JOHN BYRNE: The G.O.A.T. Comic Cover Artist

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I have much love and respect for JACK KIRBY, NEAL ADAMS, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, WALT SIMONSON, GEORGE PEREZ, DAVE COCKRUM, TODD MacFARLANE and FRANK MILLER because these men have inspired my love of art and my futurist persepctive. At the top of the pantheon though is JOHN BYRNE.

*Big up to Combat Jack for giving me a mint condition copy of The Art of John Byrne*

BYRNE’s art was definitely from outer space. Her perfected NEAL ADAMS hyper-realism so well I used to look inside the characters mouths to see the lines of their dentals. BYRNE’s details were no fucking joke. That’s why he is the greatest comic book artist of all time. His run on the X-Men title is legendary and there isn’t a character in the Marvel or DC universe that BYRNE hasn’t interpreted with his pencil.

I’m posting a few of my favorite covers in this drop and in the Blu Cheez image gallery, but if you have the time today please visit the Byrne Robotics image gallery and see fisrthand why I stan out for this artist.

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20 Responses to “JOHN BYRNE: The G.O.A.T. Comic Cover Artist”

  1. monique r. says:

    YO MAYNE WHAT ABOUT JOE KUBERT?!

  2. Love that Superman/Doom patrol cover. I keep seeing ‘Complete Next Men’ in stores and I’m real close to picking it up, worth it??

  3. the_dallas says:

    Brandon,
    I enjoyed the ‘Next Men’ series a lot. Byrne’s pencils were at his detailing best. The story is actually dope too as a political thriller.

    I don’t mind digging out my ‘Next Men’ books and shooting them to you since I have your snail mail address. Keep an eye out in you mailbox.

  4. ADB says:

    I love Byrne and it’s a close run thing between Byrne, McFarlane and Romita Jr for me.

  5. Vee says:

    I used to be a huge fan of Bryne.
    BILL SIENKIEWICZ – yeah, did you know that his sketches were responsible for the look of the Joker in the Dark Knight film?
    Walter Simonson – unique pen

    How about Barry Windsor-Smith, dude used to freak X-Men titles.

  6. Vee says:

    I really can not put one artist over another.

  7. enigmatik says:

    jim lee was cool to me…

  8. ready roc says:

    Gotta get wit what ADB said………….for me it’s between McFarlane and Mike Zeck

  9. DirtyJerz says:

    All those cats are ill, and Jack Kirby got me started tracing comics back in the day. Nowadays, Sam Keith is that dude. Just on the way he can take your character and give him a totally unique edge. http://batman.manyfacesof.com/index.cfm?faces=home.image&picid=258

  10. Meka Soul says:

    dp, i always wanted to ask: how did you feel about jim lee, todd mcfarlane and that image comics generation? i grew up on their artwork [i honestly didn’t know about the dark knight returns until that shitty sequel that came out in the late 90s/early 2000s] and they were a pretty big deal for me during my younger days.

  11. Dallas-
    That would be awesome. I actually got a few books I’ve been finding that I wanted to send to you as well.

  12. Meka Soul says:

    see: dirty jerz’ link.

    the maxx was that crack.

  13. Dart_Adams says:

    Dallas said:

    I have much love and respect for JACK KIRBY, NEAL ADAMS, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, WALT SIMONSON, GEORGE PEREZ, DAVE COCKRUM, TODD MacFARLANE and FRANK MILLER because these men have inspired my love of art and my futurist persepctive. At the top of the pantheon though is JOHN BYRNE.

    I love John Byrne but my boy was Jim Steranko. Neal Adams, Romita and Sienkiewicz are all neck and neck in my book but you can’t go wrong with any of them really.

    One.

  14. jdotnicholas says:

    Interesting pick, but I can’t go in on Byrne like that. Kirby’s the King my dude.

  15. Combat Jack says:

    frazetta, zeck, gulacy, the late marshall rogers, romitas sr. & jr., steve ditko, bob layton, george perez, simonson, gene colan, gil kane, steve rude, alex ross, matt wagner, dave cockrum, will eisner, wally wood, john buscema, barry windsor-smith, joe kubert, steranko, brian bolland, p. craig russell, sienkiewicz, mike mignola, michael kaluta, bernie wrightson, paul smith, arthur adams, jim lee, charles vess, dave gibbons, michael golden, david mazuchelli, howard chaykin, all these greats fall back under the GOD that was JACK “KING” KIRBY, THE EM-EFFIN G.O.A.T. Byrne had an incredible spark when he started but now he’s just garbage.

    Peep this site that lists not only the top 100 comic book artists, but also the top 25 covers of all time. On the artist list, Byrne falls at #69, on the top covers, dude isn’t mentioned.

    http://www.acomics.com/best.htm

    NOW, I fucks with Byrne, he definitely put himself in the history books for life, but I can’t give him the greatest spot. Not with clear conscience. Sheet, even clowns like Herb Trimpe put out more quality covers over time than Byrne did.

  16. Combat Jack says:

    i aint even mention miller, queseda or them dudes from effin MAD Magazine that put mad werk in for decades my dude. Keith Giffen, Jim Starlin, the line-up is too massive,

  17. the_dallas says:

    Kirby is def boss of this shit, but do you see the expression on Cyclops face when he realizes that the love of his life is gone forever?

  18. Mark Dub says:

    I like Byrne and Perez too, but I’m digging a lot of the new cats. There’s a Jamaican cat named Clayton Henry who did the Wu-Tang books a few years ago. Google dude. His work is awesome.

  19. R. Diddy says:

    the men of steel reminded me when i was in the 5th grade..im no comic book fan or what not but when they had the black superman (maybe u can do a post on it or maybe even find what the hell im talkin about) issue..my childhood was forever changed..i see what hancock may have done for the younger black (Obama) generation..show that black folks kan shine too..if you know what im talkin about u gotta relate..good post

  20. Damion Ewen says:

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