Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Doomsday.1 by John Byrne SCOOP: John Byrne Returns To Doomsday. Originally published by Charlton in the seventies, then republished by Fantagraphics in the eighties, Doomsday + 1 was John Byrne 's first "proper" comic book series, created with Joe Gill . In which a South American country fires nuclear missiles against the USA and the USSR simultaneously, each of whom then retaliate against the other. Three astronauts who return to Earth ally themselves with survivors and try to survive in a new apocalypse,. And now it's back, in title and concept if nothing else, in a new series by John Byrne to be published by IDW. Doomsday.1 or Doomsday Point One is completely new four issue mini.. As Byrne says; This is a whole NEW series, with DIFFERENT characters, and DIFFERENT events. A similar title, mostly in the way of a "nod" to the "old timers" and that's ALL. So what's it about? the thrilling tale of seven adventurous astronauts, who watch in horror, aloft in the International Space Station, as most of Earth is annihilated by a titanic solar flare. "I've been thinking for some time that I would like to revisit a post-apocalypse kind of scenario, such as was seen in my very first 'dramatic' work in comics, but this time without the more obvious fantasy elements of that original series (mermaids, alien robots, frozen mammoths, etc.)," said Byrne. "When bits and pieces of this new series first started to percolate around in my head, I knew almost at once the shape that 'revisit' would take; something in the 'All-New, All-Different' vein. And the first time I doodled some images of my 'crew,' I knew I was there!" When all communication is lost and their home appears destroyed, what are the intrepid astronauts to do? Prepare to cling to a new life in zero gravity, waiting for the space stations supplies to dwindle to nothing? That doesn't sound very adventurous, now does it? No, the true thrills of DOOMSDAY.1 come when the seven stranded heroes descend back to their decimated home world to confront the dangers left behind by the universe's cruel ravaging! Doomsday.1 by John Byrne. Does John Byrne, superstar comics artist/writer really need an introduction? Well, suffice to say it didn't take long for John to attain a huge fan following for his early "Iron Fist" and X-Men work after he arrived at Marvel following his first professional tenure at Charlton comics. But if you were astute enough to follow the titles of the Derby, Connecticut publisher in the mid-'70s, you may have seen the artist's accomplished debut on such fondly-recalled books as Doomsday +1, "Rog-2000," and, yes, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch! This interview took place via e-mail on April 14, 2000. Comic Book Artist: You mentioned in an interview that your first full-length comic story was Death's-Head Knight back in the early '70s. What was that? John Byrne: Not sure I would actually have called it my "first full-length comic story." Death's-Head Knight was a project done for the Alberta College of Art, which I was attending at the time. The curator of the gallery had brought in a comic art show, and needed a "brochure" to be given away at the door. He asked me if I could prepare something on relatively short notice, and I did, some 20 pages, each double-width. It was a sword-&-sorcery story. CBA: What was your college-era series Gay Guy? Was it a Sunday- or daily-style strip? How long did it last? John: The College was located on the campus of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), and the SAIT newspaper was called the Emory Weal. On the back page they ran a truly terrible "humor" strip called Fat Faggot, which was wretched in every possible way. (Aside from what we would now consider the Political Incorrectness of the strip, it looked as if it had been drawn on the back of an envelope with a ball point pen.) I knew I could do better, even then, and put together my own strip, about a homosexual super-hero called Gay Guy. Also a humorous strip. (My, my, how times change, eh?) It ran about half a year, weekly, before I grew frustrated with the abysmal printing and abandoned the strip. CBA: Who was John Mansfield? Did he have connections at DC and Marvel? John: John was a Canadian fan who also happened to be in the Armed Forces. He saw the Death's-Head Knight book, and got in touch with me through the college. He offered to show my work at cons and to connect me with various people in the biz, which he did. We made a grand total of one trip to New York City together, and he introduced me to Roy Thomas. The rest of his contribution was getting my stuff published in various fanzines, and connecting me with The Monster Times, which published my first "official" work. CBA: During the early '70s, were you consistently sending samples to the New York publishers? Did you seek work at Charlton, Skywald, Atlas/Seaboard, Warren? John: I did a lot of work for 'zines like Chronicle, Epoch, and CPL, but I did very little hawking of my wares to the companies directly. I sent only one thing that might have been considered a "submission," and that was a Captain America sample which I prepared at the request of Steve Englehart, who was writing Cap's book at the time, and thought it might be fun to have a Canadian artist illustrate a story he had planned, in which Cap encountered a Canadian super-hero. That connection was set up by John Mansfield. The story never happened, and in any case, the work was rejected as unready for publication. CBA: Who was Duffy Vohland and what happened to him? John: Duffy is dead. He died several years ago, of some horrible wasting disease. He was one of those peripheral people who seem to populate comics, working at the Marvel offices for several years, but never quite managing to rise beyond a certain level. He wanted to be an inker, but he never quite made it. He saw my work in Epoch—he was part of the Indianapolis Mafia that consisted of Roger Stern, Bob Layton, Roger Slifer and Epoch published Steve Mattingly—and started pushing for me to get work at Marvel. It was because of Duffy that Tony Isabella saw my work, and gave me my first official Marvel assignment. CBA: How do you recall the genesis of Rog-2000? John: I was doing a lot of spot illos for 'zines, mostly for Stern's and Layton's CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature). One of the doodles I sent in was a robot with his arm blown off. Layton and Stern turned this into an editorial gag illo, and, since there were several Rogers involved in CPL at the time, Layton named him ROG-2000. Then they asked for more drawings of the same robot. Since I had no access to a Xerox machine, I did not have a copy of the original drawing, so I recreated the character as best I could from memory. Later, Stern wrote a ROG-2000 story for CPL, which I illustrated. It was on the strength of this that Nick Cuti asked if I would like to do ROG for a backup feature in E-man, which he would write. CBA: What was Byrne Robotics and who helped out in Canada? John: Back when I was starting up I was very nervous about using uncredited assistants. I did not want the folk at Charlton knowing I was not doing all the work myself, but I also did not want the work credited as if I was. So I came up with the term "Byrne Robotics" as the credit whenever I had help on the books—such help being nothing much beyond spotting blacks. Two people helped out as "Byrne Robotics," my college chum Vic Bosson (now a successful illustrator in Canada) and his girlfriend, Barb Weaver. CBA: Did you initially do illustrations for the text pages of various Charltons? Do you recall the work? John: Once I started working for Charlton, Nick and George Wildman looked for anything and everything they could find to keep my plate full. I think they guessed that Marvel or DC would scoop me up pretty fast if the Charlton work lagged (which is pretty much what happened), and they gave me a few of the text pages to illustrate more or less as time-filler. I was already working on full books for them, at the time, so those text illos were not my starting point with the company. CBA: How did you get the Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch gig? What was it about the strip you found interesting? You mentioned in an interview that Hanna-Barbera requested that you "tone-down" your initial story. Do pages exist that weren't published or did you revise the original pages? John: Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch is what I consider my first "full book"—entire issues with nothing but my work on the main pages. It was the most work Charlton was able to offer at the time (a short while before Doomsday +1), and I took it with the intended approach that, if I was going to do a book like this, then I would be the Carl Barks of Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch! Unfortunately, H-B thought my drawings were too "scary" (they were published unchanged in my first issues, so judge for yourself), and insisted that Charlton order me to tone it down.