Kurt Busiek Interview
March 2007

Kurt Busiek is the current writer on Superman, and he just finished a run on Aquaman: The Sword of Atlantis.  He is famous for such fan favorite stories like Marvels, where he collaborated with superstar painter Alex Ross, and JLA/Avengers.  He also wrote a critically acclaimed run on the Avengers. 

Interview conducted by Christopher Hoerdemann

You've worked on just about every major character out there at some point. Besides living a fanboy's dream, what has been the best part about getting to do so many different things in your comics career?
I've written most of the big characters, sure -- but there's a big difference between writing a couple of panels with Daredevil or the Fantastic Four in them, and being the writer on those characters' main series. So there's still plenty of characters I don't feel like I've gotten a chance to "play with." Still, it's been great to have had the chance to do so much stuff -- both because I was a fan of these characters in my younger days, and because I like variety, so it's nice to do lots of different kinds of things.

Let's reach back to the past, and bring up your Marvels miniseries with Alex Ross. I really enjoyed it, and I have always wondered what your impression of Ross was at that stage in his career. Did you think he was heading to super stardom? Plus, has he ever sent you a thank you for helping him get off on the right foot?
Well, let's be fair. MARVELS may have made Alex a star, but it's not as if I was there at the top of the business, offering poor wee Alex a hand up -- I was a struggling mid-list writer who would have probably found himself out of the industry after the market crash, except that MARVELS did as much good for me as it did for Alex. So I don't think it was me giving him a leg up so much as the two of us together delivering something that helped us both in a major way. That said, I have a couple of pages of original art from the series, and would call that quite a "thank you." As for superstardom, neither of us had any idea that MARVELS would be the hit it was. It is, after all, a history-intensive series about a half-blind Jewish guy who wanders around the Marvel Universe basically pointing and saying, "Sayyy, lookit that!" No one had any idea what to expect. We knew the art was lovely, but we thought nobody was going to pay attention to #1 (it was set in the Golden Age, which we'd been told over and over was sales death), and only check out #2 because it had the X-Men in it. So it was a surprise -- but a very welcome one. 

   

Like I mentioned earlier, you've worked on a lot of the big guns (JLA, Avengers, Superman, Spider-Man). Do you still get overwhelmed when you realize that you are working on American icons, or does it not faze you anymore?
During the period it would have fazed me, I don't think I got to work on any of the big toys -- maybe JLA #224, my first story to feature Superman, Batman and the gang, was intimidating, but I got over it pretty quick and had some fun with the story. And once you've written the JLA hanging out at a seafood restaurant, it's hard to be intimidated. That was over twenty years ago, so I think I'm okay...

You've collaborated with George Perez on multiple projects (JLA/ Avengers, and Avengers). Does it help to be working with a guy like that? Does it make it easier for you as a writer to kind of write to his strengths, and know that he can produce beautiful pages no matter what?
It's always a big help to be working with an artist who can take a story and knock it out of the park -- George is great, no argument. So's Carlos Pacheco, so's Alan Davis, so's Butch Guice... I've been lucky to work with a lot of terrific artists. And yes, knowing that I can cram that one extra beat onto a page and George is still going to make the page look wild and exciting and active and everyone's going to be perfectly in character -- it's an amazing safety net. 

   
 
If you were forced to pick one, what would be your favorite project that you've been involved with, and why?
ASTRO CITY, no question. That's where I've been able to have the most freedom to play with stuff I've been thinking about and wanting to explore since I was a teenager. To be able not only to do that, but to do it and have an audience embrace it, well, that's been just too good for words.

You figured heavily into DC's "One Year Later" Plan as the writer for both Aquaman, and Superman/Action Comics. How was that experience, knowing that you were crafting a story that pretty much defines the new status quo for both of those heroes?
It was an interesting contrast, since on one of the characters, we were reestablishing a classic take, and on the other introducing a brand-new version of the character. Again, I like variety, so that made it more fun, to be taking such different approaches. Also, doing one as undersea sword-and-sorcery and the other as big superhero SF, that made for a nice contrast, too.

Since then, you've continued work on Aquaman, and Superman. Do you have long term plans for those titles? If so, can you let us in on some of those plans?
I had long-term plans for AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS, but my last issue just came out. I got pulled off it for a Secret Project -- and of course, as irony would have it, the moment Tad Williams was comfortably ensconced on the book as my replacement, the Secret Project got delayed a year. So it goes. But I'm looking forward to what Tad does -- judging from his fantasy novels, he's an ideal choice for a book like this. And I've certainly been given plenty to do to tide me over until the Secret Project begins. Can I say "Secret Project" a few more times? As for SUPERMAN, we're currently outlined out through the end of 2008, and have a couple years' worth of ideas beyond that -- and I seem to come up with more every day. So I'd say there are long-term plans there, yeah. As for sharing them, well, I like to surprise people. So I'll just say that there are plans for Third Kryptonians, bottle cities, Perseus Hazard and Squad K, the Young Gods of Supertown, the Insect Queen, the Beast From Krypton, the Origin of Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang saving LexCorp from bankruptcy, Superman at the World Series, the Batman/Chris Kent team, the asteroid belt, Lois's cousin, Krypto's new master and lots more. 

   

You've taken Aquaman in a much different direction since the One Year Later jump. Did you go to DC and pitch them your ideas, or did they come to you and tell you that they wanted you to reinvent the character?
DC offered me the book, with the information that it had just been canceled and they needed a strikingly-different new take on it to save it. Dan Didio gave me an idea he liked, but I didn't think it would work, so I modified it into something I liked, and he didn't think that would work. So we had a long conversation about Aquaman in general, and I threw out several different ideas I'd had for how I thought the series could work better over the years, and we combined them into one -- and then I realized how I could incorporate Dan's first idea in a way utterly unlike what he'd originally intended. And he liked the way it all fell together, so we rolled forward from there.

