Kurt Busiek - Blog Posts
Neat.
Starting soon I will begin a new (very off and on) project of checking out the ‘Untold Tales of Spider-Man’ anthology book from 1997 and providing my thoughts on each of the prose stories contained within. The book was inspired by the comic book series of the same name back when it was a hot property and was even edited by its author, Kurt Busiek. In fact a few stories in the book were written by comic book alumni.
The agenda reads:
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 01: Side by Side with the Astonishing Ant-Man – by Will Murray
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 02: After the First Death… – by Tom DeFalco
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 03: Celebrity – by Christopher Golden and Jose R. Nieto
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 04: Better Looting Through Modern Chemistry – by John Garcia and Pierce Askegren
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 05: Identity Crisis – by Michael Jan Friedman
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 06: The Doctor’s Dilemma – by Danny Fingeroth
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 07: Moving Day – by John S. Drew
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 08: The Liar – by Ann Nocenti
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 09: Deadly Force – by Richard Lee Byers
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 10: The Ballad of Fancy Dan – by Ken Grobe and Steven A. Roman
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 11: Poison in the Soul – by Glenn Greenberg
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 12: Livewires – by Steve Lyons
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 13: Arms and the Man – by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 14: My Enemy, My Savior – by Eric Fein
Untold Tales of Spider-Man 15: The Stalking of John Doe – by Adam-Troy Castro
I will be covering the stories from the audiobook put out by Dreamscape and Audible and copying over the plot synopses from Spiderfan.org to save myself some time.
Hope you enjoy!
Reading Pile Pt. 5
Astro City Volume 09: Through Open Doors One of my favorite series! I've loved it since it began in the '90s. This volume collects the 1st six issues from when the series moved from Image to DC/Vertigo. Contains what is probably my favorite Astro City story ("On The Sidelines"). Highly recommend. DC/Vertigo - Hardcover $24.99, Softcover $16.99
Booster Gold Volume 01: The Big Fall Collects the first 12 issues of the 1980s series. This was one of the first DC books I got into when I started collecting (mainly because it had just started) and I loved it then. Rereading it now... it's not that good. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad. There a lot of great ideas in this series. It was one of the first comics to tackle the "super-hero as superstar" idea (in modern parlance, he'd probably be considered an influencer). But this is clearly a first effort by Dan Jurgans. There are hints of the writer he'll become though. Plus the art is good. DC Comics - Hardcover $39.99 (Out Of Print), Kindle $9.99
Jessica Jones: Pulse, The Complete* Collection When Alias (the comic) came to an end, Brian Bendis pretty much stated that he had told all of the stories he could under the Max label, mainly because there were characters Marvel wouldn't let him use in an "adult" book. The concept is, after having helped him find his adoptive daughter (during the Alias series), J. Jonah Jameson hires Jessica to be a consultant for a weekly supplement on super-heroes (called "The Pulse"). Since she's pregnant and needs the health insurance, she takes the job. * - While called "The Complete Collection", it is actually missing issue #10 which was a House Of M crossover issue and focused on Hawkeye and didn't have Jessica in it at all. It does include New Avengers (2005) Annual #1, the issue where Jessica & Luke get married. Marvel - Softcover $34.99 (Out of print), Kindle $8.99
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies: A Criminal Novelette I love the Brubaker/Phillips line of books ("Kill Or Be Killed" being my favorite), but this one didn't hit for me. Not bad, it just didn't grab me as their stories usually do. The story takes place in a rehab center. That is until Elle decides she's had enough of the place and convinces Skip to join her in escaping. The story then follows the two teens as they rob stores & fall in love. There is a nice twist ending though. Image - Hardcover $16.99, Softcover $12.99 (both out of print), Kindle $10.99
You don’t own fanfics. They’re inherently public domain because they aren’t your IP. Agree or disagree with AI, there are no grounds for “protection” from AI because it isn’t your IP to begin with. That’s what you chose when you chose this medium
Oh dear.
Okay, you get an answer, because at least you took the effort to write your ask out properly, even if you are hiding behind the grey, sunglassed circle.
Do I, or any fanfic author for that matter, have any legal claims to our work? No, not really, no. (Although if someone took a fic, filed off the serial number--deleted the fandom specific elements--, and then had it published for financial gain, yeah, that would be a case.)
BUT
Fandoms are built on a social contract that says we respect each others work, the effort people put into their art. We don't steal or disrespect the work of our peers. By feeding people's fanworks to AI you both steal and disprect it, and we need to make people realize that before it's too late--before fandom falls apart, because there will be no more real, actual fanworks.
Disrepectfully,
Orlissa
(i can't believe I have to say this)
"Deconstruction" as a term has been overused at this point (at least the way it's used in online fandoms I interact with), but thinking about it does bring to mind this quote by writer Kurt Busiek that I feel has influenced me quite a bit (I've cited Busiek as an influence on my writing in the past):
"It strikes me that the only reason to take apart a pocket watch, or a car engine, aside from the simple delight of disassembly, is to find out how it works. To understand it, so you can put it back together again better than before, or build a new one that goes beyond what the old one could do. We've been taking apart the superhero for ten years or more; it's time to put it back together and wind it up, time to take it out on the road and floor it, see what it'll do."
You can replace "superhero" with any number of things at this point (magical girls, high fantasy, mecha), and I think the general idea of what Busiek's saying still works.
Hi! I just read one of the best comics I’ve ever read. It’s beautiful, it’s compelling, it’s well written. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to read a beautiful comic.