Ask Kurt Busiek

[Hypestyle]

Mr. Busiek:

You shed a lot of light regarding the Kirby Estate/Marvel conflict. What's your take on the Malibu/Ultraverse characters being apparently off-limits to use in current Marvel comics, despite Marvel presumably owning them?

[Kurt Busiek]

Mr. Busiek:

You shed a lot of light regarding the Kirby Estate/Marvel conflict. What's your take on the Malibu/Ultraverse characters being apparently off-limits to use in current Marvel comics, despite Marvel presumably owning them?

I don't have a take. It's all covered by an NDA, apparently, so no one's releasing any details about it.

As a result, I don't know squat.

kdb

[Nomads1]

Did you enjoy, or had any interest in writing any of them? I found it a particularly interesting line. Hardcase, and the Strangers were probably my favorites, but, overall, I found a lot of cool concepts with cool twists.

Peace

[Mark]

There's such a long tradition of horror and urban fantasy in comics that I'd think you're spoiled for choice, from Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan's TOMB OF DRACULA to Mike Mignola's HELLBOY to random issues of VAMPIRELLA to SANDMAN and on and on.

But I don't think there's any one best choice...it depends on what sort of thing you like.

kdb

It surprised me greatly when I liked Afterlife with Archie more than Hellraiser.

[Mark]

How about VAMPS or/and Books of Magic?

I've tried but I can't think of Vampirella as a horror comic. When I think of scary ladies in fiction I think of She or Malicifient (original Snow White, haven't seen the newer movie), characters like Vampirella, Purgatory... I know it's probably sexist of me but I just can't. I haven't managed to read the books of magic yet.

[Kurt Busiek]

Did you enjoy, or had any interest in writing any of them? I found it a particularly interesting line. Hardcase, and the Strangers were probably my favorites, but, overall, I found a lot of cool concepts with cool twists.

I wrote a three-part Lady-Killer serial in ULTRAVERSE PREMIERE, but don't go out hunting for it; it wasn't very good.

I thought it was an interesting line, and enjoyed reading various of the books -- NIGHT MAN, THE STRANGERS and PRIME were the ones I remember following most. But I suspect it was the talent involved more than the series concepts that really made it go, so if the characters were going to be written by people other than their creators (as they were, more and more, toward the end), I lost interest.

I liked THE STRANGERS, for instance, and would have liked to see it run for a good long time. But then, I like Steve Englehart comics. If given a choice between THE STRANGERS written by someone else or a different super-team by Steve, I think I'd be following Steve more than the Strangers.

So I don't feel any great loss at not seeing Marvel revive the Ultraverse -- other than wishing that friends of mine who created various of the characters would get nice royalties and licensing money off them. But I'm not in any hurry to see new people revamp, rework and revive the characters. Reprint collections would be nice, though.

The characters I want to see Marvel rope into the Marvel Universe, now that they're owned by Disney, are The Gargoyles. I think that'd fit really well.

kdb

[THANOSRULES]

I wrote a three-part Lady-Killer serial in ULTRAVERSE PREMIERE, but don't go out hunting for it; it wasn't very good.

I thought it was an interesting line, and enjoyed reading various of the books -- NIGHT MAN, THE STRANGERS and PRIME were the ones I remember following most. But I suspect it was the talent involved more than the series concepts that really made it go, so if the characters were going to be written by people other than their creators (as they were, more and more, toward the end), I lost interest.

I liked THE STRANGERS, for instance, and would have liked to see it run for a good long time. But then, I like Steve Englehart comics. If given a choice between THE STRANGERS written by someone else or a different super-team by Steve, I think I'd be following Steve more than the Strangers.

So I don't feel any great loss at not seeing Marvel revive the Ultraverse -- other than wishing that friends of mine who created various of the characters would get nice royalties and licensing money off them. But I'm not in any hurry to see new people revamp, rework and revive the characters. Reprint collections would be nice, though.

