Friday, March 19, 2004

Golden years? At Ninth Art, Andrew Wheeler ponders the fates of once-revolutionary creators who continue to toil in the comics industry. Yeah, he's talking about John Byrne, Chris Claremont and the like:

"Now, I don't mean to be ageist. There's no reason he [Byrne] shouldn't still keep going if he's still got what it takes. And indeed, he can still draw better than many other artists out there, even if he is a shade of his former self. It's not his linework that marks him out as a dinosaur, but his attitude. Byrne today is more notable as an outspoken and trenchant crank than as a creator. His recent works suggest that he's increasingly out of touch with his audience and has nothing left to say beyond, 'I remember when all this was pre-Crisis', yet he insists on writing his own stories with gleeful disregard for the works of others and little appreciation for his substantial shortcomings as a writer, and nothing he does can justify his arrogance."