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JOHN BYRNE
website: http://www.byrnerobotics.com
John Byrne was born on July 6, 1950 near West Bromwich, England. 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 migrated to Canada that he first experienced the full breadth of America comic books.
His first encounter with Marvel Comics was in 1962 with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #5. He later commented that, "the book had an 'edge' like nothing DC was putting out at the time." Jack Kirby's work in particular had a strong influence on Byrne and he has since chronicled many of the characters Kirby created. This included a stint on the Fantastic Four that is considered by some to be second only to Lee and Kirby's run. Besides Kirby's influence, Byrne has also stated that his early artwork was heavily informed 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 portfolio of his comic book art. That book was seen by a fellow Canadian comics fan, who put Byrne in contact with both the then burgeoning fanzine community, and Marvel Comics.
Whilst still living in Canada Byrne split his time between working for a local advertising agency and illustrating books for Charlton Comics. It was at this point that Byrne coined the phrase "Byrne Robotics" to credit a group of assistants he occasionally used for his Charlton work, the phrase later being 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 both critically and popularly to be one of the high-points, if not the defining run of the series. It was during this period that 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 discussion 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 also 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, as well as his opinions and his relationship with collaborators have all become a subject of interest and debate amongst sections of comic book fandom. These discussions can become heavily polarized by perceptions of Byrne's personality. 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 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."
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