There are two words in comics that are synonymous with quality and creativity: KURT BUSIEK. The superstar writer of the critically-acclaimed ASTRO CITY, and surefire blockbusters like the upcoming JLA / AVENGERS and the MARVELS 10th anniversary project EYE OF THE CAMERA, gives readers the 411 on his newest creator-owned project ARROWSMITH, and other goodies in this exclusive interview.
Kurt Busiek has been a professional comic book writer since 1982, and a fan for far longer. He’s worked on some of the industry’s most iconic names; Spider-man, Avengers, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, Vampirella, and has collaborated with some of the industry’s top artists including Alex Ross, George Pérez, Brent Anderson and Mark Bagley.
His current project ARROWSMITH reunites him with his AVENGERS FOREVER penciller Carlos Pacheco and inker Jésus Meriño, who have just come off a solid artistic outing on JLA / JSA: VIRTUE AND VICE.
ARROWSMITH #1 was reviewed at 411 and remains highly recommended. Issue #2 hits comic book shelves on August 20th.
411: What’s the 411 on Arrowsmith?
KURT BUSIEK: ARROWSMITH is a series about a world where magic has been part of society and culture since the time of Charlemagne, where technology and magic have existed side by side. There was a Renaissance, the establishment of global empires, a Thaumaturgic Revolution to go along with the Industrial Revolution, and more. Now it’s World War I, and magic plays a part here, as well — the war is being fought through sorcery — and with the assistance of magical creatures, from trolls and wizards to vampires and zombies — as well as with conventional weaponry. And as in our own world, the war has become something bigger than anyone had imagined it would be — a war that nobody can control, a war that will transform the world, ushering in a new era.
ARROWSMITH is also the story of Fletcher Arrowsmith, a young man from the great state of Connecticut in the United States of Columbia, who runs away from home to fight in the war, and to be trained as an airman, a fighting-wizard who uses spells to give himself the power of flight. His head is full of dreams of adventure, and his heart full of dreams of standing up for what’s right, protecting the innocent from the forces despoiling their world … but he’ll have some rude awakenings coming, as he learns firsthand what the war is all about. So just as it’s a coming of age for the world, it’s a coming of age for Fletcher, as well, and the two interwine.
ARROWSMITH is also a Cliffhanger series by me, Carlos Pacheco and Jésus Meriño, ably assistent by Alex (Astro City) Sinclair on color art and the fine folk at Comicraft on letters & design. It’s planned as a series of mini-series — the first arc is six issues long, and debuted in July.
It’s very, very well drawn. And people seem to like the story so far, too…
411: I have read that the concept and world of Arrowsmith have been percolating for some time now. How did it come about?
KURT BUSIEK: Carlos and I had a great time working together on AVENGERS FOREVER, and wanted to work together again. So when the ill-fated Gorilla Comics started up, we talked about doing a project there. Ultimately, Carlos decided to re-up his Marvel contract, which was in hindsight clearly the smartest move, but before he did so, we’d worked up ARROWSMITH.
We wanted to find something different, something that’d have strong characters and a strong sense of adventure, but wasn’t the sort of thing readers had seen a lot before. And after FOREVER, I wanted to make sure it was something that’d take full advantage of Carlos’s visual strengths — a whole visually distinctive world where he could go to town designing it, making it inventive and unusual and striking.
The roots of the idea came from two places. First, in talking about ASTRO CITY over the years, I’ve often made the argument that superhero stories are more like fairy tales than science fiction — they don’t transform the world in which the stories happen because they’re inherently unrealistic. The example I’d give would be about imagining what fairy tales would be like if they all happened in the same “universe,” and had continuity to them, and were treated realistically, so that people with magic powers were militarily useful, and other races dwelling in the woods and mountains were potential trading partners, that sort of thing. And that got me thinking about a world where magic and folklore and technology were all merged, and I kinda liked it.
