Tag: Ed Brubaker

Geekscape Comics: Weekly Reads!

by Karson

I’m slowly transitioning Weekly Reads into Best Bets. Best Bets is going to be the place for quick recommendations and thoughts on new releases. It will be a curation of what I think is the best of comics for that week. In contrast to that, I will start a new article that will be much more focused pieces that I’ve been itching to write.

To summarize:
– This will be the last “Weekly Reads”
– A lot of the content here will be discussed in “Best Bets” instead
– Look forward to more interesting comic-related content

Now, how about we stop talking about talking about comics, and start talking about comics!

👎 – Skip, read at your own risk
👌 – Okay, not great, not bad, you might find something to like here
💪 – Great, highly recommended

Image

💪 Eclipse #1
Eclipse was this weeks Best Bet, and I’d say we were right to say so 😊.

💪 Kill Or Be Killed #2
This book is must read, a little dark, but very accessible. If The Black Monday Murders is too intimidating, try this book on for size. You won’t be disappointed.

💁 Paper Girls #9
… Still haven’t found the time to read it. 😅

DC

👌Aquaman #6
After the first two issues, I didn’t think much of this title but since then I’ve been won over with each issue.

👌Batman #6
This book contains one of the nicest drawings of Gotham that you’ll ever see, an emotional Batman, and a big-time villain reveal. Feels like a transition issue between story arcs but even so, it was very well done.

👌Cyborg – Rebirth #1

This book provides a good introduction to Cyborg if you are unfamilar with the character (like I was). These Rebirth titles should be free as it doesn’t come close to the quality of a lot of the other DC titles at this price point. I’m interested in what happens next but as a prune back my DC titles, this probably won’t make the cut.

💪 Green Arrow #6

The new arc begins.

“SINS OF THE MOTHER”! Following the shocking events with the Ninth Circle, Green Arrow’s wayward sister/sidekick Emiko travels to Japan on a quest to destroy the crime lords who control her mother, Shado, the assassin who murdered Oliver Queen.

Hopefully it’s a good as the last. Green Arrow is one of the best ongoing DC titles.

🙅 Harley Quinn #3
… Not enough time to keep up with this series.

👎 Justice League #4

Surprisingly meh title. Hasn’t established a flow after four issues. Who knows maybe I’m just dumb but I’d recommend any character from the Justice League’s solo book over this.

💪 Nightwing #4

The fourth issue concluded the “Better Than Batman” story arc in tremendous fashion. This title is really starting to get into a groove.

👌 Supergirl #1

I love the art style of this book. Everything else about it is decent, I think I’m just a little Super’d out.

👌 Superman #6

The moon gets the crap kicked out of it. I’m not enjoying this as much as Action Comics but it has had some pretty sweet moments.

Marvel

Nothing to read here…

Geekscape Comics: Best Bets for 9/07/16

by Karson

Best Bet

Eclipse_01-1

Eclipse #1

Imagine if sunlight burned you alive. In the near future, a mysterious solar event has transformed the sun’s light into deadly immolating rays. The world’s few survivors now live in nocturnal cities. But a killer emerges who uses sunlight to burn his victims, and when he targets the daughter of a solar power mogul, it falls to a disillusioned solar engineer to protect her.

I don’t have any knowledge of the creative team of this title, and that’s because this is pretty much their big debut. Regardless, I’m betting it’ll be good from the plot description alone (and the three page preview looks good too). If you consider yourself a sci-fi fan, you should be checking this book out.

Most Excited For

KillorBeKilled_02-1

Kill Or Be Killed #2

There are a lot of awesome Image titles coming out this week. The tried and true Paper Girls has a new issue hitting shelves but the book I can’t wait to read is Brubaker and Phillips’ the second issue of Kill Or Be Killed! The first issue took some turns that I didn’t see coming and I can’t wait for what’s next. It’s not too late, pick up issue #1 and #2 tomorrow and get into what could be one of the greatest comics of the year.

Ed Brubaker Sells Two TV Titles: Will Act As Writer And Executive Producer

by Derek Kraneveldt

Comic writer extraordinaire (and Eisner Award winner) Ed Brubaker is busting into a new form of media!

 

The multi-award winning scribe has just sold his first two television projects:

 

Rising Suns follows an American Yazuka boss fighting for his life and falling for the FBI agent who is hunting him. This one will come from 20th Century Fox, and Kyle Killen (creator of Awake and Double Life) will also serve as an executive producer.

