John Byrne On Reinventing Superman & Lois Lane, And Superman Shaving (Behind The Panel) | SYFY WIRE
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- Artist & writer John Byrne reinvented Superman in the 80s creating the foundation for the modern version of the character, including a logical approach to Superman being clean shaven. John shares the thinking behind the changes he made to Superman, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor and many other parts of Man of Steel.
Image Credits in this video not drawn by John Byrne:
@2:20 - Jerry Ordway
@5:43 - Ryan Sook
@6:12 - Frank Quitely
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John Byrne On Reinventing Superman & Lois Lane, And Superman Shaving (Behind The Panel) | SYFY WIRE
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I have always enjoyed John Byrne's interpretation of Superman. It wasn't cartoony and it made Superman feel like an actual person while still being iconic. It was inspiring, relatable and human without making the story and Superman depressing. Thank you Mr. Byrne.
skye4376 You know what? I think that is why till this day I could never get into DC comics. They were either too campy , depressing and plain outright boring!!!
I loved what he did for Superman! Classic stuff!
Boring? All I can say is you haven’t read many of the big dc stories,they are some of the best ever
*GEORGE PEREZ AND JOHN BYRNE (ICONS)👍🏾😊*
They are both on the 1980's pantheon for sure.
Perez was a wannabee. Byrne was the real icon.
Perez's run on new teen titans cemented his icon status just like Byrnes run on X-Men cemented his status.....
I feel so fortunate and am so thankful to have grown up with John Byrne's art and storytelling. It meant the world to me. Still does. So much beautiful art and smart, inspired writing.
John Byrne is a Legend!
I really love how Byrne drew Superman's cape: on the shoulders, draped on, so regal! It gave the character a more majestic depiction.
Yes! The pleats on the shoulders, the length to within a few inches of the ground, even the opening behind the neck with the drape underneath giving it a Spartan "300" look, a very royal and somewhat champion look!
Me too, I bet it's inspired by the George Reeves costume
Byrne's Superman was powerful, but couldn't pick up a planet like I could pick up a piece of tissue paper. He faced foes that were actually a threat to him. Clark Kent was a nice guy, but not a wimp.
I loved that.
His biggest revamp was definitely Clark Kent. And that made the Superman titles so much better to read.
And now New 52 made Super Man a bad guy...
"I wish I hadn't done it". Damn, are we lucky. I'm a comic book fan, primarily because of Byrne's run on Superman.
My favorite artist as a kid! John Byrne and Walt Simonson were the storytellers of my childhood! Thanks for the interview!
Two of my favorites as well.
His run on Superman got me to start buying DC comics because I was exclusively a Marvel guy at the time. His Superman was the best and after he left they started reintroducing all they that he didn't think was necessary.
Billy Barnett
Exactly what I did. He bought the Marvel magic he perfected with X-Men , FF, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Namor, etc. to DC when they were mostly goofy, overpowered, unrelatable characters.
He did for Supes what Frank Miller did for Batman. Make them readable and engaging for fans over 9 years old. I'm still mainly Marvel, but I thank creators like him for saving my childhood DC icons.
Bingo.
On point!
100%!
Mine was Wolfman and Perez's "The New Teen Titans" because a) the art by George Perez was awesome and b) it was sorta, kinda like the Uncanny X-Men at the time. Then they went off and did Crisis on Infinite Earths, which I bought as well and then Byrne was there afterward with Legends . . . and I've been a DC fan ever sense.
Mr. Byrne, I'm glad you reimagined Superman. Thank you!
You are a comic icon and childhood inspiration for me. From X-men to Superman!
What a great interview with a legend. Props to the interviewer as well, he was totally engaged but not overwhelming in the conversation!
I remember liking Superman everywhere (movies, Television, cartoons, JLA comics) EXCEPT IN HIS OWN COMICS! That changed with Byrne's tenure--I subscribed to ALL THREE Superman books and looked forward to getting them in the mail! He might have regretted working on Supes but I was grateful for his efforts! Oh, and Marv Wolfman's, too!
Of the three Superman books back then, Action Comics was my favorite.
