Arthur « Art » Adams, born April 5, 1963 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He dreamed of becoming a comic book illustrator from a very early age, largely teaching himself the skills he would later use. He became a fan favorite when he penciled the critically-acclaimed Longshot mini-series, written by Ann Nocenti and published in 1985 by Marvel Comics. Arthur Adams' highly distinctive and detailed artwork gained him considerable popularity and he found it easy to find further work in the field. However, due to the labor-intensive nature of his detailed art, Arthur Adams found it difficult to meet the short deadlines often found in the comics industry. This has led to him to pursue work for shorter projects such as mini-series, specials, and annuals rather than pursuing work for ongoing comic book series. Exceptions to this include a 1989 2-issue run on X-Factor, and a 1990 3-issue run on Fantastic Four. He also had a 10-issue run on Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, which being an anthology, required only 8 pages from him for each issue.
Arthur Adams' distinctive style has often been named as a considerable influence among a newer generation of popular comic book artists. Adams was also one of the founders of the short-lived Legend imprint for Dark Horse Comics. The consistently popular Adams has worked on many notable series, including various X-Men titles, Fantastic Four, The Authority, Tom Strong, Gen13, as well as numerous annuals. He is also known for Art Adams' Creature Features, a collection of previously published stories that paid tribute to various B-movie monsters, published by Dark Horse Comics. Some of the stories had been originally published in black and white, but they were colored for the collection. Along with writer Steve Moore, he is the co-creator of Jonni Future, a popular character in Tom Strong's Terrific Tales. Most of Arthur Adams' work has been on properties owned by others, but he is also the author of the creator-owned series Monkeyman and O'Brien, also published by Dark Horse Comics.
Arthur Adams is also a highly-regarded cover artist, and he has provided cover images for issues of Superman, Batman, Justice League of America and Vampirella, among other titles. In addition to his work on comics themselves, he has also produced popular commercial art, such as numerous illustrations for trading cards, posters, shirts, and various other comics-related merchandise. Outside the field of comics, he has also provided illustrations for various magazines, movies, games, worked in toy design, and even a series of X-Men-themed Campbell Soup cans. Starting in December 2007, he will be doing regular covers for Marvel Comics' Incredible Hercules ongoing series.

Official site : http://www.tslendinga.com/adams/basic.htm

Selected works :

• New Mutants Special Edition #1 ; Uncanny X-Men Annual 9
• Fantastic Four #347-349
• X-Factor #41-42

Neal Adams, born June 6, 1941 in Governors Island, Manhattan, New York. He is best known for his highly naturalistic style of illustration and helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Batman, Green Arrow and others. Neal Adams attended the High School of Industrial Art in Manhattan, and shortly after graduation began working in the advertising industry. Interested in comic books, he unsuccessfully submitted art samples to DC Comics, but did find uncredited freelance work drawing Bat Masterson and Archie Comics. In 1962, he began his comics career in earnest at the N.E.A. newspaper syndicated, working as an anonymous assistant on such comic strips as Peter Scratch, Rip Kirby, and The Heart of Juliet Jones before being given his own strip, Ben Casey, based on the medical drama TV series. This comic strip ran from 1962 through 1965.
After Archie Goodwin, editor of Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazines began running his work, Neal Adams reapproached DC Comics. In 1968, nearing the end of what historians call the Silver Age, but an exciting time for the industry, he made an immediate splash with the feature Deadman in Strange Adventures, and quickly became the company's premiere cover artist.
This led to a stint at Marvel Comics, where Neal Adams teamed with writer Roy Thomas on X-Men, then on the verge of cancellation. Though the duo failed to save the title, their collaboration on issues #56-63 - and on the Kree-Skrull War arc of The Avengers #93-97 - produced what comics historians regard as some of Marvel Comics's creative highlights of the era. He also collaborated with Stan Lee on two issues of The Mighty Thor.
In the early 1970s, Neal Adams and frequent writing collaborator Dennis O'Neil did a celebrated and, for the time, controversial revamping of the longstanding DC Comics characters Green Lantern and Green Arrow, teaming them in a long story arc in the former's title in which the two undertook a social-commentary journey across America. Neal Adams and Dennis O'Neil revitalized Batman with a series of noteworthy stories re-establishing the character's dark, brooding nature and taking the books away from the campy look and feel of the 1966-1969 TV series. His pencil drawings were frequently inked by artist Dick Giordano, with whom he formed Continuity Associates, a company that primarily supplied storyboards for motion pictures. In the early 1970s, Neal Adams was the art director, costume designer, as well as the poster / Playbill illustrator for Warp, a science-fiction stage play by Bury St. Edmund and Stuart Gordon that had had some cult success in Chicago, and which played on Broadway in 1973, at the original Ambasasador Theatre.
During the 1970s, he was politically active in the industry, and attempted to unionize its creative community. His efforts, along with precedents set by Atlas / Seaboard Comics' creator-friendly policies and other factors, helped lead to the modern industry's standard practice of returning original artwork to the artist, who can earn additional income from art sales to collectors. Neal Adams notably and vocally helped lead the lobbying efforts that resulted in Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster receiving decades-overdue credit and some financial remuneration from DC Comics.
Also during the 1970s, Neal Adams illustrated paperback novels in the Tarzan series and did some film work. With the independent-comic publishing boom of the early 1980s, he began working for Pacific Comics and other publishers, and founded his own Continuity Comics as an off-shoot of Continuity Associates. His comic book company's characters include Megalith, Bucky O'Hare, Skeleton Warriors, CyberRad and Ms. Mystic.

