This was one of the first pages I wrote for my website. Several years on and it's thrilling to see John Byrne's stories on the cinema screen in the X-Men films. I was buying and reading those comic books in the 1980s and ridiculed for doing so. Comics are for children. Now the same people who mocked me pay to see it on DVD. How the world turns...

This isn't very detailed yet, but here's something I wish to express.
I don't understand it. The dealers know. The readers know. The editors know. The only people who deny it are the pundits.

Except me. John Byrne is the greatest modern artist alive and, single-handed, he transformed, revived, modernised and elevated comics to a pinnacle of excellence. The entire industry today stands on his shoulders.

His earliest work is as fine as his latest. His style is clear, real, real, real. As real as flying, mutating, zapping, stretching, warping people can be. But that is what sets John Byrne above all other artists. He presented wierd material as normal, in normal surroundings. Real trees, real buildings, real vehicles, real figures, real faces with real expression.

He was the first comic book artist not to draw in comic book style. He was the first comics artist to draw actual people showing actual emotion, which allowed the writers to produce stories and plots with actual people showing actual emotion. Until Byrne came along, artists used an exagerated style, with mis-shapen cartoon faces, badly drawn figures, crappy cars, boxy buildings. Byrne draws realism, real cars, real furniture, real life.

He was prolific, producing hundreds of pages of perfect work. Not a single mistake anywhere ever. Nobody else has ever bettered him or even matched his standard.

And yet, he is unknown outside comics. Inside comics is not much better. People still bang on about the Golden Age of comics, Jack Kirby, Steranko, Frank Miller. The Golden Age is now, the Age of John Byrne.

Frank Miller is known because of his Dark Knight Batman, made into movies by Warner. Time Warner owns DC. Marvel was owned by Lorimar, who made Dallas, which is why the Hulk and Spiderman only got onto the goggle box. The Dark Knight is just Daredevil and Miller was only given the freedom to experiment with a dead title because of the boom of the X-Men. And that only happened because of Byrne's genius. Miller is recognised outside comics fandom because he is standing on Byrne's crown.

But where is Byrne's name. Still hidden in the comics store.

What do you think of Byrne?
Let me know; Contact me

I got a lot of responses when I first put this up, but they have died away now. But I won't forget the thrill I had when, not long after I started my site, I got an email from John Byrne himself. Very brief and modest, he said "Thanks but...Holy Cow!" It is fully deserved John.

Isn't the internet wonderful? I would never have thought then to contact him, but he found this page & wrote to me.

Other people mentioned some names for consideration; Adams, Swan and Kirby. But nobody put so much reality into the backgrounds, so much subtlety into expressions as Byrne has. Some say he's had his heyday. Hmmm....

Update! Amazingly, John Byrne has surfaced online with his own website including a forum. You can post straight questions and get straight answers staright from the man. Plus there's art and photos and stuff. You'll have to cut and paste this, I don't do links (yet).
http://www.byrnerobotics.com/

And now, please have look at the rest of TRAGSNART!