ASTRO CITY part 3

Due to the erratic schedule this series experienced, the creators decided that they would rather tell the stories in mini-series format, and that's when we got the first of (hopefully) many, called Local Heroes. On the picture you can see the 5 issues (top row) and the hardcover and trade paperback versions of it (bottom row).


The next series came in four-issue volumes or "books". Below are the covers for: The Dark Age: Book One (first row). Book Two (second row), Book Three (third row) and Book Four (fourth row) this last chapter's final issue comes with 2 covers.








Astro City: The Dark Age has been compiled so far into 2 hardcover volumes. The first one (left) contains Book One of the series and the other contains Book 2 (center). Finally came a softcover trade (right) which groups the first two books. This section will be updated as soon as more compilations are available.


Along with the mini-series, a few specials and one-shots were published. Pictured from left: "The Visitor's Guide", which is a clever tourist guide-type book of the fictional city; "Supersonic" a 40-page prelude to The Dark Age: Book One, "The Astro City/Arrowsmith" flipbook (the other side's cover is drawn by Carlos Pacheco) and the "Samaritan Special" which bridges the gap between the first 2 Dark Age series. There's also the "Beautie" one-shot, the two-issue "Astra" special which chronicles the coming of age story of Astra Furst, the little girl from the superhero team "The First Family" whom we met in the original Astro City mini-series and most recently a two-issue special was dedicated to the classic hero "The Silver Agent".



IN MY COLLECTION: I only have the "Local Heroes" mini-series and I'll share my thoughts on it soon. Otherwise I have yet to start on the Dark Age saga so I cannot comment on the plot and characters therein.

If you want to know more about Astro City, visit this link to "The Astro City Rocket" an amazing site that helped me while researching on this series.

ASTRO CITY part 2

The first miniseries proved to be a success, critically and comercially, so an ongoing series was launched by the same team, Busiek, Anderson, Ross and publishers Image and Homage comics. It lasted 15 issues and there was also a special #1/2 published with the help of Wizard magazine. Below are all 15 issues with their glorious covers by Alex Ross. The order of the issues is as follows: Issues 1-9, then Wizard's issue 1/2 and finally, numbers 10 - 15.


After a hiatus, the series resumed with issue 16, now under the wing of Wildstorm, Jim Lee's publishing company, which was later bought by DC Comics. From that moment on, Astro City is now part of the DC family. Due to the late shipping of this ongoing series, it was cancelled with issue #22. Below: Issues 16 - 22


This ongoing series was later collected in volumes, counting Life in the Big City as Vol.1, Confession was Vol.2, Family Album and The Tarnished Angel were Vols. 3 & 4. These collections came in hardcover and trade paperback versions, below is the art for the latter, since I couldn't find the art for the hardbacks, in some of these the art is the same in both. None of these issues are IN MY COLLECTION because I have prioritized other series, I'll get to them, eventually.