So my friend and comic book mentor Wayne Wise recommended I try Next Men a couple months back. This 1990s John Byrne series from Dark Horse Comics is solid. I bought the first 12 issues at my LCD for a few dollars (seriously, something like $8.00).
The stories are great, but often the letters pages are better. In Next Men #8, I discovered this classic letter written by none other than comic book mega-writer Brian Michael Bendis:
All I have to say is: ZING! Damn, Bendis. John Byrne was ripping on your hair way back before you even lost it!
I wonder: have these two creators ever met? They must have by this point. I hope they talked about this letter. Seriously.
P.S. If you haven't already noticed, I changed the way I'm naming this column. The whole "Week whatever 2008" system was just ineffective. How is anyone ever going to know what the post is about like that?
You know, I really dug Bendis' work on Powers. I thought it was an interesting take on Superheroes - on par with Alan Moore's Top 10 and the art was digable too. I really liked the superhero/villian montage in "Who Killed Retrogirl?" Then, I read this on Wikipedia, "Bendis was the co-executive producer and series pilot writer for MainFrame Entertainment’s recent CGI animated Spider-man show, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that aired on MTV and YTV"
That show was horrifically lame, despite having an amazing lineup of celebrity voices: Lisa Loeb, Neil Patrick Harris, Jeremy Piven, Kathy Griffin, Michael Clarke Duncan, and even Eve!
I recently started a blog about the John Byrne's Next Men Letter column. Every week starting with issue one I will be posting scans of the letters and discussing them.
http://jbnmaflamethishigh.blogspot.com/
I would like to see John Byrne with his shoulder length hair....
@Shannon - I gotta say... that's the most specific blog mission statement I've ever heard of!
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You got to find a niche right? :)
agreed! i can definitely see people getting into it.
I think the lesson I learned from the letters section of Next Men was that John Byrne is an asshole and a bigot; I'd've never thought to look into the matter more deeply than that... good luck!
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