Kurt Busiek

Author profile

born

September 16, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts , The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.busiek.com/

genre

Comics & Graphic Novels

About this author

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Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.

Busiek did not read comics as a youngster, as his parents disapproved of them. He began to read them regularly around the age of 14, when he picked up a copy of Daredevil #120. This was the first part of a continuity-heavy four-part story arc; Busiek was drawn to the copious history and cross-connections with other series. Throughout high school and college, he and future writer Scott McCloud practiced making comics. During this time, Busiek also had many letters published in comic book letter columns, and originated the theory that the Phoenix was a separate being who had impersonated...more Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.

Busiek did not read comics as a youngster, as his parents disapproved of them. He began to read them regularly around the age of 14, when he picked up a copy of Daredevil #120. This was the first part of a continuity-heavy four-part story arc; Busiek was drawn to the copious history and cross-connections with other series. Throughout high school and college, he and future writer Scott McCloud practiced making comics. During this time, Busiek also had many letters published in comic book letter columns, and originated the theory that the Phoenix was a separate being who had impersonated Jean Grey, and that therefore Grey had not died—a premise which made its way from freelancer to freelancer, and which was eventually used in the comics.

During the last semester of his senior year, Busiek submitted some sample scripts to editor Dick Giordano at DC Comics. None of them sold, but they did get him invitations to pitch other material to DC editors, which led to his first professional work, a back-up story in Green Lantern #162 (Mar. 1983).

Busiek has worked on a number of different titles in his career, including Arrowsmith, The Avengers, Icon, Iron Man, The Liberty Project, Ninjak, The Power Company, Red Tornado, Shockrockets, Superman: Secret Identity, Thunderbolts, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, JLA, and the award-winning Marvels and the Homage Comics title Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

In 1997, Busiek began a stint as writer of Avengers alongside artist George Pérez. Pérez departed from the series in 2000, but Busiek continued as writer for two more years, collaborating with artists Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer and others. Busiek's tenure culminated with the "Kang Dynasty" storyline. In 2003, Busiek re-teamed with Perez to create the JLA/Avengers limited series.

In 2003, Busiek began a new Conan series for Dark Horse Comics, which he wrote for four years.

In December 2005 Busiek signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. During DC's Infinite Crisis event, he teamed with Geoff Johns on a "One Year Later" eight-part story arc (called Up, Up and Away) that encompassed both Superman titles. In addition, he began writing the DC title Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis from issues 40-49. Busiek was the writer of Superman for two years, before followed by James Robinson starting from Superman #677. Busiek wrote a 52-issue weekly DC miniseries called Trinity, starring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Each issue (except for issue #1) featured a 12-page main story by Busiek, with art by Mark Bagley, and a ten-page backup story co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with art from various artists, including Tom Derenick, Mike Norton and Scott McDaniel.

Busiek's work has won him numerous awards in the comics industry, including the Harvey Award for Best Writer in 1998 and the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1999. In 1994, with Marvels, he won Best Finite Series/Limited Series Eisner Award and the Best Continuing or Limited Series Harvey Award; as well as the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story (for Marvels #4) in 1995. In 1996, with Astro City, Busiek won both the Eisner and Harvey awards for Best New Series. He won the Best Single Issue/Single Story Eisner three years in a row from 1996–1998, as well as in 2004. Busiek won the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 1997–1998, as well as the Best Serialized Story award in 1998. In addition, Astro City was awarded the 1996 Best Single Issue or Story Harvey Award, and the 1998 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series.

Busiek was given the 1998 and 1999 Comics Buyer's Guide Awards for Favorite Writer, with additional nominations in 1997 and every year from 2000 to 2004. He has also received numerous Squiddy Awards, having been selected as favorite writer four years in a row from 1995 to 1998, (less)

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Books by Kurt Busiek

Average rating: 4.01 · 17,186 ratings · 880 reviews · 133 distinct works

	Marvels by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross 4.17 avg rating — 4,783 ratings — published 1999 — 18 editions	My rating:
	Astro City Vol. 1: Life in the Big City by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson 4.10 avg rating — 2,421 ratings — published 1996 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek, Stuart Immonen (Illustrator), Todd Klein (Letterer) 4.13 avg rating — 1,142 ratings — published 2005 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Astro City Vol. 2: Confession by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson 4.30 avg rating — 1,055 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	Astro City Vol. 4: The Tarnished Angel by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson 4.18 avg rating — 667 ratings — published 2000 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter And Other Stories by Kurt Busiek, Thomas Yeates, Cary Nord 4.13 avg rating — 614 ratings — published 2005 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Astro City Vol. 3: Family Album by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson 4.05 avg rating — 620 ratings — published 1999 — 6 editions	My rating:
	JLA/Avengers: The Collector's Edition by Kurt Busiek, George Pérez (Illustrator) 3.78 avg rating — 624 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Astro City Vol. 5: Local Heroes by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson 4.01 avg rating — 509 ratings — published 2004 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Conan Volume 2: The God In The Bowl And Other Stories by Kurt Busiek, Thomas Yeates, Cary Nord 4.14 avg rating — 371 ratings — published 2005	My rating:

More books by Kurt Busiek…

Series by Kurt Busiek

Spider-Man Marvel Comics (206 books)
by Kurt Busiek (writer), Tom DeFalco (writer), Roger Stern (writer), Mike Allred (artist), Bob McLeod (Goodreads Author) (artist, inker), Ron Frenz (artist), John Romita Sr. (artist), Joe Sinnot (inker) , more...

3.82 avg rating — 8,145 ratings

Astro City (8 books)
by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson

4.11 avg rating — 5,681 ratings

Marvels (2 books)
by Kurt Busiek, Jay Anacleto

4.16 avg rating — 4,830 ratings

Superman Secret Identity (3 books)
by Kurt Busiek, Stuart Immonen

4.13 avg rating — 1,143 ratings

Avengers Vol. III (12 books)
by Kurt Busiek, Alan Davis, Manuel Garcia, Kieron Dwyer (Text), Brent Anderson (Illustrations), Ivan Reis (Illustrations), Patrick Zircher (Illustrations), Yanick Paquette (Illustrations)

3.62 avg rating — 1,277 ratings

More series by Kurt Busiek…

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Quotes by Kurt Busiek

“Maybe I had a "secret identity", but then when you think about it, don't we all? A part of ourselves very few people ever get to see. The part we think of as "me". The part that deals with the big stuff. Makes the real choices. The part everything else is a reflection of.”
― Kurt Busiek, Superman: Secret Identity

tags: comics , truth

11 people liked it

“And I saw in them a hope...A hope that it was possible to have secrets, to mask one's true nature...and yet still to walk among men. ”
― Kurt Busiek, Astro City Vol. 2: Confession

2 people liked it

“She said things that'd have sounded like cliches--but when they're said by the woman you love in the middle of the night, it's different.

I said things that sounded like cowboy-movie junk, even when they were coming out of my mouth. But I meant them.”
― Kurt Busiek, Astro City Vol. 5: Local Heroes

2 people liked it

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