John Byrne is one of the most significant artists of his generation, a massive talent who was the king of the hill for many years. But the Byrne I love is the earliest, the young Canadian artist who was still thrashing about a bit as his style found its form on work like Doomsday +1 and Rog-2000 for Charlton and soon thereafter Iron Fist for Marvel. He got famous because he hooked up with Chris Claremont on The Uncanny X-Men after Dave Cockrum left the title. Clarement and Byrne became demi-gods of comics on the X-Men, hugely successful and Byrne was able to parlay that success into real power when he took over the Fantastic Four and made that book nearly as good as it had been under Lee and Kirby. Then he took his talents to DC and tried to do the same thing Superman at a time when redefining heroes was a commonplace. Then he became the total package on his Next Men and Danger Unlimited, exceedingly well-crafted Indy comics. He has continued to make darn good comics for decades, but to my eye as his style as "matured" it has lost some of the energy and zip which made his early pages bristle with explosive power.
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Another artist that would be in my top ten. I love his art and have been collecting it for years.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan for sure, but his modern stuff leaves me a bit cold. I try to like it, but it lacks that certain something that made his early stuff so invigorating.
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