BUSIEK ON THE DARK AGE OF ASTRO CITY

[MattBrady]

by Orlando Machado Jr.

Nestled snugly between two rivers somewhere in the western U.S. is a bubbling metropolis complete with historic monuments, scenic landscapes, and seedy neighborhoods. Not to mention plenty of super-powered yins and yangs. Welcome to Astro City, which, after its creation in 1995 by writer Kurt Busiek (with pencils by Brent Anderson and covers by Alex Ross), has been continuously met with much critical acclaim and numerous awards.

Busiek, who first won large-scale praise (and amazing sales, and multiple Harvey and Eisner awards) in 1994 for writing Marvels, continued along the same thematic vein when putting together the world of Astro City, producing, thus far, around 30 issues, later collected in four trades.

After a few years of delays and absence due to illness, Busiek has returned to writing Astro City on a consistent basis, vowing to finally tell the story that was going to be the sequel to Marvels.

Newsarama was able to catch up with Busiek and talk about, among other things, his new Astro City series, The Dark Age.

Newsarama: How would you describe Astro City and entice potential visitors to take a tour?

Kurt Busiek: Astro City is an open-ended series about a city that has plenty of superheroes, super-villains, mad scientists, monsters and others. [A series] that examines what it's like to live in [such] a place. We don't follow any one particular character or even a team -- we tell stories from a variety of viewpoints. One issue might be from the point of view of a reporter on the job, another might be from the point of view of an alien spy scouting earth for invasion, [or] might involve an innocent bystander, a villain wanting to prove himself, a cartoon lion brought to life by accident who's been alive for over 50 years now, or more, including the heroes themselves, of course.

Astro City isn't about superheroes in the real world -- the world of Astro City is at least as unrealistic as the superhero worlds of Marvel, DC and others. It's about what it would be like if that kind of world were real -- what it would be like to live in such a place and experience such things. We tend to tell very human stories about conflicts we all go through -- using our bizarre and unrealistic context to get at very real emotions.

And, well, we've won a bunch of awards doing it, and gotten great response from readers, so if that sounds remotely interesting to you, give us a try and see if you like it.

As you can see, I'm not big on the hard sell...

NRAMA: Let’s get to what’s happening now: the current incarnation of the Astro City universe, Local Heroes, is a collection of one-shots and shorts. Will the new project, The Dark Age, be formatted similarly or will it be one long story?

KB: Well, technically, Dark Age isn't quite the next project. The way it'll work is this:

Originally, Local Heroes was going to be five single-issue stories, but while writing #4, I realized it really needed more room, so we expanded that story to a two-parter. So, Local Heroes ends in November, with one more story left to tell.

The next thing we're doing -- in December, I think -- is the Astro City/Arrowsmith flip-book. After we did the 8-page prelude story for Arrowsmith online, we had a lot of inquiries about when and how it'd be published, if it'd ever be on paper. If there's an Arrowsmith trade paperback, as I very much hope there will be, we can certainly put it in there, but we wouldn't want to make people feel they had to buy the TPB to get those 8 pages. So we decided to pair it up with another prelude story -- this one a prelude to The Dark Age, the next big Astro City arc, and do a flip-book with two short stories, some sketchbook [art] and other preview stuff, and make a nice book that'll let us get that 8-pager in print and pack the book with other cool stuff as well.

Then, sometime early next year, we'll do an Astro City special, featuring that story that was originally going to be Local Heroes #5, but that's another one I want to give some more room to, so it'll be something like a 30-page special, featuring the return to action of Supersonic, a 1960s hero who's been missing for years (and who you'll glimpse in Local Heroes #4).

With me so far?

NRAMA: Local Heroes #4 gets expanded to #4 and 5, and the last Local Heroes issue, #6, is going to be a 30-page special instead of “Local Heroes #6”. And sometime at the end of the year, the Astro City/Arrowsmith flip-book, with a prelude to The Dark Age, will be available. Got it.

KB: Okay, as I noted, the next big arc is The Dark Age, which will ultimately take 12 issues to tell. It's our biggest, longest, most sprawling epic to date, following two brothers -- one an Astro City cop, one a criminal -- as they deal with personal tragedy and with life in Astro City throughout the Seventies and the Eighties. This is the story that was originally going to be Marvels II, though we've changed it around a lot -- a lot! -- as we've developed it into an Astro City tale. It's also the story that deals with how things went dark for superheroes and for the city in the Seventies. It'll finally reveal the story of how the Silver Agent died, and why he's got that memorial statue with the strange epitaph.

So that'll be a big story, but since it's all set in the past, and since many of the Astro City heroes that people have been asking to see didn't exist yet or weren't active then, we're going to be interspersing Dark Age with some standalone extra-length specials, focusing more directly on the big heroes. That way, we can do the big story everyone seems like they're itching to see and get a look at some of the more popular characters that haven't gotten the spotlight recently.

