76 BUSIEK, KURT
irreverent but for the stylized drawing, which gives the female body an ethereal edge
instead of conveying sexuality.
Strong and clear-cut narrative lines also give much room for various sub-stories and
emotions to be fully built up. Th ese are craftily paced by other narrative techniques—
diff erent panel shapes and page layouts, fast-moving fl ow, cinematic movements, bold-
face in dialogues and onomatopoeia, text, and drawing breaking out of the boundary of
the frame, to name a few—that Tezuka invented at the beginning of his career.
Selected Bibliography: Schrashun, Doug. “Th e Sage of the Sakyas Meets the God of
Manga: Tezuka Osamu’s Interpretation of the Buddha Biography.” BA Th esis, Amherst
College, 2006.
Nhu-Hoa Nguyen
BUSIEK, KURT (1960–). Born in Boston, Kurt Busiek grew up in suburban Massa-
chusetts. An avid superhero fan as a young man, he had several letters appear in the
pages of Marvel’s Th e Avengers in the late 1970s. He did his fi rst professional work
on a back-up in Green Lantern #162 for DC Comics , cover-dated March 1983. How-
ever, his fi rst major work was for Marvel, scripting Power Man & Iron Fist for 12 issues
beginning with #90 (February 1983).
In 1985, Busiek wrote a Red Tornado miniseries for DC with artist Carmine Infan-
tino. It was followed the next year by Th e Legend of Wonder Woman (promoted as the
“last” story for the Silver Age Wonder Woman) with artist Trina Robbins. Over the
next eight years, Busiek contributed to a variety of series, including Marvel’s Web of
Spider-Man , Dark Horse’s Army of Darkness , and Eclipse’s Th e Liberty Project.
Busiek reached a new level of acclaim and popularity when Marvels was released
in 1994. Featuring painted artwork by Alex Ross , the four-issue miniseries looked at
notable events in Marvel Comics history through the eyes of an average photographer.
Busiek continued the theme of looking at superheroes from everyday perspectives in
his creator-owned series with artist Brent Anderson, Astro City. Published by Homage
Comics beginning in 1995, the series follows an entire city, using superheroes, sidekicks,
villains, and regular citizens as point-of-view characters. It has followed an irregular
publication schedule due to Busiek’s health issues.
In 1997, Homage also released Busiek’s Th e Wizard’s Tale , a high fantasy graphic
novel. In 2000, he was one of the founders of the short-lived Gorilla Comics
imprint— ShockRockets , his fi ghter-pilot miniseries with artist Stuart Immonen, was
the only Gorilla project to reach completion. He returned to fantasy in 2003 for a run
on Dark Horse Comics’ Conan. Th at same year, he penned Arrowsmith , a miniseries set
in World War I on a world of magic, for DC’s WildStorm imprint.
While pursuing these creator-owned endeavors, Busiek continued to write main-
stream superhero comics. He began an acclaimed run on Marvel’s Th e Avengers in 1998,
initially with artist George Pérez and later talents such as Alan Davis. In addition to
the regular series, he also wrote a 12-issue miniseries entitled Avengers Forever , starring