I know exactly what you mean. I totally agree! Curt Swan's Superman was just so lame and wimpy looking. Sometimes they would have really good artists do the covers, but inside it was always Swan. Why DC let him monopolize their greatest character for decades when there were clearly better artists available, I'll never understand. But then Byrne came along and showed Swan and all of us how Superman is supposed to be drawn!
Yep. Due respect to Curt Swan for the longevity of his run, but his Superman always looked like someone's barrel-chested 40-something uncle.
When I think of classic and iconic quintessential comic book art, I think of John Byrne.
I was a big fan of Byrne's vision of Superman. I think I have all of these books.
His run was my first Superman comics and to this day I have his whole run in trades. Love that run and that will always be my Superman.
this guy was one of my favorites - such a clean, recognizable style and an amazing storyteller
Not only did he explain the beard, he also put a weight set in Clark's apartment to explain why he was so big. So much forethought for a snarky guy. 😊
YES! Thank you for this! We need more John Byrne!
John Byrns run on Superman is what got me into collecting and reading comic books as a kid. So I'm very happy he did it .
Great interview! Thanks for not cutting this long interview into 20 different videos :)
His She Hulk was so cool
Yes, it was super enjoyable! And that's where Deadpool stole his act from.
I never knew he did She-Hulk....dang that was amazing too.
Best version of the character ever. John Byrne gave us the greatest Superman of all time, exactly in line with what his creators intended. I loved it and still do. Would love to see it done in a movie or cartoon verbatim.
John Byrne: my absolute fave comic artist.
John Byrne one of the greatest artist in the 80's
Byrne & Jurgens defined Superman for me even before the DCAU content. I think Morrison is the only other Superman author to shape Superman like that for me.
John Byrne was my favorite artist of the 80's, he's the reason I even picked up the Fantastic Four. I had just started collecting when his run on X-Men ended, I went back and got some of the back issues but not all of them because they were way out of my price range even back then. I enjoyed Alpha Flight until he killed Guardian, just wasn't the same after that...
John Byrne's vision of krypton was excellent!
I just finished reading the 6 part mini series by him, which I picked up today, and it was the greatest superman books I've ever read. The last panel made me tear up.
One of the greatest comics artists ever.
Because of John Byrne, I became a big She-Hulk fan in the 90's. I'm still a fan today.
John Byrnes artwork was great because he drew the old fashioned, traditional marvel way. His drawings were very realistic. Love that time period when Byrne was doing the artwork
Curt swan was more realistic and thats y i didnt enjoy it. Byrne was not so realistic
@@ImYourHuckleberry_29 hated Kurt swan's art was too old fashioned and stiff looking. His superman always looked middle aged.
@@blkluv100 yea but DC used his look for the corporate symbolism i felt. Some sorta relatability.
Byrne's art lies somewhere between cartoonyness and realism....its why he can do the muppets and superheroes and stuff in between
My favorite artist and writer of the 80’s
How can you make dislike on this video clip. Mr Byrne is probably the most Iconic artist in this industry, after Mr Buscema.
His drawing of Superman flying into the air from the Kent house, Christopher Reeve’s Superman & Alex Ross’ beautiful Superman art are the 3 iconic images of Superman I’ve had in my head since I was a kid!
Oh & also the Fleischer Superman cartoons also!
It's a common misconception that it was John Byrne who de-powered Superman. It was actually Julius Schwartz and Denny O'Neil who did it earlier in Sandman Saga crossover where Superman loses half of his powers, leaving him nowhere near as strong as he used to be. The reason that's not widely known is because it only really came up again in a few stories, plus Superman's history during the Bronze Age (1970-1985) was somewhat unremarkable and comic historians don't talk about it as much as the Golden Age (1938-1955) and the Silver Age (1956-1969). This gives the false impression that Superman went straight from the Silver Age version to Byrne's version. Byrne did make better use of Superman being de-powered though.
Well we are glad John did it. I started collecting Superman(for a short period) because I became addicted to Bryne during his X Men days
John Byrne's interpretation of Superman is my favorite
i'm so glad he did do it. His reinvention of Superman is what got me into the character again, and paved the way for Lois & Clark with Dean Cain and a Clark Kent that wasn't a push over.
I love watching these interviews.
