so, astro city...

I thought it was good, and now I think it isn't, but I don't really know how to reconcile those. I think basically it seemed to be of the view that the great stories were all done 30 years ago, and the best we can do is make pastiches of them, with "it makes you think" spins. And I just don't believe that as much as I used to.

The character designs are generally quite good, though.

I like it. I have Family Album, and would like to get more if $$$ wasn't tight.

I don't think its as simple as "the great stories were all done 30 years ago." Part of it is that Busiek wanted to reconstruct the field after all the deconstruction (which AMo did with some of his '90s/early '00s stuff) and the no-plot, all-art, no-heart Image-ification of the industry. so its not just reprising past themes as much as putting stuff back together— another kind of deconstruction. mostly taking classic superhero stuff told in a different way, and very loving.

also, a central conceit is that often the stories occur from the viewpoint of non-powered citizens of the town—a lot like Marvels, I guess.

Reading order, IIRC, is
Life in the Big City
Family Album
Confession
Tarnished Angel
Local Heroes

(Confession is a long story, Family Album collects shorter pieces that were originally published before and after Confessions)

I'm with Andrew, more or less. As well as the cool character designs, Astro City is full of the patented Busiek awe and reverence towards superheros. Which is a nice break after lots of sadface, but after a while you wish he'd get up off his damned knees.

I liked Confession okay, Life in the Big City was kinda fun, and Tarnished Angels was sorta sweet in its way.
If you can get 'em from the Library (like I did), you'll enjoy 'em a lot.

what is this "the Library"?

yeah ditto - borrowed the gns from my local library, read 'em and enjoyed 'em (family alb is the weakest, i wld say), didn't seem to be too much continuity so cld read them in pretty much any order (a plus), enjoyed spotting/working out the source hero for each Astro City equiv, thought the art was gd but not brilliant, nice colouring/lettering - but wld prob never ever feel the need to read them again

haha xpost