I was really looking forward to picking this up. Jon Cooke has gone incredibly off-schedule with Volume 2 of his magazine, and I thought he was getting back on track this month.

At one time the Byrne/Stern-focused issue was to be Vol. 2, #2, then it was to be #3 (#2 featured Frank Cho). I was hoping that once CBA was back on track the Byrne/Stern issue would finally come out. Some of you may have seen the cover in Previews and on the web months ago -- it featured a JB illustration of Superman, Batman, and -- Captain America! Really nice work.

The CBA website (cbanow.com) hasn't been updated for eons, but it does link to the Top Shelf site, which lists all of the upcoming issues of CBA in its catalog section

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=12&title=202

and the Byrne/Stern issue has vanished! Number 3 features Darwyn Cooke, #4 Alex Nino, and #5 Howard Chaykin.

JB, do you have any idea what happened here? With the excitement surrounding The Tenth Circle and your other upcoming projects, this seems like the perfect time for a expansive profile article to come out. (And the criminally underused Roger Stern deserves some limelight at present, too! Why a writer with his credits can't get regular work whenever he wants it is beyond me.)

Ian

JB, do you have any idea what happened here?

******

Not a clue. Last contact I had with these people we were battling over how they wanted to mangle the artwork I had provided for the cover -- and then they seemed to vanish.

i lost alot of faith in COMIC BOOK ARTIST. it's bad enough
when monthly titles ship late but these types of industry
mags have no excuse!! i usually look forward to seeing
a publication spotlight one of my favorite artists but their
scheduling mishaps are really annoying.

In regards to JB's upcoming JLA arc and the excitement
surrounding it, it's their loss on this missed opportunity...

-C!

"And the criminally underused Roger Stern deserves some limelight at present, too! Why a writer with his credits can't get regular work whenever he wants it is beyond me."

Good question Ian. If you haven't already done so, please visit Stern's message board at http://www.sterntalk.net . Whatever we can do to keep Roger on the fan radar can only help while we wait for the industry and fandom to come to their senses.

I e-mailed the editor of CBA and was told that the JB issue has been delayed indefinitely.

Thanks all. I'm sorry the news about the issue isn't more encouraging. CBA has given the "royal treatment" to artists and writers much less deserving than Byrne and Stern (who each had short interviews in one of CBA vol. 1's Charlton issues).

Years back, Cooke had mentioned plans to do a issue devoted to Marvel in the 1980s (I believe the tentative title was "Shooter's Gallery"). It was never released, and we still haven't seen an issue that covered that era as well as, say, the vol. 1 issue devoted to 1970s Atlas history. It's a shame, because I am sure that the average comics buyer is much more interested in more war stories about 80s Marvel. (80s nostalgia needn't be reserved for licensed books, folks!)

I still have raggedy copies of COMICS FEATURE and COMICS INTERVIEW issues featuring book-length interviews with John (and great rare art!). It would be nice to see a more up-to-date discussion of his work (And a more recent glimpse into his sketchbook!) in a format fit for my bookshelf.

JB, I assume that both you and Roger did sit for the interviews needed for this CBA issue? If so, do you recall whether the emphasis was on your "old stuff," or the past 10-15 years, or comprehensive? Just curious about what we're missing (although your generous presence here perhaps limits the number of lost insights/artwork!). You've had such a long career I'm sure that even expansive CBA couldn't cover EVERYTHING!

Ian
(btw Rod, I have visited sterntalk.net and enjoy the site very much! It makes me both sad and angry to read Roger's comments that he's looking for comics work, though. Perhaps if he had written an episode of KING OF THE HILL or some obscure play Quesada would throw him a bone! Perhaps we Byrne Victims should start a petition drive to get Rog on an ongoing Marvel title? There are 600-plus of us, after all! And in most cases, I would guess that an avid Byrne fan appreciates Stern's work as well.)

"Perhaps we Byrne Victims should start a petition drive to get Rog on an ongoing Marvel title?"

I absolutely agree with your sentiments. However I doubt that in the halls of NuMarvel even 60,000 petitions is more important than a friendship in Hollywood. There are somethings money can't buy. For everything else there's Marvel.

