WONDERCON: ASTRO CITY PANEL

SAN FRANCISCO: With a new issue -- Astro City: Beautie #1 -- just out, Astro City writer/creator Kurt Busiek and artist Brent Anderson held a question-and-sessison about the series Friday at WonderCon.

Following are highlights:

* The third book of The Dark Age will be followed by a new special featuring Astra and then Astro City: The Dark Age Book Four and a Silver Age Special.

"After that, I don't know what we'll be doing. It's a year off," Busiek said.

* Busiek noted it's the 13th year of Astro City.

Anderson said he would stick with the book for 10 years, but Busiek said, "I'm recasting it for 120 issues, so it will be the rest of his life."

* The hardcover Astro City: The Dark Age Book One, scheduled for July will collect the first eight chapters of the story, as well as the prologue in the Astro City/Arrowsmith flipbook.

Marc Guggenheim is providing an introduction for the book, and Anderson said there will also be a sketchbook section.

* Busiek said he doesn't have a road map for Astro City. "Unlike Sandman, there isn't a conclusion," he said. "We're doing a serial."

He said he has a lot of story ideas, and will decide after the Dark Age what will be next. "But we're not heading toward a specific conclusion," he said. "This is a setting for stories we want to tell."

* Busiek said it was Anderson's idea to move forward with the Apollo 11.

* Busiek said that Astro City is told from various perspectives, whereas Marvels was from the perspective from the man on the street.

* The Jade Dragons have been the most difficult characters to draw, Anderson said, because of their tattoos. He said he used 12-inch dolls and painted the tattoos on them for reference.

* Busiek said the specials are intended to break up the 16-part Dark Age story told from perspectives of a cop and a criminal.

"Once all 16 issues are collected and you can sit and read the whole thing, I bet Book Two will go pretty quickly," Anderson noted.

* Busiek said that the last page of Book Two will drive the second half of the story.

* Busiek said his characters aren't based on other super-heroes, but rather archetypes, such as Samaritan as a savior.

He noted he saw a Wikipedia page where all the Astro City characters were linked to X-Men or Teen Titans characters, listing off several characters where their origins were "nakedly obvious" and had nothing to do with Marvel or DC characters.

He also said he looks to trends in popular culture during specific eras in coming up with character names. "I'm trying to come up with the name that Stan Lee didn't think of," Busiek said.

* Anderson and Busiek both talked about their collaborations with Alex Ross on the look of characters. "Each of us have a moment where we go, 'Damn! Why didn't I think of that?'"