The other source was a suggestion I made to a friend of mine — Lawrence Watt-Evans, the fantasy novelist. He and I were talking about novel ideas, and I suggested he do a novel that played with the idea of wizards in a similar role to WWI biplane pilots — wizards that were trained fast, with a few useful skills and then thrown into battle to sink or swim. He wound up doing something else with the idea — it turned into his novel TOUCHED BY THE GODS — and I took the “wizards as WWI pilots” concept back to use myself sometime.
The combination of those two — a world that mixed folklore and history and a magical WWI — was what turned into ARROWSMITH. And Lawrence is still involved — he’s our “alternity consultant,” advising us on how the history of this world played out, so we can make the world both exotic and believable.
Anyway, Carlos and I took those basic ideas and built ARROWSMITH around them. We didn’t get to do it for Gorilla, but we kept it on the back burner, and when Carlos was ready to move to Cliffhanger, he called me up and said, “Hey, let’s do ARROWSMITH now, what do you say?”
411: With so many new and established comic books competing for the same fan dollar, why should readers pick up Arrowsmith? What makes it different from what else is on the shelves today?
KURT BUSIEK: I’m always uncomfortable with this kind of question — it’s like, “Hey, now we do the advertisement!” Really, if the book sounds interesting, pick up an issue and give it a shot. The art’s gorgeous, so even if you think I completely booted the story, you’ll have a good time looking at it. But what’s different about it? It’s a magical WWI, it’s a coming-of-age story for the world, it’s got these cool magic-powered airmen … not much like SPIDER-MAN or TRANSFORMERS there, I hope.
I’d figure all that makes it pretty different…
411: I read on the Arrowsmith message board, that you frequent, that the first issue of Arrowsmith has sold out completely. Did you expect this type of support?
KURT BUSIEK: It’s great — it’s nice to see that readers and retailers liked the book so much they snapped ’em up, and by the end of the very first day #1 was out, DC didn’t have any left. I should make it clear, though, by “sold out,” what they mean is that DC doesn’t have any more to fill retailer reorders. There may still be retailers who have copies to sell to readers, though I’ve heard from a lot of them who’ve sold out.
411: Will the issue go to a second printing?
KURT BUSIEK: That’s up to DC — they’re keeping an eye on the demand, and if there’s enough so that going back to press will make sense, I gather they’ll do so. They also might see how #2 does, and if that goes fast, do a “bumper edition” collecting #1 and #2. It all depends on what kind of demand there is for more.
411: Will each issue of Arrowsmith be accessible to potentially “new” readers?
KURT BUSIEK: Yes. Every issue starts out with a “story so far” page, to remind readers of what happened before and to let new readers start at any point and understand and enjoy the book.
411: Is the title character, Fletcher Arrowsmith, modeled after anyone in particular? What/who was the inspiration of the character?
KURT BUSIEK: Carlos had a couple of faces in mind for Fletcher, but I think he changed his mind as he worked on it — and I confess, I don’t remember the names.
Beyond that, Fletcher is based on a particular type of person rather than any individual — he’s a kid who has dreams of adventure, and they lured him into an ugly and dangerous reality, where he’s got to wake up and grow up fast, or he won’t survive. Beyond that, we’re trying to make him an interesting and engaging individual — but he’s not modeled after any specific person.
411: Any connection to rockers Aerosmith?
KURT BUSIEK: Nope — nor to the Sinclair Lewis novel ARROWSMITH, though that’s where I got the name. The name has a meaning, though, but it’s about the story and the themes and the ideas, not a reference to something else.
Although if there’s ever an ARROWSMITH movie, if Liv Tyler, the daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, wants to be in it, I’m sure we can find room for her…!
411: In the work you’ve done at DC and Marvel, you’ve shown a tremendous grasp and respect for continuity. With creator-owned books, like Astro City, you’ve shown an aptitude for creating an engaging mythos from scratch. Which type of story is more satisfying to write? Is one easier to write than the other?
KURT BUSIEK: I like ’em both. There’s a similarity, in that in both cases it’s a matter of presenting an interesting, complex, fleshed-out world, but in doing a Marvel or DC book it’s a matter of doing the research to get the references and make the world seem “right,” and in doing something like ARROWSMITH or ASTRO CITY it’s a matter of making it up. But in both cases, the story has to stand on its own — the world may be cool, but if the story doesn’t work, it’s like having a great background painting and nothing to put in front of it.
