Introduction In 1995, following the stunning success of Marvels, it writer, Kurt Busiek, launched an ongoing super-hero series with the same reconstructionist tone. With covers by Marvels artist Alex Ross, the series was published by Image Comics and received great critical acclaim but diminishing sales. The first six issues, each single-issue stories intended to flesh out the world and its themes, would also be the last. A second series was launched in 1996, with more publicity and the critical praise won by the first series. It began, following a #1/2 issue published through the popular comics magazine Wizard, with three more issues designed to introduce the series before launching into the six-issue storyline that was originally intended for #7-12 of the original series. Another group of four issues, #10-13, followed, telling more short stories that would be collected with the short stories that began the second series. With #14, a second longer storyline was launched, this one focusing on a criminal named Steeljack. Delays, however, had crept in for some time, and issues were becoming less and less frequent -- so much so that a single-issue interlude was introduced into the storyline to remind readers where the storyline was and to encourage new readership. Further delays occurred including a long one between #19 and #20, the conclusion of the storyline, which had ran from early 1998 to late 2000 -- the year of Astro City's fifth anniversary. The reason for the delays, it had become clear, was that Kurt Busiek was not providing scripts. Then writing Marvel's Avengers, Busiek was plagued with persistent illness and claimed (understandably) that writing Astro City took more mental energy than writing his various work-for-hire projects. Two additional single-issue stories followed in 2001, but delays continued and the series ground to an informal hault after #22 in 2001 -- with the exception of a short story in 9-11 Volume 2, DC Comics' charity anthology published in the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks upon the United States. The series had seen the equivalent of about 29 issues: 6 issues in the first series, 22 issues in the second, and two short stories. As a relaunch was slowly put together, Alex Ross was rumored to be threatening not to provide the covers based on the fact that Busiek had let Astro City slide while continuing work on other projects. The decision was made to package the relaunch as a bimonthly mini-series so as to avoid further delays in publication and lessen the effect of any additional hiatus. The bimothly five-issue Astro City: Local Heroes mini-series at last premiered in February 2003 with the "Kurt Busiek's" dropped from the beginning of the title. Just over two years had passed since the last new story, and that had been a short story in an anthology.

IMAGE	TITLE	DESCRIPTION	STATUS
Astro City: Local Heroes #1-5, Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #1-6, Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #1-21, Wizard Presents Astro City #1/2: Kurt Busiek script
Astro City: Local Heroes #1-5, Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #1-6, Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) ##1/2, 1-21: Alex Ross cover
Astro City: Local Heroes #1-5, Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #1-6: Brent Anderson art
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #1	"In Dreams"; focuses on Samaritan; cover-dated August 1995	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #2	cover-dated September 1995	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #3	cover-dated October 1995	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #4	cover-dated November 1995	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #5	cover-dated December 1995	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #6	final issue; "Dinner at Eight"; Samaritan and Winged Victory go on a date, revealing their differences; cover-dated January 1996	0
Larger Version Available	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life in the Big City [softcover]	collects Kurt Busiek's Astro City (first series) #1-6; good Kurt Busiek introduction; softcover; published by Wildstorm's Homage Comics (through Image Comics) in 1996 [REVIEW AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK]	1
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life in the Big City [hardcover]	hardcover; published after the softcover	0
Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #1-22, Wizard Presents Astro City #1/2: Brent Anderson pencils
Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #1-11, 13-22, Wizard Presents Astro City #1/2: Will Blyberg inks
