Gary Groth and John Byrne have a friendly chat... 0

[Prince Namor]

I started picking up the Comics Journal in the late 80's... in many ways it probably kept alive my interest in comics by introducing me to so many things I never would've found on my own. By this time, they had a pretty adversarial relationship with mainstream comics, so I never really experienced much of their earlier history when they tried to... cover mainstream comics with the eye of an art critic. 

I had grown up during the heyday of music critics, and loved some of that writing, but slowly saw it give in to the commercialized side of the business and basically turn into a - well, I can't use the phrase I wanted to use here, but let's just call it a 'mutual handshake'. In comic books, The Comics Journal never really gave in to that side of things, and in fact doubled down their criticism, becoming a pariah to the industry - yet somehow sticking around to this very day. 

So as I was doing some research I found a great panel transcript from a Dallas Comic Convention in 1982 where Gary Groth and John Byrne were willing participants and friendly conversationalists! I would have NEVER thought I'd see such a thing, but here it was (with Jan Strnad and Kerry Gammil). And boy did it not disappoint. They are savage in their opinions - this was long before social media - heck this pre-dates the compete take over of cable television in the U.S. - so it's VERY candid - and a few people take shots from them including Gene Colan, Jim Shooter, Chris Claremont, etc.

Byrne of course, is still very outspoken and unafraid to give his opinion - his own forum on http://m.byrnerobotics.com/home.asp is a very entertaining read, and his commissions are some of the best in the business - while Groth doesn't write a lot anymore for TCJ, the publication still runs (mainly online) http://www.tcj.com and I see there's a Steve Englehart career retrospective interview I now need to go read!

Anyway... this is a long piece, but well worth checking out for anyone interested.

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[NoMan]

can you post some Frank Miller interviews?

[MatterEaterLad]

Thanks for posting! 

[Randall Dowling]

This is from a time when people could disagree with each other without feeling it necessary to hate each other in the process.  To argue passionately about things one cared about against the opposite viewpoint, without fear of offending someone or losing a relationship.  Because people were more than members of a particular tribe, they were individuals with their own unique experiences and values developed by the many singular experiences of their lives.

Man, do I miss those days.

Thanks for sharing this.  

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

[Prince Namor]

Sorry... forgot the last two pages!

[Zonker]

Love these time capsules!  Byrne at the height of his rock-star status, holding court among his adoring audience and in the process crapping all over Gene Colan, Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, even Jim Shooter-the-writer, as opposed to Jim Shooter-the-EIC.  It is odd to see Byrne defend Shooter's editorial and management philosophy so soon after the Dark Phoenix brouhaha that led to Byrne walking away from the X-Men.

[FlyingDonut]

I had forgotten what a jerk Gary Groth was/is. He basically hated everything.

[Prince Namor]

33 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

I had forgotten what a jerk Gary Groth was/is. He basically hated everything.

Well... he didn't hate everything, but he sure was hardcore on what he hated and there was a LOT of it.

Doesn't seem like Byrne is much different here or later - he's pretty vocal and vindictive about anyone he doesn't currently work for.

[Prince Namor]

I loved the early to mid 70's Marvel I grew up with - it was the last instance of artists and writers controlling things... Byrne and Miller were two of the few who continued that under Shooter, but most of his editorial reign I just thought was vapid, and DC was just really gross for a long time. Then the Image guys completely ruined it all for me.*

I had already started to move away from the Big Two, with Nexus, TMNT, American Flagg, Elementals, etc., but the Comics Journal opened up a whole new world for me. Love and Rockets, Eightball, Madman, Charles Burns, Joe Matt, Miracleman, Xenozoic Tales, etc., and then eventually European comics. 

It's nearly impossible for me to read mainstream comics now. It's like reading a children's book that's been disguised as an adult story. How can anyone NOT be overly critical of that?

My descent from the mainstream really started earlier than that though... the two comic based stories that really ruined it for me I picked up in 1977. The first was Heavy Metal #1 right off the newsstand rack when I read Moebius' Azrach story - and the other was picking up a worn copy of Savage Tales #2 and 3 around the same time and reading Barry Windsor-Smith's Red Nails. 

The Al Milgrom's of the world never had a chance....**

 

*No offense meant toward anything of any era - it all has its good and bad. Mostly, whatever era each of us discovered comics is the era we think is the best.

** No offense to Al Milgrom, who inked a lot of my favorite Jim Starlin work. I just picked his name randomly as a guy who churned out... average work... under Shooter's system.

[bb8]

Interesting article. When Byrne says 'I hate to play superstar' but I get the feeling he didn't actually hate to play superstar.