So Astro City: The Dark Age will be broken up into four three-parters, each telling one crucial story in the lives of Charles and Royal Williams, and in the history of Astro City. And we'll alternate those with what's currently planned to be five hero-focused specials. We'll do a special, then a Dark Age arc, then another special, then another Dark Age arc, and so on, wrapping up with one last special after the Dark Age’s conclusion.

Confusing as hell? Yeah, kind of. But keep in mind, this'll all take a couple of years to get through. Shaking it up will give us breaks where we can catch up on the schedule, and change the focus regularly, so Brent doesn't go for my throat after drawing Seventies hairstyles and cars for too long.

NRAMA: There’s never any love for afros and Ford Pintos…

KB: We're also hoping to play with the art a little -- Brent's been doing a wonderful job on Local Heroes doing the full line art himself, and he'll keep that up for Dark Age. But for the specials, we'll line up inkers -- I'm hoping we can have a different inker per special, giving Brent the chance to work with a varied group of guys. We haven't lined anyone up yet, but I'd love to see Brent inked by Tom Palmer and/or Bill Sienkiewicz again, or by Steve Leialoha or Scott Williams or any of a bunch of other names we've been tossing around.

It ought to be a lot of fun, and let me jump back and forth between a big long epic in four sub-arcs, and the kind of single-issue focused stories I like to do, as well.

NRAMA: Okay, tease us a bit. What can readers expect to see in the first issue of The Dark Age?

KB: The aftermath of a global catastrophe, the tarnishing of a hero (guess who?) and the beginning of dark times for Astro City and its heroes. Plus two brothers at odds with each other, each of whom has been shaped by a shared tragedy in their past -- one that both of them are seeking a resolution to, in different ways.

NRAMA: One issue will see a global catastrophe, hero-tarnishing, the beginning of dark times, brothers at odds… so, not much, then. Earlier you mentioned that the Silver Agent would appear in Dark Ages; will readers find any other familiar faces?

KB: Some, yes, but since the series starts in the Seventies, there'll be a lot of characters who haven't been seen all that much. The Silver Agent will be important, of course, and the 1970s Honor Guard members. But there'll also be characters that have been only hinted at, or will be introduced in coming months -- the Blue Knight, Street Angel, the Apollo Eleven...

We'll keep things lively ... there'll be a lot to see.

NRAMA: These standalone specials between The Dark Age arcs highlighting characters in the city: Are they going to be origin stories? And whom will we be seeing?

KB: While I wouldn't rule out origin stories, we'll only tell them if they fit into the kind of character stories we tell in Astro City; we won't just do origins pro forma. I haven't figured out who's going to be in them all yet, though I'd love to do a Winged Victory special, a Quarrel & Crackerjack, maybe an MPH tale. Samaritan is in the running, of course, as are The Old Soldier and The First Family. I even have a way we could make the final one be a Silver Agent one-shot, and that's very much under consideration.

We may do a poll, at www.astrocity.us, to ask the fans who they'd like to see most. We won't have the Haunted Tank on the list, though...

NRAMA: The ghost of General Stuart strikes again. Well, there is no question that Astro City is very different from many comics on the racks. But how does this new series stand out from previous Astro City stories, aside from it taking place in the past?

KB: As noted, it's the longest story we'll have done; it’s spread over a number of years, it has two viewpoint characters rather than one, and it will explore lots of Astro City history. Beyond that, I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say give it a try and see.

NRAMA: Fair enough. Fans haven’t had a multi-issue story of Astro City for over three years. Now you write the “biggest, longest, most sprawling epic to date.” How important is writing heavy continuity stories of Astro City after such a long break?

KB: I'm not sure that [multi-issue stories are] important, per se. It's just a matter of changing things up, of not getting into a rut. We do single-issue stories for a while, then we do a bigger, more involved tale. It's been a while since the last one mostly because I was ill, and Astro City wasn't coming out at all for a while. The plan back then was to do six single-issue stories, and then another longer one. There were a few changes along the way, but mostly it just took us a hell of a long time to get through those single-issue stories.

NRAMA: You’ve mentioned before that artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross have contributed to characters and plot ideas in Astro City. Through all the issues you three have collaborated on, how has that creative process evolved?

KB: It hasn't changed all that much. In most cases, the story idea is something I've come up with, and I talk it over with Brent and sometimes with Alex, getting their input and feedback as I'm shaping the story. Once I have a script, it goes to both of them, so Brent can start drawing and Alex can do a cover. That's the point where, if either of them have story problems, they'll mention them to me and I might do some rewriting if needed. And that's where we design any new characters -- sometimes Brent designs them solo, sometimes Alex does, sometimes it's a matter of the two of them faxing things back and forth with me throwing in ideas, suggestions and the occasional crap-ass sketch of my own. And I'll kibitz over Brent's layouts and Alex's cover designs -- so each of us can affect the other guy's part of the book.

