Inside the DetrActor's Studio

The above image was posted on John Byrne's official forum a short time ago. It's been making the usual Internet rounds that amusing messages on the J.B.B.S. make.

Here's what raises my eyebrow:


Wha--? That looks an awfully lot like the star of that Image title APHRODITE IX, I thought. A little Googling later, and whadayaknow:


This is weird. At first glance, APHRODITE IX would seem to be the type of book that goest totally against all Byrne's tastes and biases in comics. And after looking over its Wikiprofile so that I'd actually, you know, know something about it, I'll say there was nothing there to change my mind. (I also learned that I've been getting APHRODITE IX and CODENAME: KNOCKOUT mixed up all this time. Odd.) John Byrne can't possibly be a fan of this series. He really can't.

(And it's neither here nor there, but how does that statue exist in the first place? The series lasted -- What does Wikipedia say? -- four issues. Is its fan base extremely devoted or something?)

I considered the possibility that he had some connection to the short-lived book on a professional level, unlikely as that is given his 24-hour tantrum towards Image Comics. Nothing's turning up on web searches, though.

So why does he own the darn thing? What reason could he; John Byrne, writer-artist of Big Barda being brainwashed into filming pornography and She-Hulk jumping rope naked; have for putting in his home this:


What gives?

Statue images pulled from forceonetoys.com and www.diamondcomics.com.