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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16213
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:09am | IP Logged | 1
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I like the flow of the story. One of my complaints with more recent comics is that not a lot happens and they are somehow still a bit of a trudge to work through.
This is the opposite. Lots happening, but a breeze to go through the pages, leaving you wanting more. Just the way comics should be!
Depicting Jean in that last panel is a toughie. You hit the nail on the head recognising how the eyes with the made up lashes gives so much of the distinctive look to Jean's face.
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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8290
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:21am | IP Logged | 2
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JB - Since you hadn't really had the chance to give the New X-Men dialogue*, does it feel odd to be doing that after all these years?
*Would it be fair to not count the brief 90's stint over Lee/Portacio?
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Tim O Neill
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 10955
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:30am | IP Logged | 3
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This is such an amazing experience to see. This latest page with Jean is poignant and heartbreaking. Seeing this alternate storyline has been a fascinating and mysterious alternate timeline since first seeing JB’s original pencils to #138 which featured Jean and Scott, post-Phoenix. I saw them published in the X-MEN COMPANION, a two volume interview book from Fantagraphics. The published story in #137 was a huge moment for me as a reader, and how the story would have played out had Jean lived has played on my mind over the years. I’m conflicted, though - I thought the published story was very powerful because of Jean’s death.
I’ve read the original run so frequently that I knew we were at the Grey household just looking at the first panel. JB has said in the past that the house was based on the BEWITCHED house, so it was probably more recognizable from the TV series! But I notice it every time I read the UNCANNY X-MEN run, which is frequently.
I think this is how the Marvel Universe ties into the BEWITCHED universe - Samantha and Darren moved out in the early 70’s, and the Greys moved in. Mrs. Kravitz was likely peering through the curtains when Dark Phoenix showed up in the middle of the night, tugging at Abner’s pajamas about seeing a big flaming bird across the street. Like everything weird that happened wihen the Stephens lived across the street, he probably just told her to go back to bed.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7560
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:38am | IP Logged | 4
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JB, I said it before-- this part with Jean is heartbreaking, because it's so unfair that this happened to her. (It's great comic book storytelling but jeez...) Like many here, I'd love to see her road to recovery and what that might mean for her, Scott, the X-Men and the world.
You're a natural storyteller, JB. I couldn't be happier that you're sharing this with us. Thank you so much.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134669
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:39am | IP Logged | 5
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JB - Since you hadn't really had the chance to give the New X-Men dialogue*, does it feel odd to be doing that after all these years?•• It's interesting, to me, to find that the voices I heard in my head as I was penciling those issues, all those years ago, are still there. (Voices somewhat at odds with Chris' versions. For one thing, my characters neither think nor speak in paragraphs.) +++ *Would it be fair to not count the brief 90's stint over Lee/Portacio? •• Yeah, I'd say those don't count!
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7560
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:41am | IP Logged | 6
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Just to clarify, I do not mean that YOU are being unfair to Jean. Just that life has given her a hard set of circumstances, after all that she did to be as good a hero as she could be. Life is like that and comics are better when they show the unfair parts as well.
Jean will always be a hero to me.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:46am | IP Logged | 7
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JB, I said it before-- this part with Jean is heartbreaking, because it's so unfair that this happened to her. (It's great comic book storytelling but jeez...) Like many here, I'd love to see her road to recovery and what that might mean for her, Scott, the X-Men and the world.•• Altho I am treating this as a "real" issue, at this point in time I have no intention of carrying this beyond just this one-off, here in the Forum. So, I'm including a couple of subplots, which I suppose some might see as a bit mean, since they will not see resolution. One of the questions I find dancing around in my brain is just which version of Jean/Phoenix we're dealing with here. When Chris and I did our original version, Phoenix was Jean with her powers enhanced by cosmic rays (TAC TAC TAC TAC), tho even back then he was hinting around at Phoenix being something else, something more than just Jean. So, playing around with this, am I working straight from the ending of THE UNTOLD TALE, albeit some months later, or am I drawing on what was "revealed" later. Was Jean "lobotomized" or "exorcised" -- or both?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 8:47am | IP Logged | 8
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Just to clarify, I do not mean that YOU are being unfair to Jean. Just that life has given her a hard set of circumstances, after all that she did to be as good a hero as she could be. Life is like that and comics are better when they show the unfair parts as well.•• Like the song says, You always hurt the one you love...
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Brennan Voboril
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Joined: 15 January 2011
Posts: 1834
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 9:29am | IP Logged | 9
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I never knew Grey house was based on the Bewitched house before. That is so cool. I loved Bewitched!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 9:49am | IP Logged | 10
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Having a father who was a professional architect skewed my brain in a lot of ways. One was to make me hyper-aware of the set designs in TV shows, and how rarely interiors fit into exteriors. One exception was the Stevens house on BEWITCHED. It matched the exterior quite well, and when I came to draw Jean's family home, I used the design (from memory) as a little nod of appreciation.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 10:11am | IP Logged | 11
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You put into words something that, even as a kid, I found nagging-- how does THAT shape of an interior fit into THAT house? I'm guessing it's a detail that drives architects to distraction when watching a show.
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Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4635
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| Posted: 19 July 2018 at 10:31am | IP Logged | 12
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Was it Steve Ditko who actually had buildings appear in the same relationship to each other in NYC over early issues Spider-Man? I'm not sure how true that is, but it made me really 'marvel' that someone could care enough or whatever makes someone create at that level. William Hartnell knowing the Tardis controls and where they were located on Doctor Who was another 'wow' moment like that.
This unfolding comic is great drama every page because there seem to be real people underneath, there's a foundation. I'm definitely wordy like Claremont and sometimes I have to figure out that less is more. Like Jean making the toy bird's wings flap, or Alex Toth suggesting so much with a minimum of lines. The last thing I would want to do is disturb the magic, we should be enabling it.
Edited by Rebecca Jansen on 19 July 2018 at 10:33am
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