For at least two (and maybe three) of the Local Heroes covers, for instance, Alex worked from a cover design by Brent -- Brent sketched out a suggestion, and Alex liked it and wanted to use it.

NRAMA: According to the introduction to the Life in the Big City trade, you felt that when you started writing Astro City you wanted more diversity and maturity on the racks. Over seven years later, how do you feel the medium has progressed from when you first penned Astro City?

KB: I said that? I don't think I said that. I said something about diversity, but that was along the way of talking about why I like superheroes so much.

But anyway, there's certainly been a boom in variety and even a boom in the arena of stories that are different perspectives on the whole superhero thing. More people are using superheroes to tell stories that are about more than just adventure, and the "mainstream" publishers are publishing more books that go places comics haven't been lately, whether it's Mark Millar doing a teen-sex story, Garth Ennis doing straight war stories or me doing a fantasy-adventure set in World War I. And more comics are being collected as books, and given a chance for an ongoing life, and being sold in bookstores to readers who haven't seen comics being sold anywhere near them for years.

I'm delighted. I want to see all kinds of comics, from the most rock-ribbed of traditional superheroes to genre stuff like horror and romance and westerns and pirate books, to slice of life drama and experimental narratives. I want to see comics in front of people's faces in all kinds of forms, from magazines to books to online comics funded by micropayments.

Let's keep it up -- let's see more.

NRAMA: So, what else can fans hope to see in the future? What does Kurt Busiek have on his plate next to his steaming scoops of Astro City?

KB: "Steaming scoops?" Eww. What's that, a school-lunch metaphor?

NRAMA: Well, I was thinking more along the lines of an early 19th century British orphanage with fans saying, “Please, sir, may I have some more?”…

KB: What I've just outlined will keep me busy on Astro City for quite a while. Beyond that, Carlos Pacheco and I are just now launching Arrowsmith, that fantasy-adventure WWI series I mentioned. I have a TPB of the first ongoing title I ever created, The Liberty Project, which James Fry and I did for Eclipse -- that's just out from About Comics.

In September, JLA/Avengers starts, with sensational art by George "All of Them" Perez. Sometime after that, I've got Conan, with Cary Nord, for Dark Horse, and Superman: Secret Identity with Stuart Immonen, for DC. And there are at least two other projects after that -- since a couple of those are minis -- but they're not announced yet.

That's enough to keep me at the keyboard for a good while to come...

[Device]

This sounds interesting and big in storytelling.

I have read a couple of Astro City TPB's and they all have a different feel to it. Busiek does a great job with the series and this looks like it will be a very fine addition/continuation.

[Ace]

We get to learn about the Silver Agent, finally. Sounds good to me. The longer astro city stories always have great payoffs. Of course, then again, so do the short ones.

Matt

[tralfaz]

Astro City is so great. I think Im gonna go buy the tpbs now

[carazan]

Did he really suggest that the Silver Agent would be "tarnished"?

(Especially since I thought that was SteelJack's schtick.)

[Sparvid]

Please get Sienkiewicz and Williams, my favorite inkers

[LFKittsteiner]

But for the specials, we'll line up inkers -- I'm hoping we can have a different inker per special, giving Brent the chance to work with a varied group of guys. We haven't lined anyone up yet, but I'd love to see Brent inked by Tom Palmer and/or Bill Sienkiewicz again, or by Steve Leialoha or Scott Williams or any of a bunch of other names we've been tossing around.

Please consider Will Blyberg for these specials. The Anderson/Blyberg team really made me notice the artwork on this series. In the first mini-series, the art looked kinda rushed; and then came Blyberg, and the pencils gained a lot of depth and consistency. Now, it looks that Mr. Anderson has managed to do the inks without the scratchy look lately; but for me, Anderson and Blyberg are the only Astro City art team.

LFKO.

[Grendel Prime]

Busiek is finally going to reveal what happened to the Silver Agent? Awesome!

[Fazhoul]

Originally posted by carazan
Did he really suggest that the Silver Agent would be "tarnished"?

(Especially since I thought that was SteelJack's schtick.)

It's been hinted at before. I don't recall the specific issues but, IIRC, one of them referred to him as the " poor, doomed Silver Agent". The Silver Agent having his reputation damaged or destroyed is probably worse than just killing him. I imagine it would be about the same as the public discovering that Captain America is really a neo-nazi facist skinhead. Well, maybe not THAT bad.

[carazan]

Originally posted by Fazhoul
It's been hinted at before. I don't recall the specific issues but, IIRC, one of them referred to him as the " poor, doomed Silver Agent". The Silver Agent having his reputation damaged or destroyed is probably worse than just killing him. I imagine it would be about the same as the public discovering that Captain America is really a neo-nazi facist skinhead. Well, maybe not THAT bad.