	Wizard Presents Astro City #1/2	features a short story of a man who remembers his wife, though she was edited out of history through a retcon; Brent Anderson cover; cover-dated January 1996	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City #1/2	reprints the short story from Wizard Presents Astro City #1/2, plus an unrelated Kurt Busiek illustrated prose story, titled "Clash of Titans (A New York Romance)", and Brent Anderson's cover to Wizard Presents Astro City #1/2; cover-dated January 1998	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #1	"Welcome to Astro City"; features a family moving, semi-reluctantly, to Astro City; cover-dated September 1996	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #2	"Everyday Life"; Astra, of the First Family, runs away; cover-dated October 1996	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #3	"Adventures in Other Worlds"; Astra lives as a normal teenager until the First Family, after searching for her by scouring down exotic villain after exotic villain, finds her; coveer-dated November 1996	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #4	cover-dated December 1996	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #5	cover-dated January 1997	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #6	cover-dated February 1997	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #7	cover-dated March 1997	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #8	cover-dated April 1997	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #9	cover-dated May 1997	0
Larger Version Available	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Confession [softcover]	collects Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #4-9 and the story from Wizard Presents Astro City #1/2 (which really should have gone into the next volume, given that it’s a short story); Neil Gaiman introduction; 208 pages; softcover; published by Wildstorm's Homage Comics in 1997 [REVIEW AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK]	1
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Confession [hardcover]	hardcover; published after the softcover	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #10	"Show 'em All"; features the Junkman, a compulsive super-criminal unhappy with winning; cover-dated October 1997	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #11	"Serpent's Teeth"; focuses on Zachary Johnson (Jack-in-the-Box); cover-dated November 1997	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #12	"Father's Day"; Roscoe Tanner replaces Zach Johnson, who retires as Jack-in-the-Box; Gary Martin & Will Blyberg inks; cover-dated December 1997	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #13	"In the Spotlight"; tells the story of Loony Leo, a cartoon lion come to life who experiences ups and downs, from fame to villainy; cover-dated February 1998	0
Larger Version Available	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Family Album [softcover]	collects Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #1-3, 10-13; Harlan Ellison introduction; Kurt Busiek’s acknowledgements in the next volume (The Tarnished Angel) thank “Gary Martin, who pitched in and inked half an issue in our last volume, and inadvertently got left out of the credits”; 224 pages; softcover; published by Wildstorm's Homage Comics in 1998 [REVIEW AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK]	1
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Family Album [hardcover]	hardcover; published after the softcover	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #14	cover-dated April 1998	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #15	cover-dated December 1998	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #16	cover-dated March 1999	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #17	cover-dated May 1999	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #18	cover-dated August 1999	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #19	cover-dated November 1999	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #20	cover-dated January 2001	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: The Tarnished Angel [hardcover]	collects Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #14-20; Frank Miller introduction (dealing with the history of super-heroics and his own contribution, as well as issues of deconstructionism and reconstructionism); 224 pages; hardcover; published by Wildstorm's Homage Comics (through DC Comics) in 2000	1
Larger Version Available	Kurt Busiek's Astro City: The Tarnished Angel	softcover; published (after the hardcover for the first time) by Wildstorm's Homage Comics (through DC Comics) [REVIEW AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK]	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #21	"Where the Action Is"; focuses on Bulldog Comics, which publishes stories of the characters of Astro City; cover-dated March 2001	0
	Kurt Busiek's Astro City (second series) #22	"Great Expectations"; features an actor in a super-hero soap opera who becomes a real super-hero after stopping a robbery, only to find out the underside of the profession; cover-dated August 2001	0
the short story (from 9-11 Volume 2, published in January 2002), written by Kurt Busiek with art by Brent Anderson, occuring in the world of Astro City and showing firefighters dealing with loss, occurs here
Astro City: Local Heroes #1-5: officially published bimonthly
not actual cover Larger Version Available	Astro City: Local Heroes #1	cover-dated April 2003; published (after a long hiatus) in February 2003 [READ MATT MARTIN'S REVIEW]	0
	Astro City: Local Heroes #2		0
	Astro City: Local Heroes #3		0
	Astro City: Local Heroes #4		0
	Astro City: Local Heroes #5		0
	Astro City / Arrowsmith	features an 8-page preview to Astro City: The Dark Age (by Busiek and Anderson), the 8-page preview to Arrowsmith (written by Busiek with art by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Meriño originally published online on dccomics.com), and maps, a Busiek interview, and sketchbook material by Ross, Anderson, and Pacheco; unknown cover art; published in December 2003	0

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