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Back in the early '80s, John Byrne was a hot property as a writer and artist at Marvel. In that dual capacity on The Fantastic Four, he had made the FF 'The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!' again and it seemed like there was no stopping him. When his newest title at the time (Alpha Flight) hit the stands, I leapt aboard, and stayed with the mag for all of Byrne's 28 issues. In fact, I stayed beyond that when a new creative team took over and The Byrnester jumped ship over to The Hulk for 6 issues, but most of my non-Byrne issues are up in the loft somewhere and it's only his run that I keep relatively handy.
I no longer recall for sure, but I may've been living in my current house when the first ish came out, but had probably flitted before the next couple of them went on sale. The first issue is cover-dated August, which means it would usually go on sale on or around May, and that was the month in which I moved. It therefore depends at what point in May it was available as to whether I was living in one house or the other; not that it's important to you. (An added difficulty in determining the precise date is that I think comics sometimes hit shops in advance of their usual 'on sale' date, so #1 of AF might've been released before May. I could be mistaken on that, and perhaps it's only the usual 3 month 'lead-in' time I'm thinking of.)
Anyway, as regular readers know, I returned this house just over 4 years later, but I've never looked past these comics' covers in the 33 years I've been back, so it's well-overdue for me to refresh my memory as to why John Byrne could once seemingly do no wrong for so long and I plan on re-reading these mags first chance I get. In the meantime though, I thought I'd treat you Crivvies to a look at his covers and splash pages from the first 10 issues, with the remainder to follow in two parts in the very near future. At last you have something to look forward to and your life is once again meaningful. Am I a great guy or what?
Did you buy Alpha Flight back in the day? What are your memories, and why do you think that John Byrne was so popular at the time, but eventually seemed to fall out of favour with readers and comics publishers alike? Or is that an unfair assessment that does him an injustice? Thoughts, theories, and observations are welcome in the comments section. For Part Two, click here, for Part Three, click here.
24 comments:
I've enjoyed Byrne's work since his days at Charlton. When he jumped ship and worked for Marvel, much the same as Mike Zeck would do, I thought his art improved enourmous ly. Then his defection to DC as writer and artist on Superman was really really good for awhile, then he went on to his creator owned projects, which lacked in writing I thought. I still collect them, as well as his Star Trek photonovels, and will pick up anything for his art in the discount bins. I liked his take on Kirbys projects and Doom Patrol, but he seems to lose interest or is booted off his runs prematurely. I would love to see more FF stories by him, and i thoght his leaving Alpha Flight was a huge mistake, as his Hulk stories were underwhelming. But he is still one of my all time favorite modern comic artists.
Yeah, I'd love to see him back on FF as well, particularly doing his version of the Anniversary ish that he'd planned before he left for DC. I found that his creator-owned projects didn't really grab me for some reason - perhaps because they were derivative of other companies' work, I dunno. I forget the name of it, but he did one a few years ago, maybe for IDW, and it was like an amalgam of the FF and the X-Men. I'd much rather see him work on the 'real' titles than imitations of them.
I didnt know about the anniversary issue, but it would be nice to see an end to the last Galactus story. Then again, didnt it take Barry Smith nearly 30 years to finish his Hulk story?
I don't know that he ever did finish it, LM - at least not as a Hulk story, though he did use the plot with a 'stand-in' monster. It's now been over 30 years since Byrne had to abandon his planned Anniversary FF tale, so it would be good if Marvel asked him to do it as a one-off tale (before giving him the monthly mag to do as a regular gig).
An interesting post as I had no idea what Byrne did after the delightful E-Man title for Charlton which was such a quirky story line.
I just checked his Wickipedia entry and he seems to have had quiet a career bouncing around between different titles and companies that had completely eluded me.
You never saw his Fantastic Four? When you have some cash to spare, you must buy the two Omnibus volumes collecting his stuff. Only if you ever enjoyed the FF of course.
Never enjoyed many of the Marvel titles. I couldn't deal with the psychological problems so many of the cast of characters seemed to deal with. At the time the contemporary Batman was still a detective and hadn't turned into a psychopath. Also the Marvel books were into cross over stories which meant buying several different titles which may have been good marketing but it offended me.
I stuck with Captain America for a number of years with his tiresome loss of Bucky and misplacement in time. In the end I bought them for years but didn't read them.
