Kurt Busiek is the hottest writer in comics today. Currently his busy
schedule includes mega hits like Avengers, Iron Man, and Avengers Forever,
the successful new comic Thunderbolts, and his critically acclaimed Kurt
Busiek's Astro City. Now on with the interview.
Coville:
I'm told writing Iron Man was one of your dream jobs. How do you think
you're doing on the title so far?
Busiek:
I'm really not the guy to review my own work; I have no perspective on it.
I'm certainly having fun, and I don't think I'm screwing up too bad. I
generally see more faults in my own work than virtues, but that's not a bad
thing, since it means I'm always trying to improve. But I'm reasonably
pleased.
Coville:
Why did you ask Roger Stern in particular to help you with Iron Man and
Avengers Forever?
Busiek:
Aside from the fact that he's a terrific writer, Roger and I collaborate well
together, Roger's sensibilities and mine are close enough so that we're
pulling in the same direction, as it were, and Roger's got great strengths in
continuity and research, which is a big help on FOREVER.
Coville:
Out of curiosity, was there a request to have someone (Jerry Ordway) fill
in a few issues of Avengers for you and George Perez?
Busiek:
There was certainly pressure from above to get the books back on schedule.
Tom and George and I discussed it, and we realized that the only solution that
would work swiftly was getting someone to fill in. Tom had been wanting to
get Jerry to do something for him, so it looked like the obvious choice.
Coville:
What do you think makes Avengers and Iron Man the success it is today?
Busiek:
I would hope it's that they're solid, accessible, exciting superhero comics
that deliver an enjoyable package in every issue, without making you wait
until next month to see if you liked what you just read. That's certainly
what I'm striving for.
Coville:
Why did you choose to take Hawkeye out of Avengers and into Thunderbolts?
Busiek:
I can answer that, but not for a few weeks. The story's not over yet, and I
won't spoil how it wraps up.
Coville:
Why did you have Baron Zemo pull the plug on Thunderbolts deception so
quickly?
Busiek:
I didn't see any reason to drag it out until people were sick of it. I
thought it'd make more sense to play with the deception for a while, and then
change direction when people weren't expecting it -- it'd be more surprising
that way.
Coville:
What makes Thunderbolts unique from other 'villain go straight' comic books?
Busiek:
Depends on the book, I'd say. In SUICIDE SQUAD, they were being forced into
it. In LIBERTY PROJECT, they were being reformed by the authorities. In
THUNDERBOLTS, what they do is their own choice. They haven't fully gone
straight yet, and may never do so. The book could just as easily turn back
into a book about a group of villains, after all -- so I think its
unpredictability is a big part of it.
Coville:
Describe how you write Astro City differently than your Marvel titles?
Busiek:
Well, I write it full-script, for one thing. But beyond that, it's not an
easy answer -- not because there isn't much difference (there is!) but because
it's not something I find easy to articulate. The Marvel titles operate off
of the basic question. "What happens next?" ASTRO CITY doesn't -- its basic
question is more, "So, how do you feel about that -- ?" The Marvel books are
the best examples of the superhero genre I can muster, while ASTRO CITY is
exploring the genre and its implications, and seeing what can be done with it
beyond general genre expectations. That's not to say that AVENGERS, IRON MAN
and T-BOLTS don't defy expectation -- but I'm trying to tell good, fun,
involving, exciting superhero stories in those books. In ASTRO CITY, I'm
looking to see what else I can do with the superhero as a story vehicle. I
hope that makes some sort of sense.
Coville:
Why do you choose to write Astro City using unrelated short stories?
Busiek:
They're all related, in the sense that they take place in the same context and
build a history that affects what takes place within it. But I don't see any
other way to do it -- if I picked one set of leads and followed them on an
ongoing basis, it wouldn't be ASTRO CITY, it'd be HONOR GUARD, or JACK-IN-THE-
BOX, or SAMARITAN, or whatever. Being able to jump from protagonist to
protagonist gives me much more freedom to explore the genre through different
viewpoints and different conflicts, to tell a variety of human stories by
focusing on different humans, depending on the story I want to tell.
Coville:
Astro City has a unique perspective on superheroes. How did you develop it
and what is your philosophy regarding it?
