Thursday, August 23, 2012

What John Byrne Said



I have come across a Wikipedia page (really "Wikiquotes") devoted to statements made over the years by writer/artist John Byrne. Many of the quotations are interesting and/or prophetic, quite a few are caustic, and some are downright outrageous. Here are a few samples:
  • I have no interest in this grave robbing. (2008, regarding Marvel Comics' publication of the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby story intended originally for Fantastic Four #103)
  • Get this into your tiny brain: trade paperbacks are not the “future” of this industry. They are another industry entirely, as movies are to TV. And, like movies, they are going to become increasingly dependent upon new material as the prima donnas who work in comics these days increasingly demonstrate themselves incapable of producing their product on schedule—even schedules which, as in this instance, they have set themselves! Go on—continue congratulating these unprofessional elitists for their failures. Pretty soon there will be nothing but trades—and then, without reprint material to fill them up, those will start coming out later and later and later.
  •  I’d go back to 1975. I commented elsewhere, recently, that pressing the “rewind” button would be a good idea, as long as it was done across the board...  Take all the characters back to their status quo circa 1975, but set the stories now. (2004)
Isn't the last quote above pretty much describing what DC Comics would do when they rolled out their New 52 initiative seven years after Mr. Byrne made that statement? You can read the full page of Byrne quotes over here, but be warned that just about every other one on that page features saltier language than shown above.

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