Oh brother...


I've often said that Byrne's heart only lies with the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creations he read as a kid and that makes a huge difference in his work. His absolutely best stuff was on his X-Men run with Claremont and then his FF run. His Hulk was looking promising but then he threw a tantrum and quit before he could hit any real notable heights. His DC stuff was flat and pedestrian. His Superman read like two years of filler stories (and then he threw a tantrum and quit!) Don't even bother with his later DC stuff like Doom Patrol and Lab Rats. The only real exception to this was Alpha Flight which was outstanding but it was, as he's often said himself, a book he never had any real affection for ...and they were his own creations!

A casual scan of those commissions will back this up. The early Marvel characters will usually look good. The DC stuff... yeesh! Occasionally there are exceptions here too. A recent piece featuring the Red Circle characters looked pretty good... but then there was that Supergirl from a few pages back... Ouch!

Don't forget about the 90lb milksop Clark Kent

Testify!



Since almost every GREAT Marvel character was created by Stan Lee and/or Jack Kirby, this is something that is hard to avoid, isn't it?



threw a tantrum?



threw a tantrum?



Too late! Read them & enjoyed them. Not his best work, but entertaining just the same.



So his heart wasn't in a project that you seem to consider outstanding? Since this is only ONE exception, though, it shouldn't contradict your theory in any way, shape or form? Well it's YOUR game & YOUR rules, so it will make sense to YOU.



This is akin to a casual scan of a comic book or a novel or watching a movie preview or clip & then proclaiming you know everything you need to know about it.

Also, there are actual individuals who proclaim entire runs of comic books (not just JB's) as bad based only on an issue or two, or maybe more sometimes.

Idiocy at best...Ignorance at worst.

And just to save anyone from jumping the gun, there's absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever saying that a particular issue sucked, then choosing not to read any others.



There's bound to be a few less than exceptional pieces of work (and keep in mind that the context here is commissions) when you're talking about literally hundreds of images. The vast majority are very well done & the fans who paid for these commissions are usually very happy with the results (tangent off into assumptions & presumptions if you will, but don't expect any sort of reaction from me if you get wacky about it).

It is the height of arrogance & ignorance to try to see what sort of effort (or heart) went into creating any given piece. Like or dislike a piece, but don't presume that you have some sort of ability to send your astral self into JB's studio & witness his state of mind or attitude while working on any given piece (and this goes for any of his works).

Now Paul hates mindreading again. This, of course, tends to go back and forth, depending on whether or not Paul is doing it at the time.

If is reading mine, he is able to see what I am thinking, ... MILKSHAKE!

Paul,

Since Legend was a creator owned imprint what has it got to do with jb if Art Adams releases his book or not?

And Adams choosing to do paying work rather than creator owned is exactly the same as jb choosing to work for dc/marvel rather than do Next men or Rog 2000

Art Adams apparently made a promise to the other Legends creators & apparently broke that promise. What promises did JB break to his fellow Legends creators? No one else has ever come forward from Legends to say JB never kept his commitments did they?

Art Adams never fell back on JB's excuse (with Next Men) to not publish Monkeyman & O'Brien due to perceived notions about the state of the industry did he? JB immediately found work, while Art Adams projects came out sporadically...at best. This pretty much proves who has the capability to commit & who doesn't for whatever reasons.

Paul.

Why should Adams have to "fall back" on any excuse, Monkeyman was no longer published (for whatever reason) as was Next men (again for whatever reason) they both made a decision to not publish the books,and therefore both (in your terms) let down the other creators of the legend imprint, the reason is irrelevant.

Although since it was a creator owned imprint I fail to se how either of them let anyone else down.

Also the idea that jb found work immediately while adams did not is also irrelevant, there is more to being a professional than just producing a lot of work.

Adams did whatever work he thought he needed to do to pay his way, as did JB just because jb did more does not make adams unprofessional.

As an addendum.

JB jas (by his own admission) jumped ship on many titles because he did not like the way he was treated (see the Superman returns movie situation)