Ask Kurt Busiek

[Kubert]

Post your comicbook question for the multi award winning writer Kurt Busiek.

[Kubert]

Hey Mr. Busiek, any notable memories of DC, when you 1st began?

[Vordan]

How did DC get you to jump ship? I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that story.

[Man_of_Tomorrow]

Mr. Busiek your Superman run is amazing.
What are your Superman influences when it comes to characterization and story structure?

[Kurt Busiek]

Mr. Busiek your Superman run is amazing.

Very glad you liked it!

What are your Superman influences when it comes to characterization and story structure?

My sense of who Superman is, as a person, comes from just reading lots and lots of Superman comics (and seeing the movies and such), and having all that filter down into what feels "right" to me.

I'm probably most influenced by Julie Schwartz's editorial run, and within that, by Cary Bates's writing. But at the same time, I think the Superman in SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI may be the most iconic treatment of the character, at least for me. But I'm also influenced by the post-Crisis Superman, the movie Superman and more.

I try to take the character as I understand him in my head and present him in a modern, contemporary way, rather than do a throwback to any earlier version.

As for story structure, I don't know -- I don't think I approach story structure differently for Superman than I do for other things, and during my run I did different kinds of structures, from single issue stories to extended epics, to the beginnings of what were intended to be long-running threads that didn't get to go much of anywhere.

But I don't have a particular set approach to structure.

kdb

[j9ac9k]

Hi! Long-time, first-time...
- Kurt, I loved Power Company! If DC offered you a title,(and assuming current continuity weren't an issue) what would be top of your list?

[Timothy Hunter]

What was your greatest struggle breaking into the industry?

[Adekis]

If you could do a run on any character for any publisher, what book would you choose to write for?

[Kurt Busiek]

What was your greatest struggle breaking into the industry?

I didn't really have a big struggle breaking in -- I broke in at DC a few days before my college graduation, and at Marvel a month or so later.

But staying in was a problem, at least for the first ten years of my career. Until MARVELS came along, finding the next job, the next gig, was always a concern. After MARVELS, much less of one.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Hi! Long-time, first-time...
- Kurt, I loved Power Company!

Thanks!

If DC offered you a title,(and assuming current continuity weren't an issue) what would be top of your list?

Let's amend that to say that if I had the time to do it and all that other stuff. But if I was to do an ongoing title for DC, I guess my top fantasy choices would be:

WONDER WOMAN
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES
SWAMP THING
THE DEMON
OMAC
METAL MEN

I'm sure there are others that I'm not thinking of right now, but those would be in the list for sure...

kdb

[Stanlos]

Thanks!



Let's amend that to say that if I had the time to do it and all that other stuff. But if I was to do an ongoing title for DC, I guess my top fantasy choices would be:

WONDER WOMAN
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES
SWAMP THING
THE DEMON
OMAC
METAL MEN

I'm sure there are others that I'm not thinking of right now, but those would be in the list for sure...

kdb

OMG!!!!!! I have been dying to see your WW ever since TRINITY!!!! I hope that happens and when it does that it is not the 52 Zeus version.

[Kubert]

Thanks!

my top fantasy choices would be:

WONDER WOMAN
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES
SWAMP THING
THE DEMON
OMAC
METAL MEN

sure there are others

Are you open to the idea of a Marvel DC crossover covering all your fantasy choices? DC brought back the Source Wall - seen first in a Marvel DC crossover - with Dark Phoenix's clone (1982). A year later Jean Grey was also brought back to life in great thanks to two dudes getting together. In that shared spirit - are you open to the idea of getting together a Marvel DC crossover - to help bring LCSs back to life?

- http://ibold.site/comics-pros-call-f...-industry-cbr/
- https://www.newsarama.com/49766-todd...-downturn.html
- https://screenrant.com/marvel-dc-crossover-source-wall/

[DrNewGod]

Dear Mr. Busiek,

I posed a question on another thread, and I'd be curious on your take: Do superheroes inherently engender distrust in institutions?

[Kurt Busiek]

How did DC get you to jump ship? I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that story.

I don't think I understand the question.

If you're asking how they got me to leave Marvel and sign up with DC, they didn't. The one time I was exclusive to DC, I'd been doing CONAN for Dark Horse before that.

Mostly, I've done stuff at DC when interesting opportunities came up and I was available to do them, which is also true for working at Marvel or Dark Horse or elsewhere. I don't think of myself as "belonging" to one company or another.

kdb

[Vordan]

I don't think I understand the question.

If you're asking how they got me to leave Marvel and sign up with DC, they didn't. The one time I was exclusive to DC, I'd been doing CONAN for Dark Horse before that.

Mostly, I've done stuff at DC when interesting opportunities came up and I was available to do them, which is also true for working at Marvel or Dark Horse or elsewhere. I don't think of myself as "belonging" to one company or another.

kdb

Yep I was asking how they got you to leave Marvel and sign up at DC. Sorry there are lots of gaps in my
Knowledge regarding your career and I sometimes get confused on when you wrote what. I didn’t even know you wrote Conan! Never been a big Conan fan but I’ll have to track your stuff down since I usually enjoy your work, maybe you’ll make a Conan fan out of me.

When you’re coming onto a ongoing, do the Big 2 update you on the status quo the person before you set up, giving you a summary of previous issues, or do they just expect you to read those issues yourself in prep, or do they not even care if you contradict what the person before you wrote?

Also who’s your favorite Superman villain and who is your favorite Batman villain?