Ask Kurt Busiek

[Kurt Busiek]

Did you enjoy Ellis' take on the Thunderbolts? Did you like the Dark Reign setting?

I haven't read it.

I find it very hard to step back into the role of "audience" once I've been the puppeteer for a while, and the effect seems to be even stronger on a book I created. So I generally don't read books I had a longish run on, unless I need to for research.

No offense to anyone working on the books -- I recommended Fabian for the job, and didn't read most of his run until I co-wrote some T-BOLTS with him, then didn't read the new stuff afterward. I wish anyone doing it the best, but I'm not really the readership any more.

[Kurt Busiek]

Have you ever read carl barks or don rosa's uncle scrooge comics? Have you ever wrote any scrooge comics and would you if you could?

I've read lots of both, but I don't think I'm the guy to write UNCLE SCROOGE.

Marvel used to add non owned ips to the main universe. (shogun warriors, dr fu munchu, sledgehammer, dr who, doc savage, Godzilla, etc) If you could add one non marvel owned ip to the marvel universe canon what would it be?

Disney's GARGOYLES.

If you were asked to bring back the gag team the misfits (lead by frog man at first!) what group of heroes would you pick? (I would pick howard the duck and wally the wizard and maybe spider-ham!)

I don't know. If I was asked (and I agreed to do it) I'd have to think about it!

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Did you ever work for Valiant or was anything ever offered to you from that company? They've had some quality stuff coming out since the relaunch 8 years ago imo. Did you ever look into that?

I did NINJAK in the second version, though it was called Acclaim at that point, I think.

I've read a little of the more recent revival, but not all that much. I'm really not familiar enough with it to know whether I'd want to join in or not. But the guys at Valiant gave me a batch of TPBs at one point, and I have them in my voluminous stores of Things to Read...

Btw, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for bringing me back to reading comics after I lost interest for more than a decade. It was your Conan run (along with Kirkman's Walking Dead) that brought me back. So thank you for that good Sir.

My pleasure! Glad you liked the stories.

kdb

[WinterSoldier76]

Not at mine, since no one in my immediate family eats it...

kdb

You don’t know what you’re missing.

[Marvell2100]

Hello again Mr Busiek, hope you are well!

If you had an opportunity to do a crossover between Astro City and any characters from Marvel and/or DC, which would you choose?

[Kurt Busiek]

You don’t know what you’re missing.

Yes, I do.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

If you had an opportunity to do a crossover between Astro City and any characters from Marvel and/or DC, which would you choose?

None of 'em.

Publishers have been asking for years to do ASTRO CITY crossovers, but I just don't want to. I want to keep ASTRO CITY complete and self-contained.

If I want to explore crossover-style stories, I can just make up both halves.

kdb

[Marvell2100]

None of 'em.

Publishers have been asking for years to do ASTRO CITY crossovers, but I just don't want to. I want to keep ASTRO CITY complete and self-contained.

If I want to explore crossover-style stories, I can just make up both halves.

kdb

So....what kinda crossover would you do?

Wait.... let me guess...you are keeping that to yourself.

You are dastardly Mr Busiek!!!!

[Kubert]

In light of your superb use of perspective, are you open to ideas, working at IDW? Like a Busiek / Ross approach, to a new G.I.Joe comic; centered on an "everyman" character like Mainframe or Scoop?

j

[Kurt Busiek]

So....what kinda crossover would you do?

If I ever come up with a story like that that I want to do, I'll know!

We've seen glimpses of inter dimensional crossovers in the past, though -- I remember there was one in The Dark Age...

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

In light of your superb use of perspective, are you open to ideas, working at IDW? Like a Busiek / Ross approach, to a new G.I.Joe comic; centered on an "everyman" character like Mainframe or Scoop?

I've done stuff at IDW here and there, and I like those guys -- but I've just never really had any interest in G.I. JOE.

Even if there weren't dozens of other things I'd rather do, the amount of research it would take to be able to write that kind of story in that world would be, um, forbidding.

Better to have someone who's already steeped in G.I. JOE do that.

kdb

[DrNewGod]

None of 'em.

Publishers have been asking for years to do ASTRO CITY crossovers, but I just don't want to. I want to keep ASTRO CITY complete and self-contained.

If I want to explore crossover-style stories, I can just make up both halves.

kdb

Thank you! The purity is as both awesome as it is unique.

[Wall-Crawler]

Hello, Mr. Busiek, I see you have answered to some people that you find it hard to become a reader once you've already had a prolonged run in the book, so I have two questions about that.

1- What is it that makes you uncomfortable or simply makes you not want to read the books after you've written them ?
2- Aren't you in the slightest curious about what's been done to the book and characters following what you did with them ?

[Kubert]

Any memorable moments with the legends; Stan Lee, Kirby, Infantino, Siegel /Shuster, etc.

[Kurt Busiek]

Hello, Mr. Busiek, I see you have answered to some people that you find it hard to become a reader once you've already had a prolonged run in the book, so I have two questions about that.

1- What is it that makes you uncomfortable or simply makes you not want to read the books after you've written them ?

They just don't come to life for me. I read them, and my general reaction isn't to get caught up in the story, but to think, "Well, that's not what I would have done," or to want to reword the dialogue or something. I'm stuck in writer-mode, not reader-mode.

And that's not a legitimate reader reaction, and it's not all that entertaining either.

2- Aren't you in the slightest curious about what's been done to the book and characters following what you did with them ?

Not, I find, to the point where it outweighs what I've described up above. Finding out what happens tends to make me think, "Oh, I would've done X instead." I'm just not approaching them like a reader.

So, generally, I read them if I need to, for research, but not for fun.

kdb