I loved Alpha Flight.  I started collecting comics late in JB's run - my first AF issue was #23, but this was one of my favorite series.  When I finally had built up some cash and discovered the direct market and mail ordered back issues, collecting all the JB AF issues was my first real "collecting" decision (collecting all of the Stern and DeFalco Hobgoblin issues was a close second).

One of the things I loved about AF was that it was really building its own mythos - and not relying on second string villains.  It also embraced what was unique about itself - Canada - and had the team going all over the country.  That its members actually lived throughout the widespread country also gave it an epic sort of feel that even the Avengers didn't have - the team unfortunately being too often limited to the New York area.

And I love JB's art during this period despite his self-admitted "limitations."  While it is possible for a lack of backgrounds to be too noticeable, I agree with JB and others already on this thread that "needless" backgrounds clutter the picture and distract from the storytelling.  Let the eye focus on where it needs to be.  Proper use of color and dynamic storytelling will "cover" for that.

Very much looking forward to the new few weeks of this reading club.

I LOVE love LOVE John Byrne's Alpha Flight.  It came at the right time for me.  For me, FF was starting to peak around here (with my highlight being FF 260 to about 262) and I thought to myself that maybe AF was taking the main priority for the master.  After all, JB was taking both full chores as well as with scriping The Thing.  And, I think the Super Boxers graphic novel, or something like that.

I was shocked and dismayed to find out later that Mr. Byrne did not hold AF in as high regard as us Alpha Flight fans but that AF was rather thrust on him by the powers that be.

This is one time where I agree with the powers that were.  I am so glad that JB did the series.  Great memories there.

But I don't agree with what the powers that were did afterward.  I also remember there being a big deal made by someone (Shooter?) that this was the biggest paycheck to a comic artist/writer and if I recall correctly, Shooter's soapbox started making snide remarks about how big Byrne's house was (like it was bigger than Doom's castle or something).  I remember thinking to myself that Shooter saying such things wasn't that professional.  And this from a 14 or 15 year old teenager.  Wow... I really got sidetracked there.  Sorry.

Great issue!  I hope more are posted.

And I never understood the "criticism" of people complaining about backgrounds.

The art is perfect as it is.  As JB clearly showed, it was nothing new as Kirby was doing it 20 years earlier.  If I recall, it was popular throught many golden age books.

I didn't get into Alpha Flight 'till much later, the Secret Wars II tie-ins I think(my older brother had a subscription), but they hooked me and this was one of the first back issues I ever hunted down. Since then I've gotten together JB's complete run (Some of the issues I "inherited" from my brother are coverless). 

Alpha Flight was a great series when JB was on it.  When I try to explain to my friends why I like it so much I end up saying, "It's just such a MARVEL series."  I can't really explain what I mean by that too well, but the characters' interactions (esp. Sasquatch and Northstar), their motivations and the feeling of anything can happen in the series really evokes the atmosphere of the early FF and Avengers issues.

Really looking forward to this Reading Club continuing.