Kurt Busiek's Astro City: The Annotations

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               KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY VOL. 2, #5
                        Learning The Game
       collected as part of the CONFESSION trade paperback
                       Narrator: Altar Boy
                   Date: Mid-to-Late July 1997
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Date:     The date can be obtained both by noting that it is likely
          several weeks since #4 (given the advancement of Altar
          Boy's training) and by tracing backward from the date
          given in #9.

Cover:    The Confessor I in extreme close-up. Note that his pupils
          are white and his irises black.

1/1:      First appearance of Altar Boy.

4/3:      The Confessor has vanished from Altar Boy's side and
          reappeared in front of Tugliewski amazingly quickly. Note
          the mist which lingers around him, and which appears
          every time the Confessor pulls his disappearing trick.

5/4:      Note that Tugliewsi's confession comes only after he
          stares into the Confessor's eyes. See also #6, 12/4.

 /5:      "Gibson" is probably in reference to Shadow creator
          Walter Gibson.

6/1:      The Pyramid Assault Team is presumably associated with
          (or even the same thing as) the Pyramid Assassins
          mentioned in Vol.1 #1, 7/2. This is their first
          appearance. This scene takes place in the headquarters of
          the United Nations.

7/1:      Like Grandenetti Avenue (see Vol.1 #4, 2/1), Grandenetti
          Cathedral is named after Jerry Grandenetti, who did
          artwork for DC's The Spectre and Warren's horror comics.
          That it is an abbey implies that it was (or is) the
          residence of an order of monks or nuns.

10/2:     As in Vol.1 #4 (cover and 4/4), the three crooks are
          drawn to look like Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex
          Ross.

11/2:     "Robinson Prep" refers to Jerry Robinson (1922- ), one of
          the preeminent Batman artists of the Golden Age.
          Appropriately for this story, Robinson was also
          responsible for the naming of Batman's sidekick, Robin
          the Boy Wonder. "Sprang House" alludes to another of the
          major Golden Age Batman artists, Dick Sprang (1915- ).
          Sprang virtually defined the look of the Batman titles in
          the 1950s.

  /4:     "Mooney's" is a reference to Supergirl and Space Ranger
          artist Jim Mooney.

13/1:     The cover of "Current" features the Crackerjack and the
          headline "Greed & Power".

  /2:     The photo caption reads "Altar Boy, newest crime-fighter
          in Astro City, caught in the act of apprehending [ ]".

  /3:     The article reads:

                    FEATURE: NEW IN TOWN

               Walking home alone from [ ] upon by muggers, a fe[
               ] Chesler district But b[ ] her purse, a familiar [
               ] costumed crime-fighter [ ] entirely familiar. For
               at the side of [ ] been operating in Astro City for
               a[ ] face -- a youngster who went by the name
               [Altar Boy].

               Does the Confessor have a sidekick [ ] a new hero
               to make Astro City's night [ ] safer? As usual, the
               Confessor, about whom [ ] nothing is known, isn't
               saying. But Altar Boy has been spotted taking part
               in his exploits on numerous occasions, and
               photographers have managed to catch a few shots of
               the young newcomer -- if not of his older mentor.
               "Whoever he is, I'm glad he was there," said
               Kimbrough, 25. "You'd think the animals that infest
               the back-alleys of the city would learn, but no --
               they keep thinking they can attack innocents and
               get away with it. Maybe if we get enough
               superheroes in town, this sort of thing will stop
               forever."

               Despite Kimbrough's calling him a "superhero," [ ]

          The accompanying photo caption reads:

               [ ] catches the young hero in his departure from
               the site of the would-be assault on Marjorie
               Kimbrough. "He's a little young, but I'm not
               complaining," says Kimbrough.

14/2:     Note that the Confessor was not visible in the mirror,
          even though he approached Altar Boy directly from behind.

  /4:     First appearance of the Guilloteam; note that their
          blades are in fact stylized guillotines.

19/1:     To the left of "Crackerjack", the visible (tabloid)
          headlines read "Bigfoot Killed By Elvis" and "My Mom Is
          Satan's Wife". The comics to his right are a mixture of
          real titles (ZOT!, LITTLE LULU (the word balloon reads
          "Hi, Heidi!") and GROO THE WANDERER) and fictional ones
          (AIR ACE and FIRST FAMILY). Note that FIRST FAMILY is
          "100% Authorized". The word balloon on LITTLE LULU reads
          "Hi, Heidi!"; this is a reference to Heidi MacDonald,
          founder of Friends of Lulu, an organisation devoted to
          promoting the involvement of women in comics. Although
          the AIR ACE comic here almost certainly refers to the
          ASTRO CITY hero of the same name, there really was a
          comic called AIR ACE published by Stret & Smith from 1944
          to 1947; it was originally about World War II fighter
          pilots, and later moved into science-fiction.

  /3:     Of the three visible comic books, two (LEAVE IT TO CHANCE
          and STRANGERS IN PARADISE) are real comics (and, in fact,
          are both published by Homage Comics, the studio under
          whose banner KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY also falls), while
          BOUNCING BEATNIK COMICS is fictional.

  /4:     SIN CITY is another real comic book; the credit at the
          top of the cover is for that title's creator, Frank
          Miller.

21/2:     The impostor Crackerjack is revealed to be an alien
          Enelsian. In fact, it is likely that this is the same
          Enelsian who masqueraded as "Mr Bridwell" in Vol.1 #5,
          given that this is the shape he adopts on 22/3 (this is
          given further credence by the details of how the
          Enelsians set about invading Earth, as revealed on #9,
          14/1-2).

24/3:     Given that Crackerjack's recent troubles have been caused
          by the Enelsian, it appears likely that the same applies
          to Winged Victory.



Release History:
Version 1.2 released 14th June 1998
Version 1.1 released  7th June 1998
Version 1.0 released 24th 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:
"Comic Art & Graffix Gallery Virtual Museum & Encyclopedia"
(http://www.comic-art.com/enter.htm)

"The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told", Biographies: Creating The
Greatest by Mark Waid, DC Comics (1988)

"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
Lawrence Watt-Evans, lawrence@clark.net
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput, firehead@panix.com