Tagged: John Byrne
John Byrne teaches you how to draw The THING!
I was just reading a few back issues today preparing to do some “Back Issue Gold” blogs in the next couple days and ran across this awesome feature in the back of The THING #5 from 1983 that I totally forgot about. It’s an awesome “How to Draw the Thing” by the BEST Thing artist ever Mr. John Byrne. When I was a kid I actually used this to help draw some of the many pictures of the Thing I did. I am a huge fan of the Thing’s solo series John Byrne wrote in the 80’s and though he didn’t draw it he was kind enough to give us the scoop on how we could draw ol’ Ben Grimm correctly. So everyone get out your pencils and get ready to sketch and learn from the master-nobody can draw the Thing quite like Mr. Byrne!
You want more Byrne? Check it out!
John Byrne:Best Artist Ever!
So the 1frombeyond’s post got me all fired up yesterday about MY favorite comic book artist of all time, Mr. John Byrne! Ever since I was a kid I loved and knew his artwork. I’d always get pretty pumped when I would see a comic book drawn by him-even at my young age I just knew there was something special about it. Perhaps it was his amazing sense of detail? Either way there are so many things I truely love about his artwork. To me he is one of the All Time Greatest and most influential comic book artists ever. Right up there with Kirby and yes even…um…Liefeld.
Anyway I decided to post some of my favorite pics that I have always loved of his artwork. Whether it’s a cover or interior panel it’s clear he was and is still the master. In a day and age where any and every band is reuniting and Harrison Ford is once again Indiana Jones, I do truely think it’s time that Marvel reunites John Byrne & Chris Claremont for another run on the X-Men!!
Slight chill in hell today…John Byrne returning to the X-Men?
Over on the message boards of the greatest comic artist/writer ever, John Byrne, talk about Chris Claremont’s new X-Men Forever (a book continuing the 90’s series from issue #3) has brought out “thought excercises” and a few sketches from Byrne on what he would do if he could continue his run from where he left off with X-Men #143. Now, again, this is only just what-if type discussion with zero backing to it at this point, but if fanning these flames helps get something started, then I am all for it. Check out this impromtu sketch by Byrne (damn, that man has still got it)!
Rob Liefeld = The modern Jack Kirby?
I know this may come a little late for some universaldork readers but since I just stumbled across this, I felt it worthy of my reporting time because not only does it bring up a very serious comic book industry issue for me (more on this later), it’s absolutely fucking bananas and makes me feel even more like
Robert Kirkman is full of shit.
First off, Kirkman’s bizarrely confrontational stance here really bothers me. Why does he need to come protect Liefeld from the school bully that is the comic book message boards? In WIZARD, no less!? Two possibilities here:
A. He genuinely believes this b.s. or
B. Image put him up to this.
Unfortunately, I have to go with A, because at the time of this little editorial, Liefeld wasn’t exclusive to Image and in fact was hard at work on the very forgettable Onslaught: Reborn for Marvel. For those who didn’t click on the link, here are a few gems from the commentary:
“But Rob – who else could you compare to Jack? Rob has the same energy on his pages…”
No. No he doesn’t. What’s being mistaken for “energy” is the ability to cause the brain to work overtime in order to accurately understand what dimension what object is coming from.
Northstar: The Only Gay Superhero??? WTF?
As you may already know I LOVE Alpha Flight!!! It was probably one of the BEST comic books of the 80’s. How can you go wrong with a group of Canadian superheroes who hunted down Wolverine to bring him back as their leader and in the process went toe to toe with the Uncanny X-Men?! Plus they were created and drawn by John Byrne-quite possibly the BEST (arguably-but he’s my all time fav) artist ever in comic books! Well even though these guys ruled and hung out with a 10 foot tall Sasquatch, they also had something else that catapulted this amazing team of superheroes to legendary status. Northstar-one of the coolest characters in the Marvel Universe and as I understand it the first openly GAY superhero ever.
it’s 2009, bRING BACK ALPHA FLIGHT ALREADY DAMMIT!
I have been missing a good Alpha Flight title since John Byrne left it in the 1980’s. Yes it’s true I am an Alpha Flight fan and I am proud of it! I’m STILL pissed off that Bendis killed them off in 2006! I still need to confront him about that (he lives here in Portland Oregon and we see him all over the place) and you know what? Omega Flight just didn’t fill the void. I want the real deal back. Guardian, Sasquatch, Puck, Shaman, Vindicator, Aurora, Northstar, Snowbird and hell even Marrina!
Back Issue Gold/Rant: The Thing #3
One of the all-time greatest comics written was written by John Byrne. Although now, Byrne is a crotchety guy who probably doesn’t think much about this issue, but The Thing #3 is one of the most moving and important comics of it’s time. Any Fantastic Four or Inhumans fan is probably a little in-love with the dog-like character Lockjaw, whose powers allow him to teleport himself and others to great distances. In issue #3 of The Thing, Byrne shocked fans by having Lockjaw speak for the first time, in a very poignant way by addressing Quicksilver’s predjudices. This was a truly moving issue, check out the scene here:
Amazing Comic Haul from Goodwill Today!
Today was a day unlike any other.
For the last year or so, I have been determined to collect and read the entire West Coast Avengers run. Well, a stop at the Goodwill yielded about 30% of it.
That’s right, I found issues #7-45 (save the issues that I already had, like John Byrne’s Vision Quest Arc) along with a dozen other gems such as the complete run of 1986-87’s Comet Man, Some Black Widow goodness courtesy of Marvel Fanfare, some X-Tinction Agenda issues as well as a couple of Typhoid Mary’s early Daredevil appearances!!
This store (off McLaughlin just outside of Portland), had 3 long boxes full of 1980’s goodness. Many interesting DC titles (that confuse me but are probably great reads) and even a copy of The Dark Night Returns.
At .49 a copy, I felt like I was robbing them, I’ve had a smile on my face all day since!
Universal Dork 