I will say it again. STERN AND BYRNE ON CA!!!

Maybe the guy to send the petition too should be Avi Arad and let him put the squeeze on the NuMarvel dudes.

Perhaps we Byrne Victims should start a petition drive to get Rog on an ongoing Marvel title?


*********


Would that be the Marvel that invited Roger to submit a proposal for a Doctor Octopus "life of" and then rejected his outline as "too continuity heavy"?

That Marvel?

Well, actually there is something we can do. Over at Stern Talk we've been running a poll to see which story run should be reprinted (among those choices a second printing of Stern & Byrne CA.) About thirty people have cast their ballots already. If the turnout is high enough perhaps it could convince Marvel's TPB department to republish Stern's material. Getting Stern's classic Marvel stories published and into the hands of new generations of readers can only help.

Here the poll link:

http://pub103.ezboard.com/fsterntalkfrm2.showMessage?topicID=55.topic

STERN AND BYRNE ON CA!!!


*******


But I like it in CT. . . .

>>Would that be the Marvel that invited Roger to submit a proposal for a Doctor Octopus "life of" and then rejected his outline as "too continuity heavy"?

That Marvel?<<

"Too continuity heavy"? Stern is one of the few writers around whose work can be read without annotated summaries of the past 200 issues. What I mean is that he gives you what you need in the story for it to enjoyable without relying on the reader having an encyclopedic knowledge for the story to "work".

Unbelievable.

Best Regards,
-David B Stewart

edited for spelling

JB>>Would that be the Marvel that invited Roger to submit a proposal for a Doctor Octopus "life of" and then rejected his outline as "too continuity heavy"?

That Marvel?<<

Dave Stewart>"Too continuity heavy"? Stern is one of the few writers around whose work can be read without annotated summaries of the past 200 issues. What I mean is that he gives you what you need in the story for it to enjoyable without relying on the reader having an encyclopedic knowledge for the story to "work".<

How could editors at NuMarvel want a "life story" of as longstanding a character as Otto Octavious and not want continuity? Obviously, you can't have one without the other! Sheesh.

It's really sad that the people running Marvel have taken such a kneejerk approach toward continuity. They seem to automatically equate ANY respect for continuity with more convoluted examples, like late period Claremont X-Men or the Spider-Clone fiasco. (Could this be because they overemphasize these groups of characters in general??) Done right, continuity is one of the joys of comics, and absolutely essential to serial storytelling in any medium. Even the Ultimate titles have to deal with continuity, if they last more than one issue! Now why are we blowing off the classic Marvel U. again?

Rog is a master of continuity done right, as Dave points out. Examples that come to mind are how he retold the "life stories" of Hank Pym (!) in AVENGERS #227 (Stern's first issue) or Scarlet Witch (!!) in #234 with clarity and grace, in just a few pages! As a kid, I knew little about these complicated backstories before sitting down to read these issues, but Rog brought me right up to speed, and entertained me to boot! (Another example of the art of the recap I am fond of citing is Claremont and Byrne's X-MEN #138. Try recapping the whole of X-history in one issue these days!)

I guess endless panels of Dawson's Creek-style melodrama is more in vogue now. (Yeah, Stan did teen melodrama like crazy, but he MOVED the story ALONG. Ahem.)

But I shudder to think of how many of my favorite comics would never have seen print because they were "too continuity heavy." Sigh.

Ian

"But I shudder to think of how many of my favorite comics would never have seen print because they were "too continuity heavy." Sigh."

I shudder to think of how many of my potentially favorite comics have never seen print because they were "too continuity heavy!"

Blah.

Martin Arlt.....................

Despite Marvel curbing its editorial excesses, it's not going to do business with creators in a truly professional manner anytime soon. The editors and management are vested in pursuing careers outside of comics and therefore do not want to work with craftsmen like Stern who have dedicated their lives almost soley to comics. It's up to us fans to show our continued interest in Stern and other such talents and not let the remaining legitimate publishers forget about them.

Once again, please visit http://www.sterntalk.net . A kind word for the creator would be a good thing too.

legitimate publishers


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You do realize that's an oxymoron, right? No matter what is being published?