Ferran Delgado

Austin later pasted the following drawing in the UPC box of the original art, as seen in the Modern Masters book.

The art of the cover of MTU #79 ––one of my favorite Byrne/Austin book ever–– was published in the Modern Masters book focused on Byrne (page 90), although contrasted, so "only" linework is visible. A pity that it was not published at full page as it deserves. Probably Terry Austin still keeps the art, since he contributed with many pieces to the book. Byrne proposed Austin to ink MTU when Byrne got the X-Men gig (he wanted Grainger in X-Men to make easier the transition from Cockrum), but Goodwin was hooked on the team of Marvel Preview #11. This is why Byrne wrote the following comment in the UPC box of the cover of #141 (below). Read the story told by JB in this link: http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24283&PN=0&TPN=1 CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT!

I posted this question in my FB group, and these are some of the names cited: Frank Thorne, Brett Breeding, Karl Kesel, Bret Blevins or John Romita Sr.

I do not want to wait a year or two. If you pay AFTER the piece is done, you'll see how he's much faster, reducing the lapse of time to a few months, or even weeks. But if you pay in advance, you''d better be patience...

This is what it looks out of context, but for regular visitors of the forum or people like I that used to visit it till got sick and felt in risk not to read another Byrne comic in his life, like it happened to other visitors, this means something quite different.

Yes, but the most important question, because there's LOTS of money at stake, was in which stuff Miller touched the board, and this item is finally settled.

But this should be put in context. The length of Byrne's replies depends on the blind loyalty of the posters. This is his forum and he's a master playing with his victims/fans. Probably this guy didn't harass enough to someone who disagreed with JB or didn't give enough praise to his latest commissions. Probably.

Thank you very much for your info based on facts that stops speculations and rumors.

It's a coincidence, because I just came across this ad from Tony Dispoto in an old CBG which provides info about a particular piece. He talks about a calendar piece, but from his description maybe he refers to the plate from the Marvel Team-Up portfolio:

Thanks, Gene. Now let's hope that Auction houses and art dealers take note about this, and from this moment on, they describe the pages according to this info, and stop fooling with descriptions, which only harms their reputations.

This is what I meant in my "what if". Omission is not proof, but it might reinforce evidences of the official version.

But let's get paranoid. What if Miller and Janson had an agreement back then to say officially that Miller did full pencils and now he decides to break the deal?

I agree. It's not only what it's told back at the age, but the opportunities that Janson has to clarify what's told officially at the lettercol of the series and the credits, and he keeps in silence about the subject.

I didn't refer to Janson when I said that this subject stinks. I'm talking about art dealers and auction houses and collectors that are very interested to defend their investments and be shady about the pages not touched by Miller. We saw many cases with vague or false descriptions trying to cheat novices. I don't know why Janson suddenly started his claims that his contribution was greater than officially attributed, but this is not the first time that a part of a great creative team suddenly claim more than he used to admit for many years. We have Kirby's case, when decades later, sick of Lee's getting the full credit, started to claim that he build the whole Marvel Universe all by himself and denied credit to Lee. I don't know if Janson's change of mind has nothing to do with this, but i don't think that we'll get nothing clear unless layouts like the ones auctioned at Heritage or Nelson's photocopies show. Till then, I believe the sources from the age.

Janson is obviously aware that this is why everyone thinks that separate sheet breakdowns began with #185 (and, in fact, that's when Marvel started changing the credits to list him as penciller). And yet, he specifically says that it's wrong and that's not how it actually happened. Why would he do that? Trying to steal Frank's thunder, having a senior moment, or just correcting a misconception out there in the public? My guess is that it's the latter, but I say we ask the man himself, present the evidence as to why people think the separate sheets began with #185, and see if he has a good explanation regarding his claim. Given the clarity and specificity of his recollection to the contrary, I'll bet that he does. Well, there are a few sources from the age that point out that they started working this way from #185 on. Why correct it decades later? Why to wait so long when he got interviewed a few times since then? If Miller didn't give due credit to Janson back then according to Klaus, why start doing it now? I think that all this subject stinks since there are many economic interests involved. Sorry, but I don't believe to Klaus unless I can see some evidence otherwise.