 

NBC has also taken interest in a title from Brubaker. This one remains untitled, but will follow an agent-in-training as she erases all traces of the agent she is shadowing.

 

Of course, nothing more is known about these titles, but one from one-line synopses we have so far, they certainly sound interesting!

 

Will you be checking these out whenever they make it to the small screen?

 

Photo credit Luigi Novi

Geekscape Comics: Jason Latour Taking Over Writing Duties On ‘Winter Soldier’

by Shawn Madden

Well, in a very surprising announcement earlier today, Marvel Comics revealed at Fan Expo Canada that Ed Brubaker will be leaving Winter Soldier effective January 2013. As of issue #15 he will be replaced by Jason Latour (Loose Ends) on writing duties. Latour is probably best known as an artist, having worked on issues of Wolverine, Scalped and Invincible.

In an interview with Comic Book Resources when asked about how he received the opportunity:

I was surprised to get the chance, simply because I didn’t think this character would ever be in play. Brubaker’s work on this character has been great. He’s really built such a strong and compelling foundation– that when the possibility was introduced my mind went off like a nuclear test site.

As for how it came about — I’d drawn a few stories for my editor, Lauren Sankovitch, in the past and I’d made it clear I was interested in writing for hire, too. Fortunately she seemed to like my creator-owned work and when the time came to cast the book she asked me if I would be interested.

And in regards to his upcoming story for Winter Soldier:

Chiefly it’s going to focus around a new threat and a new ally. Two people who were once caught in the Winter Soldier’s swath. Our big antagonist is a new take on Bucky’s rogues’ gallery in the sense that she’s the first indirect casualty of his actions. She’s got plans much larger than revenge, but their personal connection is going to make things very complicated for Bucky.

Ed Brubaker commented regarding his departure on Twitter:

To end all speculation: Cap 19 and Winter Soldier 14 are my last Marvel books for now. But I may return, because Marvel has been my home.

My next comic project, beside Fatale, will be announced in December or January. And you’ll sh*t when you hear about it. In YOUR PANTS.

When it was recently announced that Brubaker would be leaving Captain America, he talked a good deal about heading creator owned mostly, but indicated that he would stick around on Winter Soldier for a while. This news is sure to disappoint many who have loved what Brubaker has done with this character since bringing him back from the dead in 2005.

Director Anthony Russo Talks ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’

by Shawn Madden

One of the most anticipated movies in Marvel’s “Phase Two” is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When announced at San Diego Comic-Con fans nearly lost it. Hell..even Ed Brubaker lost it and even tweeted “HOLY SHIT” when he found out about it. The Huffington Post recently sat down with Anthony Russo, one half of the directing team behind the sequel, and had a little chat about the movie. Below are some of the highlights of the interview.

When asked what they thought landed them such a big project:

Well, first of all, Marvel’s this incredible company that has shown in the past that they think outside the box with directors. I mean, it’s shocking the people they’ve hired, over and over again, and they’ve had great success as a result. They like character, and they like storytelling and they like fun. We were surprised, but they were big fans of “Community” and you can sort of draw a line between some things we did on “Community” and a Marvel movie.

How they sold themselves to get the job directing the sequel:

We were comic book geeks from a young age and big fantasy geeks. We got to talk to them in detail about that history. They knew that we understood the brand really well and the characters really well. It was a long process, actually, of talking to them over and over again, through a series of meetings over a long period of time. And I think they just — we were really passionate about the movie, incredibly passionate about the movie. They felt that, and they felt like it was the right match.

In regards to what appealed to them about Ed Brubaker’s “Winter Soldier” story:

Well, we like the [story.] I can’t talk too much about specifics, that’s the way Marvel handles things. I can say in general that there’s sort of a darker, edgier sensibility at work there that we found appealing, and that is going find its way into Captain [America] in the modern day.

When asked if we would possibly be seeing World War II flashbacks:

Certainly Cap has this complicated history. We’re making the movie for first-time viewers, not just for fans, so, because Cap does have this complicated history — he was this skinny guy who became a super-soldier, he was born back then and he’s living [now] — in the storytelling, you need to convey that to an audience who doesn’t know Cap’s story.