Official site : http://www.nealadams.com
Unpublished works : http://members.fortunecity.com/jlaavenger/id30.htm
Ben Casey : http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/casey.html

Selected works :

• Batman #219, 232, 234, 237, 243-245, 251, 255
• The Brave and the Bold #79-86, 93, 102
• Detective Comics #369, 395, 397, 400, 402, 404, 407, 408, 410
• Green Lantern #76-87, 89
• Phantom Stranger #4
• The Spectre #2-5
• Strange Adventures #206-216
• All New Collector's Edition C-56: Superman vs. Muhammad Ali
• Teen Titans #20-22
• World's Finest Comics #175-176
• Amazing Adventures #5-8
• The Avengers #93-96
• Conan the Barbarian #37
• Savage Sword of Conan #14
• Thor #180-181
• X-Men #56-63, 65

Brian Bolland, born March 26, 1951 in Lincolnshire, England. He began drawing comics at the age of 10. As a child, his main inspirations were titles by Dell Comics and DC Comics. While at art school, Brian Bolland drew and self-published a couple of fanzines and his work was published in British underground magazines Friendz, International Times, OZ and Time Out. In 1972, at the Comic Convention held in the Waverley Hotel in London, he met Dave Gibbons. On Dave Gibbons' recommendation, Brian Bolland joined art agency Bardon Press Features and it was Bardon who provided his first professional work : Powerman, an african super-hero comic published in Nigeria. Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons drew alternate issues. In 1977, Bardon found places for Dave Gibbons and then Brian Bolland in the new British science-fiction weekly 2000 AD. His first work was a cover on #11 « Programme ». Other covers followed, stand-alone pages and some inking of Dave Gibbons' Dan Dare. When another artist dropped out, Brian Bolland was called in to complete a Judge Dredd story in #41 and soon was established as a regular artist on the series. His early work on Judge Dredd was much influenced by Mike McMahon, a talented newcomer whose idiosyncratic style was fueling the interest in the new character. However, Brian Bolland's distinct abilities with subtle facial expression, dramatic lighting and the dynamic composition of page layout soon began to emerge. His memorable contributions included the introductions of Judge Death and Judge Anderson. In between Judge Dredd assignments, he drew horror strips for the House of Hammer, the occasional record cover, covers for paperbacks and magazines (including the now-established Time Out) and work in the advertising industry.
He began working for DC Comics in 1979 with covers and short stories. His first DC Comics cover appeared on Green Lantern #127. In 1982, DC Comics editor Len Wein chose him as the artist on Camelot 3000 12-issue limited series, with writer Mike Barr (dealing with the return of King Arthur to save England from an alien invasion in the year 3000). In 1988, Brian Bolland produced the art for the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore. In 1996, he wrote and drew the story « An Innocent Guy » for the anthology Batman: Black and White.
However, Brian Bolland is recognized more as a cover artist ; he has contributed covers - in many cases to complete runs / arcs - to some of the more famous landmark comics of recent years. Examples of his work include the whole second and third volumes of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, a large run of Animal Man (covering the tenures of Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Tom Veitch and Jamie Delano), and assorted issues of Tank Girl, The Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman: Gotham Knights, and many more. He is currently the cover artist on Jack of Fables, replacing previous artist James Jean.
He is also noted for his use of bondage imagery in some of his work. Additionally, he has penned the humour strip Mr. Mamoulian, which was printed in various issues of the Caliber Comics anthology Negative Burn. Also his occasional strip The Actress and the Bishop, all of which were collected in the book Bolland Strips ! in 2005. In 2006, a sizable retrospective of Brian Bolland's work was published under the title The Art of Brian Bolland with text by the artist.