One of my favorite artists of all time! And he’s hilarious 😂 I started buying dc comics because of him. His Batman was awesome too! 🔥🔥🔥
By the way...love these creator interviews. Keep em' coming.
Talk about ending on a down note. It's sad to know that one of the greatest Byrne runs ever (and my personal favorite) was such a bad experience for him. It must be hard always having to talk about it now and drudging up old painful memories. I'm sorry John. I wish it would have been an amazing experience for you.
Yeah that is a real bummer.
So sad to hear that one of the best comic book series of all time was a bad experience for the author. It’s one of my favorite comics. And Mr. Byrne wishes he hadn’t done it. I hope in time his feelings will change.
@@lukeskywalker6809 He should hear all the praise he deserves. This magnum opus changed the course of an entire generation of comic books
Favorite artist as a kid collecting comics. My dream comic convention was when he came to the Creation Comic and Sci-fi Convention in LA with Jim Shooter. He was drawing for $20/figure and $35 for two so I got him to draw Spiderman fighting a robot as I liked his Giant Size Spiderman issue and I liked his Rog-2000. I got it framed as a kid and still have it.
JOHN, I love you brother!! Come back and save comics! Marvel in general. :) They are an absolute nightmare with their art and stories now. I miss your F.F. , Hulk, Avengers, Alpha Flight, Superman too.
These interviews are fantastic.
Superman always looked like he was enjoying using his powers when drawn by John Byrne .
I liked how he handled Lois, a bit of Margot Kidder and a bit of Noel Neal and Phyllis Coates.
This is still my favorite incarnation of Superman, Lois & Clark and the supporting cast.
Why isn't his Superman run collected in an omnibus already?
I agree w/ you, the last MOS tpb collected the last part of his run in late Nov. 2016.
Because it sucked so bad.
The mini-series was published as a TPB.
I agree, I wish they would do an omnibus, Absolute edition, or Deluxe edition per trade paperback.
DC announced an Omnibus for July 22, 2020. Here's hoping it actually comes out.
That ending was deep! A lot of fans on here and just about every one of these types of videos suggests that these artists of yore come back and save Marvel and what not , should get together like the guys at Image did and start their own company, I know it’s probably too late but I wished that they had the foresight in their careers and did it first ( instead of you know who)
John Byrne hooked me on his Superman run. I was so disappointed when he left the series. It’s a shame he looks back on it and wished he had never done it. Thanks Byrne for the great memories. It reignited my passion for comic books.
One of my favorite artist. I never even read one thing he did for DC. He’s one of my favorite Marvel artist though. X-men, Alpha Flight, Fantastic Four Captain America
What's stopping ya? Read 'em, they are fantastic!
John Byrne and Stan Lee are on my bucket list!!!
Luthor and the Waitress definitely left a strong impression . Great Story .
One of my greatest influences drawing
Wow, What an end to the vid... Left me speechless.
Byrne is my generations Kirby and Ditko and Stan all in one. People don’t respect his contribution to comics enough. His Superman run was great and he did things that are still used today. Love Byrne. He was ahead of his time.
Great interview. John's favorite story with Luthor and the waitress was really unexpected and cruel. Excellent characterization of Luthor. I wish he did write a part 2. They made a movie kinda like this called Indecent Proposal.
Brian Michael Bendis would never say that " I love every second of ruining Superman"
Reading the run on HC reprint now for the first time and really enjoying it.
Luthor and the Waitress was my favorite story. I actually referenced that to someone yesterday. That was a defining moment in comics.
It's cool how much the current DCEU films have taken from what Byrne set up. A more human and relatable Superman who struggles with his place in the world, a redheaded blue-eyed Lois Lane, a confident Clark persona, Lex Luthor as a businessman, and so on. Even the idea of Supes growing beards (and presumably shaving).
Absolutely love John Byrne!
The Crisis pretty much ended my interest in modern comics. I responded by completing my Silver Age collection and again enjoying the world that I remembered so fondly.
COIE ruined the real DC comics, forever.
it started a trend of endeless reboots until today
When was this recorded ? I was super disappointed that DC did not have JB do a cover for Action 1000.
Someone probably asked him at DC Comics probably asked him and he said no.
