What's John Byrne been up to? DiDio: "He's doing JSA Classified."

"Announced was the release of the Astro City: Beautie Doll special this week. The third volume of Astro City: The Dark Age was next, followed by a one-shot starring the character Astra, the fourth volume of The Dark Age and then a Silver Age special. The future is unplanned past that point. The first collected edition of The Dark Age storyline will appear in June, collecting the first two Dark Age mini-series.

Audience questions were then attended to, starting with an audience member asking if Busiek has Astro City’s entire storyline mapped out.

“We don’t have a roadmap,” Busiek said. “Unlike Sandman, where it’s building to a conclusion, it’s a series and we’re telling stories.”

Ideas like the Beautie Doll story were thought out before the first issue. Busiek said he had many stories he’d like to get to, one for instance concerning 18-year-old former sidekicks going on a soul searching road trip, but there’s no grand plan. Busiek does wants to do a story about super-pets playing poker and that might be their last issue, telling the crowd if cover artist Alex Ross has to draw dogs playing poker he’ll walk off the book. "

Super-pets playing poker? Count me in for that!!!

James Robinson seems to be hinting that he will be writing a Green Lantern/Green Arrow series. That would be great!

DiDio then announced a special panelist - J. Michael Straczynski. DiDio said that Straczynski will be working with DC Comics in the very near future.

Asked about the previously-announced-some-time-ago All-Star Batgirl, DiDio said that neither the announced creative team of Geoff Johns or JG Jones will be able to do it in the near future, and they are looking at bringing in another team to do it, but have to wait for the other team to come free with their schedules.

DiDio took a poll of the audience to see which Aquaman was the crowd's favorite, which showed the audience to be split among the different versions. DiDio said that it's something they're trying to figure out - which Aquaman should be the Aquaman to bring back. DiDio said that while the Jim Aparo version is most recognizable, the "harpoon hand" version is also well recognized in the media. All in all, DiDio said, they're taking their time to bring Aquaman back.