Fans at the Byrne Board review Making Comics by Scott McCloud:
“Not as good as Understanding Comics, but definitely better than Reinventing Comics. I remember JB saying he could never figure out who McCloud´s books were intended to. This one is easier to place, I guess. Will Eisner´s books and Lee/Buscema´s The Marvel Way get praise. Can´t say there was a lot that was new to me, but then, I´ve read most tomes devoted to the subject. The high point was, to me, the chapter on the display of emotion on human faces and body language. No one who picked up this book could ever end up as an Image artist and that´s a good thing.”
“Who IS McCloud? Eisner, Lee, Buscema were somebodies when they made their books, this guy is a virtual nobody. OK, I am bit biased, due to a Superman LS 4parter he did a couple of years ago, which must have been the absolute stupidest Superman story of all times. Not even Terry Austin’s inks could make me like this book. I read one of his books, I really don’t remember which, and didn’t find anything useful there. This site, thanks to JB’s input, is about 100 times more helpful and it is FREE!”
“I can’t wait for Scott’s chapters about Using perspective to create dynamic images or Making sure your drawings are appealing and the closing chapter called Maybe my comics aren’t selling a whole lot because my drawings are amateurish and my dialogue is kind of dull and witless too.”
(* - I’m sure there’s a punchline about the lack of recent Byrne books to be made here.)
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:22 am
Man…what a bunch of hot air from the sycophants. Scott McCloud’s books on the subject of comics are great…and they have nothing to do with how well he can write dialogue for comic books.
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Scott McCloud’s books on the subject of comics are great…
Not to mention that Zot is a better book than anything Byrne has ever worked on.
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
“Not to mention that Zot is a better book than anything Byrne has ever worked on.”
Hm…
Actually yeah, now that I think of it it is.
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Also, no one cares…
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Someone on that thread linked to this blog! To which I say, yes, our coalition of evil retailers, blond Latinas, people who use the word “speech bubble,” people who enjoyed the Spider-Man, X-Men movies; and other assorted fake fans really really really want to make this a bad Byrne story. Yes, we admit it. Byrne bad no matter what he does! etc etc.
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Yes, that would’ve been me. Well, I was just informing people on the JBF that their comments on the McCloud book were featured on this blog.
Glad to see that the mere mention of the JBF in a blog entry still inspires people to use big words like ’sycophant’, ‘coalition’ and ‘retailer’ in sentences! Literacy is not dead.
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Don’t forget people who say “Supes” and “Bats.”
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Hey…this isn’t a bad JB story, this is a bad story about JB’s sycophants who have to take the biggest stretch on any subject to place their lips on his posterior where only they could see an opportunity…
April 2nd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
John Byrne is my lord and saviour. I sit at his feet and if im lucky he lets me touch the hem of his robe.
I weep every day he cannot get work from DC or Marvel. Shame on them for leaving JB out in the cold.
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:33 am
“Yes, that would’ve been me. Well, I was just informing people on the JBF that their comments on the McCloud book were featured on this blog.”
Yeah, now the thread’s talking about this blog instead. Apparently Graeme is some random person using Newsarama’s blog service who should write a book on biased journalism. I guess running Fanboy Rampage didn’t give him enough fame.
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:37 am
Also, where on the entry does Graeme claim that these were Byrne’s own words, as Byrne himself claims?
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:28 am
You know, hating to be momentarily fair to the Byrne board.. you’ve quoted literally the only two idiots in that thread and everyone else actually was entirely fair to the book and talking about the issues it raises.
Of course, when they react to the fact you are being unfair, they get jumped on some more. At times like this, you have flickers of understanding why they have such a siege mentality over there.
KG
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:10 am
Shame on all you haters - John Byrne is a glorious and handsome man - his bright red beard shines like the sun. Only us JBF members can truly appreciate his genius and partake in his wisdom.
I weep every night in my pillow because he cannot get any more work from DC and Marvel - but I know deep in my heart that one day fandom will wake up and embrace the glory that is John Byrne - much like I have.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:59 am
OK, I can’t believe nobody has picked out the money quote from this thread:
“Isn’t that the job of an artist insomuch as no two people look the same in real life so that should be reflected on the page? I’d think if a young artist was intimidated by giving characters a distinct facial appearance so as to separate them from one another, then they’re in the wrong line of work.”
Keep in mind that this was posted on the JOHN BYRNE message board.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Byrne’s string of commissions lately have sucked (as much, or more than his attitude). The Big BARFA commission for example (done in ‘landscape format’) has one arm shorter than the other, and a head that’s too damn huge. He recently posted a pic of Adam Strange that looked like the exhaust from the rocket pack was a gecko’s tale (http://www.artofjohnbyrne.com/cgi-bin/page.pl). Many of the characters look crammed onto the page, and thus are posed awkwardly (knees bent, kneeling positions, strange use of foreshortening)