You are writing a very well received run on Superman right now. What about your current run do you think is appealing to people, and how much does Carlos Pacheco have to do with the series' success?
I think that people have been hungry for a straightforward Superman for a while now -- there's been good work done with the character, but a lot of it's been kind of alternative takes on Superman, the kind of thing that would work well as long as you had at least one mainstream, straight-up-the-middle-pedal-to-the-metal Superman title to be the centerline that those other books were alternatives to. And I think Geoff Johns and Richard Donner want to do a very straightforward Superman, and so do I, and the result's been that people are largely quite happy with both SUPERMAN and ACTION. We have different approaches, but we're taking Superman head-on, and just trying to do it "right," rather than "different." As for Carlos -- he's doing gorgeous work, and his kind of larger- than-life realism is just perfect for a character like Superman. He's a huge part of the book's success.

Are you going to have any involvement with the upcoming weekly series, Countdown? If so, what?
Aside from a few plot connections with Superman here and there -- as you'd expect, with Jimmy Olsen being a major character in COUNTDOWN -- no, I'm not working on it.

Do you plan on heading back over to Marvel after your exclusive contract with DC expires?
No plans for that, no. That's not to say I wouldn't talk to them if they offered me my choice of characters and artists and boatloads of cash, but I'm pretty happy at DC and they seem happy with me, so I'm not looking to make a change.

If you were given the keys to the corvette that is the Marvel stable of characters, which ones would you choose to work on, and why?
I played in the Avengers and Spider-Man playsets for a decent amount of time, and while I'd really like a crack at Captain America someday, I think if I chose today, I'd pick either the Fantastic Four or the X-Men, simply because I haven't worked in those corners of the Marvel Universe much, and I have what I think are pretty good ideas for those books that would be strikingly different from what's been done. Plus, Captain America's in good hands with Ed Brubaker -- I hope he stays on the book for a long, long time to come.

What about the same situation at DC. Which characters and why?
Kamandi! You hear me, Didio! Kamandi! I could have so much fun with that book! Other than The Last Boy on Earth, though, and of course Superman, since I'm already writing that one, I think I'd have fun with the mythological fantasy of Wonder Woman, and someday I'd love to have a nice long run on Legion, and really explore and expand that universe.

What is your opinion on the move towards "event comics" becoming the norm? Is this a good thing/bad thing?
They do seem to bring in the readers, don't they? I'm fairly cynical about anything that gets perceived as a gimmick, from lenticular covers to massive crossovers to replacement heroes and more. I think they work a few times, and then the audience loses interest, because the idea's not new and shiny any more. So sales slump, and the publishers look for the next shiny thing. For that reason, I'm not worried about "event comics" overstaying their welcome. The audience will let the publishers know when they've had enough. In the meantime, though, having big sprawling stories with lots of characters and plot complications that build to an actual conclusion -- that's kinda fun, at least for a while.

Have you ever turned down the chance to do a project, and regretted it later?
Not really. There were projects I didn't like turning down, like the HAWKEYE series Fabian Nicieza ultimately wrote. Hawkeye's my favorite superhero, so i'd love to write a Hawkeye book, but I had to choose between HAWKEYE and CONAN. And given the publishing approach at Marvel at the time, where they didn't want Hawkeye in costume much, and didn't want things to be very "superhero-y," I had a pretty good idea the book wasn't going to last. So I took CONAN, which turned out to be a pretty good move. And the HAWKEYE series died in about eight issues -- and I don't think it would have lasted any longer if it was me writing it instead of Fabes.

What do you have in the pipeline? Top secret projects, anything like that?
Secret Projects? Well, yeah, there's one, but it's a Secret! Beyond that, lemme see what I can talk about... SUPERMAN, of course, which will have more than 12 issues this year and an Annual besides, so that's a lot of work. And ASTRO CITY, which still forges ahead, less regularly than we'd like, but moving forward anyhow. I've got three more issues of CONAN to come out, and I've still got to write the last one. And we're slowly, slowly working on MARVELS: EYE OF THE CAMERA, which is looking simply stunning and will be worth the long wait. Beyond that, I'm doing a LEX LUTHOR mini-series, and some other things I can't announce yet.

At what point do you think you would call it a career when it comes to writing comics?
Death. Even if I was making a fortune as a novelist -- and novels are definitely something I'd like to do, when the comics deadlines and my health ease up a little -- I'd still want to do comics as well. I love the form, and don't think I'll ever get tired of it. That said, I'm aware that few comics writers finish out their careers in comics, unless they're editors as well, like Denny O'Neil -- comics tend to quit out from under writers. So I won't count on always being in demand.

Final Question: Are comics heading in the right direction? What kind of things need to be done in order for comics to continue to be successful in your opinion?
I don't think comics should go in one direction -- I think they should charge off wildly in many directions at once, trying new things and finding new audiences even while they keep delivering the classic stuff that the existing fans like so much. Comics is a medium, and we should have as much variety as prose or film. More, if we can swing it. But sales are up, so we're clearly doing something right, reaching out to audiences through bookstores, snagging new readers with manga, and delighting hardcover fans with 52 and CIVIL WAR. Mainly, I think we need to do the best stuff we can, and make sure readers -- both existing readers and potential new readers -- get a chance to see it. There's nothing that hooks people on comics better than actually seeing comics they'll like. A good comics page will win over more readers than any cover or poster imaginable -- because it's comics, and comics storytelling is a natural hook. If we don't forget that, we won't go wrong for long...