For John Byrne the recipient of the Victoria Cross, see John Byrne

John Byrne (born July 6, 1950) is a writer and artist of comic books. Byrne is known for his often-controversial new perspectives on established comic series, and for his harsh attitude towards criticism.

Byrne was born near West Bromwich, England, but immigrated with his family to Canada in 1958. He attended the Alberta College of Art in Calgary for a few years, where he produced some of his earliest work when he created the superhero Gay Guy for the college newspaper, The Emery Weal. However Byrne and the school eventually realized that his interests lay elsewhere. He made his first professional sale in 1971 to The Monster Times .

In 1974 he got his first assignment with Marvel Comics, in the form of a short story ("Dark Asylum") which eventually appeared in Giant-Sized Dracula #5, a year or so later. Meanwhile, editor Nicola Cuti asked Byrne to do the fan character ROG-2000 for Charlton Comics, and this led to his first full title assignment Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch . Wheelie was followed in short order by Doomsday+1 , Space: 1999 and a single issue of Emergency! . He eventually moved on to Marvel Comics and DC Comics where he has handled nearly every major character at one time or another.

Among Byrne's most prominent activites were drawing the X-Men with writer Chris Claremont, writing and drawing an award-winning run on the Fantastic Four, and the 1986 revamp of Superman, The Man of Steel.

He has also produced his own creator-owned projects for Dark Horse Comics, including John Byrne's Next Men, Danger Unlimited , and Babe .

Byrne drew ten weeks of the comic strip Funky Winkerbean while its creator, Tom Batiuk , was recovering from foot surgery.

In addition to his comic book work, Byrne has published three novels: Fearbook , Whipping Boy and . He also has short stories in the Hotter Blood and Shock Rock anthologies. Fearbook was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers of America as "Best First Novel".

His stepson is comic book artist Kieron Dwyer and they collaborated on stories featuring the character Torch of Liberty , part of the Danger Unlimited universe.

External links

• John Byrne's Message Board
• 3D & Computer-Rendered Art Showcase
• His Opinion Column
• Check the archives for an article by Kieron