John Byrnes artwork

[Ruby Spears Superman]

I know his name is a four letter word among pre-crisis fans, but I really do like his art from the mid eighties. Especially his interiors of buildings and the detail required. So my question is, could the post crisis revision have gone better if Byrne drew it but someone else had written and planned it (Like, I don't know, someone who would have tried to address his Legion history before setting pencil to paper? Just a thought. )?

[Super Monkey]

Of course! Johnny Red beard's artwork was never anywhere near as awful as his writing.

I believe that Cary Bates actual summited a proposal for a Superman revamp, but it was rejected by DC.

 

[The Marvel]

John Byrnes artwork is my favorite.

[Ruby Spears Superman]

 I would love to have seen what Chris Claremont could have done with Superman. Given the unfavorable terms he left Marvel on, it probably wouldn't have been that hard to lure him away.

[carmine]

I'll say this first, the reboot wasn't need. Byrne on the books after COIE would have been "big" enough to bring in new readers.

That being said. Alan Moore was in the running for rebooting Supes but lost out to Byrne (which is sorta like DC giving Loeb the superman book after Morrison asking for it...oh wait that did happen).

Alan Moore writing and Byrne drawing a superman book. now that would be an actual classic.

[Uncle Mxy]

I enjoy Byrne's artwork, for the most part.  But, does anyone else think that Curt Swan could've drawn Superman as a Christopher Reeve homage with much the same effect?

[DBN]

I've never been much of a fan of Byrne's artwork, it looks ok when you have Terry Austin or Karl Kessel pulling inking duties. Otherwise, yeesh.

I would have liked it much better had Garcia Lopez took over penciling duties after Swan's time was up.

[nightwing]

Generally I'd agree that JB's writing is even weaker than his art, but I have to say one of, if not the only Superman story I enjoyed from his run was that vampire tale in the Annual with art by Art Adams.  This might have something to do with the fact that Batman's in the book, and JB has always been much better at Bats than Supes.

It's a funny thing, re: his art.  I was digging through some boxes recently and found no less than 3 books dedicated to JB's art and interviews, so obviously at some point in history I was quite enamored of him.  Looking back I think this was almost entirely due to his dynamic pencils on X-Men, where Terry Austin gave him the extra polish he needed (Austin made Marshall Rogers' quirky artwork more "user-friendly" in much the same way).

Karl Kesel was another good inker for JB, Dick Giordano less so (polishing is one thing, drowning another).  When he jumped back to Marvel for the FF, the art took a huge nosedive as he started inking his own stuff, with hideous results.  Much later in the run, however, Jerry Ordway's inks literally made a silk purse out of a sow's ear.