Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Letter columns

By the way, LT....finding out you read AC is a bit of a revelation! For some reason I thought you were one of those posters who pretty much gave up buying new comics after the Legion was cancelled; now, I realize I was mistaken. So....what all are you buying?

Lardy, Astro City is the only book on my pull list. I've given up everything else. I did buy JLU #1 this week just to see Dawnstar and to see if that story was going anywhere interesting.

Well, if one only has AC on his or her pull list, one could do a WHOLE LOT worse!

Lardy, that's huge. I got only a couple in my nearly forty years of reading. You can now add "published author" to your resume.

{Hey, I damn sure did.}

Lardy, you made me wanna check out Astro City. From what you wrote, I got a bit of a vibe from the issue of Blue Beetle that concentrated on the henchman. very cool.

I picked this one up on the back of the letter. It's quite good. The letter I mean... Astro City could be making a comeback on to the pull list.

Did you pick up the one my letter appears in or the one I wrote about?

Oh, the one the letter appears in.
I just opened it to that page and framed it. Apparently you get a free comic with it.

This was my second published letter, Rick--as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I had another published in the last Booster Gold series. This one's pretty special, though, as it's "letter of the month" and as such is the only one printed in the book and entitles me to a signed copy! Plus, Astro City is one of my all-time favorite books!



I highly recommend Astro City!!! Busiek's take on the series is to tell standalone stories (all set in the same continuity) from the point of view of one of the characters, often ordinary people affected by superhero happenings but also from the perspective of the powered characters, too. Some of the best one-issue tales I've ever read have been told in AC, but the multi-issue epics are usually great, too!

If you're looking for TPB recommendations, I'd start with "Life in the Big City" and "Tarnished Angel". The first one collects the first six-issue mini and are all great standalones and a perfect intro to the AC world. The second is, imo, its best multi-issue arc ever focusing on a reformed bad guy and his quest to find a killer. "Confession" is another outstanding multi-parter, too!

Aside from those great Alex Ross covers, the interiors are by Brent Eric Anderson, who I think is one of the best artists in the business with a classic, timeless style. He was mostly known for '80s Marvel books like Ka-Zar and Strikeforce: Moritori and the classic X-Men GN "God Loves, man Kills". He didn't do a lot of DC stuff, so you may not be familiar with him.

I don't see how anyone wouldn't like AC!

You're so droll, thoth!

All right, Lardy. You finally sold me on AC. The library has all the trades, I'll check them out.

I'm not entirely new to Astro City, though.

Back in the day, I read the mini-series and felt kind of sour about the issue where a woman chooses to life a "normal" life. Combined with my antipathy toward Busiek because of his Avengers run, I had resisted the lure of AC for years upon years. But now that I've come to realize that George Perez and Marvel's then-editors were just as, if not more, responsible than Busiek for the things I disliked about said Avengers run, I'm willing to give AC a fair chance.

Well, the good news is that if it's all available at your local library, then the price is right for the risk, right?

Seriously, I'm glad you're giving it another chance, Fickles!

The story you mention is from "Life in the Big City". You might want to start with one of the others as your memory may be inclined to sour you on it. I recommended it to Rick because it's a good intro and tour of the whole range of the concept. It was, however, the first entry, so it may arguably have been the one where everyone hadn't found their footing yet.

I think my all-time favorite AC story is the one about Looney Leo, a cartoon lion brought to life via a freak accident who is trapped in the "real" world. It appears in AC Vol. 2, issue 13. Not sure which collection it appears in.

I'm a little nervous, now, that you're giving it another chance: "What if she HATES it!"

I promise to be as fair and open-minded as I can in my appraisal of it.

'Tis done. I placed a request for the AC trade Shining Stars.

While I was at it, I also requested Marvels, which I think is overdue for a reappraisal, and the sequel, Eye of the Camera, which I've never read.

Hm. Looked up Shining stars. Not a bad one. I especially think you might like the Samaritan and Beautie stories. Not as sure about the Astra and Silver Agent stories; those two build a lot on/pay off previous AC stories, though they are technically standalone.



Been meaning to re-read Marvels forEVer, especially as I originally didn't have #3 and haven't read that one along with the rest since I obtained it.

Eye of the Camera, what I read of it, was a poor sequel, imo. Found it on the boring side, so much so that I never bought the last couple of issues.

No worries. Being a non-linear thinker, I actually enjoy coming into stories in the middle of things instead of the beginning. I look at it this way: if those stories are worth their salt, they'll make me want to read all the previous stories connected to them.

Okay, you've inspired me to re-read Marvels, followed by the DC/Wildstorm era of Astro City! Starting TONIGHT!!!

I also highly recommend Astro City to everyone! Like Lardy, I'm a long time fan. My fave stories are probably Confession (multi-parter) and two maybe Lardy can remember the titles / issue numbers for: the one with the reporter where the Old Soldier first appears and the one with Crackerjack.

Also, Marvels holds up very well! I've reread many times and liked it more each time. (Of course, I'm the perfect audience given my background as a reader). Never bothered with the sequel though.

I think those are both in the original AC mini, collected as "Life in the Big City". Good news: an upcoming AC issue revisits Crackerjack (and Quarrel) in a story about him confronting the reality of his being an aging hero.



I'll let you know how the re-read goes! Should be interesting as I've never read the finale before--it was shorted at my CBS when it originally came out. Years later, I finally got it as a back issue, but never gotten around to re-reading the whole thing as I'd intended--until NOW!

The sequel is, of course, without Alex Ross, so it just doesn't feel the same. I may eventually buy the issues I'm missing and try reading it again to be complete.

Droll: The sophisticated Troll

The early Astro City issues were towards the top of my pull list. This was back when there weren't many entirely new superhero worlds outside the big 2. The art was good*, the covers better and the writing had a nostalgic flavour to it.

I think that I lost some interest in the Dark Age and there may have been gaps between the issues, to the extent that I never really picked it back up again.

Lardy, it looks like you've wrangled at least 3 new/returned readers to Astro City!

Thoth, that's pretty much the second sentence of my elevator pitch for Astro City too. After "Astro City is one my all-time favorite comic books."



I considered quitting during Dark Age but there was always some really fine part of each issue that got me to buy the next one. I'm glad I stuck with it because Astro City is such a rich, human world that's worth knowing. (Unlike DC's current morally ambivalent universe.)

I remember getting that feeling of comics wonder back when reading the early Astro City issues. I don't remember how long that lasted, but even for a moment...