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Kevin Ricci
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Joined: 30 April 2004
Posts: 299
Posted: 13 July 2018 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Mr. Byrne,

You coming back to this vintage of the X-Men is a dream come true, even if it is only a few beautiful pages (fingers crossed, there will be many more to come).  It is like your favorite actors coming back and filming all new episodes of your old favorite classic television show, but they haven't aged a bit and they are better than ever at their craft.

Thank you!

Kevin
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Andrew Bitner
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Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7526
Posted: 13 July 2018 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Gotta say, I would love to see this story told.
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Cory Vandernet
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: Canada
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Posted: 13 July 2018 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I beg your indulgence, since this thread involves to a large degree, scratching itches, please forgive me if I scratch a 38 year old itch.

In the before time, JB would mount his finished penciled pages to a closet door in his studio. Paul Gibney and I were lucky enough to see these pages before JB mailed them off to the Marvel offices and we were able to see the original pencils to X-Men 137 before Jim Shooter had his melt-down and had sections of the issue redrawn. 

In this panel Terry Austin was asked to redraw Gladiator into the Angel, he also redrew Cyclops' hand and added the background.
When the decision was made to publish Phoenix: The Untold Story, Angel was redrawn back to Gladiator by Vince Colletta , with uneven results.
To the best of my mediocre abilities I have tried to recreate what the panel originally looked like, as I remember it. I believe the handshake was intended more as Cyclops and Gladiator reaching a 'Gentlemen's Agreement' than a 'Thank You' or 'Good Luck' wish.


Edited by Cory Vandernet on 14 July 2018 at 8:09pm
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Eric Jansen
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Joined: 27 October 2013
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Posted: 14 July 2018 at 4:34am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Um...I don't want to sound dumb or cause trouble--since I know there's no way JB will work for Marvel again--but what about a one-and-done graphic novel?  Just send these (and the coming) pages over to the least annoying editor over there and say "You want to buy this story, as is?"

(That thing with DC over the unused Demon spec issue sounds weird and unique.  As we've seen with the John Romita sketch repurposed into a Spider-Man cover, Marvel may not have the same hang-up.)
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133578
Posted: 14 July 2018 at 6:08am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

...closet door...

•••

I should maybe expand on that.

I had a two bedroom apartment, and I used the larger one as my studio. There was a closet with floor to ceiling folding doors, creating four vertical panels. I found I could tape the finished pencil pages to those panels, four by four, so that as I worked I could glance to the right and see the growing issue all in one go. The last page (of 17 in those days) didn't need to be put up.

There was something very satisfying about looking at a book this way, as it took on its full form page by page.

(A picture of me sitting at my board, with that closet in the background, appeared in one of the local Calgary papers, circa 1979, but I don't keep clippings, so I can't show it to you.)

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Larry Gil
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Joined: 09 November 2005
Location: Canada
Posts: 764
Posted: 14 July 2018 at 7:00am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

This is awesome...Thank you JB . The X-men to boot...aww the memories of you on this book. Really hoping this continues and leads to something bigger:)
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133578
Posted: 14 July 2018 at 7:03am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Putting the finishing touches on the seventh (!!!) page, and it occurs to me a bit of backstory might be in order before I post it here.

By the time I came to the book, Chris and Dave had pretty much abandoned any thought that Nightcrawler's appearance was supposed to be horrific. That people would be instinctively repulsed by this demonic looking creature with his blue skin, pointed ears, glowing eyes, malformed hands and feet and prehensile tail. Not to mention his habit of arriving in a smoky belch of sulphur and brimstone. No, he had instead become a bubbly, bouncy, "fuzzy elf".

This bugged me. The X-Men might have gotten to know him and discovered that under that frightening exterior he was really a fun guy, but for others a first encounter should be, at the least, uncomfortable.

So when I was putting Kitty together, I decided to make that part of her character: she found Kurt creepy.

There was some suggestion of this, most notably in everyone's surprise in "Days of Future Past", when Kate, in Kitty's brain, is thrilled and delighted to see him alive. My idea, then, was that Kitty sould slowly get used to Nightcrawler, but not become completely comfortable around him.

Unfortunately, I left the book, and Chris abandoned that subplot. (I suspect, having done Future Kitty, Chris just went ahead from there. There had been plenty of occasions when he'd worked past important points in his head, and so the points were lost.)

So, keep all this in mind when you see the next page, cuz in my timeline, Kitty and Kurt have only recently met..

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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 14 July 2018 at 7:45am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

And here it is...

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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133578
Posted: 14 July 2018 at 7:46am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Oh, and by the way, Cory, thanks for that painful reminder!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

(Why in Dog's name would Cyclops wish Gladiator "luck"?)

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Steve Gumm
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Joined: 10 May 2004
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Posts: 1474
Posted: 14 July 2018 at 7:47am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

OH MY this just keeps getting better and better! Way to go JB!
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133578
Posted: 14 July 2018 at 7:53am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Really hoping this continues and leads to something bigger:)

••

Just occurred to me that, fantasies aside, Marvel might not even want this story. I recall a DC editor rejecting someone's work after it was posted on the InterNet, saying they didn't want to do a "reprint".

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Brennan Voboril
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Joined: 15 January 2011
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Posted: 14 July 2018 at 8:13am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

A DC editor not wanting to do a reprint?  Groan, what a business this sounds like! 
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