THE BEST COMIC BOOK CREATOR (FOR ME)

Superman vs. The Fantastic Four commission art by John Byrne
courtesy of ByrneRobotics. Characters TM and Copyright DC Comics and Marvel Comics

Okay, most of you maybe thinking, why he is writing about comics again. Well, again small talks are topics that I want to talk and write about. I will write less of this in the future. But let me just get this off my chest. (my next comic related topic may not be so good for most of you....stay tuned).

I have been asked who is the best creator in comics. Names have began to float. There are creators that made really over the top stories and really some deep intense ones. There are creators that blew up worlds, or they are just crazy and over the top.

Some creators that we have in mind are Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Carmine Infantino (Silver Age) to Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Geoff Johns (Modern Age). Honestly, for me there's Jim Lee, Alan Moore and Frank Miller. But none of them compares with the man I condsider the best: JOHN BYRNE.

Yup, him. Why him? I have read some of his works and I have a collection of it. Byrne does his best whether he is the writer/artist or simply the writer or penciller. His panels really breathe life into the character. His characters react as if they are real people. What is good about him is that they are not rendered dark and gritty like how some characters are. His masterpiece, The Dark Phoenix Saga,(which he co-plotted the story with longtime X-Men writer Chris Claremont), remains one of the best stories in all of comicdom. Of how Jean Grey attained godlike powers and the X-men tried to protect her, culminating in her bitter end. The epilogue also saw the leaving of one character and the debut of one character. He also handled the adventures of Marvel's First Family, the Fantastic Four. He breathed new life into Marvel's First Family, rebooting the entire series. My favorite story was issue 233 titled "Mission for a Dead Man",  a solo Human Torch story in which he investigates a dying man's request of a crime he didn't commit. Johnny Storm was able to solve the case, but the mother of that person said that he got what he deserved since she told Johnny that he is a hero while his son is not. And this is just his second issue!

He also moved to DC Comics, and is responsible for breathing new life in the Post Crisis version of Superman. He gave a breath of new life to the character, and in my opinion one of the best stories written for that character (The Last Superman Story being the best). Over in Dark Horse comics, John Byrne's Next Men is his mature work. It combined the world of superheroes with other issues that are relevant at that time. JBNM was released at the time when Image Comics dominated the market, in which there is a lack of solid storytelling but focused mainly on art. This series definitely stands out.

Byrne is a creator that can work as both writer and artist. He is also one of the artists in my period which has a lot of artistic credits, rivaled only by John Romita Jr. His volume of work, the consistency of his story and art makes him one of the very rare people that has changed the landscape of comics that we had.

So, that's my favorite comic book creator. Who's yours?

BRIAN LUCIANO

June 20,2017