I don’t really think about whether one’s harder than the other — I just plunge into it, doing whatever the story needs, and whether I’m trying to figure out a psychological profile based on Ultron’s history or work out how military magicians fit into the High Command, it’s what’s got to be done.
If I could only do one, I think I’d choose to create worlds rather than play in other people’s — but luckily, I get to do both!
411: Arrowsmith seems to be a cross between established “historical” continuity and a new “fantasy” subtext. Does this present a greater challenge than the other from-the-ground-up and/or creator-owned projects you’ve written?
KURT BUSIEK: Well, it involved working out history dating back to 800 AD — and parts of it back even further — which is more work than, say, creating the future-world of SHOCKROCKETS or JONNY DEMON. But I did have help — I’m smart enough to know when to call in assistance. Is it a greater challenge? It sure would be if I had to work out 1100 years of European history all by myself! But as it is, I think it’s still more work — not so much that it’s overwhelming, though.
411: I understand that Arrowsmith is slated to be a series of mini-series. Is the first 6-issue installment completed wholly?
KURT BUSIEK: No — DC gave us time to get some material “in the drawer” before we hit the stands, but not so much that we could get six issues done! We’re working on #4 now.
411: How important is it for comic books to come out regularly and on time?
KURT BUSIEK: To my mind, it’s extremely important — back when I was a teenager buying comics, I knew what came out each week, and I’d look forward to that trip to the comics store, knowing I’d get the latest IRON MAN or AVENGERS or whatever. And it’s disappointing when something’s supposed to be there and isn’t.
These days, there are more late books, for a variety of reasons — and I’m definitely one of the culprits, with ASTRO CITY having been so irregular. I’m grateful that people like the book enough to wait, but I wouldn’t count on it — we do the best we can to get the books out on time, and if we screw up, we try to find a way to fix it so that screw up, at least, won’t happen again.
And then we find new ones, of course…
411: How far ahead have you mapped out the world and future direction of Arrowsmith?
KURT BUSIEK: We have most of the world mapped out — all of the northern hemisphere and big chunks of the southern hemisphere; we’ll fill that in as we need to. In terms of stories, I know what the next arc is, and have several arcs beyond that worked out, but am not sure what order they’ll come in. Plus, we’ve got a lot of ideas — bits and pieces, developments we want to get to but haven’t shaped into stories yet. But there’s plenty in the world of ARROWSMITH to keep Fletcher hopping for many years to come…
411: Why is the Cliffhanger imprint more appealing to you than others in bringing Arrowsmith to readers?
KURT BUSIEK: I can’t say it is, really. I have a lot of respect for DC as a publisher, and for Scott Dunbier, Wildstorm’s editor-in-chief, as someone who lets the creators he works with do their best. But I’d have been just as happy with ARROWSMITH as an Homage title, or a Wildstorm title. The reason it’s a Cliffhanger title is that they went after Carlos, and once they got him interested in doing something there, he brought me in because what he wanted to do was ARROWSMITH.
But I think the strength of DC and Wildstorm is in the support they give a book, not in the imprint name.
411: The Cliffhanger logo / trade dress is absent from Arrowsmith #1. What was the thought behind this? Would a closer connection to other Cliffhanger books help or hinder your title?
KURT BUSIEK: The Cliffhanger name is there — we just didn’t use the logo, with that bouncy lettering in the word balloon. And that’s simply because it didn’t fit our look. ARROWSMITH has a very classic look, based on period magazine design from 1915 — word balloons and excited comic-book-style effects lettering don’t fit that at all. So it’d have been a jarring element; it’d have detracted from the gorgeous design work John Roshell does over Carlos’s beautiful artwork.