Conan was the only title I cared for as the first issues with art by Barry Smith were free of 'guilt'.
I meant to say that I never heard of his lost FF issue. I bought all of the old ones beginning with 232 as they came out, probably off the newstand, which doesn't exist anymore around my neck of the woods.
Yeah, that Conan, eh? He sure wasn't racked with conscience over however many people he killed. Bit of a barbarian if you ask me. (Ah, NOW I understand the mag'stitle.)
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You never know, LM, it might happen some day.
I first encountered Alpha Flight when Marvel UK reprinted the early issues in Secret Wars- I didn't buy SW, but had a nice arrangement with a school friend where I'd read his and he would read my weekly copy of Transformers.
A few years ago I managed to get hold of the first 6 AF issues when a local comic shop had a "fill a short-box for £50" back issue sale and thoroughly enjoyed reading them again.
Must say though that they aren't my favourite John Byrne comics- that would be his great (but short) run on West Coast Avengers.
Nah, they're not my favourite Byrne mags either, but they were okay. I used to buy the UK Secret Wars (even though I had the US issues) and I'd forgotten that it reprinted Alpha Flight. I also agree that his West Coast Avengers stuff was good, as was his run on Iron Man, which I think he wrote, but another artist may've drawn.
Romita Jr drew those Iron Man issues, and I think Paul Ryan took over later. Not my favourite era of JRJr - I wasn't a big fan of the blocky angular style he'd developed at the time. Still a great storyteller though, you could always follow the story on a Romita Jr page without the dialogue, which is what separates good comic artists from the mediocre, in my opinion.
On the subject of back-up strips in Marvel UK mags, I first encountered Bob Layton's futuristic Hercules, the still fantastic Machine Man series drawn by Barry Windsor Smith and Herb Trimpe and the work of Ken Steacy in that way- I almost always read them grudgingly at first then enjoyed them as I became more familiar with the characters.
I much prefer Romita Jr's dad as an artist. Good, clean, clear storytelling at its best. Yeah, you're right, DS - a lot of artists can draw good-looking pages, but it's often difficult to figure out what's going on in them.
I'd have to think about what strips I first read as back-ups in UK reprint mags - just can't recall any at the moment.
Re Byrne's West Coast Avengers: his art was on form but storywise he did his trope of reversing...no read butchering, anything that he did not like. I was really impressed by the way that Thomas and Englehart had developed the Vision and the Scarlet Witch's relationship, and that Englehart had tried to give them a 'normal' lifestyle, only to be mortified with what Byrne did to them...murdering their kids ( fictionally of course), doing another dark heroine storyline ( you know dark phoenix, dark Sue, dark Wanda), and then having dark Wanda carrying out some unnameable act on Wonder Man off panel ( and I can't name the act because I still don't quite understand what Wanda did, innocent as I am!).
I loved Byrne in the 70s, when his name attached to any comic meant you were going to be wonderfully entertained. I really enjoyed his FF work to about 250, and the series was still entertaining to about 270, but his casual whim of putting together Johnny and Alicia just as Ben's back was turned really offended all long-term readers (including me!) and destroyed the core heart of title forever, in my opinion at least. Another crime perpetrated was the apparent rape of Big Barda in Action Comics....
Byrne's Superman, Avengers and Alpha Flight I found dull, but amazingly I did enjoyed some of his post X-Men work. Byrne's Hulk was exciting, his She_Hulk engaging, his World of Krypton amazing, his last issue of Superman historic, and his Omac mini-series the work of significant note. The back-up in Superman#9 featuring a tale of blackmail and Luther was also noteworthy. I too want to see his Last Galactus story finished; it was slow-moving but would have given the Galactus figure a real purpose and destiny within the Marvel universe. But overall for the 80s Byrne too often spread himself too thin over too many titles, both art wise and story-wise, as he appeared to more enjoy causing controversy, than to further comics as an intelligent imaginative art form. His (at times estimable) no compromise approach towards what he wanted to do alienated his editors, which gradually diminished his standing.
