Ask Kurt Busiek

[batnbreakfast]

But I've had a lot of fun writing the Prankster, and it'd be a hoot to get to write the Penguin...

kdb

Please, do! (write the Penguin)

Currently reading Creature of the Night and I wept since I haven't had this many different emotions reading a DC title in years. As a writer you are on a level with the best of them. Can't believe I don't remember your Superman stuff. I must have been to immature for those at the time. Please keep working your magic forever. Promise to get Astro City and Marvels, now. Thank you for Creature. A lot (JP Leon as well). Especially after a rough and unpleasant week.

[superduperman]

I LOVED Creature of the Night! I'd be curious to know if it takes place in the same universe as Secret Identity.

[Kurt Busiek]

Thanks, Kurt! You're the MOST!!

Thanks for the kind words!

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

During your weekly series Trinity in the Trinity's battle against Konvikt, Superman mentions he's hitting Konvikt hard enough to shatter small planets. Is that statement meant to be taken at literal face value or is it just a hyperbolic estimation? There's some dispute on the battle boards as to whether this proves Superman can punch hard enough to shatter planets.

I'm not at all interested in refereeing battleboard arguments -- I'm glad the people who engage in them have fun with them, but I think they're more fun if readers based their arguments on what they see in the comics, rather than getting people in the industry to try to act as authorities.

I mean, I think Superman certainly can shatter planets, at least small ones, but since I'm not a DC spokesperson and am not currently writing Superman, I can't speak from any sort of authority.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Currently reading Creature of the Night and I wept since I haven't had this many different emotions reading a DC title in years. As a writer you are on a level with the best of them. Can't believe I don't remember your Superman stuff. I must have been to immature for those at the time. Please keep working your magic forever. Promise to get Astro City and Marvels, now. Thank you for Creature. A lot (JP Leon as well). Especially after a rough and unpleasant week.

Very glad you're enjoying it. And yeah, John Paul did a gorgeous job, didn't he?

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

I LOVED Creature of the Night! I'd be curious to know if it takes place in the same universe as Secret Identity.

No, it doesn't. That's why we refer to it as a "thematic sequel" or a "sister book." It's a similar idea, but it's not part of the same universe; it's its own standalone story.

kdb

[Vordan]

No, it doesn't. That's why we refer to it as a "thematic sequel" or a "sister book." It's a similar idea, but it's not part of the same universe; it's its own standalone story.

kdb

Would you like to do a WW book in the same vein? I’d be fascinated to see how that would work.

[Kurt Busiek]

Would you like to do a WW book in the same vein? I’d be fascinated to see how that would work.

DC would be up for one, but at least so far I only have about half the idea for it.

So maybe someday. In the meantime, I'd like to do some other stuff for a while -- using the same structure and approach to things repeatedly can start to feel like you're in a rut.

kdb

[kjn]

Really appreciate you taking the time to answer questions like this! Your answer on that the hardest part on becoming a comics book writer fit with what a lot of authors I know have said, that the trickiest piece on becoming an "established" author wasn't the first book, but the gap from the second to the third book.

Two questions: What advice would you give to young writers (and other creators)? And what do you consider the greatest creative challenges for superhero comics?

[Doctor Kent Nelson]

Hey Kurt, love your work and just wondering how would you "fix" Dr Fate to make him DC's Supreme Sorcerer?

[DrNewGod]

Astro City question:

Across the different series and specials, have we seen all the iterations/rosters of The Honor Guard? I mean have you presented each of the lineups somewhere in the pages from the charter group seen in AC 1.2 through the last published series, or are there some you have in mind, but never gotten around to showcasing? Alternatively, is this one of those "I don't know because there might be a story I haven't thought of yet" questions?

[Kurt Busiek]

Two questions: What advice would you give to young writers (and other creators)?

My best advice would probably be found here (though it's a little dated now, and the internet has created even more opportunities):

https://busiek.com/site/2009/06/21/b...without-rules/

And what do you consider the greatest creative challenges for superhero comics?

I don't know. I think the creative challenges for superhero comics are the same as for most other genres -- be engaging, attract an audience, make an emotional connection between the reader and the story, that kind of general stuff. Or maybe I'm not understanding the question.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Hey Kurt, love your work and just wondering how would you "fix" Dr Fate to make him DC's Supreme Sorcerer?

I think the way you're asking the question suggests that you want Dr. Fate to occupy the same role in the DCU as Dr. Strange does in the Marvel U, and I don't think I'd bother with that, because I don't think that the Marvel and DC universes should be mirror images of one another, with all the same "slots" and different characters occupying those slots.

I think Dr. Fate should be the best Dr. Fate he can be, not an imitation Dr. Strange.

That said, while I haven't thought about Dr. Fate much, a couple of problems the character has historically had are:

1. His mask is inexpressive. That makes it hard for the character to show emotion, which is always a problem. The trouble here is, the mask looks great, so you don't want to get rid of it. It just makes it hard for emotional storytelling.

2. For long stretches of his history, Fate's personality is in the helmet, not in the person, which makes it hard for readers to care about both the person and the hero; there's an emotional disconnect. And when they make the person and the hero have the same mind, the same personality, they seem to go with a weaker or inexperienced personality, which doesn't have the presence Dr. Fate has at his best. I don't have a real solution for that, either, but it'd bear some thinking.

But the main thing I think I'd work with if playing with Dr. Fate is that DC, unlike Marvel, has a lot of interesting heroic magicians, from Fate to the Spectre to Zatanna to the Demon to Baron Winters to Traci 13 and on and on, and Fate doesn't seem to connect to those guys very often. I think it'd be interesting to set Fate up as an important member of a mystic community, rather than a lone gunfighter. Again, not sure where I'd go with that because I haven't thought about it much, but I think that might help make the character feel like his own thing, and less like Dr. Strange with no expressions.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Astro City question:

Across the different series and specials, have we seen all the iterations/rosters of The Honor Guard? I mean have you presented each of the lineups somewhere in the pages from the charter group seen in AC 1.2 through the last published series, or are there some you have in mind, but never gotten around to showcasing? Alternatively, is this one of those "I don't know because there might be a story I haven't thought of yet" questions?

I'm sure we haven't seen every Honor Guard roster, or even every Honor Guard member. Think of how many rosters the JLA or Avengers have had, and they've existed in compressed-universe-time, while Honor Guard has been around for decades, and we've only seen a sampling of their adventures.

There are lots of untold adventures, and I'm sure there are many rosters we haven't seen in there too. I doubt we'll ever see all of them.

kdb

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Hi, Kurt. Has anyone ever pointed out that "Astro City" is just one letter "S" -- AKA the symbol of Superman -- away from being the word "Atrocity"? Is this just a huge coincidence?