Busiek:
I thought about superheroes for twenty-plus years, mostly. I'm not really
sure what you mean by my philosophy regarding my perspective on superheroes; I
don't know what such a thing would be. But I see superheroes, as a concept,
as a rich metaphorical genre in which ideas, conflicts and more can be
personified by iconic beings, and the human experiences they resonate with can
be played out on a broad, almost fairy-tale like canvas in a way that can't
quite be done with any other genre. This fascinates me, so ASTRO CITY is my
way of creating a context in which I can play with that idea and see what can
be made of it, without limiting myself to a single character or group of lead
characters. It's an engine of exploration. I don't think that's what you
were asking, but maybe the answer's in there somewhere.
Coville:
Would you prefer to do Astro City on a monthly or bimonthly schedule?
Busiek:
Coville:
Now that Astro City is being done "under" DC Comics will there be any
advertising within or changes to the paper stock?
Busiek:
There's always been advertising in ASTRO CITY; I can't see why DC would change
that. The paper stock has changed several times, too, depending on what paper
balances economy and good reproduction best at any given time. Image had its
economies of scale and used gang-bought paper over most of its line, and ASTRO
CITY used whatever the "standard" was at the time. I assume that'll be the
same at DC, and any changes will be dictated by DC's line-wide choices.
Coville:
Why do you bring back a lot of largely forgotten characters in your Marvel
titles?
Busiek:
Why not? I like 'em, and if I have fun stuff I can do with 'em, why not do it?
Coville:
How do you feel about writers changing the history of Marvel characters?
Busiek:
Writers have been changing Marvel history at least since Stan Lee retconned
Captain America disappearing toward the end of WWII and Bucky dying into Cap's
history in AVENGERS #4. I don't object to it in principle -- I've done a bit
of it myself, here and there. What matters is what comes out the other end --
is it good or bad? And that's a subjective judgment that each creator, editor
or reader is likely to have his own views on.
Coville:
Some people don't think continuity is all that important and should be
disregarded in order to get new readers. Do you think maintaining accurate
continuity is important?
Busiek:
I like exploring the characters' histories, so I think it's valuable for them
to have a consistent history to explore. But I don't see it as a necessity --
certainly, there are plenty of great MICKEY MOUSE stories without much story-
to-story continuity, and even wild shifts in tone and setting, as Mickey might
be a young suburbanite in one story, a daring barnstorming pilot in another
and a sorcerer's apprentice in a third. There are many, many ways to tell
good stories, and a consistent continuity is only one of them. I like it,
myself, but it's a choice, not a rule.
I do think that the publisher of a shared-universe line of titles should make
a choice as to how continuity will be treated, so that choice can be
consistent across the line instead of varying from creator to creator -- but
then, I guess that, too, is a choice...
Coville:
How much research did you do before starting your Marvel titles?
Busiek:
Tons. I filled in the gaps in my collection so that I have complete runs of
AVENGERS, AVENGERS WEST COAST, CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRON MAN, THOR, WAR MACHINE,
WONDER MAN, THUNDERSTRIKE, MS. MARVEL, VISION/SCARLET WITCH and just about
every other series that could be considered part of the "Avengers" family of
titles. Then I reread them all, and keep them all close to hand for easy
reference.
Coville:
In your opinion, what does a story need to be successful?
Busiek:
Define "successful." If you mean, what does a story need to be aesthetically
satisfying, I think it needs to be well-structured, involving, with characters
you can be drawn to care about struggling for something that matters, and it
should reach a conclusion that seems fitting, even if the characters fail. It
should be well-crafted and have some emotional resonance, and should deliver
whatever effect the creators intended, whether that effect is instilling a
particular theme or intellectual idea, or merely evoking a memory of a
particular time and place.
On the other hand, if you mean, what does a story need to be commercially
successful, that's something that varies depending on the audience. Cool
poses and lots of detailed inking could be enough one year, and a dismal flop
in a later era.
Coville:
Have you ever re-read something you wrote and hated it? If so, what?
Busiek:
Sure. I did an Arsenal story in SECRET ORIGINS that I thought was nicely
understated in the script, but none of it worked on the page; it's flat, bland
and empty. I think SPIDER-MAN/X-FACTOR: SHADOWGAMES is a wretched mess. But
in both cases, I tried my best under the circumstances, and just missed the
ball. It happens.