Some cool insights. Byrne's jump from Marvel to DC was akin to Kirby's - except that Byrne could draw Superman Super well ! ! ! =D
I often wonder what if Byrne co-wrote and penciled a comics adaptation of MAGNUM P.I.?
more please.
The last guy who was able to truly change Superman and have it stick.
unfortunately
Yes... That! Except the opposite!
16:51 One of my all-time favorite comic stories, too...
I loved his OMAC work.
This guy is a legend!
Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and John Byrne and Alex Ross: my favorite Superman artists.
The follow up issue of Superman where the Toyman kills Cat Grant's son on Halloween, ends with Cat Grant aiming a gun at the Toyman and she pulls the trigger revealing it's a toy gun. Wonder if they took that idea from the unwritten sequel to Luthor and the Waitress
Yeah I dunno.
I love John Byrne (for the most part). And yeah, I can see and understand the frustration that he must have felt along the way doing his Supes run.
But I don't buy that notion for moment that he wished he wouldn't have done it.
Especially since it had such an impact and so many loved it.
I'm sure he's just showboating a bit. As he does do from time to time.
I disagree. I have no doubt that JB is very appreciative of how much the fans enjoyed his work, but none of us can really understand the "politics" involved in the creative process of such a HUGE project & the hoops we can imagine he had to jump through to get the job done. There's no reason to doubt JB is this regard.
riddlr haha That's true. Reminds me of an old GF, anytime anybody would compliment what she was wearing, she would say, "Oh, This Old Thing?"
Yeah, Byrne was a Character!
I hope the joy he brought to others can make up for that bad experience.
Hearing this for the first time it feels like johns Superman was the base for the Superman animated series
Marvel was doing a humor mag -- I think it was called "What Th--?" Byrne did a story in it, a joke crossover between Marvel and DC, where a bald guy was mistaken for the "Kinping"; it was really "Rex Ruthless." Oh, and Superman had a couple of live fish on his chest.
Why the focus on Byrne's Superman? Byrne did runs on several characters, not to mention the occasional one-off or miniseries. I especially liked his Batman/Captain America team-up.
Great great great!!!!
No disrespect to Siegel & Shuster, but John Byrne's Superman was the best Superman. Geoff Johns's interpretation is pretty good too, but John Byrne had a unique talent for making Superman compelling to modern audiences. However, there were 2 big strategic missteps Byrne made which limited the character for 2 decades afterwards unfortunately:
1. Re-introduced Supergirl as a shapeshifting, proto-plasma alien named Matrix who had an angel's soul in her body (yes, that character was every bit the mess it sounds like) instead of good 'ol Kara Zor El from Krypton. We'd have to wait until 2006 for the true Supergirl to return
2. Deprived Superman of one of his best villains by killing General Zod in their first post-Crisis meeting. It'd be 21 years before Geoff Johns & Richard Doenner brought back the real General Zod that we all know and love today
Both of these mistakes came from Byrne's flawed, dogmatic belief that Superman should genuinely be the "last son of Krypton" in the post-Crisis DCU. Otherwise, John Byrne's Superman is must-read material for all comic fans.
actually #1 was from Supergirl being killed off in Crisis on Infinite Earths, which had nothing to with Byrne, and was DCs way to rid itself of all the problems of copy cat heroes (all the super people, boy, girl, dog, etc) and too many Earths. Byrne brought her back without bringing her back. DC didnt want a supergirl anymore before that.
2 - that wasnt really Zod either, it was a "fake" Zod in a fake side universe created by the Time Trapper
these "mistakes" were the issues i actually liked the most.
Maybe YOU wish you didn't do it but we're all glad you did :)
Im sorrry he feels that way, but Byrne's run of Superman got me interested in Superman again. I ccoulddt stand all that silver age silliness that he jettisoned like superboy, super girl, the bottle city of Kandor, Super Dog, streaky the super horse, etc. He made Superman relatable and yes, Human again.
big surprise, i knew he hated working on Superman but to say he wished he wouldn't have done it, oh wow! Byrne's Superman made me a fan of Superman, i preferred Spidey, but Byrne's Superman was what brought me on it and stayed it passed his exit on the title.
Even though he regrets his run it certainly brought me a ton of joy. Plus, Lex Luthor endures!