When asked if the expected heavy visual effects were intimidating to them:

They said to us early on in the interview process, “We don’t expect you to know anything [about special effects and so forth] — you don’t have to know everything about this stuff, because we’re here for that.” They’re very respectful of directors. They’re an amazing company to work with.

In regards to if any of the comic creators were involved and have offered advice:

We’re actually going to have lunch with Brubaker soon. But no, they haven’t been involved. In the same way that they would develop a new comic-book series, they give its own space to develop. But certainly everybody is aware [of what’s in the comics], has read everything, is aware of all their other material. But they do like each thing to be its own, organic process, which is nice.

Geekscape Comics: After An Eight Year Run Brubaker To Leave ‘Captain America’

by Shawn Madden

Many people believe Brubakers run on ‘Captain America’ to be the titles best. But after nearly eight years he has decided to leave the title. In a recent interview with The Comics Reporter he discussed that as well as if he will remain on ‘Winter Soldier’.

TCR: Now, you told me that you’re wrapping up on Captain America.

Brubaker: Yeah. By the time this interview comes out, I will have written my last issue.

TCR: Congratulations. And that’s… eight years on Cap?

Brubaker: A little less than eight years. I think I started in August or September of 2004 writing my first issue, which came out in November of that year.

TCR: So why now?

Brubaker: Partly, it’s the beginning a shift from work-for-hire to books I own, instead. I hit a point with the work-for-hire stuff where I was starting to feel burned out on it. Like my tank is nearing empty on superhero comics, basically. It’s been a great job, and I think I found ways to bring my voice to it, but I have a lot of other things I want to do as a writer, too, so I’m going to try that for a while instead.

TCR: Now are you keeping Winter Soldier?

Brubaker: Yeah, I am. That’s going to be my only Marvel book soon. I’ll do The Winter Soldier as long as it lasts… or, I’ll do it for as long as I can. [Spurgeon laughs] Because I don’t know if it’ll last, but I’m really proud of that book and the second and third storylines on it are some of my favorite stuff I’ve done for Marvel, ever.

TCR: What do you like about it? What do you think is laudatory? Are you in that place where you can say, “I did that, and I did that very well.”

Brubaker: I think I got to tell a long story. In the early days, I got to create a big soap opera about Steve Rogers and Bucky and Sharon Carter and keep this thrilling adventure ride going. And each arc bled into the next. Then we did the “Death of Cap” thing and I go to really do an 18-part story that still didn’t end with Cap coming back to life yet. [laughs] I got to do some stuff that was really challenging. I got work with some great artists. Steve Epting, he probably drew 35 issues of my run in the early days. I think we developed a really great collaboration. And I always liked that kind of epic storytelling.

“The Death of Captain America” turned out to be the best thing that happened to the book in ways because everything we were able to do after that, because the main character wasn’t in the book, was so much more interesting than when he was in the book. It was a total curveball and you didn’t know what was going to come next. There was a lot of fun to be had in it, and at the same time it was driven by these characters that were characters I had an attachment to from childhood.

Brubaker also confirms that Cullen Bunn (who has been working on ‘Venom’ with Rick Remender) will be working with him on his final arc.

TCR: Don’t they team you up with a writer to transition out of these titles? Like baton pass it to them?

Brubaker: That’s not on purpose for this one. That was a situation with scheduling. Marvel is trying to do this thing now that with some of their better-selling books they want to get out more copies per year than 12. They want to get out 15 or 18 issues. Amazing Spider-Man’s been doing more than one a month for a while now; someone I know does Uncanny X-Men or one of those books, and that comes out 18 times a year.

I couldn’t keep up with that schedule, honestly. I knew I was getting to the end of my run. I wanted to wrap up my run earlier. And [Marvel Senior Vice President Of Publishing] Tom [Brevoort] was like, “Well, you’re going to leave a bunch of plot lines dangling… do you want to go out like that? It’ll seem like you threw up your hands and said ‘I can’t keep up with this schedule.'” I was like, “No, I don’t want to go out that way.” So we brought in Cullen Bunn to write an arc with me. I gave him a list of a bunch of stuff. “Here’s all the dangling plot threads and here’s where we need them all to be by the time I get to my last issue.” And then we figured out a storyline together.

It’s strange. I did all these issues as an uninterrupted run. Then there’s four issues co-written by someone. Then there’s a last issue. [laughs] It’s a little odd.