I know the Byrne of the 70s, 80s and early 90s, but have very little idea of the quality of his work over the past 30 years, except for purchasing some of his X-Man Hidden years issues, which, although a good idea, was, disappointingly, as dull as dishwater. I know little of nothing of his Iron Man, Spider-man, Namor, Wonder Woman, New Gods, Next Men, Star Trek. When I think of Byrne now, I would love to think of him basking in the light of the past glories of his X-Men, his Star Lord, his early FF, his MTU or his Iron Fist but what I see and comes back is his questionable work making heroes less heroic and changing title/character formulae that did not need changing.
This has gone on a bit longer than intended, but it;s some time since I last commented!
Spirit of '64
ps if you like Romita Snr you really should buy some Caniff, specially his 40s work! I am not currently reading Caniff, but rediscovering Hal Fosters's Prince Valiant, which, being the Buscame fan that you are, you would not doubt appreciate.
I love comments like this, S64, so keep 'em coming whenever you like. I was just off to my bed when it came in, so if you don't mind, I'll give it a fuller response when I awaken, rather than just acknowledge it without replying properly or giving it the attention it deserves. In the meantime, if any other Crivvies want to add anything to what S64 has said, I'm sure he'd appreciate your views - as would I.
The Steve Canyon series from Kitchen Sink were amazing, and still currently affordable. Caniff has a great sense of design, and his stories are well thought out.
S64, must confess that I wasn't at all keen on him changing the nature of Alicia's relationship with Ben and switching it to Johnny, but I didn't mind what he did with the Vision and Wanda. The notion of an android having kids with a human never sat right with me for some reason. What I liked about Byrne was that he usually hit the reset button, turning back time to when the characters were more exciting and new. For instance, with the FF, he gave them back the thick collars and belts last seen in issue #5, and he returned Ben to his original dinosaur-type skin, which I always preferred. Then, later, he seemed to go into the opposite mode and started revising Spider-man and the Hulk's origin, which left me cold.
I suppose it was a case of him being, when he was good, very good, but when he was bad - well, not quite so good. Anyway, great comment from you, so let's hope it gets the response it deserves from others.
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I'll certainly consider having a look if I ever see any copies of those books anywhere, LM. I've only ever seen examples in The Penguin Book Of Comics.
The Penguin Book was one of the first history books I read, along with Les Daniels, Jules Feiffer and Maurice Horn. I remember being amazed that other countries had such an amazing variety of comics. I believe I bought them all from the ads in Monster Times. I also remember getting a hardcover of Trigan Empire and being astounded with the art.
I've got both versions of the Penguin book, the reprint of the Jules Feiffer one (without the comic strips), and The World Encyclopaedia Of Comics by Horn. The only books I've got by Daniels are the Marvel and DC histories. Got a few reprints of Trigan Empire stuff too.
Posted your record cover today, LM, but I didn't have enough about my person to send it Air Mail, so it's gone Surface Mail. Let me know when it arrives, eh?
Meant to say, if your single is still in its original HMV sleeve, that should slip into the new one if you edge it in carefully, bit-by-bit. That way, the record isn't separated from the sleeve it's been in for years, and it affords an extra measure of protection.
Uh, you'd be horrified to see my singles, all together. I believe I MAY have about 10 sleeves total for about 100 45s. So this is a MAJOR upgrade. Someday if I live so long I will get some generic covers, but I still have to get around to bagging my comics, which after near 50 years of collecting, is a daunting task. How I got the Fireball Xl5 45 I have no idea. It just sort of happily appeared in my vast accumulation of stuff, as Tony Issabella would say. I dont entirely discount the supernatural in my collection. They ARE made of trees, and perhaps the wood spirits take pity on me from time to time.
Is it definitely the Don Spencer version of the single you've got, LM, or the Gerry Grant one? Ach well, regardless, the sleeve will make a nice home for it.
Well now, there is more than one? Good grief. Now the hunt shall begin! Where, oh where in my vast, dry basement is the blighter hiding? Sigh. Recently I misplaced one of my Laurel and Hardy dvds, and was in a mild panic, but it eventually showed itself. I must have faith that all my other collectables will too be found. Sigh, again. I'm sure your collection is nicely organized, but mine is only partly there. Hopefully by June!
And what's more, the Gerry Grant single has Barry Gray's Zero G - performed by the Barry Gray Orchestra - as the B side. I think the orchestra back Gerry on the A side too, so it's not exactly a 'Woolworth's Special'. Organized? Me? Nah! Well, I was, but I can't remember where I put things anymore.
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