Astro City: Private Lives

• A day in the life of the personal assistant of the world's greatest sorceress.
• An ex-con with exquisite taste in clothes struggles to go straight on a minimum wage salary.
• A museum devoted to evil robots, curated by an elderly woman with a shadowy past.
• A city, bit by the love bug, when the personification of desire visits planet earth.
• A teenaged criminal mastermind's birthday wish.

    Privates Lives is another volume into the world of Astro City. This volume focuses some of the lesser known heroes, villains, and citizens that have appeared in the background of one of those most all-encompassing comic universes of all-time. It's also one of my personal favorites. 

    Writer Kurt Busiek could write the Astro City phone book and I'd love it. Artist Brent Anderson would design all of the logos of businesses advertised therein and Alex Ross would paint the front and back cover and I'd adore it! That level of masterful detail into each and every corner of Astro City is what makes the 'Busiekverse' one of my all-time favorite worlds in all of comicdom.

    If you don't believe me, take a look at the nearly 40 pages of sketches, notes, and drafts at the end of this volume. Busiek might be the brains behind Astro City, but the community would be nothing without the extensive input the writer has with his artists cohorts. One of the great things about this series is that it doesn't just use comic books for inspiration but all of history and pop culture.

    A good example of this is the cover to issue 15. It shows the mysterious curator of the robot museum repairing an exhibit piece. That image alone by Ross is stunning. But look in the background of this work. There's a Cyberman's head from Doctor Who, a dormant Sentinel from the X-Men, the arm of C-3PO, and at least one of DC's Metal Men hiding in the curator's workshop. Not to mention countless more goodies lying about. This is a classic example of all the exciting eye candy that the trio of Busiek, Anderson, and Ross sprinkle throughout every page of this amazing series. 

    Yes, I'm giving great lip service to this series and its creators. But that doesn't mean that I thought everything was great. Storywise, I thought the tale about the wandering personification of desire was terrible. The prose was inconsistent and rambled just about as much as the story itself. One scene might take place at 4 pm and the next at 4 am. But, Busiek neglects to tell the reader if the story jumps to 4 am tomorrow or 4 am earlier that morning.  The art at least was of the same superior quality of the other issues in this volume, but it couldn't save this story.

    Despite my misgivings of that story, this volume was spectacular. With a cliffhanger that promises to tie in all of the stories in Privates Lives into a single sweeping mosaic, I can't wait for that follow-up volume to drop. At least I don't have to wait very long for it. (It's due in stores on Nov. 24th.) 

    So, what are you waiting for? Pack your bags for an all-expenses-paid tour of Astro City. Just be sure to pack a basket for all the Easter eggs you're sure to find when your there.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.