Trio #3

[superboyprime]

'One afternoon, during one of my summer parties, I wandered into the studio to find a small clutch of my fellow professionals had gathered in there. One of these was a good friend, who had brought with him his wife and small daughter (maybe three years old). I walked in to find her sitting on the floor playing with my Aquaman figure. "She was bored," said my friend, "so I gave her Aquaman to play with. He doesn't matter." His exact words, burned into my brain. I took the toy from the child and replaced it on the shelf. "Does to me," I said.' - John Byrne

Comments

[nate_abril96]

Didn't read the scans, but that above quote is just... amazing! John Byrne does not like sharing his toys.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, who takes a toy from someone who is A) in the target audience for such things and B) was presumably having fun with Aquaman, which is what Byrne was concerned about?

[jkcarrier]

On the other hand, if you're a guest in someone's house, it's pretty rude to just start grabbing things off the shelf and handing them to your 3-year-old. Especially since the person in question was a "fellow professional", who presumably understands the difference between a toy and a collectible.

[icon_uk]

Hmm, a point I grant you.

As someone who has a fairly extensive toy collection, I work on the principle that if I have left a toy out on display and a child wants to play with it, let them play with it. If it's a valuable toy then the onus is on me when visitors are around that little hands can't reach or people know it's off limits. But different strokes for different folks. :)

[an_idol_mind]

Yep...all I got from that is that John Byrne is the type of guy who takes toys from little kids.

[jlbarnett]

yeah, that story should have ended with the guy taking his family and leaving.

[sindra]

Granted, if the child was doing no damage to the figure, perhaps that could have been a method. We also don't know of Byrne simply snatched it from the little girl, or if he very politely asked her for it back before making his retort to her father and placing it back on the shelf.

However, it was pretty rude of his friend to just give one of his figures to his daughter to play with, and even more so to claim the character doesn't matter in such a way to say it's okay if she happens to damage it. That'd be like if a friend of mine brought her kid to my place, only for her to grab my God Gundam off my shelf for her kid to play with, and claim "Oh, it's G Gundam, so it doesn't matter."

My reaction would have been the same as Byrne's.

[alschroeder3]

A million times the size of Earth? I.E., the size of the SUN? (Assuming we're talking volume here.)

Then...how can it be a planet? Wouldn't it be large enough to self-fusion?

What about the cube-square law? Wouldn't aliens and monsters that big just collapse under their own weight?

I know, I know. Ignore it and roll with it. Try to tell yourself they have neutronium bones or something. It's comics, and physical laws are...selective.

[junipepper]

Right, because the existence of Paper doesn't defy anything we know about science... just sayin'. This seems like a pretty whimsical book; I don't think scientific accuracy is a big priority for them. Or even a small priority. It's all pretty goofy.

[alschroeder3]

Good point. You're right. For that matter, the rocklike-Thing-dude does the Hulk-like impossibility of going from hundreds of pounds to a young boy's mass.

[onceaskrull]

AQUAMAN MATTERS.

Yeah, I didn't read the scans either.

[thatnickguy]

For those that didn't read the scans: maybe you should have because this is kinda fun. When I scrolled down on the "Who dares...!" page, I actually shouted "Whoa!" at the size of that guy. Really cool size perception work there.

And you know what? I might actually check out the trade for this once it's out. This is the Byrne that I remember.

As for the story? Yeah, kind of dickish of Byrne to do that to a 3-year old, but at the same time, you would think his fellow creator would show more respect and maybe ASK if it's okay if their daughter plays with one of his collectible figures first. Just giving it to them without asking is just as inconsiderate.

[ensiform]

I did read the scans, and snoresville. Histrionic, childish dialogue and narration; uninteresting characters; attitudes and personas straight from the 60s Marvel stories.

Water, water everywhere

[hyperanthropos]

There is actually no reason for this allusion (or blatant rip-off) of Galactus to invade earth, if he (it?) is only interested in water. H²O in all its different forms has been found on the other planets of the solar systems and even in cosmic clouds.

Re: Water, water everywhere

[lonewolf23k]

Heck, asteroids and comets filled with ice abound in space.

Re: Water, water everywhere

[althechi]

Maybe he needed plankton and it was the most efficient way of getting all of it?

Re: Water, water everywhere

[dcbanacek]

Maybe the whatever the hell it is was lying.

Re: Water, water everywhere

[thatnickguy]

Could be that planetary water has nutrients that can't be found elsewhere.

Re: Water, water everywhere

[junipepper]

Well, it does go to other planets. It's going around to various planets and stealing their water. Why not Earth? We have a lot of it, and as they apparently drain billions of gallons per eyeblink (GPE), it seems like they'd be looking for the most plentiful sources. Or maybe we're just on their route.

This book is intentionally goofy; it's just essentially whimsical in nature. It doesn't submit to rational analysis. If you're looking for realism in your comics, this is probably not going to make your list. There's room for a lot of different types of world-building in comics, right?

[beyondthefringe]

I guess this will make all those people clamoring for old-school Fantastic Four + Namor vs Galactus storylines happy.

[halloweenjack]

I can't help but think that the whole purpose of this book is to let Byrne fantasize that he created the FF. Or, maybe more to the point, it's his Astro City.