Coville:
What comic books do you read?
Busiek:
Tons. These days, favorites include KANE, USAGI YOJIMBO, SUPERBOY, SAVAGE
DRAGON, CASTLE WAITING, MAISON IKKOKU and AKIKO, to name a few.
Coville:
What do you think is necessary to bring comic sales back to it's former
glory?
Busiek:
I think we've got to do good, accessible stuff that'll appeal to whatever
audience it is we're choosing to shoot for, we have to package that material
in a format that target audience is willing to pick up and look at, we have to
sell it in places that target audience actually shops, and we have to promote
it in such a way that the target audience knows its there. I think this means
rethinking the packaging and distribution of comics, as well as the content --
it's no good trying to attract more women by beefing up the romance content in
a standard superhero comics and assuming that women will come flooding into
comics shops to buy a product they've never been interested in and don't, on
the surface of it, have any interest in now, just to discover that there's
some minor alterations to the material that they might like if it didn't come
wrapped in spandex and fight scenes. I don't see any reason to cling to the
32-page pamphlet, to gear everything for the audience that comes into comics
shops first and foremost, or to assume that there's any one approach that'll
please all audiences. Hundreds of thousands of readers buy FOR BETTER OR FOR
WORSE and CATHY collections -- those readers are just as much comics readers
as fans of SPAWN and HULK. And there are more of them.
However, I don't expect publishers to do the kind of drastic rethinking and
retooling it would take to produce mass-market-friendly comics packages; it's
very expensive to do so, and nobody wants to risk that kind of capital these
days.
Coville:
Do you ever get the urge to write something that doesn't have to do with
superheroes? If you wanted to write within another genre what would it be?
Busiek:
Sure. In the past, I've written JONNY DEMON (fantasy adventure), RANSOM (high
adventure), WIZARD'S TALE (fantasy), MICKEY MOUSE (funny animals), VAMPIRELLA
(horror), ELVIRA (humor) and more. I love superheroes, but that doesn't mean
I'd never want to write anything but superheroes.
I'd like to write all kinds of stuff, from space opera to mystic adventure to
slice-of-life human drama to historical comics and more. I like telling
stories, and there's all kinds of stories to tell; why limit myself?
Coville:
Not including the artists you're working with now, what artists would you like
to team up with in the future?
Busiek:
There are plenty of them, from Jerry Ordway and Alan Davis to Stu Immonen and
Walt Simonson, from Lee Weeks to Alex Toth, Steve Leialoha, Bruce Timm, and
countless others.
Coville:
Do you like to read novels? Do you have any favorite authors?
Busiek:
sure. I've been reading since I was 3, and I'm not done yet. Favorite
authors include Nevil Shute, Walter Tevis, Lawrence Block, Dick Francis,
Madeleine L'Engle, James Thurber and more.
Coville:
Do you have any desire to write a novel or a screenplay?
Busiek:
Sure, someday -- not that I have any time at the moment...
Coville:
I hear your going to be a daddy soon. When is the baby due?
Busiek:
Coville:
Superhero books often shy away from having characters turn into parents, and
then having them raise their kids over the long haul. Do you think superhero
books ought to explore this area of life?
Busiek:
I don't think it's a question of "ought to." Superhero comics have no
particular responsibility to do so, though FANTASTIC FOUR comes to mind as a
book that's dealt with that area for decades now. I think that if writers can
get good stories out of it, then great -- but if they're not interested
there's no reason to push them into it. At both of the major, long-lasting
hero universes, they have a policy about time crawling along very slowly to
keep the characters young, which makes it very difficult for babies to age
normally -- every year Franklin Richards grows is another year older the X-Men
and Spider-Man get, and Marvel would rather keep those characters young, for
commercial reasons. So there are logistical problems in the major universes;
it might be easier to explore in a continuity that doesn't have this kind of
time policy. I've touched on the subject in ASTRO CITY, and I'm sure I'll
return to it in the future; I set the time policy there, after all, so I don't
have to consider the repercussions of my decisions on the stories and series
of other writers...
Coville:
You used to be a well known letter hack. Has the urge to write a letter and
see it printed disappeared?
Busiek:
Pretty much. Writing stories and having them printed is a much bigger thrill.
