Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #250952 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-23
• Released on: 1999-06-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Library Journal
Busieks Astro City is a place where superheroes live more than it is a place where superheroic stories happen, and this book is more an ode to the myth of superhero lore than an adventure tale, although elements of the adventure permeate it. Busieks hope is to highlight the more humane elements of the superheroic existence, and to some degree the attempt is successful. We feel, for example, the conflict inherent in being both a superhero and an expectant father. However, the pace, which served Busiek well in Marvels (Marvel, 1994), another laconic superhero tale, is too slow here. The art is rich and resembles movie stills, as is appropriate for a family album. Readers steeped in superhero lore will probably enjoy this book. Others wont recognize the family whose portraits adorn this album. For large public libraries.Stephen Weiner, Maynard P.L., MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

This really is the first story-arc...
This book contains the first story arch of Astro City. In the previous issues, it was literally issue to issue, no to be continued endings, but this has it. The first arch shows the life of a 10 year old girl who is a super hero and struggles to cope with how she is different from normal girls. The second is of Jack In The Box (the dude on the cover) and how his pregnant wife will have a child who might grow up hating his father for dying when he meets 3 people from potential futures. 2 of which were homocidal maniacs claiming to be his son.

Not as good as 1st 2, but still worth the effort
Family Album did not quite do it for me like the earlier 2 (Life in the Big City and Confessions). It starts out with a great stand-alone opening story seen through the eyes of a single-Father newcomer to Astro City. Parental fear/concern is a common theme in this book and it succeeds best here. A-

The 2nd story is a twist on the FF (here called the First Family)with its youngest and most powerful(?) member ( a female counterpart to Franklin Richards perhaps) becoming a precocious runaway who shows a very different form of courage as the rest of the FF tear up the 4-corners of the globe looking for her. B-

In the 3rd story, an age-discriminated inventor becomes a criminal mansermind and finds that wealth beyond his wildest dreams is not enough to quench his thirst for revenge. He then pulls of a form of career sabatoge. Or does he? Nice twist at the end. B+

Although more developed than other heroes in Astro City such as Samaritan, Jack-in-the-Box, the star of the 4th story comes off as flat to me. He is a cross between Spider-Man and a clown, shooting confetti instead of webbing. His alter-ego is a kind of black Peter Parker struggling with the news he is to become a father and the implications his dangerous lifestyle could have on his future son. The resolution is as positive and mature as I've seen in comics. B

Leo is a cartoon lion (sort of a real-life Joe Camel) whose scandalous life is fit for "Hollywood Lies & Scandals" in the final story. Again, very different, but the superhero quotient is very slim. C

All in all a solid B, but it does not match the high standards of the 1st 2. If you enjoyed either one, there is still enough here to keep you happy.

One of the better series in the superhero-genre
Astro City is a city filled with superpowered beings. You can't walk from street to street without noticing at least one meta-human, if you're an inhabitant of the city. But not so like most 'superhero-titles' the focus here isn't only on the heroes and their deeds, but on the regular people who live (and try to cope with all the supernatural activities around them) there as well. It tells about their personal lives as well as about the events they all witness.
This Trade-Paperback is the first Astro City collection that collects issues from the ongoing series (#1-3 & #10-13, no loose ends there though).
The great thing about Astro City TPB's is that they both work for longtime readers as for people who are new to the title. For 'experienced' readers there are many recognizable (background-) characters, surroundings and situations that it feels familiair (without being repetitive), yet never the same. At the same time all those recognizable parts aren't vital points to the story-arcs so that new-comers will never feel like their missing out on something (and once they're through reading their first TPB and move on to another Astro City book THEIR party of recognition begins, without anything being spoiled in a previous book. No matter what order you read them in because they work as self-contained books as well). The issues in this book I'd like to advise to especially take a good look at are #10-12. Issue #10 is about a man called "The Junkman" who once managed to pull off the greatest bank-robbery in the history of Astro City. Only the one thing he wants most, recognition for it, he doesn't have. He decides to go back and do it again. Issues #11/12 are about one of the most famous characters of Astro City namely 'Jack-in-the-Box'. One evening he leaves home and he gets confronted with some persons from his 'possible futures'. An event which makes him rethink his activities, both private as professional.
Finally the volume is concluded with some pages filled with sketches of how the characters came to be what they are now AND the Alex Ross covers to the original issues which are collected in here.
Like I said in my review-title, I consider this one of the best titles in the genre where superheroes are involved. It's about superheroes AND about regular folks among them AND about the the lives these metahumans have apart from being heroes. Especially people who liked "Marvels" and Alan Moore's "Top Ten" will have a good time with this book, but it really should appeal to most other comicbook-readers as well, both superhero-fans as fans whose interest lies in the more 'serious' sub-genres. Really well-executed.