TCR: Tell me this. You’ve worked this specific period for Marvel. I don’t follow the mainstream books as closely as I would if this were the main focus of the site. It seems to me, though, that this period has been distinguished by a pretty deep writer’s bench for Marvel. There are a lot of you guys that are talented, that are working on those books for Marvel.

Brubaker: I definitely think… they’ve got Jason Aaron, and Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction and Rick Remender. Obviously Brian Bendis, who writes so many comics I can’t understand how he possibly keeps up. Kieron Gillen… all of these guys are talented guys. I’m leaving some out — Jeff Parker. There’s a lot of really good writers doing multiple books a month up there.

And it’s such an interesting time in mainstream comics to me because of how in flux it feels. DC had a massive shake-up. Marvel’s ramped up production on everything. It seems a little crazy sometimes. [laughs] I wonder from the outside if it looks as much like as it feels like it on the inside.

TCR: Is there something you see we don’t? We certainly saw the result of those changes at DC.

Brubaker: When I was at DC… sales weren’t necessarily great, but they were fairly stable. There was a certain amount of stability. Both DC and Marvel had stability, it felt like. But two years ago there started to be what seemed like freefall for a lot of books. My personal theory — This happened to coincide [laughs] with the books suddenly costing $3.99 as opposed to $2.99. I think that was when you started to see some books really fall. On the other side, there’s the argument that the best-selling books for the past ten years have been the $3.99 books.

It’s hard to say who’s right or who’s wrong on some of this stuff. But sales on these books were going down below what DC and Marvel would have found acceptable even a few years ago. So that stability just feels like it’s missing all of a sudden.

I mean, imagine how lucky I was to write the same book for eight years. That doesn’t happen a lot anymore. Brian Bendis has been writing Avengers for like nine years now. He’s written more issues of Avengers than any other person. It’s rarer and rarer to have these long runs on books.

See the whole interview here.

Why We Need An ‘Iron Fist’ Movie Next

by Shawn Madden

Ever since the success of ‘The Avengers’ Marvel Studios have been hard at work on their next projects and even giving us small hints at it. The most exciting of these to me comes from a quote from Kevin Fiege:

“And, we’ve got a lot of other characters we’re prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts…”

After reading that line right there any and every Marvel fan knew who he was talking about…Danny Rand aka Iron Fist. And this wasn’t the first time we had heard about them developing a Iron Fist movie. There has been talks as far as back as 2000 regarding making this film. Ray Park had been signed on to play with Kirk Wong (‘The Big Hit’) set to direct from a script written by John Turman. Production delays began from the start and pushed back all the way to 2003. Steve Carr (‘Next Friday’) replayed Kirk Wong as director and once again the film was placed on hold all the way until 2007. No news or talks about the movie surfaced again until 2009 when Marvel Studios first announced they were working on “creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties”.

The time wasn’t right then when comic movies were just filler but I think the time is right now. Comic book movies have become the summer blockbusters. They break records and fill seats better than most movies and I think we need a splash of something different. And I think that different would be an Iron Fist movie. A superhero movie that wouldn’t so much rely on gadgets or super powers but hand to hand combat…with super powers mixed in of course. And hey if you don’t trust me…Damon Lindelof agrees that it would make a cool movie.

Ed Brubaker and Matt Fractions run on The Immortal Iron Fist (which Brubaker won  an Eisner for in 2008) would be a great basis for a movie. You throw in a great cast with a good leading man, a good martial arts/action director and then slap that Marvel logo (after ‘The Avengers’ that logo alone is going to be a money maker for films) and you have the potential for making a great film that can be loved by not only comic fans but the general movie going audience.

So, who could handle a lead role in an Iron Fist film? I’ve picked four actors that I feel could definitely pull it off. But feel free to comment in the box below if you have some ideas of your own.

Ryan Phillipe

Ryan Gosling

Garrett Hedlund

Charlie Hunnam

I chose these actors due to their age range, knowledge in the department and drawing power. We need a good lead role that isn’t too huge but isn’t a nobody at the same time.

In order to keep the comic book movies coming we need to keep the movies and ideas fresh and keep the audiences Filling seats. We have yet to explore “the world of martial arts” and as not just a comic fan but a movie fan I can see this being something that will spark interest in the masses. As much as I would love to see ‘Ant-Man’ or ‘Guardians Of the Galaxy’ hit the screen over the next two years…my choice for the next Marvel project goes to Danny Rand…aka The Immortal Iron Fist.

