Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login
The John Byrne Forum
Byrne Robotics > The John Byrne Forum
Topic: 55 Years… Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135649
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

…right about now.

That’s how long it’s been since I made my first professional sale, to THE MONSTER TIMES.

That was just a few months before my 21st birthday.

Oy

Back to Top profile | search
 
Darren Taylor
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 22 April 2004
Location: Scotland
Posts: 6053
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

That must have been an exciting moment!

What a fantastic anniversary.

I am one of many that have loved those years of story telling, visual or written since.


Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Brian Hughes
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 15 June 2015
Location: United States
Posts: 411
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

JB, was "Eye of the Beholder"  the first story?

If not, I would guess "Star Gazer".  I am not  aware of any others.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Brian Price
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 26 June 2012
Posts: 79
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I recently picked up Monster Times 13, 16, and 17 in amazingly good condition off of eBay.  In addition to the 2 stories that Brian Hughes mentioned, 16 has "Do Not Disturb":

JB, the GCD has Witch's Wail from Haunted #8 (October '72) as your first published artwork in a comic book.  Is it really your artwork, and if so, is it really your first artwork that was published in a mainstream comic book?

Back to Top profile | search
 
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135649
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Not my work!
Back to Top profile | search
 
Brian Price
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 26 June 2012
Posts: 79
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 6:40pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Thanks!  Saved me from buying that one!
Back to Top profile | search
 
Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16357
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

That's a long time. Amazing to think how the world has changed in the intervening time (55 years is more than my whole lifetime!). And how the comics industry and publishing as a whole has changed.
Back to Top profile | search
 
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135649
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Fifty five years of attrition.

Longer, really. The comic book “industry” has been on a march to self-destruction since long before I joined the ranks. Back before my earliest days as a reader/fan.

When the printers raised their prices, magazines in general did the same. But not comics. In a move that surely must have seemed suicidal (to some) at the time, comic publishers elected to hold onto that 10¢ cover price. That led to two things: the production itself began to shrink, physically, losing pages, and comics effectively ghettoized themselves as other magazines continued to go up in price, and vendors became less willing to carry a product with a shrinking profit margin.

When I bought my first American comic off the newsstand, BATMAN 127 in 1959, the price was a dime, but there were only 32 pages, where once there had been 64.

Back to Top profile | search
 
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135649
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Brian, the first published story was “Do Not Disturb”, featuring a mouldering corpse roused from its eternal sleep by a dripping faucet.
Back to Top profile | search
 
William Roberge
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 05 July 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 11369
Posted: 14 February 2026 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Back to Top profile | search | www e-mail
 

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login
If you are not already registered you must first register

  Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login