Wrong turn: At UnderGroundOnline, John Byrne tells us where the comics industry went wrong:

"One last mistake -- and one from which I have benefitted quite well myself. The shift from Product to Personality. The move toward selling who is doing the book instead of what the book is about. The Cult of Personality has long been the driving force in Hollywood, and the lesson of Hollywood must surely be that focusing on this Cult is a sure way to lose money, eventually. The Star who keeps his or her flames burning brightly throughout the whole arc of his or her career is the rare animal indeed. Hollywood is littered with hasbeens and neverweres, and the price for this is movies that bomb and production companies that fail. So too, do we see this in comics, as an increasingly fickle audience elects and abandons its superstars the way some people use kleenex. I do not speak of myself. I had my time in the sun, and it lasted ten or twelve years, so who can complain? But how many of the SuperStars of the past ten years can say the same? My 'generation' produced Frank Miller, George Perez, Walt Simonson, and, yes, even Todd McFarlane, all of whom had long stays in the spotlight. How many who rocketed to the top since have stayed at the pinnacle for as long?"