The Kurt Busiek Universe Comes To Image

[K7P5V]

One of my favorite stories was Astro City #1/2.

spoilers:

Which was about a normal man who is having dreams of a beautiful woman that he's never met and a hero like the Hanged Man (I think that was the name of a character he's a Spectre/Phantom Stranger style hero) who tells him that the events of a Crisis on Infinite Earths style mega event has caused the heroes to reset the universe and the woman he's been dreaming of was his wife but because of the events of the cosmic/time war her parents never met and now she never existed and for various reasons the hero has to erase his memories of her because it could drive him insane or screw up the universe again. The man refuses because those dreams are all that remain of his wife and if he acts crazy or this becomes a threat the hero can then remove the memories and the hero agrees and leaves and the man now has pleasant dreams of a wife that no longer exists.

end of spoilers

It reminded me of The Twilight Zone and I love the bittersweet ending and how it showed the aftermath of a cosmic event on normal human level.

Indeed. Definitely an all-time classic deserving of all the awards & accolades it received. And yeah, the character's name is The Hanged Man

[Kirby101]

One of my favorite stories was Astro City #1/2.

spoilers:

Which was about a normal man who is having dreams of a beautiful woman that he's never met and a hero like the Hanged Man (I think that was the name of a character he's a Spectre/Phantom Stranger style hero) who tells him that the events of a Crisis on Infinite Earths style mega event has caused the heroes to reset the universe and the woman he's been dreaming of was his wife but because of the events of the cosmic/time war her parents never met and now she never existed and for various reasons the hero has to erase his memories of her because it could drive him insane or screw up the universe again. The man refuses because those dreams are all that remain of his wife and if he acts crazy or this becomes a threat the hero can then remove the memories and the hero agrees and leaves and the man now has pleasant dreams of a wife that no longer exists.

end of spoilers

It reminded me of The Twilight Zone and I love the bittersweet ending and how it showed the aftermath of a cosmic event on normal human level.

AS 1/2 was one of the most poignant, heartbreaking stories in the last 30 years. It is a modern classic. Busiek revisited Michael Tenecik in recent issues, it gave the character somewhat of a closure.

[Kirby101]

Just finished Arrowsmith BEL, An excellent series. Sorry to hear about the health woes of Kurt and Carlos, hope them an quick recovery.
I suffer from migraines myself, but it is manageable with medication. I truly feel for Mr Busiek. As for Carlos, wow, that is some scary, serious **** he is going through. We can just wish them all the best and have patience with thier books.

[K7P5V]

Carlos Pacheco (R.I.P.)

[Thundershot]

Waiting for Metrobook v3 preorders…

[Thundershot]

Got Metrobook v3 yesterday. Now we’re entering into territory when I stopped reading comics for many years. It also warmed my heart to see v4 solicited for September! I’m going to treasure having the whole run in this format. I hope we have some new material on the horizon as well. Thanks to Kurt and the team for crafting these stories!

[Thundershot]

I just finally preordered v4 Metrobook, but it says it has v3 issues 1-10, 17, and 22-24. Why are issues being skipped? These are books I’ve never read before and I don’t want incomplete collections!

[Kurt Busiek]

I just finally preordered v4 Metrobook, but it says it has v3 issues 1-10, 17, and 22-24. Why are issues being skipped? These are books I’ve never read before and I don’t want incomplete collections!

They'll be in the next volume.

11-16 are all one thing and belong in the same book. But if Metro 4 had that arc in it, it'd be markedly longer than other volumes, and a later book would be kinda short.

So we juggled the contents a little. We've done this kind of thing ever since the second AS collection, CONFESSION, which skipped vol 2 issues 1-3, and then they showed up in the third collection, FAMILY ALBUM.

[In METROBOOK 1, they appear in publication order, because it's a bigger book and they all fit fine. But we re-ordered the stuff in METROBOOK 3, moving the Samaritan, Beautie and Astra specials to METRO 4 so we could have all of THE DARK AGE plus the SILVER AGENT two-parter in one volume together.]

So METROBOOK 5 will start with v3 issues 11-16, 18-21 and 25-something-or-other.

kdb

[Thundershot]

They'll be in the next volume.

11-16 are all one thing and belong in the same book. But if Metro 4 had that arc in it, it'd be markedly longer than other volumes, and a later book would be kinda short.

So we juggled the contents a little. We've done this kind of thing ever since the second AS collection, CONFESSION, which skipped vol 2 issues 1-3, and then they showed up in the third collection, FAMILY ALBUM.

[In METROBOOK 1, they appear in publication order, because it's a bigger book and they all fit fine. But we re-ordered the stuff in METROBOOK 3, moving the Samaritan, Beautie and Astra specials to METRO 4 so we could have all of THE DARK AGE plus the SILVER AGENT two-parter in one volume together.]

So METROBOOK 5 will start with v3 issues 11-16, 18-21 and 25-something-or-other.

kdb

I hadn’t even noticed on the other volumes.. I guess it wasn’t as obvious in the solicits. Again, this all new territory for me, so my fear is that something was missing for one reason or another. Thanks for the response!

[marhawkman]

yeah this stuff looks great.

[GokaiBlack077]

Shocked no one posted this: The Opus Edition! (an actual Omnibus for December)

https://www.amazon.com/Astro-City-Op...s%2C187&sr=8-3

[Johnny Thunders!]

I totally love Volume 4 of Metrobook and I can’t believe that the Opus edition is going to happen.
Any chance of an Amazon series ever happening? Animated or live action!

[Kurt Busiek]

I totally love Volume 4 of Metrobook and I can’t believe that the Opus edition is going to happen.

Thanks.

Any chance of an Amazon series ever happening? Animated or live action!

Beats me. There's always interest in doing ASTRO CITY as TV or movies, but it remains to be seen if and when that interest will make it all the way to a finished project.

kdb

[Johnny Thunders!]

I think it’s really great the layout of the Metrobook. The full color Alex Ross cover is on the left and it leads straight into the Brent Anderson page one of the story. Those covers feel more like part of the story.

[Kurt Busiek]

I think it’s really great the layout of the Metrobook. The full color Alex Ross cover is on the left and it leads straight into the Brent Anderson page one of the story. Those covers feel more like part of the story.

That was Alex's choice, Johnny, and I think it works very well.

kdb