Issue 9 - Bring back "Bryne Robotics" and Rudyard Kipling's "If"

Page 1 (Page 2 & 3 at end of blog post)

Richard Knapp of New Platz, NY writes in as a long time Byrne fan asking him to bring back "Bryne Robotics"

"Constantly, in interviews with you, I read of your attempts to minimize you art and that you are a writer more than an artist. Attempting to develop the most efficient drawing style equates to less art, less panels, less backgrounds and less details. John, your fans love your writing, but we want your art."

Byrne of coarse insists that his art is better then ever but I think I have to agree with Richard on this one. Sometimes the art in JBNM was not that great. The coloring didn't help it much either. Byrne responds,

"Richard, I fear you know not what you ask. When I look back at my work on books like X-Men and Starlord - not one line of which I am ashamed of, since it was all the best work I could do at the time - all I see is the flash and crackle, the bells and whistles I put into the work primarily - though no, I hope, consciously - to disguise just how weak the basic drawing really was..."

I don't know, your old stuff looks pretty good to me. Granted Byrne does go on to give Terry Austin due credit for making his early work look so clean.

Uncanny X-men #132

The Flame in issue number 9 is a rare one as it's not a rant. Byrne reprints Rudyard Kipling's poem "If".

""If " is an important work, I think, especially for anyone who wants to write Heroic Fiction, like comics. So, I thought I'd print the poem here. If nothing else, it will give you some insight into what drives John Byrne's brain when he's controlling the words and actions of his characters..."