Crane, and Charles Schulz ranking as drawing with more abstraction, towards the "language" point.

Byrne is now 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

Controversies and Criticisms

In addition to Byrne's strong opinions on comics, creators, and characters, he has on occasion been a lightning rod for controversy when some of his remarks have been met with strong criticism on-line. Items include statements about Christopher Reeve not being a "hero" (in the classic sense), criticism of color-blind casting in Hollywood, dislike of most comic book movies, a bizarre defense of the racial epithet commonly referred to as the "N word," and increasingly vocal statements about the state of the industry and the fans.

Controversial remarks include:

I have noticed that people have begun referring to Christopher Reeve as a "hero". I do not wish to take away one iota of the courage he must have needed not to wake up screaming every single day, but the hard truth is there was nothing "heroic" in what happened to him, or how he dealt with it. In fact, as far as how he dealt with it, he didn't even have a choice. We could imagine he spent every hour of every day (when not in front of the cameras) begging family members to simply kill him and get it over with -- but none of them did, so he had no choice but to deal with each day as it came.
Personal prejudice: Hispanic and Latino women with blond hair look like hookers to me, no matter how clean or "cute" they are. Somehow those skin tones that look so good with dark, dark hair just don't work for me with lighter shades.
PEOPLE WHO MISS DEADLINES ARE LAZY, ARROGANT, UNPROFESSIONAL C*CKS*CKERS WHO ARE IN NO SMALL WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF THE INDUSTRY. AND THE "FANS" WHO SUPPORT THEM ARE BRAINDEAD ELITIST MORONS. (Note the quote is not censored. The asterisks appear in the oringal statement and the all-caps and the bold typeface are from the original quote as well.)

Selected bibliography

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

Marvel Comics

DC Comics

Independent Publishers

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

External links

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