Official site : http://www.brianbolland.net/gallery.html
Art gallery : http://www.brianbollandgallery.com
Various covers : http://www.comicvine.com/brian-bolland/26-9976/issues-cover

Selected works :

• The Actress and the Bishop #1
• Camelot 3000 #1-12
• Batman: The Killing Joke
• Bolland Strips !
• The Art of Brian Bolland

« Big » John Buscema, born December 11, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York and died of complications from cancer on January 10, 2002. John Buscema showed an interest in drawing at an early age, copying comic strips such as Popeye. In his teens, he developed an interest in both super-hero comic books and such classic adventure comic strips as Hal Foster's Tarzan and Prince Valiant, Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, and Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates. He also showed an interest in commercial illustrators of the period, such as N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Dean Cornwell, Colby Whitmore, Albert Dorne and Robert Fawcett, and in the fine arts, the Italian Renaissance artists in particular. He graduated from Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. He also took night lessons at Pratt Institute well as life-drawing classes at the Brooklyn Museum. While training as a boxer, he began painting portraits of boxers and sold some cartoons to the Hobo News. Seeking work as a commercial illustrator while doing various odd jobs, John Buscema found himself instead entering the comic book field in 1948, landing a staff job under editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee at Timely Comics, the first forerunner of Marvel Comics. The Timely Comics « bullpen », as the staff was famously called, included such fellow staffers as established veterans Syd Shores, Carl Burgos, Mike Sekowsky, George Klein, and Marty Nodell and fledgling Gene Colan.
His first recorded credit is the 7-page story « Crime: Kidnapping ! - Victim: Abraham Lincoln ! » in Timely Comics' Crime Fighters #4. He also contributed to the « real-life » dramatic series True Adventures and Man Comics, Cowboy Romances, Two-Gun Western, Lorna the Jungle Queen and Strange Tales. Until the bullpen was dissolved a year-and-a-half later, as comic books in general and super-hero comics in particular continued their post-war fade in popularity, John Buscema penciled and inked in a variety of genres, including crime fiction and romance fiction.
John Buscema served in the U.S. Army in 1951 before receiving an honorable discharge due to ulcer. He continued to freelance for Timely Comics, by now known as Atlas Comics, as well as for the publishers Ace Comics, Hillman Periodicals, Our Publications / Orbit, Quality Comics, St. John Publications and Ziff-Davis. His mid 1950s work also includes Dell Comics' Roy Rogers Comics #74-91, and subsequent Roy Rogers and Trigger #92-97 and #104-108, and the Charlton Comics series Ramar of the Jungle and Nature Boy - the latter, his first super-hero work, created by himself and Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. He next produced a series of western war, and sword and sandal film adaptations for Dell's Four Color series, including The Sharkfighters #762, The Vikings #910, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad #944, which John Buscema calls « one of the best books I ever did », and Spartacus #1139. He drew at least one issue of the radio, film, and TV character The Cisco Kid for Dell Comics in 1957, as well as one - to 8-page biographies of every U.S. president through Dwight Eisenhower for that company's one-shot Life Stories of American Presidents. During a late 1950s downturn in the comics industry, he drew occasional mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction stories for Atlas Comics' Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense and Strange Worlds, and American Comics Group's Adventures into the Unknown, and Forbidden Worlds before leaving comics to do freelance commercial art. John Buscema spent approximately 8 years in the commercial-art field, freelancing for the Chaite Agency and the studio Triad, doing a variety of assignments : layouts, storyboards, illustrations, paperback book covers, etc in a variety of media. He called this time « quite a learning period for me in my own development of techniques ».
He returned to comic books in 1966 as a regular freelance penciler for Marvel Comics, debuting over Jack Kirby layouts on the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. story in Strange Tales #150, followed by the Hulk stories in Tales to Astonish #85-87. He then settled in as regular penciler of The Avengers, which would become one of his signature series, with #41. The Avengers #49-50, featuring Hercules, are two of his « best-looking issues of that period ». In order to adapt to the Marvel Comics style of super-hero adventure, John Buscema « synthesized the essence of Jack Kirby's supercharged action figures, harrowing perspectives, monolithic structures, mega-force explosions, and mythological planetscapes into a formula that he instantly integrated into his own superbly crafted vision. The process brought his art to life in a way that it had never been before. Anatomically balanced figures of Herculean proportions stalked, stormed, sprawled, and savaged their way across Marvel's universe like none had previously ». Among his works during the Silver Age are The Avengers #41-#62, which includes the introduction of the modern-day Vision in #57, and The Avengers Annual 2, the first 8 issues of The Sub-Mariner, The Amazing Spider-Man #72-73, 76-81, 84-85, providing layouts finished by either John Romita or Jim Mooney, and 2 issues he himself finished over John Romita layouts, and a new title, The Silver Surfer. That philosophical series about a Christ-like alien roaming the world trying to understand both the divinity and the savagery of humanity was a personal favorite of Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee. John Buscema penciled 17 of its 18 issues. Former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas said John Buscema considered Silver Surfer #4, featuring a battle between the Silver Surfer and Thor, « as the highpoint of his Marvel work ».
Toward the end of the decade, he drew some fill-in issues of super-hero series and also returned to familiar 1950s genres with a spate of supernatural mystery stories in Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows, and romance tales in My Love and Our Love Story. He then returned to his signature series The Avengers for 11 issues inked by Tom Palmer. With Jack Kirby's departure from Marvel Comics in 1970, he succeeded him on both of Jack Kirby's titles : Fantastic Four, penciling issues #107-141, following John Romita Sr., and The Mighty Thor #182-259. He was inked by Joe Sinnott on the former, and variously by Joe Sinnott, John Verpoorten, Vince Colletta, Tony DeZuniga, and others on the latter. John Buscema began penciling Conan the Barbarian with #25, following Barry Smith's celebrated run, and debuted as the Conan artist of the black-and-white comics-magazine omnibus Savage Sword of Conan with #1. He would eventually contribute to more than 100 issues of each title (the former through #190, the latter through #101, then again from #190-210), giving him one of the most prolific runs for an artist on a single character.
