JB on plans for the origin of Wolverine...

From 'The Comics Journal' -- 1980 Summer Special...

ITKOWITZ: I heard you speak at last year's ChicagoCon about the origins of Wolverine. Is that eventually going to be brought out more in future issues of X-Men?

BYRNE: It will unless it's changed or we come up with something better. You see, we're already on our second origin for Wolverine. The first origin that was concocted, was that he was actually a mutant Wolverine, boosted up to human form by the High Evolutionary. Okay, that works... except that Archie did a similar number in the first Spider-Woman story. And no matter how things have changed in that strip since, the idea has been done before... so we dropped it. Unless we change our minds in about a year, we have his origin pretty well worked out now... all sorts of details like where he got his adamantium bones, how he seems to heal so quickly, why he's a lot older than he looks. I don't know if all of those facts are going to come out at once, or in that order. Most of the fans I've talked to--and most of the mail has agreed--say that they like picking up the facts in dribs and drabs. One of these days, Roger and I have a Captain America story we'd like to do, guest-starring the X-Men, where Cap will be talking to a couple of them, and Wolverine is real quiet at first. And when he finally speaks, Cap will do a take and say, "Corporal Logan?" Because, you see, Cap met him during the war. And that might be the first time we come out in the books and say just how old the guy is. Unless we change our minds. There's a sequence coming up which I hope we will do, where Wolverine will be meeting his father, who is Sabretooth. There will be a big fight and he will kill him on camera, and there will be no doubt about it. This is what Shooter calls a BFD, "Big F*cking Deal." Which I hope will be printed with asterisks, because I don't use that word.

[laughter]

BYRNE: Ho, ho. Gales of laughter. And that will be the one instance where because of the way the story is set up I don't think even Shooter would be able to object to a good guy killing somebody.

It bothered me a bit that the Black Widow was also featured, making her also, um, "immortal". The proliferation of "immortal" characters is one of my pet peeves.

Not sure what this was all about...???

From 'The Comics Journal' -- 1980 Summer Special...

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SANDERSON: Do you want to say anything about the direct-sales book?

BYRNE: Well, the last I heard, it will be 48 pages, and just slightly to the right or left of regular continuity. It'll be more like a Heavy Metal book... squarebound, slick paper, process color, and such.

STERN: That sounds really hypocritical! You were saying just a few minutes ago that a comic book had to have crummy paper... and now you're going to do this!

BYRNE: Well, this is for the fans; it's not for me. I don't particulary want to see it, but we'll do a good job on it and have some fun.

CATRON: Why don't you want to see it?

BYRNE: It's not the sort of thing John Byrne the kid would buy, that's all. I mean, I'll do the best damn job possible on it, but I'm not sure I'd buy it.

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And then the interview goes on to talk about the new X-Man, Kitty Pryde.

Not sure what that direct-sales book was...? 1980...? Did that project ever happen...??

JB on working with Claremont...

From 'The Comics Journal' -- 1980 Summer Special...

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ITKOWITZ: As far as people you work with in comics, how well do you work with Claremont?

BYRNE: We run up Marvel's phone bills a lot. My phone bill last month was $900.00, and that was talking to Claremont. We talk out the plots, I put in ideas -- you know, it's a give-and-take-thing.

ITKOWITZ: You work well with him?

BYRNE: I think so. The product seems to come out fairly appealing, We have differences. Chris has started comparing it to a marriage of late; that's a big difference we have right there [laughter]. But I think if we were not working well together, the books wouldn't be as popular as they are. I mean, there are things that I disagree with in Chris's writing, just as there are probably things Chris disagrees with in my drawing. But as far as building the story before either of us gets a piece of paper in front of us, that works reasonably well.

Tony: Man!  What might have been!  Makes me want to drop-kick my copy of Joey Da Q's "Origin" right across the street.  Ugh.

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Here's a bit more...

From 'The Comics Journal' -- 1980 Summer Special...

ITKOWITZ: Do you see yourself ever getting tired of the book(X-Men)?

BYRNE: I hope not. We're presently plotted beyond #150 -- at least in terms of knowing where we're going. Of course like I've said, that could all go out the window. We completely redid #137 five...six times. I lost count.

Flavio: It bothered me a bit that the Black Widow was also featured, making her also, um, "immortal". The proliferation of "immortal" characters is one of my pet peeves.

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Black Widow in WWII? How did they explain that???