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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 132290
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 5:08am | IP Logged | 1
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One of the smaller annoyances I find as I wander about the interweb, is "fans" who try to express their vast knowledge of art AND the inner workings of my mind, and come up flat in both. The principle way this happens is when I see the latest commission piece, whatever it may be, posted elsewhere and followed by comments to the effect that I put more effort into a commission than I do into a comicbook page.What's missing here, of course, are a number of things, not the least of which being that it is most often the large pieces that come under this kind of commentary, and the self-appointed "reviewer" is clearly not taking into account that a LARGE piece of art has been much reduced for reproduction in this Forum. (It's the same principle as comicbook publishing -- draw larger than the published page, so that the work will appear more "dense" on the finished page. Also, smooths up the lines.) For some time I have wondered if there was some way to express their error to these knuckleheads. And one way did occur to me. So, this morning I took a 20x30 commission piece from the Gallery -- one that had been praised as so much better than my usual dross -- and "converted" it into equivalent comicbook pages. To do this I turned it sideways and added random "panel borders." Add some "speech balloons" and "captions" and those "pages" look like any of my superhero work, right? Here's a couple of random pages from TRIPLE HELIX for comparison: I guess it's true. Size matters.
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Eric Ladd Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 August 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 4506
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 7:03am | IP Logged | 2
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I have had online debates (term used loosely) with similar "fans" much to my chagrin. Getting someone to understand when black and white art is not produced for coloring, how coloring affects what is seen, sizes of commissions and even questioning their ability to read the artist's mind based on viewing their art leads to madness. I stopped after a few months at those activities. John, your eyes must feel like they are going to roll right out of their sockets having read the comments from these "reviewers". I can't imagine how it feels to have people get basics wrong when it strikes at a personal level.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 132290
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 7:08am | IP Logged | 3
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A distinctly frustrating element of this is the invariable comments about each new commission that "Byrne hasn't produced anything this good in YEARS!"Or since the previous commission, when the SAME THING was said! It's the old "His old stuff was better." Even tho we do not see that phrase as often as was once the case, it seems permanently embedded in the chickpeas some of these people have for brains. (My favorite example of which was a few years back when I found a comment praising a recent commission piece as "See, this was back when Byrne was good!" The next poster pointed out that the commission was only a few months old, but there was no further response from the first guy.)
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Darren Taylor Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 April 2004 Location: Scotland Posts: 5994
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 7:32am | IP Logged | 4
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This is a fantastic way to demonstrate the effect John!
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Chuck Wells Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 1244
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 8:17am | IP Logged | 5
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I agree that this is a highly effective way to demonstrate your point, JB. I suspect that this clarification will still not resonate with those who criticize your nice commissions?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 132290
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 8:19am | IP Logged | 6
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I suspect that this clarification will still not resonate with those who criticize your nice commissions?•• Of course not! These folk are afraid to change their minds. They think it hurts.
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Gundars Berzins Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 March 2012 Location: United States Posts: 1559
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 10:59am | IP Logged | 7
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Sheez since the time I've become a JB forum member I've seen you continually improve your work commission to commission and with your comic books. Those that criticize your work, especially the "His old stuff was better" people probably never really liked your work in the first place. Keep putting out the great work that you do and maybe those people might finally get it. If not, nuts to them I say.
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Charles Valderrama Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4721
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | 8
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Actually, those who criticize JB's work, as JB has pointed out many times, are those who never forgave him for leaving the UNCANNY X-MEN way back when… and find his improved style since then to be jarring.
'Course, WHO made them experts??
-C!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 132290
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | 9
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Like I've said on many an occasion, my loyal fans have experienced a real roller coaster ride. The curse of my never being satisfied with my work.
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Mark Haslett Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 6103
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | 10
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Charles: 'Course, WHO made them experts??
-C! ***
Seems to me sometimes that the industry as a whole made a stylistic split that was destined to isolate any artist who didn't go in for the prevailing trends.. These "experts" who can't say a nice thing about JB's improvement over the years are versed in all sorts of recent comic book tropes that have made JB "old school", using a phrase I see a lot. Acknowledging JB's increased skills would involve recognizing a lot of dumb storytelling and drawing quirks that are used almost everywhere in comics outside of JB's work. Decompressed stories, naval-gazing plot lines, constant photo-reference, coloring-book openness, etc.
JB went one way and too many vocal fans went another. And I'm inclined to say we're all paying the price for it.
That image, by the way, of the commission cut into panels has a fascinating power. It looks like a Starenko page or something JB would have done for a Negative Zone issue.
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Jason Stephens Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 August 2007 Location: United States Posts: 225
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 9:39am | IP Logged | 11
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This is why I don't visit forums related to my work. They just piss me off. I've learned life is so much better if I avoid them.
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Jeff Dyer Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 January 2012 Location: United States Posts: 143
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Posted: 21 May 2015 at 4:09am | IP Logged | 12
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John, your old stuff WAS better....than most any other artist's old stuff.
And your current stuff is better than pretty much any artist in comics today!
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