What about age?  maybe like an athlete your skills fades with age?

i always wondered if that had anything to do with it?

This is truly a wonderful post, because it asks a question that I (and I'm sure many fans) have often wondered about.  What makes it particularly interesting is that the question is coming from an artist. One that I (and many fans) like and respect). ( I thought if anyone, YOU guys would know the answer)

I would like to address your post point by point if I may.

QUOTE: .  ...And before anybody says anything--this is not aimed at any one specific artist but rather many of them to some degree. We've all heard it before--and many have said it about an artist at one time or another. "Your old stuff was better." And most artists who hear that can only cringe and say to themselves, "really? Do you really prefer my work when I didn't know what I was doing? When everything was crude and clumsy and awkward? You really prefer THAT to THIS?" And the answer is--yeah, kind of.

well said,...it is true we often feel that way.  However, even at this early stage I feel the need to point out that we don't always feel that way.  Fans don't always feel that an artist's earlier work is better. In fact in many cases we can see wonderful progression.  But the point is well taken because it is true for many of the artists we love (or used to) and it is quite puzzling.

QUOTE: And it's not just a matter of the fan having been 10 or 12 or whatever. There's a crude energy in many artists' early work that is lacking in later work. What's interesting about it is that the work is often unpredictable because the artist is figuring things out. An artist may struggle with a hand, for example, and pull off something weird and strange yet beautiful but hopelessly flawed. The artist may learn from that experience and never do anything like it. the artist sees it as a failed experiment. The fan sees it as interesting and unusual. Years into it--the artist may have figured everything out. This is how he draws a hand--this is the way he draws an explosion--this is a running pose--a punching pose--and it may be very competent but to the reader--it's lifeless and dull. They've seen it all before. They're familiar with the artist's bag of tricks. It all looks the same. To the artist-- it's baffling. It's maddening. Here they are--at the peak of their powers--their work has fewer flaws than ever before--they're figured everything out--worked out all the kinks. The anatomy is stronger, the perspective is right on, the storytelling is clear, the proportions are perfect and yet--fans aren't as enthusiastic as they once were.

well said...you are correct that it isn't about being at a younger age. even As an adult I can look back and see that an artists' earlier work was "better" compared to his current stuff. and this brings me to your next point.  Though I'm sure what you said is true in many cases, once again, it isn't always true. there are instances where at least from my POV the anatomy isn't as good or as tight as it used to be. The story telling isn't as well crafted.  Perhaps from the artist's POV they feel their work is better but that is often not the case for the fans. And that is very puzzling.

QUOTE: Neal Adams once said (or it's been attributed to Neal) that, "Your style is everything you do wrong." If that is the case then an artist may have more "style" as a rookie than as a seasoned vet. I can remember being fascinated by certain aspects of artist's work which they ultimately refined and lost from their styles. One artist may have given characters unusually long heads or unusually large feet or hands. Years later those flaws were gone, along with my interest in their work.

I don't agree with that quote. I peronaly feel that an artist's style is waht makes him unique and special. What makes him either Great, good, mediocre or bad.  For me it all comes down to the style.  as to your second point,..,.. point well made,...but again that is not always the case. sometimes it is the other way around. The hands used to be perfectly propotioned and now they are all over the place. sometimes there are more flaws in the later work then the earlier work.

QUOTE: The thing is--if there's no change--fans grow bored as well. Familiarity breeds contempt. Those aspects that made you love an artist when you were 12 may make you loathe their work at 32. Which leads to a real damned if you do--damned if you don't scenario. If you do improve-- you may lose the fans who loved you for what you were--if you don't improve they may grow bored with you and ridicule you for your faults and how you've stagnated. I don't know if there is a solution.

I don't think I agree with this point, (with all due respect of course), I happen to think there is a solution. One that many artists have done quite successfully.  I don't know that I agree that when great artists don't change, that their fans grow bored with them.  The closest example that I can think of where this might have happened with me, would be John Buscema. but as someone pointed out, though his style never changed his later stuff was more roughs than the detailed pencils in did in the past,...so the comparison isn't exactly fair. 

There are artists who have found a wonderful balances of staying true to themselves while growing and expanding their art. John Romita Jr is IMO the perfect example of this. He continualy adapts his art to the generation at hand. He continues to grow, and learn and expirement with his art, yet he never loses the aspects of his art that made us love his work. George Perez is another good example of this. In a recent interview GP talked about a fan calling him a "new" artists whose work he loved. GP has been able to maintain the same level of energy and enthusiasm to his work without really changing his "style".  He continualy pushes the envelope while retaining all the things we love about his art.

So IMO the answer is to maintain who you are, maintain the same level of dedication to your work ( I think many artists grow bored and tired and therefore become a bit lazy or complacent about their work), and most importantly continue to learn and to grow. Stay current. IOW keep yourself in the same place you were when you first started.

QUOTE: I do know that I've come to embrace my own awkwardness and try not to erase and over think what I do. I try not to get in a rut--I strive to find new approaches and challenge myself and struggle to find ways of making things new. But it's not always easy. My hand has a tendency to default to familiar solutions to drawing challenges--to resort to stock hands or poses or faces. As difficult as it was to lay out those early pages--it can be as difficult or more to find new ways of laying out a page--to avoid the rut and try something new--especially with deadlines looming. The thing is--I can look at any number of artists' work and see the progression and even though I know that later work is superior of a technical level--there's something very visceral, raw and exciting about those artists' earlier work. It's often crude and ugly--but there's an energy there which often gets lost. In any case-- I thought I'd share and see what your thoughts might be. No need to cite specifics if you're not inclined to offend anybody. And, again, this is not directed at any one individual.

I am sorry to say that I no longer read "modern" comics because of frustrations with Marvel and what they've done to the characters I love. Since Marvel was my primary draw to comic buying, loss of interest in marvel has meant loss of interest in current comics in general.  anyway, as a whole so I've not seen too much of your later/current work. I was and still am a fan of your however.

I hope this isn't too rude of me, but I must say that Mr. Byrne is one whose work I used to LOVE in the past, but don't feel too hot about his current work. Sorry JB I love you,...

in the 90's I saw some tremendous progession in JB's work.  The stuff he did on Superman, and Omac for example were just ridiculously far and away better than his previous work. But at a certain point, that progression seems to have stopped (at least IMO). and  the current/later work is simply not as enjoyable to me anymore. I've spent many a nights wondering why "byrne doesn't go back to his old style and blow the new fans away (like Perez has done)."  

thank you for making this post,...

If it was, it wouldn't be a "challenge", would it?

this is a perfect post... for Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon message board... although there it would be more difficult to try to get under JB's skin, wouldn't it...

titling the post 'your older stuff was better"... can you ever just move along Erik.  Many of us like this board and interacting with JB... I'd hate for him to abandon it because of some stupid gameplaying...