In the mid 1970s, John Buscema began opting to pencil primarily layouts (penciled pages without the shading and rendering) as opposed to finished pencils. For about 10 years, he would produce an average 3 to 4 books' worth of pencils a month. He launched the feature Black Widow in Amazing Adventures in 1970, and the comics Nova in 1976 and Ms. Marvel in 1977. In additional to his regular assignments, he would pencil covers and fill-in issues of titles including Captain America, Captain Britain for Marvel U.K., Daredevil, The Frankenstein Monster, Howard the Duck, Master of Kung Fu, Red Sonja and Warlock. He also drew a story for the science-fiction anthology Worlds Unknown. He contributed as well to Marvel Comics' black-and-white comics magazines, including the features Ka-Zar in Savage Tales #1 and Bloodstone in Rampaging Hulk #1, and Doc Savage #1, 3. Other magazine work ran the gamut from horror (Dracula Lives !, Monsters Unleashed, Tales of the Zombie) to humor (Crazy, Pizzaz). He left Thor for a time to launch the Marvel Comics version of Tarzan in 1977. Other licensed projects include a 72-page The Wizard of Oz movie adaptation in an oversized Treasury Edition format with Tony DeZuniga inking. For Power Records, which produced children's book-and-record sets, he drew Star Trek and Conan the Barbarian comics. He also contributed some super-hero drawings for Pro, the NFL official magazine, and penciled some chapters of the first issue of Marvel Comics Super Special Magazine featuring the rock group Kiss. He collaborated with Stan Lee on the book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, a primer on comic book art and storytelling. The same year saw the publication of The Art of John Buscema, a retrospective that included an interview, previously unpublished sketches and drawings, and a cover that was also sold as a poster. He capped off the decade penciling writer Doug Moench's 3-issue Weirdworld epic-fantasy tale Warriors of the Shadow Realm in the magazine A Marvel Super Special #11-13. Pacific Comics released an accompanying portfolio of 6 signed, colored plates from the story.
John Buscema abandoned regular super-hero work in order to spearhead art duties on all 3 Conan titles. The popularity of the character spurred the release of a Conan movie in 1982 ; he provided pencils and inks for a 48-page movie adaptation. He continued to tackle other high-profile projects such as the second Superman and Spider-Man team-up in 1981, a Silver Surfer story for Epic Illustrated #1, a King Arthur story in Marvel Preview #22, an adaptation of the 1981 movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the St. Francis of Assisi biography of Francis, Brother of the Universe. He left King Conan in 1982 after 9 issues, although he remained with Marvel Comics' Robert E. Howard franchise with a revival of the Kull series for 10 issues, and left The Savage Sword of Conan in 1984 with #101 with a series of stories that he plotted himself. After penciling the Conan the Destroyer movie adaptation in 1984 and the Conan of the Isles graphic novel in 1987, he left Conan the Barbarian with #190 in 1987, ending a 14-year association with the character.
After nearly 9 years away from super-heroes, except for the first 2 issues of the X-Men-related, 4-issue mini-series Magik, John Buscema returned to familiar ground as regular penciler on The Avengers from #255-300. He was also regular penciler on Fantastic Four for its 300th issue, during a 15-issue stint from #296-309. Additionally, he also fit in the 3-issue film adaptation Labyrinth and the 4-issue mini-series Mephisto, starring a character he created with Stan Lee in the Silver Surfer #3. He reteamed with Stan Lee on the Silver Surfer himself with the 1988 graphic novel Silver Surfer: Judgment Day, self-inked and done entirely as full-page panels. He and inker Klaus Janson drew a Wolverine solo feature in the biweekly anthology Marvel Comics Presents #1-10 and, inking himself, #38-47. He penciled the first Wolverine ongoing series, inked by Al Williamson from issues #1-6, self-inked on #7-8, and inked by Bill Sienkiewicz on #10-14. John Buscema began his sixth decade in the field by joining Roy Thomas for a return to The Savage Sword of Conan with #191 for a 20-issue run. Conan the Rogue, a graphic novel plotted, penciled, inked, and colored by himself over a period of several years in his spare time appeared that same year. He departed the Wolverine title, but not before both penciling and inking the graphic novel Wolverine: Bloody Choices. He returned to crime fiction with The Punisher: War Zone #23-30. He also penciled and inked that title's 1993 summer annual and the 1994 graphic novel A Man named Frank, a parallel-universe Punisher western tale. He also penciled the Punisher portions of 1994's The Punisher meets Archie team-up. No longer attached to a regular series after his Punisher run, he penciled and inked The Avengers Annual 23 and five more black-and-white Conan adventures, serving as that Marvel Comics franchise's final artist on The Savage Sword of Conan with #235 and on the short-lived spin-off Conan the Savage with #10. He also provided fill-in pencil jobs on the Cosmic Powers Unlimited mini-series, Doom 2099, Fantastic Four 2099, Thor, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer and a Silver Surfer / Rune special.
John Buscema semi-retired in 1996, at age 68. He did pencils and inks on a black-and-white short story for Shadows and Light in 1998 and made a final return to Conan with the Death Covered in Gold 3-issue mini-series. He penciled and inked The Amazing Spider-Man 1999 Annual, penciled five of the 6-issue Galactus the Devourer mini-series, and a fill-in Thor. He worked with DC Comics for the first time in 2000, initially doing both pencils and inks on a black-and-white Batman short story in Batman: Gotham Knights #7. He reunited with Stan Lee on the 2001 one-shot Just Imagine Stan Lee and John Buscema creating Superman. He helped to produce The John Buscema Sketchbook. He finished the pencils on 2004's Superman: Blood of my Ancestors, begun by Gil Kane, who had since died, and had just signed on for a 5-issue mini-series with Roy Thomas, J.L.A.: Barbarians. Shortly after finishing the first issue, John Buscema, diagnosed with stomach cancer a few months earlier, died at the age of 74. An 11x17 inches lithograph print of the late 1960s / early 1970s Avengers, penciled by John Buscema and painted in watercolor by Alex Ross for the publisher Dynamic Forces, was his last professional work.

