The SSoC pinup sans text. — The SSoC pinup *sans* text.

The artist, John Byrne, turned seventy today. I would reckon most DMR Books fans know him from his work on superhero comics like The X-Men and The Fantastic Four. However, Byrne has a long history of drawing heroic fantasy characters.

Back in 1971, barely in his twenties, Byrne wrote and drew his first published comics story which was published by the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. The protagonist of the comic was called "The Death's-Head Knight" and the plot was firmly within heroic fantasy parameters. Check it out here.

John left art school in 1973. Within about a year, he started selling his work to both Charlton Comics and Marvel. One of his very first sales to Marvel was a pinup which was used for an ad in The Savage Sword of Conan #9. Issue number nine, Gentle Readers. The year was 1975. Conan as a comics character was just beginning to dominate sales at Marvel...and John Byrne was there, doing ads for SSoC. If he was known for anything by Marvel readers at that point, it was that pinup. The version with text can be seen in the carousel gallery at the end of this post.

Meanwhile, Byrne was also doing a comic he co-created over at Charlton: Doomsday +1. It was a post-apocalyptic series starring several survivors of nuclear Armageddon. The "+1" in the title referred to Kuno, a hulking barbarian revived by atomic fires. Byrne created Kuno.

John had also gotten a steady gig drawing Marvel's Iron Fist comic--with Chris Claremont doing the scripting. This is where I come in. I bought Iron Fist #5 off the rack; my first encounter with Byrne's art. Whaddaya know? Byrne has Iron Fist fighting a villain named "Scimitar" who wields a big ol' scimitar, of all things. It's almost like Byrne enjoyed drawing swords and sword fights.

Getting back to The Savage Sword of Conan...issue #15 saw the publication of another Byrne pinup, this one featuring Red Sonja. Check it out below, just in case you thought Byrne couldn't draw hot women. In 1978, Byrne also drew a righteous Solomon Kane pinup for SSoC #29. Around the same time, Byrne and Claremont crafted a Spidey/Red Sonja issue for Marvel Team-Up #78. Believe it or not, it's pretty awesome, with Byrne drawing some glorious sword-swinging action versus eldritch demons.

Concurrent with those projects, John had taken over the art chores on X-Men. One of the first story arcs culminated with the X-Men visiting the Savage Land of Ka-Zar. Many X-Men/Byrne fans consider issues #115 and #116 to be some of John's best art on the series. Those two issues are full of jungle lords, humanoid pterodactyls, evil--but beautiful--priestesses and resurrected gods. Not many swords, granted, but plenty of savagery.

Something else should be noted at this point. John Byrne "saved" Wolverine early on. There had been talk for awhile at Marvel of kicking Logan out of the X-Men. He was seen as a psychotic prick and a loose cannon. Byrne went to bat for ol' Wolvie, suggesting the specific angles which made the Canadian mutant--Byrne was raised in Canada, by the way--into a superstar. I've seen rumors bandied about for decades that there's a fair chunk of Conanic DNA in the "modern"--ie, post-Len Wein/Dave Cockrum--version of Wolvie. Considering Byrne's roots, it certainly can't be ruled out. John Byrne's final panel in X-Men #132 may be the most Conanic superhero comic panel ever. It certainly helped launch Wolvie into superstardom.

Byrne left X-Men in early 1981. A huge fan of Raiders of the Lost Ark, he managed to get Marvel to publish a comic series based on Indiana Jones over the opposition of the almighty Jim Shooter. However, constant meddling from LucasFilm made him walk away after two issues. It's a pity, since he produced some great work for the series. Once again, we see another Robert E. Howard connection, since Indy was partially inspired by REH's El Borak.

In subsequent years, Byrne would go on to write and draw many, many more comics series. Occasionally, a particular issue would feature something cool and pulpish. However, my favorite work of his remains the art he created between about 1975 and 1985. During the late '70s, Byrne absolutely had the artistic chops and inclinations to do work for The Savage Sword of Conan. As Ol' Groove over at Diversions of the Groovy Kind once said, "Why, oh, why, didn't Roy Thomas ever tap John Byrne to draw a Conan, Kull, Red Sonja, or Solomon Kane epic for Savage Sword of Conan?"

Feel free to click on the carousel art gallery below.