He became a comic book artist superstar in the Bronze Age, continued to work through the Copper Age and still publishes today.
He revitalized Superman, updated the Spider-Man mythos, reworked the Wonder Woman legend, broke the 4th Wall with She Hulk, made the X-Men excellent, brought the Avengers up to date, took Alpha Flight to new heights, put the 'fantastic' back into the fantastic Four. He has drawn almost every major comic book superhero from DC and Marvel Comics, created his own small press titles and tackled a large percentage of small press characters.He's outspoken, opinionated, talented, an excellent writer, a cutting-edge artist, a comic book historian and is not shy about taking on controversial subjects and other writers and artists.
He's John Byrne and there was a time when he was an unknown talent from Canada hoping to break into the comic book field.
John got his start professionally at Charlton Comics on a Hanna-Barbera licensed property based on a Saturday morning kid's cartoon show. In Wheelie And The Chopper Bunch #1, dated May,1975, John provided both pencils and inks.
While the stories were less than memorable, John's style was already starting to assert itself, even though the comic was drawn in a more cartoonish style befitting the title.
For any fan of comic books, or of John's work, this is a pivotal issue in that it contains the first work of an artist/writer who during his career changed the face of comic books much more than he is given credit for.