So despite all the ribbing, John Byrne does have enough goodwill in the bank with me that I gave the first issue of Trio a try today. And I'll say this for it: there's an incredibly cute moment on the first page. A robot is shooting at some cops, and he lays down some smack-talk, where he goes, "Not so tough, are you, when you don't have your pet superheroes to protect you!"

And one of the cops says... out loud... "He's got that right!"

It doesn't seem like it was intended to be funny, but I'm being genuine here... the fact that a cop basically yelled, "Hells no! We are straight up wusses!" was hilarious and charming.

Anyway. I'm glad that was there, because the rest of the book has got problems. Of the three main characters, not one has any noticeable personality. One of them is injured in the issue, and I guess we're supposed to care? But since our only exposure to the injured character is about three or four lines of cliche superhero fight speech, they might as well be a redshirt.

The dialogue is amazingly stilted, even for Byrne. The only time any character even tries to speak anywhere near naturally, it's just an excuse for Byrne to cram the "don't call superheroes by nicknames" chip on his shoulder into the narrative. The art is reasonably pretty, although the inking on Scissors' costume is incredibly distracting. The "shininess" of all the white highlights actually makes him look like he's wearing a vinyl BDSM suit.

I think it's safe to say I won't be picking up the second issue. Although it wasn't all bad; I like the purple and green interchangeable villain guys. Not because they were interesting or anything, I just like purple and green together. And there's a Fred Hembeck strip in the back, which is always nice.

That bit did stick out like a sore thumb. And it was just weird in this case, since we're not really sure what any of the characters' names really are yet. The heroes call one another One, Two, and Three. So it sounds like Paper, Scissors, and Rock may be newspaper-created nicknames already, so why would Rocky or Rockster be any more objectionable than that?

Continuing the naming confusion, I'm not sure whether Scissors' real name is Ahmed? And when he answers his cell phone, he says "Leslie... sorry, Habibi... I can't talk right now." So was he saying his own name there, or somehow getting confused about his girlfriend's name?

Likewise, the merman bad guy says "My true name you could never pronounce." Why, because it's really Namor, and we would get sued? But the placeholder name, Nautilus, is actually not bad, and he does have shell-motifs on his head and shoulders to make it more logical.

More confusion: first Rock says he needs to stay and help dig out survivors from the wrecked building. But when he realizes that the time is 20 or 30 minutes later than he previously realized, suddenly he has to run off and change back to human because of the pain of transforming after staying rocky for too long?!?!? And the transformation itself takes "Twenty excruciating minutes" anyway? But he's able to greet his family a few minutes later with no signs of distress?

So, yeah, nothing really here to hold the interest. Unless we're somehow ultra-curious about why Ahmed is dating a girl who changed her name from Leslie to Habibi? My guess at this point is that she had been given an American-sounding name by her immigrant parents to help her blend in, but she's now asserting her cultural identity with a more Arabic-sounding name? I'm sure that John Byrne's insights into Muslim-American identity politics will make the next issue a must-read blockbuster!

I thought it was okay for what Byrne is trying to do. Plenty of kids would probably like it if they could buy it at their local grocery or drug store for 50 cents.

Mike

AHAHAHAHAHAhaahahaHAHAHAhaha!

From the John Byrne Forum thread on TRIO:



Nathan Greno
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 6944
Posted: 10 May 2012 at 12:28am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Have we heard about sales? Is this a series or a mini? I think sales were going to decide that, correct?

Nice to have a new, fun, all-ages comic on the stands.

I look forward to issue 2

Bravo


John Byrne
Next!
Joined: 11 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 78582
Posted: 10 May 2012 at 10:32am | IP Logged | 17 post reply

Have we heard about sales? Is this a series or a mini? I think sales were going to decide that, correct?

••

You keep coming back to this, Nathan. Is my pointed silence not sufficient answer?

Okay, the orders SUCKED.

Happy now?

Careful, Nathan. You're falling into the same trap that Aric Shapiro and Wayne Osborne did.

So Byrne thinks he can communicate through pointed silences? Doesn't he know that we comics readers need to see lightning and daggers coming out of his eyes, or smoke coming out of his ears?

One thing leads to another.

I don't know Nathan Greno. But Byrne-watchers tell me the dude spends a fortune on Byrne commissions. He's one of the dwindling number of hardcore Byrne fans, one of The Loyal 1,000.

