>A time machine would come in handy, right about now. Go back about fifteen years and shoot all those people who didn’t listen when I predicted the present state of the industry as the natural outcome of what the industry was doing, or starting to do, then. Basically—we must get the product back into the maximum number of venues, in cheap and accessible packages. Comics are primarily a cyclical fad, and they depend upon new readers being able to spontaneously discover them, on a spinner rack, at the drugstore, or the Mom & Pop, or the grocery story, or the bus depot, etc., etc. As long as new blood has to make a conscious decision to walk into a comic book shop, looking for comics, and as long as the comics we produce continue to be aimed at the wrong audience—witness Gareb Shamus and his insane attempts, of late, to rekindle the speculator mentality!!—the industry has slim hope of recovery, or even survival. (2000)
>This is the best job in the world. I just wish talentless hacks and suits would stop f***ing around with it!!! (2001)
>Face it—for the most part, when you say “comic book professional” what you mean is “unprofessional yahoo who is more concerned with making a name for himself and masturbating all his emotionally retarded fans than paying any attention to the history of the titles, the characters, or the work done by other creators.” (2004)
I hate it when Byrne's right about things. All of his comments from the early-mid 2000's about the direction the industry's headed in have been pretty spot-on.
Incidentally, does anyone have pictures of his house? I want to see this autistic shrine to nostalgia and old toys.