Noticed the Darwin pin on John Byrne's lapel, I presume that means that he is a professing atheist? I am not, but that is interesting. Regardless, I very much liked his Superman run. I think not only did dropping Supes power level down to an "earthly" scale helped with writing stories, but it also provided a sense of proportion. Superman is a benchmark character, so many other heroes, villains, and others were reduced in scale too: such as the Spectre being only the most powerful spirit on Earth not the universe, Flash was limited to just starting at several times the speed of sound before needing to take time to accelerate to potentially relativistic speeds, even there was a brief tinkering with the Green Lantern Corps being limited to the Milky Way galaxy and not the entire universe (and that idea came even before Byrne). Even though the quantity of Superman's power was lowered, it paved the way for the quality of his diverse experience to compensate for that, allowing Superman to ultimately figure out solutions to the problems he faced without relying on just his powers to solve them, and then there is his increased strength of will, spirit, and ever present morals that really rounded him out as making him "The Worlds Greatest Superhero". Thank you Mr. Byrne!
the GLs in one galaxy makes sense to me. the distance between galaxies is just too big
@@roberti8116 Yeah, and we still do not know how big the universe is yet anyway, may not even ever know according to modern science. Even with only 100 billion stars in our galaxy, even 10,000 GL's will have about 10 million stars each to patrol, and that is not even including the average of 10,000 black holes for each GL to keep track of, lol.
Is my favorite story too.
I believe byrne's strong personality and beliefs were what made him what he became while at the same time what ended his career with those big companies. I wish he had the credit he really deserves. superman, xmen, wolverine, avengers, wandavision, she hulk, supergirl etc etc there's nothing out there on warner's dc or mcu universe without something he created.
The Best !!!
As someone who is not expect on comics I ask "what would be the equivalent in the Batman runs". First thing that comes to mind is the retro Bill Finger run but feel someone was bound to top it and create thee iconic run. Not looking for an event like DKR or year one looking for consistently compelling read.
no one has stayed on batman that long
Why did he draw Supes narrower in the 2000s ?
And Brian Michael Bendis is presently running Superman into the ground.
BEST....INTERPRETATION........OF.........KRYPTON.......EVER!!
In the end if he meant that he wished he hadn’t done his Superman run then that’s sad to hear but yeah that makes sense. For all his contributions to the Superman mythos ultimately none of it matters when you see what they’ve done with the character since then. Maybe I’m speaking out of context since I’ve it read all these other comics but from the synopsis of current Superman books and other media (ie movies) Superman has not been handled well. I think the character peaked from the late 80s to early 2000s from Byrne’s run to the animated series. That’s just my opinion though
Thanks Mr.Byrne I wish they put more of the fact Lex Luthor was a clone in Dawn of Justice!
I know I'm going to get alot of hate for this post but, I love John Byrne for reconnecting Donna Troy back into the Wonder Woman history. Her post-crisis origin always made me uncomfortable (making debut before Wonder Woman). Although George Perez is a great artist and his ideal of the Wonder Woman rebirth in the late 80s was genuis. However, by placing post-crisis Diana in modern day 1987, was not a smart move. This took away from her being a charter member of the JLA and having Black Canary debuted before her? Furthermore, by having a teenager girl running around with a lasso and bracelets before Wonder Woman was very disrespectful to William Marston's creation. Had it not been for Diana, there wouldn't be a Wonder Girl or Donna Troy.
Yes, I know that John gave Donna a complicated origin but, he was only acknowledging the WG from the " Impossible Tales" Era which Bob Haney (the creator of the original Teen Titans) saw in the Wonder Woman comics and put into the Titans. Because of John, Donna got her Amazonian heritage and her Big Sister Diana back.
I wish Claremond would have let John take the reigns on the X-Men and kept that amazing team going. And by team I mean both the classic X-Men characters and the artistic team. No one penciled Bryne the way Terry Austin did. And the colorist was perfect as well.
Lex Luthor and the waitress...I remember reading that story in 1987. I was so angry. I HATED Luthor from that moment forward. That story was BRILLIANT.
Wow what he said at the end was sad asf. I feel bad cause he loves the character just as much if not more then us.
Cool!
I thought I was the only one who drew the S by drawing two fish!