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Welcome to my modest little fanpage. These pages are dedicated to everything connected to Astro City and it's creators Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross. If you don't know what Astro City is all about, just read the general introduction. After you've done this, please run, not walk, over to the nearest comics shop and buy the first trade paperback Astro City: Life in the big City. You'll like it, I promise. And then you'll have buy the rest of the series.
Astro City news
Website updates
Information about Astro City and it's creators.
Everything you always wanted to know about Astro City. And much more!
You may have already heard that Kurt Busiek has been ill recently. What you may not know is how serious this has been. According to a recent e-mail of him on the Astro City mailing list, he was suffering from a very bad sinus infection, so bad at one point the doctors believed the infection had traveled into the brain itself, maybe leading to permanent brain damage. As Kurt himself said:
"This was not a cold or a 24-hour bug; I was scared that I'd lose my ability to write fiction completely."
As a result of this, his abilities to write were seriously impaired and while still good enough to write his less demanding titles like Iron Man or Avengers, to work on Astro City just wasn't possible, as:
"on ASTRO CITY, I was just paralyzed. I couldn't think clearly enough to understand what I wanted to do with the story, much less make a stab at it"
"So the Marvel stuff moved along, albeit slowly -- by the time they were scanning for brain damage, it was taking me a week to do work I'd once done in a day or two -- while ASTRO CITY fell to a dead halt, not because I wasn't prioritizing it well, but because I was simply physically and mentally unable to even start on the kind of work it demands, and that wasn't helped by the specter of possibly never being able to do it again."
Happily, it seems that Kurt's medical problems have taken a turn for the better, thanks to some drastic measures and he's now fully cured. Since then we've had four new issues of Astro City, but the book is still not entirely back on schedule.
The latest issue of Astro City is #18, which should be at your local comic book store waiting for you. From the Wildstorm website:
Steeljack's been trying to stay straight since he got out of jail. But now, his only chance to find out who's been killing small-time super-villains may be to go back to the wrong side of the law? Can he do it? Can he discover the truth before the heroes close in? And if he goes back to his old life, will he ever be able to make it out again?
Yep, it's official: there finally are action figures of your favourite Astro City heroes and villains. The first two, Samaritan and the Confessor have shipped. These come in regular editions costing $12.95 and as specials, costing $16.95. The latter are variant figures of the former, with the difference being that Samaritan will come with a newspaper and flowers while the Confessor variant will feature Altar Boy, as the future Confessor.
Speaking for myself, the figures do look good and come in a very nice package. I'll try to get some photos up before long.
Inspired by Jacob Nielsen excellent column on WWW usability I've updated the website to make it both easier to use and more consistent in layout. Let me know what you think of it.
Disclaimer: This page is not an official production of either Kurt Busiek, Juke Box Productions or Homage comics. It is however, done with the knowledge and permission of Kurt Busiek.
Kurt Busiek's Astro City, it's logos, symbols, prominent characters and the distinctive likeness thereof, are trademarks of Juke Box Productions. Art copyright 1995 Juke Box Productions. None of the contents of this homepage may be copied without express permission of Martin Wisse. The art on this page may not be copied without express permission of Juke Box Productions. The postcard picture was supplied by John Gaushell, the Astro City letterer.
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