Anyone know John Byrne's opinion on AF?

[patrick_j_clarke]

Has anyone read anything on what JB thinks of what happened to his creation? It'd be an interesting read, I would think.

- pjc

[Phil]

[cmdrkoenig67]

I'm not going to attempt to read his mind.

Dana

[patrick_j_clarke]

yeah, I guess I should have followed the link from another thread to JB's site.

Seems he didn't care for AF, and really doesn't care about what happens to it.

- pjc

[Ben]

yeah, I guess I should have followed the link from another thread to JB's site.

Seems he didn't care for AF, and really doesn't care about what happens to it.

- pjc

that about summs it up. Funny thing is that many say it's among his greatest works, and he says he never liked it. He should do more stuff he doesn't like!

Ben

[patrick_j_clarke]

And now after digging in deeper to the JB forum, he didn't didn't like his ARTWORK on AF, he thinks the story was fine!

As a professional artist, I know how he feels. There are many things "out there" that people love of mine that I just don't dig.

One of the biggest hits on my website is a Spawn pin-up I did as an afterthought to one of my favorite Spawn pieces I ever did...and guess what? The afterthought one that I wouldn't claim is always at the top of the hit list...sigh.

I guess what I'm saying is sometimes the creators are their own worst critic.

- pjc

[cmdrkoenig67]

Believe me, Patrick...you're not alone. I'm frequently not happy with my own artwork. I'm always thinking it's not good enough or maybe I could've done something differently, etc, etc....

Dana

[HappyCanuck]

All artists are their worse critics. That's why I tend to look at some of the work in the albums and think how lucky they are to be that much more talented, even tho the artist will say it's one of the worse pieces they've done. But most of that is, being the artist, you get to see all the mistakes close-up and for extended periods of time, so they stand out more to you, where as to others they don't seem as bad

[birdygirl]

I just remember something John Byrne said about Alpha Flight some time ago.

Back around 1997, (when we first started getting the internet), I discovered an AOL Alpha Flight message board. Everyone had an opinion, and it was great fun reading them. I remember having seen a message in passing from John Byrne himself, saying that although he wouldn't be posting much, he would look in now and then just to see what we had to say.

It was great finally having a place to vent. My favorite topic, (which probably bored everyone in sight), was the unnecessary deaths of Snowbird, Doug Thompson, and their son. One night, I really went to town on the particularly wasteful death of Snowbird's son. I explained how in AF, vol.1, #36, he was shown to be a possible shapeshifter like his mother, and to have strong powers as well. Yet, as I said, "he was killed off before he had a chance to prove anything." I ended by ranting, "Talk about wasted potential!"

The next night, I was astonished to see a reply from John Byrne! I wish I still had a copy of this, but I can remember the essence of what he said:

"To me, the saddest thing about Alpha Flight after I left the book, was that it became The Book Where People Died". He went on to say that there were too many deaths in the book, and that it wasn't easy for readers to bond with the book knowing that the characters were going to end up as "cannon fodder".

I couldn't agree more, and I found John Byrne's opinion on this particularly interesting. Just thought I'd pass this along.

[cmdrkoenig67]

You know...I've noticed over the years that John has mentioned certain characters from AF and seems to have a tone of "fondness" to his posts about them. I think he has a soft spot for them(in some manner). He seems to like Aurora and Sasquatch the most....and he named Snowbird for another character of his from many years ago(though they are very different people). I believe a few of them were first created in his college days(Guardian and Snowbird??? If anybody knows which ones, please share).

I don't believe he hates them, just that he may be a bit...well....bitter about being coerced into working on a book he had no real desire to do.
I may be reading too much into it, but he seemed to have grown attached to them to a degree(I'm not reading his mind...really!)....And why not? I think he made some very interesting characters. I feel the character development he wrought on these "one notes" was just amazing. They are visually stunning(costumes and faces), diverse and there's just nobody else out there like them.

His additions of Puck, Marrina, Talisman, Madison Jeffries, Roger Bochs, Omega Flight, Deadly Ernest, Nemesis, The Master of the World, Gilded Lily, etc, etc....made the Marvel Universe a much more interesting place.

They're Canadian, but you don't have to be Canadian to love them....I guess that's why I do love them.....I'm just getting sappy now, aren't I? Okay...I'll stop.

Dana

[Weapon Omega]

This is why the Alpha Waves forum is the only message board I come to to talk comics!!

I don't think any other comic book has such a passionate, diehard following than Alpha Flight! You can really hear the emotion coming through these posts, does anyone else agree?!?!

I've always loved Alpha Flight because it was always a great mix of characters, their personalities made them one of the best teams in comics history. I didn't care who was on the roster at any given time, you knew it would be great superhero adventure stories. Alpha Flight has been too underrated for too long, and it's a shame to see Vols. #2-3 last for 20 and 12 issues respectfully when Vol. #1 lasted for over ten years, 10 YEARS!!

Sorry everyone, I'll stop before I keep rambling, All in all, I'm a huge Alpha fan like everyone else on these boards. It's nice to have a place to talk and vent about these excellent yet underused characters.
Take Care.

[Garry/Al-Fan]

I've ranted and raved and vented on Whitman Knapp---WHITMAN KNAPP!---so I appreciate reading about the passionate support that ALPHA FLIGHT has.

Again, I agree that AF is unappreciated (at one time, I would've tried to be more diplomatic by writing underappreciated, but I've read some of the other posts about what has happened to the AF characters and it's a dirty, rotten shame! Aurora, dead. Northstar, killed three times in a month! Sasquatch left for dead after a run-in with Sabretooth. [Personal note: the real Sasquatch should've ripped Sabretooth a new *ss in a good fight])

John Byrne evolved Alpha Flight into my favorite comic-book team: tight interdependencies, quirky, distinct, unpredictable. Now, although I like the medium and I like Alpha Flight, I'm conflicted by their treatment, so-much-so that my day for buying comics may finally be over.

[Connell]

Well I'm a huge Marvel fan (I own the Marvel Megasite and yes we do have an Alpha Flight forum on the message boards ) but as much as I love the X-Men, Fantastic Four & Avengers, I'll always hold a special love for Alpha Flight. When the series first came out in 1983, I was a cadet away at a military academy, and getting Alpha every month was a great escape from the misery of that place. (and Aurora was my first comic book crush LOL) I'd hate to think that Byrne would turn his back on the Flight because IMO Alpha Flight and of course his run on Uncanny X-Men was his best work to date. I'd love to see John at the helm of a new Alpha Flight series, and if we're lucky maybe someday we will.

[jay042]

I was of the understanding that Byrne has nothing to do with Marvel anymore. Nobody from the old days likes him personally and he's not young and hip enough to interest Quesada.

[Loki]

You know...I've noticed over the years that John has mentioned certain characters from AF and seems to have a tone of "fondness" to his posts about them. I think he has a soft spot for them(in some manner). He seems to like Aurora and Sasquatch the most....and he named Snowbird for another character of his from many years ago(though they are very different people). I believe a few of them were first created in his college days(Guardian and Snowbird??? If anybody knows which ones, please share).

He created a character called Snowbird for his college newspaper strip.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/snowbir2.htm

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/snobird3.htm