When he was asked what it says about the state of comics that they operate on the "big annual tent pole" mentality of having to depend on the big events to maintain readership, Brubaker noted that - obviously - movies operate on the same mentality, as does TV to some extent, and so it probably doesn't say anything particularly new about comics or any other industry for that matter. But with AvX, he said, "It was the opportunity of working with my friends on something," as well as "not having to write the whole thing." He said his usual writing is much more grounded than the big superhero event story arcs tend to be, and the tie-ins complicate things and he prefers to do his own thing in the books he writes. Brubaker explained that he typically avoids the "big event" stories that comic publishers tend to roll out each year, and this is the first time he's directly participated in such an event. He explained that he and the other comic book writers working on the project gathered at Brian Michael Bendis' home in Portland last year for what he called a "superhero summer camp." Comparing the process to TV writers rooms, he said that ideas flew around and evolved as they broke the story down over and over, adding and changing elements as they plotted out the whole thing very far in advance.Įd Brubaker, right, and me at Meltdown Comics. X-Men series and answering questions about his career, the future, and all manner of things related to comics. Even if you aren't a comic book fan, it doesn't matter (well, it does, and you should really do something about that), because the store is gigantic and has comics, toys, art, clothes, and all manner of other things worth checking out.Īnyway, on Monday night Ed Brubaker was there, talking about his work on the new Avengers vs. and haven't been to Meltdown yet, you owe it to yourself to stop by. Which leads me to Monday night at Meltdown Comics. It's pure crime fiction, no superheroes involved, and to tell you just how highly I regard this book, it sits on my bookshelf alongside my Elmore Leonard novels and other of the best crime fiction I love to read. Last but certainly not least is a series that is beyond brilliant, and that is my personal favorite collected edition I own - Criminal. My copy of the Delux Edition of Ed Brubaker's "Criminal." And of course, Gotham Central was Brubaker writing (alongside Greg Rucka) the comic book equivalent of The Wire (the best one-hour drama series that ever aired on television), a terrific crime thriller series set in the Gotham City world inhabited by Batman, but with stories focused entirely on the police department. It's impossible to say enough good things about this brilliant, beautiful many-years run, so I can only encourage you to pick it up if you've not had the pleasure of reading it yet.īrubaker also wrote Daredevil stories tied for "best Daredevil run ever," alongside Frank Miller's Born Again and the incredible four-year Brian Michael Bendis run. More than that, it is the best superhero comic book of the last 20 years. This is all to say, Ed Brubaker came aboard Captain America in 2005, and spent the next many years writing what is - and I don't say this lightly - the greatest run of Captain America comics ever written, bar none. The best Captain America comics ever written. It was through Captain America, then, that I really became acquainted with the whole history of comics. I developed a great love not only for the Cap comics coming out during my youth, but also for the great older issues of the 1960's as well. I spent years searching and collecting every issue of Captain America, and I've got the entire uninterrupted series starting from the famous issue #100 that kicked off his solo series, as well as many issues of Tales of Suspense that led up to Cap #100. and Howling Commando arcs that were great), for a remarkable 29-issue run. Then, a few issues later came the DeMatteis-Zeck team (including a couple of short runs by David Kraft as writer, for some S.H.I.E.L.D. For nine months, I thrilled at every issue by the Stern-Byrne team, and when they departed my heart broke. Those Stern-Byrne Cap comics started me down the road of comic book collecting. When I was 10 years old, my brothers gave me a copy of Captain America #247 and changed my life. In first grade, I spent most of my classroom time doodling pictures of Spider-Man and waiting to get home to watch the campy Batman TV series. ![]() My earliest childhood memory is of a sibling reading me a Batman comic book. I've been a comic book fan for as long as I can remember, and I mean that quite literally.
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