Official site : http://pages.ca.inter.net/~owenandsusan

Selected works :

• Amazing Spider-Man #72-73, 76-81, 84-85
• The Avengers #41-44, 46-47, 49-62, 74-77, 79-85, 94, 97, 105, 121, 124-125, 152-153, 255-279, 281-291, 299-300, 385
• Conan the Barbarian #25-36, 38-39, 41-63, 65-68, 70-78, 84-86, 88-91, 93-126, 136, 140-144, 146-153, 155-159, 161-163, 165-179, 181-185, 187-190, Annual 4-5, Annual 7
• Fantastic Four #107-130, 132, 134-141, 160, 173-175, 202, 296-309, 416, Annual 11
• Marvel Comics Presents #1-10, 38-47
• Ms. Marvel #1-3
• Nova #1-2, 21
• Savage Sword of Conan #1-5, 7, 10-12, 15-24, 26-28, 30-43, 45, 47-58, 60-67, 70-74, 76-81, 87-88, 90-96, 98-101, 190-200, 202-210, 222, 225, 234-235
• Silver Surfer #1-17
• Sub-Mariner #1-8, 20, 24
• Tarzan #1-18, Annual 1
• Thor #178, 182-213, 215-226, 231-238, 241-253, 256-259, 272-278, 283-285, 370, 490, Annual 5, Annual 8, Annual 13
• Wolverine #1-16, 25, 27

