None of the moodiness of the Azzarello storyline. Gah.

He’s currently working on a book called The Secret History for Archaia Studios Press. I believe you can check it out at http://www.aspcomics.com

Which certainly feeds into my adoration of All Star Superman. By far my favorite Superman title ever. Gotta love any title that has Silver Age wackiness, the 12 labors of Superman, and the reintroduction of Solaris.

And since Kordey was brought up, does anyone know what he’s doing these days? Also grew to really like his art, and haven’t seen anything from him in ages.

On one last aside–someone above asked about or commented on the ASS arcs. In one of the interviews that Morrison gave before the series started up he hinted that there would only be one two-part story, and that the rest would be self-contained. If anyone’s interested I can dig around and see if I can find the interview again.

There’s a Silver Age glee to the books, as Morrison unapologetically trots out the Lois/Superman/Clark love triangle or Jimmy Olsen’s wacky adventures and gives them a hip, updated spin without losing the fun. It’s meta-textual Superman adventures on some level, almost requiring folks to know of at least those Silver Age covers to be in on the joke, but it’s so in love with the concepts that it might just work if someone didn’t know that it has elements of parody.

And I love Frank Quitely’s art. I know some find his work ugly, and while I couldn’t possibly disagree more, I guess I understand where people come from. His work is very stylized, very European, and if you’re not into the exaggerated works of guys like Paul Pope or Frank Miller or Igor Kordey (another guy whose work I love but the average fan seems to hate), I can see where Quitely might just look bizarre to you. Me, I prefer a stylized look to the more pure realism of guys like Alex Ross, Greg Land, Jim Lee, etc. And Quitely’s ability to visually convey the bizarre is a big part of why All Star Superman works on such a grand level.

Definitive Superman? Probably not, if only because it’s a little bit too meta, a little bit too dependent on knowing what has gone before in terms of the characters (not continuity-wise, just general shape of the characters), but it’s my favorite Superman. I don’t know if there is a run I’d consider the definitive Superman, actually. Byrne’s run in the ’80s comes closest, and even there I’m not really what you’d call a fan. It might be a bit too much of its time to be considered definitive, the way Batman Year One is the definitive Batman story.

Nick, in a recent review of Ultimates 2 #13 you commented on the lateness of that book. How do feel about the delays that affect this book, especially now that arcs have been introduced? I know the delays on this are nowhere near as bad as Ultimates but it is usually 3 to 4 months between it each issue

Honestly, I don’t like delays of any kind. There are so many extremely well done books that come out on a solid monthly schedule (The Spirit for one) without a problem, which tells me that doing a great book and doing it on time, is possible. Even if you have to employ what is essentially a “filler” artist to do it, it can be done.

That said, with the knowledge that this was supposed to be a bi-monthly comic from the start that has one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite artists working on it, I do look forward to seeing it come out and am never disappointed when it does. I wish All-Star Superman had a more set schedule, especially now that Morrison, like you said Glen, has introduced story arcs but as long as the delays don’t run into the six month range (like The Ultimates and WildCATS) and that the done in one aspect of the book isn’t completely forgotten, I can be patient.

Was the use of the phrase “quite frankly” above on purpose? I love it!

I would like to say that my diabolical genius tendencies played a part in this but to tell you the truth…It was just plain old luck.

Would you consider All-star superman the defenitive superman stories?

It’s hard to say that Morrison’s work is the definitive story for Superman because I think that it’s a question that everyone needs to answer for themselves. I’m sure some would say that Jon Byrne’s relaunch in the 80’s was the definitive run of stories for them or others would say something else entirely.

For me, Morrison’s Superman just hits all of the right buttons that I want from a Superman story. The aspects that I mentioned above, the lightheartedness and the science, the goofy but great stories; these are what I want to appear in a Superman book.

So, is it the definitive version of Superman? Maybe not but it’s the best Superman book that’s come along in a long time.