Kurt Busiek's Astro City: The Annotations

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               KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY VOL. 2, #8
                            Patterns
       collected as part of the CONFESSION trade paperback
                       Narrator: Altar Boy
                 Date: August 4th and 5th, 1997
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Cover:    The photographed heroes are (left to right): (top row)
          unknown; Astra Furst; Nightingale; Sunbird; (second row)
          Black Rapier; N-Forcer; Beautie; the Gentleman; (third
          row) Augustus Furst; Samaritan; Winged Victory; MPH;
          (fourth row) Jack-In-The-Box II; the Confessor I's
          symbol; Julius Furst; (fifth row) Nick Furst; Natalie
          Furst; Rex; Altar Boy; (sixth row) the Hanged Man;
          Crackerjack; Cleopatra II; Daniel; (bottom row) unknown;
          El Robo; unknown. Note that most of these photos have red
          crosses through them, presumably denoting heroes who have
          been restrained in one way or another or driven out of
          Astro City. Significantly, three heroes are not marked in
          this way: the Gentleman, the Confessor (his symbol is
          included here due to the fact that he cannot be
          photographed), and the Hanged Man. The inclusion of Altar
          Boy, however, is somewhat perplexing; presumably it is
          meant to symbolise his state of mind through much of the
          issue.

1/1:      Note the barricades still erected at the entrance to
          Shadow Hill, visible in the background.

2/5:      "Gilligan's Island" was an American sitcom which ran from
          1964 to 1967. It was about seven disparate castaways
          marooned on a tropical island awaiting rescue.

3/1:      "But Loveyyyy": this was a catchphrase of Jim Backus'
          character on "Gilligan's Island", millionaire Thurston
          Howell III (Lovey Howell was his wife, played by Natalie
          Schafer).

 /5:      First appearance of the Unclean; "unclean" here is used
          in the sense of "spiritually impure".

4/4:      Altar Boy appears to have his dates wrong here: according
          to Vol.1 #3, 6-7/1, Jack-In-The-Box disappeared in 1983
          and reappeared "six years later" in 1989.

5/1:      According to Vol.1 #3, 6-7/1, the Blue Knight was
          implicated in several slayings in 1983. From the comment
          here, it seems his culpability was later ascertained.
          First reference to the Pale Horseman. In the Revelation
          to John, the final book of the Bible, the narrator states
          "I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat
          on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."
          (Revelation 6:8)

6/1:      This issue takes place "a week or so" after #6 (and hence
          also #7). The exact date comes from that given in #9.

13/1:     This list tallies with that given on the cover.

19/1:     Again, due to his vampiric nature, the Confessor's image
          is nowhere to be found.

  /3:     In many legends, vampires are unable to bear the sight of
          objects of religious faith -- particularly crucifixes.

21/3:     In popular myth, one way to kill a vampire is to plunge
          a wooden stake into its heart (often proceeded by the
          beheading of the vampire).

24/1:     Note that the Confessor has totally decayed, leaving only
          his skeleton and the remains of his costume.

  /3:     Alien: "The charade is over, kill him, kill him. And then
          we'll proceed with the business -- of pacifying this
          planet!"



Release History:
Version 1.0 released 31st 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 Golden Age Stories Ever Told", Biographies: Creating
The Greatest by Mark Waid, DC Comics (1990)

"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)
David Goldfarb, goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu