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Sergio Saavedra
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 August 2007
Location: Spain
Posts: 468
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| Posted: 10 September 2025 at 11:15am | IP Logged | 1
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In the thread about Generations JB wrote:"Originally, III was intended to slip its chapters between what we‘d already seen in I and II, but DC editorial asked for big changes, both in format and content. Instead of four bookshelf volumes, as before, they asked for a twelve issue, standard half-tab format miniseries that took the story forward, up to and including the time of the Legion of Superheroes."
This made me wonder what degree of freedom may a sucessful, consecrated author may have to create his own idea, with his own plot, format, etc.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135324
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| Posted: 10 September 2025 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | 2
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Over the years—all right, decades—I have somehow developed a reputation as an egomaniac on a power trip, nearly impossible to work with. In fact, editors expecting to be dealing with that guy had been the cause of much grief throughout my career. Yet, I invite anyone who is so inclined to present evidence of this side of my professional personality. Not rumors, legends and twenty-third hand internet drivel, but actual examples of this behavior manifested in the work. Some writers and artists achieve a level of invulnerability, but I am not one.
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Joseph Vecchio
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 October 2024
Posts: 34
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 7:39am | IP Logged | 3
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I can't speak for JB of course, being far removed from that level or professional creativity, but I can say that I too have a reputation for being impossible to work with, though in my case it is well-deserved.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135324
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 11:01am | IP Logged | 4
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That was helpful.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13062
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | 5
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Over the years... I have somehow developed a reputation as an egomaniac on a power trip, nearly impossible to work with.
***
When did you first notice this, JB?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | 6
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Can't nail it down precisely, but it has certainly haunted me for a long, long time.(It's interesting to note that one editor actually asked me if he could complain that I was hard to work with in order to polish his own apple. What a champion, dealing with Byrne!)
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13062
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | 7
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Could this bad professional rep, like your bad rep with some fans, also have started merely because you quit X-MEN...?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 1:57pm | IP Logged | 8
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My sudden and unexpected rise, due to my work on X-MEN, spawned a degree of resentment in not a few of my fellow professionals. It seemed many believed I shared the glowing sentiments espoused by my fans, though anyone who actually paid attention to what I said about my work would find that to be far from true.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13062
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 2:19pm | IP Logged | 9
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This thread used the word "consecrated" to describe certain authors who somehow have had freer rein, and at first that struck me as inapposite, however it does seem that somehow something almost sacred was ultimately held about the X-MEN in your run, with all the accompanying irrational baggage that kind of misplaced adjective ferries along. Yeesh!
Those X-MEN years, sure, some of it was pretty good, some excellent, some fair -- I mean, even Lee-Kirby on the FF or Lee-Kirby on SPIDER-MAN didn't achieve divine perfection every single panel!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | 10
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Working at DC I did grow weary of “We can’t afford to offend _____!” when offending me seemed to trouble no one. >:-(
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Josh Goldberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 October 2005
Location: United States
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | 11
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...one editor actually asked me if he could complain that I was hard to work with in order to polish his own apple.****
See, in my book, if we accept the premise that you are hard to work with, the editor telling people that you weren't hard to work with speaks to his superior ability to deal with difficult people. Wouldn't that give him a professional advantage? Not having a hard time with something other people claim gives them a hard time?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 11 September 2025 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | 12
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At the other end of the spectrum, Denny O’Neil asked me to complain that he was constantly busting my chops on ALPHA FLIGHT, to keep Shooter off his back.
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