Hell, I’m not convinced, but it seems that the blindly faithful on the John Byrne Forum are about ready to accept as fact that AJ is really a Byrne pen name after JB let “slip” that he’s been writing a DC title for the last year under a psuedonym. A Google search for Lieberman really doesn’t turn up anything other than a run on Harley Quinn and his current Batman work, but someone on the Byrne board did find out that he’s got experience writing for TV (which has to be chapping Byrne’s ass).
If this whole thing turns out to be true, I’d hope that DC has a good reason for it, since I’d assume that everything Byrne might have written under a fake name is eligible for return via Diamond’s policies (unless, as in Chuck Austen’s case, the use of a pen name has been acknowledged publically). Hell, there are people that might be avoiding the title that would buy it if it had Byrne’s name attached, and conversely, people who would drop it due to their desire to not support the man’s work. Either scenario could be cause for a store to demand a refund on unsold issues, I’d think, not that I really would expect Diamond or DC to listen.
Now, I’m not advocating this sort of reaction – while not a fan of the man’s work of late, this is the sort of thing I think can be fun. I’d love to find out that a book I’ve been enjoying was actually written by Morrison and not Millar…er…you get the idea.
Personally, my vote goes to Breach, with Bob Harras actually editing the book with Byrne scripting. OK, it’s only up to it’s third or fourth issue, but Byrne does work ahead of schedule and could have a year’s worth of work in the can already. Another possibility is that he’s been working on some of DC’s WB projects, like Scooby Doo or Powerpuff Girls, I suppose.
However this shakes out, the old guy has managed to get people talking about his work again in a less than dismissive manner, which is probably a good thing for him, not to mention a welcome change. Or maybe not, seeing as how this is his reaction to getting nominated for an award (an Eisner?) for a story he illustrated for a Batman:TAS book.
A nomination, anyway. The effect was rather like “Hey, JB! We love your stuff as long as you don’t write it, and you draw in somebody else’s style!”
It’ll be interesting to see if this ends up being more than smoke in the wind, though I’m not convinced that’ll be the case.