I’m not sure what advantage we’d get out of a “closer connection” to the rest of the Cliffhanger line, but whatever advantage there is, I think, can be had through the Wildstorm news page, or house ads, or whatever. I think we’ll get more people picking up ARROWSMITH if the covers look great and distinctive and interesting, more than we’d have people going for it for a word-balloon logo in the corner.
411: Even with the support of DC’s marketing team and your own efforts; Power Company was recently cancelled. Is there anything that you’ve learned from the experiences from that book that you have applied to Arrowsmith, or other projects, from a story content perspective or marketing?
KURT BUSIEK: Well, we sure didn’t launch with a multi-book “event” right on the heels of two big crossovers, that’s for sure. And I think we focused on what’s most distinctive about the book, instead of doing a fairly straightforward, conventional story as our debut.
I think with Power Company we had a mixture of bad timing and bad judgment, and we aren’t following the same path with ARROWSMITH. But I’ve talked about what went wrong with POWER COMPANY often enough — I’d rather not do another round of it.
411: I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to ask you about the most highly anticipated event of the year, 20 years in the making, JLA/Avengers. Can you give us the 411 on this epic mini-series?
KURT BUSIEK: JLA. Avengers. George Pérez. 200 pages. Finally.
What more do you need to know?
411: As a fan yourself, how does it feel to be part of bringing a George Pérez penciled JLA/Avengers to readers?
KURT BUSIEK: It feels great. One of my last “fan press” jobs before breaking in as a pro was writing for a magazine, COMICS FEATURE — and I wound up writing (or maybe just editing) the news page that announced the crossover, lo those many years ago. To have gone from there to being the guy tapped to write it has been quite a journey, and nothing I ever expected.
411: Will DC’s Power Company and/or Marvel’s Thunderbolts make an appearance in JLA/Avengers?
KURT BUSIEK: Anything’s possible, of course. But I’ve never really been the kinda guy who sticks characters I’m working on into another book just to have them there.
411: Are all issues of the JLA/Avengers series completed?
KURT BUSIEK: No. The first two are done, save for some lettering corrections on #2. #3 is being scripted, colored and inked. #4 is being penciled.
411: What can you tell your fans about Astro City? Any news or tidbits you’d like to share?
KURT BUSIEK: LOCAL HEROES has been going over well, and we’re just going to keep going after it’s done. The story that was planned for LOCAL HEROES #4 became a two-parter, so that’ll now be #4-5. What would have been #5 will become an ASTRO CITY special early next year.
Plus, we’ll be doing an ASTRO CITY/ARROWSMITH one-shot, printing the 8-page Arrowsmith prelude we did on the web, and combining it with an Astro City story, a prelude to the mega-epic “The Dark Age” we’ll be doing next year.
And after all that, we’ll be doing two different arcs at once — on the one hand, we’ll be doing ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE, a 12-part story broken up into 4 3-issue stories, delving into what went wrong in Astro City in the 1970s, and how it affected two brothers, their lives and their futures. And in between those arcs, we’ll be doing character specials focusing on the modern-day Astro City heroes, giving them a chance to shine.
That ought to keep us going for a while.
411: You clearly have a synergetic relationship with Carlos Pacheco and Jésus Meriño that dates back to your Avengers Forever days. That harnessed energy really shows in Arrowsmith #1. Do you have any further creator-owned or other type of projects on the horizon with artists you’ve worked with, like Alex Ross or Tom Grummett, for example?
KURT BUSIEK: Neil Vokes and I will be revisiting our Jonny Demon character, who we did in a creator-owned book at Dark Horse. And David Wenzel and I, who did THE WIZARD’S TALE together, have another project in mind. Alex, of course, is still doing all the ASTRO CITY covers, and if and when we do an interior story together, my guess is it’ll be an Astro City tale. And James Fry and I should be finally doing a project together again — our previous creation, THE LIBERTY PROJECT, is out in TPB, and we’d like to do more stuff together.
I’d work with Tom Grummett in a heartbeat, but nothing’s on the horizon.
411: We’ve talked a lot about Arrowsmith, a book that deserves as much support as possible. It truly is a very original, engaging and fun read. Are there any other current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about that we haven’t yet covered?
