John Byrne

John Byrne is a comic book artist and writer, notable for his extensive work on numerous major comic franchises since the 1970s.

Biography
Byrne's first contribution to Star Trek comics was in 1987 when he provided illustrations for the articles on Harry Mudd, Sarek, David Bailey, Hortas, Iotians and Khan Noonien Singh in DC Comics’ Star Trek reference work, Who's Who in Star Trek.

Byrne had long been a fan of Star Trek, however during his career Byrne had a number of bad experiences with like-ness approval on various TV and move tie-in comic franchises and became wary on working such comics. However in 2007 IDW Publishing editor Chris Ryall managed to convince Byrne to work on his first full Star trek comic, "Alien Spotlight: Romulans", which with its focus on Aliens rather than any of the primary cast of the Star Trek series freed Byrne from the concerns of likeness approval. That first foray "removed the cork from the bottle, and allowed the genii to escape" and Byrne has gone on to produce numerous Star Trek comics for IDW.

Byrne has so far produced three series for IDW;, focusing on Gary Seven; Romulans: The Hollow Crown, a sequel to his Romulan Alien Spotlight story; and Crew a TOS prequel focusing on Number One.

Byrne has several other Star Trek series forthcoming and at various stages of development. Already confirmed are Schism, a further Romulan sequel, and a second Assignment: Earth miniseries. Another idea Byrne had but has yet to develop, having pushed it back behind his other Star Trek series, is a miniseries exploring the adventures of Balok and David Bailey. One idea Byrne will not be able to realise was a crossover between Assignment: Earth and the series Doctor Who; unfortunately the BBC, who own the Doctor Who franchise, were not willing to go ahead with this.

Elsewhere in IDW's output, the artist J.K. Woodward created an homage to John Byrne's cover for the Uncanny X-Men comic "Days of Future Past" for his own cover for "Do Not Close Your Eyes", the first issue of the The Last Generation miniseries.

DC Comics

 * Who's Who in Star Trek (select illustrations)

IDW Publishing
Artist, writer and cover credits for all issues:
 * Alien Spotlight: "Romulans"
 * "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns"
 * "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow"
 * "My Name Is Legion"
 * "We Have Met The Enemy..."
 * "Isis
 * "Too Many Presidents"
 * "Ah-Ha!"
 * Romulans: The Hollow Crown
 * Crew
 * "The Bottle"
 * "The Bottle"
 * "The Bottle"