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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | 1
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JB, in a previous thread you made this comment…
“ I'm reminded of one of Shooter's unrealized schemes: he wanted to do a
"John Byrne Month", in which I would do ALL the books…”
I’m curious. How serious was Shooter when he brought this up? Did you
give it any serious consideration? If so, why didn’t it happen? If not, what
were your reservations? Was it just for pencils?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | 2
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Basically just a way to cash in on my (then) superstardom. I didn’t expect much of it, as it would have expected other creators to give up their income for a month.
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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | 3
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Without a doubt it would have blown my tiny little tween mind - and probably have gotten me to buy the Marvel titles I wasn't already buying. If it had happened, it would be cool as a "wait, WHAT?" piece of trivia - though likely not much more, as you did ultimately draw pretty much every major property at some point, even if not on their own title.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | 4
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Imagine the embryonic internet mentality (not yet a thing) dealing with this. “Forty titles in one month? Look how RUSHED they look!”
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Steve Coates
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | 5
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John,
How many books could you, comfortably, produce in a month during those years?
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Eric Jansen
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | 6
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Seems impossible, even with months of "stockpiling." But forty COVERS seem doable! THAT would have been cool!
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Brian Miller
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | 7
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I wondered about the displaced creators when I posed my question. I
figured “surely they wouldn’t have asked him to script them, too!”
Thanks for answering. It would’ve been an interesting way to get people to
try books they otherwise weren’t buying. (And much better than buying a
book just for a John Byrne cover.)
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Brian Miller
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| Posted: 03 October 2025 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | 8
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Also, not bad for an artist who, just a few years back, was deemed not good
enough to draw the covers for the very book he was pencilling every month.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 04 October 2025 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | 9
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How many books could you, comfortably, produce in a month during those years?••• Three. Another downside of this plan is that I would have nothing coming out during the time I was working on the project.
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Brandon Carter
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| Posted: 06 October 2025 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | 10
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It's so ambitious a project that it's not too surprising that it didn't happen but would have been quite impressive if it had! Given that the individual issues would have been done at different times over the course of a year or more, the stories would likely have to be done as standalone from the current continuities of the titles, However, since all these books would be coming out the same month, that would provide some opportunities for some overlap, not necessarily overt crossovers but some references to what else is going on that month. I have no doubt that if this had happened, Marvel would have published a John Byrne Month Omnibus by now to collect the whole thing (hopefully published at a time when Marvel had rights to reprint the Conan issue from that month)!
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Steve Coates
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| Posted: 06 October 2025 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | 11
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Even a rudimentary analysis does not support such a project.
July 1981 Cover date (early April on-sale). 28 main Marvel titles, some are bi-monthly. JB's capacity is 3 issues per month. About ten months for JB to draw 28 issues.
Script: John Byrne Pencils: John Byrne Inks: John Byrne Colors: Glynis Oliver Letters: Jim Novak
John, would you amend your monthly capacity based on filling multiple roles?
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 06 October 2025 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | 12
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I have been trying to figure out when this cockamamie idea was first lofted. Based on telling time by where I lived it must have been circa 1985, a few years before I accepted the Superman assignment. (Given Shooter’s over-the-top reaction to that, it certainly could not have been after!)So, what was a typical “Marvel month” in that year?
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