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So, why did John Byrne's work decline in quality?

Started by RedRaven,

125 posts in this topic

RedRaven

RedRaven

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So, why did John Byrne's work decline in quality after, roughly, the mid '80s?

 

Did he burn out the enegry of his youth ala Berni Wrightson (although ,granted, over a much longer timeframe than Berni)?

What is different with his work today than yesterday? Can we put a finger on exactly what elements of his work are underperforming today that wowed us in previous decades?

Is there even a general consensus that John Byrne's work has declined?

 

 

 

 

 

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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His work started declining when you began to write and draw the Fantastic Four. He started experimenting with different pencils, ink markers and other stuff. His writing chores must have taken time away from his art, as you can see the decline as the series goes along.

 

Fewer details, fewer panels, more "white space", and everything just "got big". Instead of creating a detailed single panel image with multiple characters interacting, Byrne would go for a head shot or waist-up view with a single character taking up an entire panel. Byrne was always a quick artist, but these streamlining changes must have allowed him to just pump out the work like an assembly line.

 

Alpha Flight shows this change off to great effect, with the most glaring example being the SnowBlind issue.

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Forbush-Man

Forbush-Man

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IMHO what made John Byrne's art great was the pairing with Terry Austin's inks. His work by itself is just not the same. Look at his pre X-Men work & his post X-Men work, there's little diference in his style..................just the inker. (shrug)

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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Do you think his work slid because of his perception of his own popularity? Such as, I am John Byrne, people will love it regardless. (shrug)

 

Nah, I think it's more a "I'm jaded and will only do the bare minimum" type of deal - kinda like the bitter office worker who does only what he needs to get by.

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MedicAR

MedicAR

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His work has definitely declined, but I'm not sure I can pin down why. It was mentioned before, but I have to agree that Terry Austin made John Byrne look better than anyone in recent memory.

 

His run on Spidey was weak, but I still love his FF. I admit that X-Men was probably his best work, but I've never been nearly as much of a fan of X-Men as I have the FF, so my opinion is a bit biased. His best resent stuff was the Captian America/Batman crossover. Still not great, but more detail than I can remember seeing from him in a long time.

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RedRaven

RedRaven

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Not to knock you taste in covers, but isn't this just a representation of what JC mentioned ealirer?

 

more "white space", and everything just "got big"

 

I think it's a perfect example of what JC mentioned. :sick:

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grandz-migration

grandz-migration

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Not to knock you taste in covers, but isn't this just a representation of what JC mentioned ealirer?

 

more "white space", and everything just "got big"

 

I think it's a perfect example of what JC mentioned. :sick:

 

This is not the same. This ASM cover shows very good composition and and rendering.

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