It's a good thing that there is no option like that around here. I mean, if there was such an option here & somebody you actually respect around here used that option, you'd be implying that they were deviant as well.

Of course, that's just supposition...right?



Your generosity obviously knows no bounds.

Yeah. "Sock puppet" is a new one for me.

Ouch! It looks like the Joker has gassed the Black Cat! Check it out here:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35134&PN=1&totPosts=20

The pose on Black Cat is actually quite good and doesn't show any of the foreshortening problems Byrne has been exhibiting lately. I've really lost my taste for Byrne's female faces though. If they have any trace of malice, then he turns them into Sue Storm after being gassed by the Joker. I also can't stand that little puppy dog nose that he gives all of his female characters. The spotting of blacks is formulaic here. Notice those same three oval highlights on each breast and TWICE down her rump and leg! Her hair texture is completely phoned in. That must've taken him seconds. I know he can do better.

As for the Bloodsport, I just can't get past my dislike for the character. The drawing is competent I suppose but it is a drawing of one of the weakest of Byrne's many weak contributions to the Superman mythos.

As I said in an earlier post, Byrne is capable of still hitting an artistic home run but he is less likely to do so in these individual character shots. He really seems to just slam through these to get them out of the way.

Here is a thread about Mickey Mouse of all things:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35089&PN=2&TPN=1

On Page Two of this one, poor Lars, a regular poster over there, is made to take a time out in that corner known as John Byrne's "Ignore List," an exclusive group I'm sure.

His unpardonable sin doesn't appear to be contradicting Byrne as much as not folding and changing his opinion. Perhaps some time on the "Ignore" list will teach him how things run over there.

Every once in a while a dog needs a rolled up newspaper upside the back of their head just to let them know who's boss.

Byrne is very clearly a control freak, but he likes to fight. Unfortunately, he can only fight under circumstances where he has complete control. In his earliest Internet days, he went out on various message boards, got his nose bloodied and so he retreated to officially only posting on his own board where only he makes the rules and he can enforce them. Similarly, Wikipedia wouldn't play by Byrne's rules so now he has to obliterate them from existence by forbidding any mention, quotes, etc from that source.

For a guy who's internet presence is supposedly limited to his own message board, Byrne remains very aware of what is being said on other boards. I'm sure certain things are brought to his attention, but I really doubt a day goes by that Byrne doesn't google himself! Although argumentative and extremely passive-aggressive, on his own board, Byrne still tries to remain unemotional and above the fray. I would very much doubt that Byrne could refrain from injecting himself into discussions on other boards where all he would need to do is register under another name and then he could cut loose in ways he can't allow himself on his own board.

No smoking gun here, but I don't see Byrne as being above this sort of thing.

Bloodsports pants need some work if they are supposed to be camoflaged. I know i butched that word

In the later comments on that thread, Byrne and others talk about "filling the page," which I hadn't realized was such a big concern for him. It does explain some of the weird poses he puts into his sketches, I guess. I don't really understand the hatred of empty space, though. If he's really concerned about giving his customers good value for their money, measured purely in amount of ink on the page, then he could throw in some background elements, right? But I guess he charges extra for backgrounds?

Poor Bloodsport looks like he has one or two broken legs the way Byrne draws them. And yet he's standing up. Tough guy!

It's no big deal that Byrne tries to draw the entire figure on the page, including legs and feet. But so many of his drawings are awkward like this -- contorted, bent -- that I have to wonder if he even does a preliminary rough sketch. It often looks like he started drawing the head and torso around the middle of the page and then frantically jammed the legs and feet in one corner to make them fit.

A lot has been said about the relentless gushing by the board regulars in response to these commission threads but something that has always made me wince in sympathetic embarrassment are the comments where the posters are trying to sound somewhat informed about art and try to elevate themselves from the common fawning.

Here are a few choice picks from the Blackcat and Whatsisname thread...

-Brian Miller wrote, "That left arm on Bloodsport is great." That was a pretty random detail for him to zoom in on.

- Peter Martin said, "I like how 3-D you've managed to make the cartridges around Bloodsport's torso and the pouches on his belt look. They look as if they have actual volume." Shouldn't all professional artists be capable of this?

- Laren Farmer posted, "That is the best drawing of the Black Cat ever done by anyone!" This line could almost be a parody of the typical commission thread gushing. Farmer might need to see some other Black Cat drawings.

-JT Molloy was also stunned by Byrne's Black Cat and said, "That Black Cat is almost TOO good. Seriously, I'm awestruck." Overall, it's not a bad drawing, but I do have to say "THIS left him awestruck?!" Honestly Byrne has done many more pieces worthy of this degree of praise. Let's not throw the "awestruck" around!