John Byrne, born July 6, 1950 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England. His first encounter with Marvel Comics was in 1962 with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #5. Jack Kirby's work in particular had a strong influence on him and he has worked with many of the characters Jack Kirby created or co-created. Besides Jack Kirby, John Byrne was also influenced by the naturalistic style of Neal Adams. In 1970, he enrolled at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. He created the super-hero parody Gay Guy for the college newspaper, which poked fun at the campus stereotype of homosexuality among art students. Gay Guy is also notable for featuring a prototype of the Alpha Flight character Snowbird. While there, he also published his first comic book, ACA Comix #1, featuring The Death's Head Knight. John Byrne left the college in 1973 without graduating. He broke into comics illustrating a 2-page story by writer Al Hewetson for Skywald Publications' black-and-white horror magazine Nightmare #20. He then began freelancing for Charlton Comics, making his color-comics debut with the E-Man backup feature Rog-2000, starring a robot character he'd created in the mid 1970s that colleagues Roger Stern and Bob Layton named and began using for spot illustrations in their fanzine Contemporary Pictorial Literature CPL. A Rog-2000 story written by Roger Stern, with art by John Byrne and Bob Layton, had gotten the attention of Charlton Comics editor Nicola Cuti, who extended John Byrne an invitation. Written by Nicola Cuti, Rog-2000 became one of several alternating backup features in the Charlton Comics super-hero series E-Man, starting with the 8-page « That Was No Lady » in #6. He went on to work on the Charlton books Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, Space: 1999 and Emergency !, and co-created with writer Joe Gill the post-apocalyptic science-fiction series Doomsday +1. He additionally drew a cover for the supernatural anthology The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #54.
John Byrne's first story for Marvel Comics was « Dark Asylum », written by David Anthony Kraft, published in Giant-Size Dracula #5. He began drawing Marvel Comics's lower-selling titles, including Iron Fist, The Champions, and Marvel Team-Up. For many issues, he was paired with writer Chris Claremont. He joined Chris Claremont beginning with The X-Men #108 in 1977. Their work together would make them both fan favorites and X-Men became one of the industry's best-selling titles. He has repeatedly compared his working relationship with Chris Claremont to Gilbert and Sullivan, and has said that they were « almost constantly at war over who the characters were ». He became « increasingly unhappy » and left the title with #143. In the early 1980s, he worked on a number of other Marvel Comics books. His 9-issue run with writer Roger Stern on Captain America #247-255 included an issue in which Captain America was nominated for the U.S. presidency. Marvel Comics persuaded John Byrne to write and draw Alpha Flight, a canadian super-hero team who were first introduced « merely to survive a fight with the X-Men ». The book was popular : its first issue sold 500 000 copies, but he has said the book « was never much fun », and that he considered the characters two-dimensional. One of those characters, Northstar, became Marvel Comics' first openly gay super-hero. Though intended by John Byrne to be gay from the beginning, his homosexuality was only hinted at during his tenure on the book. After #28 of Alpha Flight, he swapped books with Bill Mantlo, writer of The Incredible Hulk. According to John Byrne, he discussed his ideas with editor-in-chief Jim Shooter ahead of time, but once he was on the book, Jim Shooter objected to them. He only wrote and drew 6 issues of The Incredible Hulk #314-319.
John Byrne's most important post-X-Men body of work at Marvel Comics was his 6-year run on The Fantastic Four #232-293, considered by many to be a « second Golden Age » on that title. John Byrne said his goal was to « turn the clock back ... get back and see fresh what it was that made the book great at its inception ». However, he also made a number of significant changes to the title : the Thing was replaced as a member of the quartet by the She-Hulk, while the Thing had adventures in his own book, and his longtime girlfriend Alicia Masters left him for his teammate the Human Torch ; the Invisible Girl was developed into the most powerful member with her heightened control of her refined powers and the self-confident assertiveness to use it epitomized by her name change to the Invisible Woman ; and the Baxter Building, their headquarters, was destroyed and replaced with Four Freedoms Plaza. He has cited multiple reasons for leaving the book, including « internal office politics » and that « it simply started to get old ».
Near the end of his time at Marvel Comics, he was hired by DC Comics to revamp its flagship character Superman. This was part of a company-wide restructuring of the history of the DC Universe and all of its characters following the mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. His reworking of Superman in particular gained widespread media coverage outside the comic book industry, including articles in Time and The New York Times. At the time, he said : « I'm taking Superman back to the basics ... It's basically Siegel and Shuster's Superman meets the Fleischer Superman in 1986 ». He significantly reduced Superman's powers (though he was still one of the most powerful beings on Earth), eliminated the Fortress of Solitude, Krypto, and had his foster parents the Kents still alive while Superman was an adult to enjoy their adopted son's triumphs as well as to provide him with support, grounding, and advice whenever he needed it. He also did away with the character's childhood / teenage career as Superboy ; in John Byrne's revamped history, Clark Kent does not put on a costume and become a super-hero until he's an adult. He has since admitted this was a