Kurt Busiek's Astro City: The Annotations

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               KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY VOL. 2, #2
                          Everyday Life
       collected as part of the FAMILY ALBUM trade paperback                                
                      Narrator: Astra Furst
                    Date: November 10th, 1996
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Date:     The date for this issue is confirmed in #3.

Cover:    Astra stares out a window of the Mount Kirby Observatory
          while in the background are (left to right) Julius,
          Natalie, Nick, Rex and Gus. Note the picture of Jack-In-
          The-Box II on the paper Julie is reading.

1/1:      Julius is the brother of Astra's grandfather, Gus, and
          hence really her great-uncle.

4/3:      The song Astra is singing is a filksong by Don Simpson.
          It is a pastiche of the folk song "Johnny's Too Long at
          the Fair".

 /5:      This panel perhaps epitomises the first four pages'
          efforts to demonstrate how Astra's life is similar, and
          yet very different, from a normal ten year-old girl's.
          For "I can reprogram my clothes myself, you know!", of
          course, read "I can dress myself, you know!".

5/3:      First reference to Kaspian and the Animal-Men/Beast-
          Peoples/Beast-Men.

 /4:      Note that the manifestation of the twins' energy powers
          are identical to the energy field in which Nadia was
          trapped when Gus found her. Hence it can be concluded
          that it was the energy field which gave Nick and Natalie
          their powers (indirectly, at least). Note also Gus'
          "pipe" which releasing the same form of energy; this was
          referred to by Kurt Busiek in the letter column for #5 as
          an energenerator, and is used by Gus to power his various
          inventions.

 /5:      Although here it appears both Nick and Natalie have grown
          to giant size, this would seem to be a trick of
          perspective -- the twins manifest their powers in
          specific and unique ways. Natalie's powers seem to be
          internalised, giving her control over her body -- she can
          grow to immense size and become intangible. Nick's powers
          are oriented outward, allowing him to form energy
          constructs, such as the energy discs on which he flies or
          simply destructive energy blasts. Note that Astra's
          powers again manifest themselves differently (being, to
          an extent, a merging of Nick's and Natalie's), as she is
          actually able to turn into an energy-form as well as
          demonstrating energy-projection abilities.

6/2:      "Stanley Tripp" is an homage to John Stanley (1914- ) and
          Irving Tripp (see also Vol.1 #2, 3/1), artists on LITTLE
          LULU.

8/3:      Palmetto said as much himself in Vol.1 #5, 2-3/1.

10/1:     First reference to the Mento-verse.

12/1:     Salisbury Cathedral, built in 1220, is located in
          Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.


14-15/1:  First appearance of the Gorilla Swarm; gorillas
          (especially talking ones) were a staple of Silver Age
          comics.

16/1:     First appearance of the Silver Brain.

17/1:     First appearance of the Anti-Bodies.

18/4:     "Aperstomum" comes from the Latin word "apertura" and the
          Greek "stomat-". "Apertura" is derived from the verb
          "aperire", meaning "to open" (which has also given us
          such real-world words as "aperture"). "Stomat-" comes
          from "stoma", meaning "mouth" (from which is also
          derived, for example, "stomach").




Release History:
Version 1.2 released 24th May 1998
Version 1.1 released 18th May 1998
Version 1.0 released 11th May 1998

Notes:
Citation format is page/panel. For instance, 18/1 refers to page
18, panel 1. Two-page spreads are treated as a single "page" for
the purpose of panel enumeration; for example, 6-7/3 refers to the
third panel on a spread covering pages 6 and 7. Issue number is
included if different from the issue being annotated, with issues
from Volume 1 specified as such.

KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY, its prominent characters and their
likenesses are trademarks of Juke Box Productions. All quoted text
is copyright Juke Box Productions.

Additions, corrections and comments should be sent to the editor.
Reproduction of these annotations, in whole or in part, without the
permission of the editor is forbidden.

Annotations for other issues of KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY may be
found at http://strindberg.ling.uu.se/~anders/KBAC/main.html
(HTMLized versions) and http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/kbac/ (text
versions).

Sources:
"Who's Who In Astro City" (http://www.bonner.rice.edu/morrow/kbac/
kbacww.html)

Contributors:
Shannon Patrick Sullivan, shannon@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (editor)
Kurt Busiek, kurtbusiek@aol.com
Philip Flores, philipf@acbc.com
David Goldfarb, goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu