John Byrne was born on January 6, 1940 in Paisley, birthplace of Alexander Wilson, Father of American Ornithology. Byrne grew up in Ferguslie Park housing scheme - at the time pretty much the worst slum in Europe and was educated at the city's St Mirin's Academy. He quit school in Fifth Year, prior to sitting his 'Highers' and, having failed to secure a job painting cinema posters with Mr Brown, Paisley's only commercial artist, started work as a ‘slab boy’ mixing powder color for the designers at A F Stoddard, carpet manufacturers in nearby Elderslie.

Byrne became one of the trio of ‘apprentice’ designers for whom the Slab Room was a home-from-home - fifteen years latern, Byrne wrote ‘The Slab Boys’, his first pl...