Who can save Superman now? KURT BUSIEK!

[MatterEaterLad]

LOL, next time I'll say its goofy rather than dumb...

But its both (I don't imply dumb toward anyone who is interested in this stuff, its friggin' FUN talking about it)...

I have no problem accepting implausible science fiction, I love the Silver Age as much as the next...

I'm not so sure that travel faster than the speed of light, auras, selective gravities, and hominids with crazy adaptations (I wonder how Supes can fit a focal length for telescopic vision, heat generators, and super hearing inside a human size head -- its tought enough being a multicellular being with nervous, circulatory, and digestive systems, let alone perform cellular respiration on a foreign planet) -- powers that show themselves in far away solar systems that revolve around certain stars have much reality under any scientific scrutiny, or are signs of  a writer's or editors's "genius" (my gawd, these are COMICS :wink:), but they are fun and can make stories better...

[Captain Kal]

Hi Kurt,

I'm curious if your now being a writer and active participant in the comics industry has changed how you enjoy reading comics.

Do you read them with a subtext going on in your head about what might have gone into making the book?

Do you notice interesting plot devices that do or don't work and make mental notes to use or not use them in your own work?

Or can you just kick back and immerse yourself in the book as if you were a kid again?

[Kurt Busiek]

Hi Kurt,

I'm curious if your now being a writer and active participant in the comics industry has changed how you enjoy reading comics.

Do you read them with a subtext going on in your head about what might have gone into making the book?

Do you notice interesting plot devices that do or don't work and make mental notes to use or not use them in your own work?

Or can you just kick back and immerse yourself in the book as if you were a kid again?

I can far more easily kick back and lose myself in, say, USAGI YOJIMBO than in SPIDER-MAN.  The farther it is away from what I do, the more easily I can be "just a reader."

Otherwise -- yeah, there are things about being a writer that blunt the impact of reading.  I'm happy with the trade-off, though.

kdb

[Super Monkey]

I have a question, more business related.

I know that even a top writer like Alan Moore has a day job that actually pays the bills.

Can someone actually make a living just writing comics? Do you have a day job? If you do, what is it?

In general how much do comic writers actual make a year from comics?
You don't have to say how much you make, if you think that is too personal, you can just say on average.

[Captain Kal]

Super Monkey had some great questions which reminds me of this golden opportunity to resolve my own related question.

Do all writers, artists, etc. get paid the same going rate?  Or does their past rep and quality of work determine that pay scale?

I don't need any actual numbers just an idea of whether Joe stinks writer or artist makes less than Victor Spectacular writer or artist.

I've long suspected that the top notch guys get paid the most.  This is my chance to find out if that's so.

[Uncle Mxy]

On the theory that _someone_ ought to be asking Superman-specific questions for Kurt on a Superman board...

Kurt,

1) Why doesn't Superman have a GL ring?

2) What should Pete Ross do when he grows up?

3) Is Lang a Chinese name?

4) Has Jimmy Olsen sued Tucker Carlson for impersonating him?  

5) Which real-life person was Bizarro based upon?

6) What is the airspeed of an unladen Superman in flight?

[Kurt Busiek]

I have a question, more business related.

I know that even a top writer like Alan Moore has a day job that actually pays the bills.

Really?  I find that hard to believe.

Can someone actually make a living just writing comics? Do you have a day job? If you do, what is it?

Many people make a living just writing comics.  I've been a full-time writer since September 1990, and I worry more about meeting the deadlines than paying the mortgage.

In general how much do comic writers actual make a year from comics?
You don't have to say how much you make, if you think that is too personal, you can just say on average.

I have no idea what the average is, but even if we knew what it was, it'd be a meaningless number, like figuring out what the average novelist makes.  There is no "average novelist salary" in the sense that there's, say, an "average Q/A overseer salary."  Writers are freelancers, and their compensation varies widely both due to how popular they are and how much they turn out.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Do all writers, artists, etc. get paid the same going rate?

No.

Or does their past rep and quality of work determine that pay scale?

Popularity, rather than quality, is the key.  Guys who sell a lot of books get offered higher page rates.

kdb