mistake, since it completely gutted the basic premise of the Legion of Super-Heroes who were inspired by Superboy. In the Superman mythos, John Byrne wrote Clark Kent as having a more aggressive and extroverted personality than previously depicted, even making him a top high-school football player. He also did his part to come up with explanations for how Superman's disguise works, such as the public simply does not realize that he has a secret identity since he is unmasked, that Superman would vibrate his face via his super speed in order to blur his image to photographers, and having Clark Kent keep a weight training set around to explain how the human and presumably weaker Clark Kent could have a frame as massive as Superman's. John Byrne's Superman felt that his deepest roots were on Earth, and that his home planet of « Krypton is anathema to him ». The new Superman debuted in the 6-issue mini-series The Man of Steel, which described his origin and early career. John Byrne wrote and drew two monthly Superman titles with the hero's present-day adventures : a new Superman title beginning with #1 and Action Comics, in which, beginning with #584, Superman teamed up with another hero or group. The original Superman book was renamed Adventures of Superman starting with #424 and was initially written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Jerry Ordway, but the writing chores were taken over by John Byrne after a year, from #436-442, 444. As 1988 marked the 50th anniversary year of Superman's creation, he managed to do more Superman-related projects while working on the core Superman monthly titles at the same time : he wrote the prestige format graphic novel, Superman: The Earth Stealers, while also writing 3 separate 4-issue mini-series : The World of Krypton, The World of Metropolis and The World of Smallville. He also supplied the cover art for a Time magazine cover and interior spread which featured Superman, where his pencils were inked by Jerry Ordway. Around this time while working on the Superman titles, he also penciled the 6-issue DC Universe crossover mini-series Legends in 1986-1987. John Byrne spent about 2 years on the Superman titles before leaving. He cited the lack of « conscious support » for his work from DC Comics and the fact that the version of Superman that the company licensed for merchandise was different from his version in the comic books as the reasons for his dissatisfaction.
In 1986, Marvel Comics began publication of a new line of super-hero titles created by then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, which took place in a continuum removed from the Marvel Universe proper, called the New Universe. In 1987, the New Universe line saw a revamp under new editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, and John Byrne took over writing and art-breakdowns on the line's flagship title, Star Brand, with #11 and continued until the series' cancellation 8 issues later upon Marvel Comics' discontinuation of the New Universe line. In 1989, after leaving Superman, he returned to work on a number of titles for Marvel Comics. His work on West Coast Avengers #42-57 was contingent on his being allowed to do what he called « my Vision story ». The Vision was a long standing Marvel super-hero and member of The Avengers, an android originally created by the villain Ultron constructed with the body of the original Human Torch. The Vision went on to join the team, marry his teammate the Scarlet Witch, and father two children by her. John Byrne radically changed this, revealing that Ultron lied about the Vision's creation. The android Human Torch was found and joined the West Coast Avengers. The Vision was disassembled and stripped of his emotions. The couple's twins were revealed to be pieces of the soul of the demon Master Pandemonium. In addition to these changes, his run is remembered for the introduction of the Great Lakes Avengers, an eclectic group of new super-heroes. During She-Hulk's tenure with the Fantastic Four, she appeared in Marvel Graphic Novel #18, titled The Sensational She-Hulk, which he also wrote and illustrated. On the request of editor Mark Gruenwald, John Byrne wrote and drew a new series in 1989, The Sensational She-Hulk. Gruenwald directed that it be significantly different from the character's 1970s series, The Savage She-Hulk. John Byrne's take was comedic and the She-Hulk, who was aware she was in a comic book, regularly broke the fourth wall. He left the book after writing and drawing the first 8 issues. He was asked for input on writer Dwayne McDuffie's She-Hulk: Ceremony graphic novel, and according to him, most of his objections to the story and notations of errors were ignored, and his editor, Bobbie Chase, was « rewriting my stuff to bring it into line with » the story in She-Hulk: Ceremony. Upon complaining to Tom DeFalco, John Byrne says he was fired from his series. He later returned to write and draw #31-50 under new editor Renée Witterstaetter. He took over writing Iron Man #258-277, drawn by John Romita Jr. and later by Paul Ryan. John Byrne launched a second « Armor Wars » story arc, restored the Mandarin as a major Iron Man nemesis, and featured the 1950s « pre super-hero Marvel » monster Fin Fang Foom. He also started a new series, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. His take on the undersea antihero Namor cast him as the head of a surface company, Oracle, Inc., in order to help keep the ocean unpolluted, and had Namor involved in corporate intrigue. He wrote and drew the book for 25 issues, until new artist Jae Lee inspired a sharp change in the series' mood and plot of the book.
In the early 1990s, John Byrne began creating a series of original, creator-owned works for publisher Dark Horse Comics. This was during a general trend in the industry for established creators working for Marvel Comics and DC Comics to bring their original works to other publishers or create their own companies to publish the works themselves. One prominent example is Image Comics. A number of these creators, including John Byrne, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola and Arthur Adams, banded together to form the Legend imprint at Dark Horse Comics. His first title for Dark Horse Comics was Next Men, a work he considered darker and more realistic than his previous work. The Next Men were 5 young people who were the product of a secret government experiment. John Byrne said : « I thought I would see what I could do with super-heroes in the real world » and « explore the impact their existence would have ». His other Dark Horse Comics titles were Babe and Danger Unlimited, a team of heroes in the future fighting an alien occupation of Earth. The Next Men lasted until #30 in 1994, when he ended the series, intending to return « in no more than six months ». However, John Byrne says he « did not count on ... the virtual collapse of the whole comic book industry, which seemed to occur at just the time I put Next Men on the shelf ... In the present, very depressed marketplace, I don't feel Next Men would have much chance, so I leave the book hibernating until such time as the market improves. ».
In later years, John Byrne has done titles for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and other publishers, including the 1992 prestige format graphic novel Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale with science-fiction author Larry Niven at DC Comics. He also returned to the X-Men franchise at Marvel Comics from 1991-1992, succeeding longtime writer Chris Claremont, who left after 17 years working on the various X-Men related titles. His return as the new writer was brief, as he only wrote Uncanny X-Men #281-285, 288 with artist Whilce Portacio, and X-Men #4-5 with artist Jim Lee. Like Chris Claremont before him, he left writing the X-Men titles due to editorial differences with then X-Men editor at the time, Bob Harras. He also wrote and drew another of DC Comics' signature series, the long-running Wonder Woman title from 1995-1998. During that time, he relegated the super-heroine to the status of observer in a many issues, spotlighting supporting characters such as Queen Hippolyta in their own adventures. He additionally took over New Gods at the end of 1996, as writer-artist of #12-15, continuing with it as the series was rebooted with a new #1 as Jack Kirby's Fourth World. That ran 20 issues from 1997-1998. His late-1990s Marvel Comics work has been controversial. In the series Spider-Man: Chapter One, he sought to retell some of Spider-Man's earliest adventures, changing some key aspects, and declaring that the new version had supplanted the original stories as official Spider-Man canon. In late 1998, John Byrne also took over as writer of the flagship series, The Amazing Spider-Man, at the end of the series with #440, by which time Marvel had decided to relaunch the book. The « last » issue of The Amazing Spider-Man was #441, with Marvel Comics initiating The Amazing Spider-Man with a new #1 with Howard Mackie as writer and John Byrne as penciler. He penciled #1-18.
Marvel Comics hired him in 1999 for a second volume of the series featuring the Incredible Hulk, re-titled Hulk, with Ron Garney penciling. John Byrne wrote of his plans for the first year, but as with his previous tenure on the character back in 1986, creative differences led to his abrupt departure before the year was over. He wrote the first 7 issues, as well as that series' summer annual. From 1999-2001, he returned to the X-Men once again, as he wrote and drew the flashback series X-Men: The Hidden Years. The series lasted 22 issues. Despite being one of the lowest selling X-Men titles in history, he maintained the comic was still profitable and believed the cancellation to be unexplained. This disagreement factored in his decision to no longer work for Marvel Comics.
Post-2000 works have involved characters and events in time periods mostly skipped over by other comics (Marvel: The Lost Generation) or alternate timelines (DC Comics' Superman & Batman: Generations) ; a common feature is to have characters who actually age during the course of the series, which is uncommon for characters in ongoing comics. His 2000s work has all been for DC Comics: J.L.A. #94-99, « The Tenth Circle » story arc, Doom Patrol, Blood of the Demon, and a brief return stint drawing Superman, with writer Gail Simone, in Action Comics #827-835. Afterward, Gail Simone and John Byrne reteamed to launch The All-New Atom series in 2006, with John Byrne penciling the first 3 issues. He was let go from this book after his complaints about late scripts proved more trouble than they were worth. For publisher, IDW Publishing, he worked on the final issue of the mini-series Star Trek: Alien Spotlight, on the series FX, written by Wayne Osborne and the self-described « professional fan fiction », Star Trek: Assignment Earth. For DC Comics, he drew a 5-issue arc of J.L.A.: Classified #50-54.
In early 2003, he spent 10 weeks as guest penciler on the syndicated newspaper strip Funky Winkerbean. John Byrne did this as a favor for Winkerbean's creator, Tom Batiuk, who was recovering from foot surgery.

Official site : http://www.byrnerobotics.com
Art gallery : http://www.artofjohnbyrne.com

Selected works :

• Action Comics #584-600, 827-835, Annual 1, Annual 6
• Alpha Flight #1-28
• The Avengers #164-166, 181-191, 233, Annual 13-14, Annual 18
• Batman / Captain America
• Blood of the Demon #1-15
• Captain America #247-255
• The Champions #11-15, 17
• Daredevil #138
• Doom Patrol #1-18
• Fantastic Four #209-221, 232-293, Annual 17, Annual 19
• Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale
• Incredible Hulk #314-319, Annual 7
• Iron Fist #1-15
• Iron Man #118
• John Byrne's 2112 ; John Byrne's Next Men #0-30
• Legends #1-6
• Marvel Team-Up #53-55, 59-70, 75, 79, 100
• Namor the Sub-Mariner #1-25
• OMAC #1-4
• Sensational She-Hulk #1-8, 31-46, 48-50
• Spider-Man: Chapter One #1-12
• Superman #1-17, 19-22
• Uncanny X-Men #108-109, 111-143 ; Phoenix: The Untold Story
• West Coast Avengers #42-57, Annual 4
• Wonder Woman #101-136, Annual 6