"Tarnish"? "Silver"?

Get it?

I think the dj at KBAC was making a really bad pun, not giving away the fate of the character (which, as you correctly observe, has been known, vaguely, since the first mini-series).

[amaraswen]

Originally posted by MattBrady
We may do a poll, at www.astrocity.us,

Watch out! A single coma can ruin a link.

www.astrocity.us

[Cliffy]

This all sounds great -- I'm also happy to see that Anderson is getting some help on the inking. He's a great penciller, and his inks are very moody and dark which works really well for some stories (and it sounds like "The Dark Age" will be one of them), but is (IMO) not the right feel for many others.

--Cliffy

[LFKittsteiner]

Originally posted by Fazhoul:

I don't recall the specific issues but, IIRC, one of them referred to him as the " poor, doomed Silver Agent". The Silver Agent having his reputation damaged or destroyed is probably worse than just killing him.

Astro City Vol. 2 #1. A father, who has recently arrived into the city, shows the statue of the Silver Agent to his daughters. The quote "To our eternal shame" (or something like that) is engraved. And now, we´re getting closer to the truth...

LFKO.

[L'Zoril]

Originally posted by LFKittsteiner
Originally posted by Fazhoul:



Astro City Vol. 2 #1. A father, who has recently arrived into the city, shows the statue of the Silver Agent to his daughters. The quote "To our eternal shame" (or something like that) is engraved. And now, we´re getting closer to the truth...

LFKO.

That's true. I always wondered about the phrase 'to our eternal shame' . Now we get to see wht happened to the silver agent. awright!

[ticknart]

Personally, I've always been worried about this story. To me, it's like Wolverines orgin. I've been building up what happened to the Silver Agent on my own since his first appearance. While I know that this story will be great because I trust the creators, I know that it will be different from my idea. Oh well, any comic that has to do with Astro City will be in my collection.

[dogwelder]

will the dark ages story be bi-monthly??

[mc (_(\/)_)achete]

Originally posted by dogwelder
will the dark ages story be bi-monthly??

i don't think so. 17 issues, (the 12 dark age and the one-shot betweeners) one a month. or at least, that's what i understood the plan to be.

[Leocast]

Ok. I must start with saying that I LOVE Astro City a lot. I have ALL of the issues and most of the TPBs. The Dark Age sounds FABULOUS and all, but...

Based on what I've heard so far and how the delivery of the storytelling can be convoluted... I hate to say this, but at least for me, it seems it might be better to wait for the TPB.



Again, let me end by saying I LOVE Astro City. More power to Kurt & co.

Leo

[dogwelder]

good...astRo city is a read thAT I NEED ONCE A MONTH...

[Eschel]

...Busiek has returned to writing Astro City on a consistent basis...

I really hope this is true.

I really do.

Eschel

[Scott Beeler]

Originally posted by MattBrady
So Astro City: The Dark Age will be broken up into four three-parters, each telling one crucial story in the lives of Charles and Royal Williams, and in the history of Astro City. And we'll alternate those with what's currently planned to be five hero-focused specials. We'll do a special, then a Dark Age arc, then another special, then another Dark Age arc, and so on, wrapping up with one last special after the Dark Age’s conclusion.

Confusing as hell? Yeah, kind of. But keep in mind, this'll all take a couple of years to get through. Shaking it up will give us breaks where we can catch up on the schedule, and change the focus regularly, so Brent doesn't go for my throat after drawing Seventies hairstyles and cars for too long.

From this part of the article, Kurt's saying the whole thing'll take "a couple of years" for those ~17 issues. I'd think the plan would be bi-monthly, with occasional breaks between sub-arcs if necessary to catch up. Which (while I'd love to have it monthly) does sound reasonable to me. So far "Local Heroes" has seemed to be on schedule bi-monthly, and I'm hoping that can continue (instead of just being the result of taking some time to build up a number of issues ready to go).

Looking forward to reading the story -- sounds great!

[Alex Clarke Kent]

Yes! Regularly scheduled Astro City!! Yes! Finally we'll see the story of the Silver Agent! I can't wait!!

[Kurt Busiek]

Originally posted by Scott Beeler
From this part of the article, Kurt's saying the whole thing'll take "a couple of years" for those ~17 issues. I'd think the plan would be bi-monthly, with occasional breaks between sub-arcs if necessary to catch up.

The plan is to do each of the four sub-arcs monthly, with appropriate breaks between the arcs and the character specials to give us the lead time we'll need.

Glad there's so much anticipation.

kdb

[Scott Beeler]

Originally posted by Kurt Busiek
The plan is to do each of the four sub-arcs monthly, with appropriate breaks between the arcs and the character specials to give us the lead time we'll need.

Great, that'll do quite nicely for me. Thanks for the clarification!