KURT BUSIEK: After JLA/AVENGERS, the next projects I’ve got debuting are CONAN from Dark Horse, which Cary Nord is drawing, and SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY from DC, with Stuart Immonen doing full art. CONAN is the return of the world-famous barbarian hero, of course, and SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY is a mini-series about a kid named Clark Kent who grows up in Kansas being teased about being Superman, and what happens across decades of his life after he discovers he’s got the powers, too.
After that, I’ve got a 10th-anniversary MARVELS project coming up called EYE OF THE CAMERA, revisiting Phil Sheldon and taking a look at his life and concerns set against Marvel of the Seventies and Eighties. And then a few other projects here and there…
411: Are there any established characters or established comic book mythologies that you’re itching to tackle?
KURT BUSIEK: Oh, sure. There’s plenty, from the JLA to Green Lantern to Wonder Woman to the Fantastic Four to Kamandi and more. I like playing around with a well-established characters. But I like creating my own stuff, too, so I hope to do a mix.
411: Are there any writers you’d love to co-write a project with?
Not particularly. There are a lot of writers I respect, and writers I wouldn’t mind working with, if the right kind of opportunity came along. But I’m not a co-writer by nature. For all that something like AVENGERS FOREVER came out well, I think Roger Stern doesn’t need me to write a damn good comic book, and I wouldn’t have roped him in if I hadn’t been over my head deadline-wise. So while I might learn a lot from co-writing something with, say, Alan Brennert, I’d frankly rather read a story Brennert wrote all by himself.
411: Similarly, are there any artists, that you haven’t worked with yet, that you’d jump at the chance to work with?
KURT BUSIEK: Many. Leonard Kirk, Jose Ladronn, Alex Toth, Bryan Hitch, Eduardo Risso, Amanda Conner, Steve Leialoha, Charles Vess … it’s a long, long list and gets longer every year.
411: What comic books, graphic novels, or books are you reading now?
KURT BUSIEK: Right now? I’m reading my way through AMERICAN FLAGG again, and I’ve got Craig Thompson’s BLANKETS on deck after that.
But I read tons of stuff, ranging from the mainstreamiest of the mainstream to mini-comics and more. Some favorites these days include USAGI YOJIMBO, HAWKMAN, SAVAGE DRAGON, TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD, INCREDIBLE HULK and more.
411: Are there any comic books out there that you feel fans should really be picking up, next to, of course, everything that you write?
KURT BUSIEK: Sure. They should try TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD, USAGI YOJIMBO, THE INTERMAN, AMY UNBOUNDED, SANDWALK ADVENTURES, JACK STAFF, INVINCIBLE and all kinds of other cool stuff.
411: You are a remarkably accessible comic book creator, from message boards, to online interviews, to comic book convention appearances. How important is it for you to connect with your fans?
KURT BUSIEK: I don’t do any of it because it’s “important” — I just like talking comics.
411: In closing, what do you think the comic industry, from creators to publishers to retailers to others, can do to bring new and different readers into the comic book world? Is this important?
KURT BUSIEK: It’s absolutely important, but alas, I don’t have a secret answer, or I’d be making millions off it and revitalizing the industry.
I think what we’ve got to do is the grunt work of the four A’s — make the comics we do accessible, available, attractive and affordable. That doesn’t mean making them cheap, it means making them worth the money they cost — a $10 book with 150 pages is better value (if it’s good stuff) than a $3 book with 20 pages.
But comics need to be featuring lots of different kinds of stuff — stories that’ll appeal to superhero fans, stories that’ll appeal to romance fans, stories that’ll appeal to people who like true-life history or crime or whatever. They need to be in formats that readers are willing to pick up and look at, they need to be sold in places the audience will see them, and they need to be well-promoted.
Just do all that, and it’ll be a snap!
Acknowledgment
I would like to extend a big thank you to Kurt Busiek for taking the time from his hectic schedule to talk with us at 411. Kurt, feel free to stop by anytime. Like you, we just like talking comics too.
