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John Byrne's Stowaway To The Stars – His Original Adult Colouring Book

John Byrne's Stowaway to the Stars: A Graphic Album to Color is being published by IDW in November, priced at $12.99. It's on Amazon now in the US, Canada and the UK. But what is it? And where did it come from?

Blast the cap off your markers and get ready for an out-of-this-world coloring experience. In Stowaway to the Stars, legendary comic creator John Byrne (Fantastic Four, Next Men) takes you on a journey through brand new worlds and galaxies with this beautiful set of 44 full-page illustrations, accompanied by a light, evocative narrative.

Immerse yourself in other worldly wonder with this deluxe adult coloring book. Byrne's famously clean illustration style lends itself perfectly to the format. Color your own world and tell your own story with these brand new illustrations from one of comics' greats!

Legendary comic book artist John Byrne has been asked about letting his work be used for an adult colouring book, the genre that has revitalised print sales of late. After all, many comic book companies have seized on the opportunity to repurpose some of their line art in this fashion. Even the likes of The Walking Dead – which has always been black and white.

But that's not John Byrne. If a colouring book is going to have his name on it, it's going to be a brand new work, telling a story suited for the medium.

Earlier this year, John Byrne wrote on his forum, saying,

Truth to tell, I have wanted to try my hand at a coloring book for many years. There's something intriguing about the standard "style," with the open spaces and thick/thin lines.Unfortunately, at least as far as the Marvel and DC characters go, this is not something I could do on my own, and licensing those characters would probably mean I'd end up doing the work for "free"!!

He suggested to his fans,

How about a series of sci-fi images?

My sense is that the coloring book craze may have about half a year left in it, but I suppose I could look at that as my cue to make like Dagwood and run for that last car as the train pulls out of the station.

If I am going to do this, I can't do it for a niche audience (fans of TRIO, NEXT MEN, DU, etc). It has to have a broad appeal, or it would be a waste of time for everyone.Might finally be a place for stuff like this, tho. . .

And, no, I don't mean single figures on otherwise blank pages.

And indeed it was. But no superheroes. He wrote,

It would be insane to produce something like this targeted at that tiny corner of the local comicbook shop that has Byrne product — if that corner even exists! Something like this cannot merely be an extension of what I have already done. I can't preach to the choir. If I do this, I must try to reach the widest audience I can, including a lot of people who don't read comics and have never heard of me.

In short, if you're a John Byrne fan you would find something here for you — but not ONLY for you.

And anticipating detractors,

Well, if nothing else, if I do this it will show the detractors that my reg'lar stuff DOESN'T look like coloring book art. At least, not coloring book art by me!

He also demonstrates the thought that goes into creating something like this actually intended for the medium in the first place.

Speaking of rubble, that was one of the first things I thought about when considering this project. I realized at once that the best way to do coloring book style drawing would be to rely on line thickness to create depth, much as I do in my other drawings, but that to keep the coloring book motif I'd include much less variation within those line. So, foreground would be thick lines, distant background very thin lines. But no thick-to-thin within them. And rubble depends upon a lot of line variance within the forms.

Of course, rubble also depends a lot on heavy shading, and there wouldn't be any of that, either!!

And the project began to take place.

I already know what I want to do for this, but if it flies, there could be more. Maybe my career just took a turn into terra incognita!

And we started to get sneak peeks as to what was to come.

And my fevered brain has already come up with ideas for three more!!

Then there was the question of colour – without the colour.

An interesting question has bubbled up in my brain as I move deeper into this project. Several of the main characters will belong to a spaceship crew who are, to say the least, diverse. Different kinds of aliens, of course. But also different kinds of humans. For example, an Asian woman as the first mate.And there's the question. If I leave her hair open, not filled in with black, she's likely to look blonde, and depending on my skills drawing her face, some may miss the point that she is Asian. On the other hand, if I fill in the hair on pages that are otherwise being left open for color, there will be these sort of random blobs of black on otherwise unshaded pages.

This is trickier than I thought!!

The publisher was confirmed as IDW, with EIC Chris Ryall being dragged in.

Meanwhile, Chris informs me I have arrived with this project just in time for a downsizing of the product in general. Instead of 64 pages, this will now be 48, so 24 images.(I'll confess, that makes life a bit easier. Also means I'll be finished sooner!)

I've been sending the finished pages to Chris Ryall, one by one, and today he offered this observation:"I feel like these pages you've done combine your style with Moebius characters in a Kirby-esque world…"

Works for me!!

Chris Ryall commented today that the images I have been sending him make him eager to know what the whole story is.I told him I'd let him know as soon as I know myself!!

Chris also commented himself on the paper stock being used.

And what kind of paper? For those in the know of various paper stocks, it'd be 180gsm — a nice, uncoated, heavy stock

And John Byrne was having a blast, telling his fans,

Fun doesn't begin to cover it, Brian! This is like having cataract surgery and suddenly seeing the world again. Fires are burning that have not been OUT — the commissions have saved me from that — but have been burning low.

And we even got some coloured examples from Leonard O'Grady.  Will yours come any close to this?

And as well as the other IDW colouring books already announced, they also have a new one for The Princess Bride by Rachel Curtis.

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