Naturally, Byrne shits on him.

Apparently Nathan Greno works for Disney or Pixar or some film company like that? Greno has been to Byrne's house to visit, and Byrne credited him with some ideas that Byrne used in the current Next Men: Aftermath series.

Hmm, yeah, Budman is right. It sounds a lot like Osborne and Shapiro, where they got too personally close to Byrne, treated him like a friend and equal, and he eventually drove them away.

Yes. Osborne made a lot of money from mining and commissioned byrne for an entire 6 issue comic, as well as one large commision after another. Aric Shapiro is a lawyer who loves byrne and commissioned his version of batman many times over. They both tried to maintain a friendship that Nathen is attempting and both ended up on the bad side of byrne.

Nathan's presence on the byrne board is too much. He needs to back off. There's too much fawning and gushing with a touch of sticking his foot in his mouth (asking about sales on trio). We get it...you're a fan. You have money and can get any sketch with a hundred characters in it. You also come across as a 'we're bud's' pompous attitude that I honestly can't blame byrne for getting annoyed with.

Does anyone suggest that buying products from someone makes you their friend?

I say this because Lawson and Ceci have never bought my work and ... well you know...

Look at it the other way, stealing products from someone could certainly strain a friendship. So as long as they don't do that at least... it could be worse...

John Byrne
Next!

Joined: 11 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 78687
Posted: 14 May 2012 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I'm currently thinking about giving myself a few months off, once TRIO's five issue "pilot run" is done. IDW and I have been talking about some restructuring of our "arrangement", so I can start saying "This is what I'm going to do next..." instead of "Would you be interested in..."

So, some time around July I'll be "on vacation" -- except that I'll still be doing commissions. Good news on that front, for those who are considering them: at least until I get "back to work", this will considerably shorten the wait time!



Translated: TRIO got shit-canned for poor sales. I need to crank out those old X-Men cover sketches again. Come back to me, my drones, come back! Nathan! You still love me, don't you?!

I'm more of a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm.

Specific harm though at least allows my best defense. Remember what George Carlin said ... I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect.

Yeah. JB called Poor Aric "Anal Boy" & the "friendship" ended.

And the Bad Byrne/Osborne story has already been refuted, but nice try.



Really? Actually expressing frustration with someone is the same as "shitting" on someone? That's...strange.

JB was never one to walk on eggshells & if someone pisses him off he expresses himself.

By the way, is Nathan now a quivering wreck & has he decided to burn all of his commissions, yet?

You do realize that by posting these "quotes" you are outting yourself as a "Byrne Watcher?"



What's with your obsession with itshay lately?

LOL! I got around to reading the thread over at the JBF that you quoted from (and edited for effect, I'm sure), Lawsonator, & it makes your usual exaggerated speculation VERY laughable. Thanks for the chuckles!

Paul Paul Paul, I can't believe you'd say that a Journalist would ever edit something to emphasize a point. Lawson would never do such a thing.

Ain't I a stinker!

No, he sits back and waits for people to tell him things.



*that's not even mentioning what sort of person takes Byrne-watchers' words as absolute truth, or wondering why there's so many Byrne threads these days.*

I downloaded it. It was quite good actually, much better than Cold War and quite readable.

IDW has downloadable comics? Where? Is it less than cover price?

Much less, mate.

Heh.

I wish they had a sarcasm emoticon hereabouts. I hope you guys realize that I'm fully aware of how certain individuals "creatively acquire" some of their reading material.

And some wonder (not me) why the industry has gone into the crapper in recent years.

Paul's right. If you read Trio, it really drives home how bad comics have gotten.

Oh, I was aware you were being sarcastic. Being British, we are masters of sarcasm.

Thing is, if it was impossible to "creatively acquire" some of our reading material, we still wouldn't go and buy it anyway.

Sometimes, however, acquiring some comics actually helps. I downloaded both Berserk and Death Note and realized I liked them so I bought them - 16 volumes in the case of Berserk and all 11 for Death Note.

This "method" is the exception & not the rule, I imagine.

Paul, we flogged the topic of piracy into the ground on this thread. If, after reading through it, you have something new to add, you should pitch in.

This thread, however, is about the stinkiness of Trio.

Because the best comics are always the ones where the creators were paid the most. That's why Frank Miller's Holy Terror is the best comic ever.

How much was he paid?