Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Being that I'm a charter Byrne-victim, I've waxed eloquent on John Byrne many times here on DOtGK, so I figured it was high time we took a look back at his first professionally published work. As with many of the greats, Byrne started off humbly paying his dues in the fanzines (like Amazing Science Fantasy--that one's from 1973, by the by) before finding paying gigs with minor publishers and then being "discovered" by the Big Boys. I've scoured his website (Byrne Robotics) so I could get this right, and if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me, but according to Byrne, his first pro job was an 8 pager that sat in a drawer for many moons before seeing print (heavily inked by Rudy Nebres) in Giant-Size Dracula #5 (March 1975). His first pro work to be published was the debut of Rog-2000, "That Was No Lady", which appeared in E-Man #6 (October 1974). However, I've done a little digging, and there's a two page strip in Skywald's black and white Nightmare #20 (cover-dated August 1974) illustrated by...John Byrne and Duffy Vohland. Well, Ol' Groove's still searching high and low for that G-S Dracula ish, but I dooby-dooby-doo have scans of the Nightmare and Rog comics, so without further ado, here's "The Castle" from the aforementioned Nightmare #20 aaaaand "That Was No Lady" (scripted by Nick Cuti) from the also-already-mentioned E-Man #6. How's that for service with a smile? Enjoy!
By the way, if you've never done so, stop by the Byrne Robotics Gallery and check out all the far-out art posted there. It's a museum of magnificence, baby!
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i am a HUGE byrne fan. the first time i saw his work was illustrations (mostly inked by vohland) that appeared in FOOM magazine. i remember wondering at the time why he wasn't working for marvel. shortly after that i saw some strips he drew in a fanzine called CPL that was published by then non-pros bob layton and roger stern. he began working at charlton shortly after that. i used to have this issue of ASF but i've never seen the skywald two-pager. thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Andy!
ReplyDeleteMan, I LOVE these stories! Rog 2000 was Byrne's first published series, in E-MAN 6, 7, 9 and 10, and remains among my favorites of his work, even 45 years later. Thanks for making all 4 of them accessible here.
ReplyDeleteI love Byrne's other work for Charleton too, particularly SPACE 1999, that you've been good enough to post here for our viewing pleasure.
As well as EMERGENCY issue 1, and WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH 1-3.
A fun detail in the above Rog 2000 story is the bartender, who is sometimes Marvel staffer and Byrne inker Duffy Vohland. And a self-deprecating injection of Byrne himself into the story.
It's cool to think of what Byrne was doing simultaneous with this Charleton work over at Marvel, including MARVEL PREMIERE 25 (Iron Fist), and IRON FIST 1-15 (Oct 1975 - 9/1977), DAREDEVIL 138 (10/1976)/GHOST RIDER 20 (10/1976, a crossover story), the aforementioned GIANT-SIZE DRACULA 5 (6/1975), MARVEL CHILLERS 2(cover only, 12/1975), and 6 (full length Tigra story, 8/1976).
Once Byrne was getting more work at Marvel, he gradually phased out of doing Charleton work, and in the blink of an eye became one of Marvel's star artists, alongside the likes of George Perez, Rich Buckler, Bob Layton, Jim Starlin, John Romita Jr., Michael Golden, Jerry Bingham, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Jusko and Frank Miller. What a fantastic time to be reading. The Groovy Age, to be sure!