Tag: John Byrne

‘Beneath the Trees, ‘The Cartoonists Club’ + more win at the 2025 Harvey Awards

The annual awards and Hall of Fame inductions were presented last night in conjunction with the New York Comic Con.

Last night the Harvey Awards were presented for the 37th time across seven categories at an event held in conjunction with the New York Comic Con.

In addition to the awards, the Harvey committee also inducted five creators into their Hall of Fame: 

  • Wendy and Richard Pini, the visionary couple behind ElfQuest, whose groundbreaking fantasy series inspired a generation of fantasy readers.
  • Patrick McDonnell, creator of the long-running comic strip Mutts and more recently the graphic novel The Super Hero’s Journey.
  • John Byrne, legendary and controversial artist and writer remembered for his iconic runs on X-Men, Fantastic Four and Superman, among others.
  • Peter David (honored posthumously), acclaimed writer of stuff known for his character-driven storytelling on The Incredible Hulk, Star Trek, Young Justice, Fallen Angel and more.
  • Barbara Shermund (honored posthumously), a pioneering cartoonist and one of the first women to contribute to The New Yorker, known for her sharp wit and social insight.

Congrats to this year’s winners:

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SDCC | Abrams ComicArts to publish John Byrne’s ‘X-Men: Elsewhen’

The 600-page story will be told across three hardcover volumes.

I can’t say I ever expected to see this news, but hey, there’s no better time than the week of Comic-Con for a surprise. Abrams ComicArts and Marvel are teaming up to publish X-Men: Elsewhen, a collection of John Byrne’s alternate history X-Men story.

Byrne is one of the legendary artists of the new X-Men, if not THE legendary artist of the new X-Men that debuted back in Giant-Sized X-Men #1. Byrne joined writer Chris Claremont on X-Men with issue #108, shortly before “Uncanny” was added to the title. Together with inker Terry Austin, he drew some of the most well-regarded issues of the title, including the Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, the introduction of Alpha Flight and more. He left the title with issue #143, and went on to work on everything from Fantastic Four to Alpha Flight to Sueprman to Doom Patrol and so much more.

Cut to about seven years ago, and Byrne started posting these X-Men: Elsewhen comics on his Byrne Robotics forum. As the press release describes it:

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Marvel will revisit ‘Days of Future Past’ in a new miniseries

Marc Guggenheim and Manuel García will tell the story leading up to the monumental issues by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

The back story leading up to one of the greatest story arcs in the history of X-Men comics will be revealed in a new miniseries by Marc Guggenheim and Manuel Garcia.

“Days of Future Past” appeared in Uncanny X-Men #141-142 and still resonates with many X-Men fans today. Those two issues helped set the tone for the series for many years after it, as Chris Claremont and John Byrne shared the consequences of where the prejudice and hate against mutants could ultimately lead. It also helped solidify the idea that Magneto could be an ally to the X-Men and introduced Rachel Summers, who would find her way back to the past to join the current day X-Men. And how many variant covers owe their lives to Byrne’s cover for issue #141?

X-Men: Days of Future Past – Doomsday will tell the story of the events leading up to the future state where mutants were kept in concentration camps and a small group of scrappy X-Men fought back — and lost.

“Growing up, I never thought I’d get the chance to write the X-Men as many times as I have. I particularly never thought I’d be able to play around in the amazing timeline that Chris Claremont and John Byrne brought to life in ‘Days of Future Past,'” Guggenheim told Marvel.com. “I still have the most vivid memory of visiting the stationery store where I used to buy my comics and seeing Uncanny X-Men #141 on the rack. That iconic cover blew my nine year-old mind.”

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Slugfest | ‘Summer of Symbiotes’ leads to ‘Death of the Venomverse’

Plus: Marvel Artist’s Editions, Dark Horse graphic novels, Spider-Verse, variant covers and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel has revealed more details and a teaser image for Summer of Symbiotes, something they teased last October along with several other events for 2023. It’s less of a single-story crossover and more of a moniker they are using to describe a whole bunch of different symbiote-themed series, miniseries and events.

While many of the events teased on the image we’ve heard of before, like Carnage Reigns and Extreme Venomverse, there is one new one listed — Death of the Venomverse, which echoes the Death of the Spiderverse storyline we’re seeing in Spider-Man.

Here’s the description from Marvel:

It’s all leading to this! The epic adventures above are spiraling towards an explosive destination, and not all of your favorite symbiotes will survive the journey. The Carnage symbiote is more bloodthirsty than ever and heads to the multiverse for its greatest killing spree yet. But what is it after? Find out more when this upcoming limited series is announced at the Marvel Comics: Spider-Man & the Venomverse Panel at C2E2 2023!

C2E2 is coming up this weekend. Here’s the full teaser image:

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John Byrne helps Tom Batiuk wrap up the final week of ‘Funky Winkerbean’

The 50-year-old strip ends its run with a look into the future.

Tom Batiuk ended 50 years of Funky Winkerbean today with a strip guest-drawn by former Superman and Fantastic Four writer/artist John Byrne.

Byrne, who not only has drawn the strip before but has also appeared as a character in it, actually drew the past five strips, as Batiuk wrapped up his story with another of his patented time jumps. This time he jumped to a future where a robot bookstore keeper sold two books to the granddaughter of “Nanna Summer” — Westview, by Summer Moore, and Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe, written by Les Moore.

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What Are You Reading? She-Hulk, Merrick the Elephant Man and more

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their “to read” list lately.

We’re back this week with another look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately, covering the “gambit” of old X-Men issues to the fourth-wall-breaking antics of a certain green giantess.

Have a look at what we’ve been reading, and let us know what’s been on your list in the comments.

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