John Byrne

John Lindley Byrne is a British-born American comic book artist and writer. Since breaking into the industry in the early 1970s, he has worked on almost every major comic superhero. His most famous works were on Marvel Comics' X-Men (with Chris Claremont) and Fantastic Four titles and on the DC Comics Superman relaunch in the mid-1980s. In 1992, he teamed up with Larry Niven to produce the graphic novel Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale

He wrote and provided all of the artwork for the final issue in IDW's Star Trek: Alien Spotlight comic series, "Alien Spotlight: Romulans". This was his first major foray into the Star Trek universe despite his being a long-time fan of the series. He originally contributed some artwork to the DC "Who's Who in Star Trek 1" and "Who's Who in Star Trek 2". According to Byrne, "First, I was just tracing photographs. That's okay, and works well when we're dealing with a limited number of images, but it doesn't work for whole issues. Second, there did not have to be approvals from "on high". Nobody had to sign off on their likenesses. The upcoming Romulan book is the same, which is one of the things that enticed me into doing it."

When asked about getting involved with the Star Trek license, Byrne stated, "when IDW contacted me about doing some TOS work, I was at first strongly resistant, until Chris Ryall, the head honcho there, came up with something that could be relatively smooth sailing, the single Romulans issue for their ALIEN SPOTLIGHT miniseries. That allowed me to try a toe in the water, and from there expand my involvement as those waters showed themselves set for smooth sailing."

Byrne also wrote and illustrated the Star Trek: Assignment: Earth and Star Trek: Crew miniseries, and developed an extended arc following on from his Alien Spotlight issue, spanning Star Trek: Romulans - The Hollow Crown and Star Trek: Romulans - Schism. This arc was collected in the Star Trek: Romulans trade paperback, which featured an additional story from Byrne, adapting from the Romulan perspective.

Byrne's next project was the miniseries, Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor.

Byrne, like Dave Cockrum, was referenced in the script for the final Gold Key TOS issue, "Trial By Fire", as the names of two security guards.

Byrne's IDW Star Trek work will be collected in the Star Trek: The John Byrne Collection in.

Star Trek credits

 * Alien Spotlight #6: "Romulans"
 * Star Trek: Assignment: Earth
 * #1: "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns"
 * #2: "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow"
 * #3: "My Name Is Legion"
 * #4: "We Have Met The Enemy..."
 * #5: "Too Many Presidents"
 * Star Trek: Romulans - The Hollow Crown
 * #1: "Issue #1"
 * #2: "Issue #2"
 * Star Trek: Crew
 * #1: "Shakedown"
 * #2: "The Bottle"
 * #3: "Ghosts"
 * #4: "Shadows of the Past"
 * #5: "The Ends of Eternity"
 * Star Trek: Romulans - Schism
 * #1: "Schism, Issue 1"
 * #2: "Schism, Issue 2"
 * #3: "Schism, Issue 3"
 * Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor
 * #1: "Weeds"
 * #2: "Error"
 * #3: "Medics"
 * #4: "Hosts/Scalpel"