The characters I want to see Marvel rope into the Marvel Universe, now that they're owned by Disney, are The Gargoyles. I think that'd fit really well.

kdb

I have not thought of the gargoyles for a few years now...that is a tremendous idea.

Although Kurt, I would really love to see the micronauts ride again.....

[Cthulhudrew]

The characters I want to see Marvel rope into the Marvel Universe, now that they're owned by Disney, are The Gargoyles. I think that'd fit really well.

A Gargoyles/Gargoyle/Dragon Man limited series!

More seriously, though, that might actually be kind of cool. I always liked the way the Gargoyles cartoon mixed past and present, and I still feel that the past history of the Marvel Universe is too little explored, so a Gargoyles comic could be a cool way to accomplish it while still having it be "relevant" (as the kids say).

Speaking of which, what did you think of the Marvel: Lost Generation series by Stern and Byrne back in the day? (I'm presuming you read it, of course; it seems like something that would have been in your wheelhouse.)

[Kurt Busiek]

Speaking of which, what did you think of the Marvel: Lost Generation series by Stern and Byrne back in the day? (I'm presuming you read it, of course; it seems like something that would have been in your wheelhouse.)

I read part of it. Never did get around to the whole thing.

As I've said before, I don't really want to do "what did you think of" questions, because what if I didn't like something that's by friends?

kdb

[KingsLeadHat]

As a fan, what's your favorite era of Conan comics?

[Kurt Busiek]

As a fan, what's your favorite era of Conan comics?

Roy's first run.

Followed by Roy's second run.

kdb

[Marvell2100]

Thanks for answering my earlier question Mr B.

One of my favorite Englehart titles wasThe Night Man from the Ultraverse Line.

Did you ever have a chance to work with the late Mark Gruenwald much? He's one of my favorite writers. I really enjoyed the passion he put into his comics. His run on Cap still stands as one of my favorite writer-character runs.

Gruenwald; Brubaker -Cap
Simonson -Thor
Avengers -Busiek
Miller -Daredevil
Stern -Amazing Spider-Man
Claremont -X-Men
Michelinie/Layton -Iron Man
Priest -Black Panther
Jim Valentino -Guardians of the Galaxy
Doug Moench -Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu
Byrnes; Hickman -Fantastic Four

[Avengers1986]

Kurt,

Any idea on what extra's might be included in your avengers omnibus? Also is there a chance of getting the ultron imperative added to the book or would that be too much content for the omnibus?

[Kurt Busiek]

Did you ever have a chance to work with the late Mark Gruenwald much?

Not really. I knew Mark because we both worked in the office, and I dealt with him when I was working as a sales manager or as MARVEL AGE assistant editor, and we occasionally had interesting conversations (usually about DC Comics, because Mark was a lifelong DC fan who worked at Marvel because that was where the opportunity was when he was looking for work).

But the only time I worked with him on an actual story was the THUNDERBOLTS preview in TALES OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE. He was the editor on the book when I turned the plot in, but he'd passed away by the time I was writing the dialogue for it.

Other than that, I did things like the preliminary logo design for ACTS OF VENGEANCE for him (I was doing the catalog, we needed the logo for the catalog, he didn't have one yet, so I mocked something up in TypeStyler or QuarkXPress or something, he gave it to a Bullpen artist who traced it, jaggies and everything, made the banner around it look nice, and boom, there it was), and we played a round of miniature golf in Orlando one time.

Oh, and I wrote a couple of entries in the Marvel Handbook for him -- but what that amounted to was, a friend of mine wrote a first draft to get me started, I rewrote them substantially, and then Mark rewrote them even more substantially, so there's not much of me in them.

But not much in the way of a direct working relationship.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Kurt,

Any idea on what extra's might be included in your avengers omnibus?

No idea. They don't consult with me on this stuff.

Also is there a chance of getting the ultron imperative added to the book or would that be too much content for the omnibus?

I'd assume that should go in a second (?) volume, so it's in with the other stuff that came out at around the same time it did.

kdb