Just cutting through Byrne's ever-present defensiveness and self-serving spin. These instances where he's quitting these books may not be as egregious as all those other times where he's childishly stormed off of gigs, but it's pretty ridiculous to state that his reputation as a quitter isn't valid despite these instances where he's quit!

"I'm not a quitter because this is why I quit these books..."



If it's "as expected" then why the "wow?"

As I said, it's a SLOW death... one that's been speeding up terribly in the last ten years and in a market where Superman... Superman for God's sake... struggles to sell fifty thousand copies, it may be a death that has already happened!

There was some definite experimentation going on by JB & some of it was not taken well by certain anal-retentive fans, but there were more that thoroughly enjoyed his Wonder Woman run & were greatly disappointed when he decided to leave at the end of his contract (unlike when he left certain projects due to other factors).



I didn't realize that there was any sort of "issue". Is this yet another pathetic preemptive strike towards a bad-JB story?



Was it always determined that José-Luis Garcia-Lopez was going to do every cover during JB's run?

Some cancers take a very long time to kill & they can be quite painful, indeed.

And sometimes someone doesn't have cancer, they've just lost a lot of weight.

Are they dying or are they adapting to a changed world, which if they didn't do would mean they would die quicker? Anyway all I know is that ever since I've been reading Marvel & DC - 1973 - someone has been predicting their imminent demise and it just hasn't happened yet.

His "reputation" as a "quitter" is only coined by those REAL self-serving spin-doctors known as Detractors™ (a rather small, yet vocal minority of online personalities...some cowardly hiding behind various pseudonyms...who apparently believe they are justified in behaving like opportunists who latch onto tiny wagons & try to drag them with their imaginary Monster Trucks...not that I'm exaggerating for effect or anything).

Most Detractors™ have decided to use the term "quitter" because of it's derogatory definition of someone who gives up too easily. Just because someone decides to quit something does not necessarily define them as a quitter. While it certainly is obvious that JB is hedging his bets (so to speak) with his biased reasoning behind quitting some of his jobs in comic books, using such a cowardly term (as expected from most Detractors™) is not synonymous with JB's overall career choices (contrary to what most Detractors™ are trying to imply).

Bottom line (yeah...right) is that the word "quit" is being used & certain Detractors™, who manage to have an uncanny knack for thinking ONLY in black & white terms, jump to the wrong conclusion with the close-minded attitude of defining a person based on only relatively few instances. Once a quitter always a quitter? Pathetic & sad...par for the course.





They don't make sarcasm emoticons.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Seriously, though...Poor Troy is correct (I think that's twice this year!).

While Special Delivery Jones likes to believe that finding a pulse is a good thing...and under normal circumstances it is...in the case of the comic book industry (based only on comparable sales figures & desperation story lines that feed into the dwindling & aging fan base) the pulse is indicating a deterioration & NOT a chance of recovery.

Trust me (or don't), I'd sure like it to be otherwise.

Now...can someone revive Poor Troy by bringing him some smelling salts? (Better yet, just whisper in his ear that JB dumped a bag of kittens in a river...that'll get his black heart racing!) because I imagine he's been knocked unconscious by the fact that I'm agreeing with him on something.

In a way you do have a point. I don't actually believe that the comic book industry (as a whole) will die. However, it's definitely not healthy & there seems to be no cure in sight.

I think Byrne makes a good point that he has done lengthy runs on many books, so it's not fair to brand him with the "quitter" label. Certainly there are some cases where he has clashed with his editors, so it makes sense for him to seek out situations where he knows he will be comfortable with the editor. That could be put in a negative light, as Troy pointed out, since if Byrne were less prickly, he would get along with a wider assortment of people. But the fact that he is avoiding conflicts like that may be a valid way for Byrne to keep his blood pressure low, so good for him.

Regarding the question of whether the comics industry is healthy or not, haven't we gone around on this question a few times already? Maybe not all of us were here for the last few go-arounds, though, so no problem.

Of course, there are many different ways to look at the question. Are we talking about comparing today's industry to the history over the last 70 years? Or just the last 20 years? Are we talking numbers sold? Or dollars earned? Or profitability? Diversity of product? Diversity of readers? Do we get to include movie and other media spin-offs, or just look at the comics? Are we talking only monthly pamphlets, or including collections and TPBs and GNs? Sales in the direct market, or in bookstores, or on newsstands and in supermarkets, or online, or etc?

In our past discussions, all these various permutations of the question have been raised, and they make a big difference in the way the question gets answered. From some perspectives, the comics industry looks dead or dying. From others, maybe not so bad, maybe even better and improving.