Kurt Busiek Is A Bad, Bad Man

A while back, Mike "Sugarbear" Sterling did a post about "comic book Easter eggs," the fun little bits slipped in by artists and writers as a gag, like Mike Grell's editorializing sound effects, and I think I've noticed another one that qualifies.

I spotted it while I was reading through Kurt Busiek and Pat Oliffe's Untold Tales of Spider-Man, which, for those of you who have never read it, was an excellent run that stood as the best and most overlooked Spider-Man title of its time. A few odd hairstyle choices aside, it perfectly captured the fun, lighthearted spirit of the early Spidey stories without ever really shying away from the various tragedies that'd crop up in Peter Parker's life in the future, and was recently collected for your convenience.

Anyway, it's the splash page from Untold Tales #8 that caught my eye, and while a lot of writers usually just go with a headline and a few blocks of "Lorem Ipsum" dummy text to represent newspaper copy, Busiek went all-out with this one. Check it out:



For those of you who don't have the inclination to click for larger version (or the desire to strain your eyes trying to make out the tiny copy on the page), allow me to point out the relevant part:

"...patrolwoman Misty Knight, who recovered much of the material working with Scarfe. 'It'll be like Christmas every day for the next six months. I'd give my right arm for some of this evidence--but I don't have to, do I?"

Oh, Misty. If only you knew.