The Sky is Falling… Again! The “Geekscapepod” For June 18th, 2012!

by Jonathan

I start this episode off telling all of you to go pick up “The FP” this week! Also, “Adventure Time” Season 1 is coming to DVD in July! Fantastic! Falling Skies has returned to TV and why should you be watching it? Is “Before Watchmen” turning itself around? Ed Brubaker’s got your Captain America fix! I review Pixar’s “Brave” and it’s fantastic! And Geekscape favorite BigYanks gets married… finally! But what do we get him?

Subscribe to the show on iTunes!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:06 — 14.6MB)

Stand-Up with Ed Brubaker

by Gilmore

In the mix of Wizard World Los Angeles, 2007, Ed Brubaker, the hottest comic book writer of the moment, found some time to visit with me exclusively for the ‘Scape. Ed is the current writer of the controversial, and often written about, death of Captain America, and writer of such hit series as Daredevil and his new crime series Criminal, published by Icon (the edgier and more adult-oriented arm of Marvel comics, with whom he recently signed an exclusive contract).

After seeing him sign what must have been 100 copies of Captain America #25 (the death of Captain America issue), he shook off his signing hand and we took it outside.

Having an unexpected toughness to him and an air that he was very glad to be there, but absolutely exhausted at this point, I decided to let him know at first how much we appreciate his work. I also didn’t want to get my ass kicked, because if this guy can kill Captain America, I wouldn’t stand a cat burglar’s chance in Avenger’s Mansion.

We’re all huge fans, first of all.

Oh Cool.

So, sorry at ask you this as I know it’s probably the only thing you’ve been getting for the past, let’s say week and a half, but why kill Cap?

Well there’s a story there that hasn’t necessarily been told, I mean they’ve done stories where Cap has died before but I don’t think they’ve ever really explored the ramifications of what it would mean. And at the end of Civil War, the way the story was ending presented a few possibilities; and one of the possibilities that Mark Millar threw out – it was in the initial pitch, I think – was you could go a couple of different ways with Cap and one of them was Cap would give up being Captain America and get on a motorcycle and go find America.

What I thought, was that I think Cap has found America, I think America needs to find Cap and so that was where the story idea originally came from. It was like, well if America didn’t have Cap, they would have to find him, they would have to find out what he meant. So that’s where it came from, as a story, for me.

From reading your books, I know that you’re trying to focus on what the death of Cap would mean to all the Marvel Superheroes and all the history that they’ve got together.

Yeah.

And the death of someone, no matter what side you were on [in Marvel’s Civl War] is going to mean a lot to you, so are you going to have more Tony Stark in your stories now that Cap is dead?

Oh yeah, he’s in there. He’s definitely in there. He’s in almost every issue in some way or another in the next three or four at least. So yeah, there’s a lot of him in there and we’ve got some of the Mighty Avengers now too. It’s going to be pretty bad ass.

I’ve noticed you’ve written a lot of crime and law enforcement based stuff, we’ve got Sleeper, Criminal, -big fan of Criminal-

Oh thanks.

So I just wanted to know, do you have any kind of history in law enforcement, do you have any cops in the family, do you break the law a lot…?

[laughs] No, well my dad was in Naval intelligence and that was just sort of like being a police officer. But really I just, you know, I was fascinated by it. As a kid I was arrested a few times, you know, spent a few days in jail and that kind of thing.

Really? So do you mind telling us what for?

I don’t wanna talk about it [ laughs]. I just got really lucky and didn’t get convicted of anything. I got really lucky.

So what inspired that initial passion to write any kind of crime and law enforcement type of stuff? Did you watch a lot of cop TV shows…?

I don’t know, I just always liked it. My uncle was a screenwriter who wrote a lot of crime and noir stuff and I just always saw that stuff growing up, so–

That would do it.

Yeah.

What was the first comic book that you ever picked up?

Captain America #156 with two Captain Americas fighting on the cover.

So who would you say was your main writing influence?

I just always wanted to be an artist as a kid, and I just sort of started writing stories for myself. I don’t think I really had any main writing influences until I was much older and really wanted to write.

Was there someone who you read who was the straw that broke the camel’s back and made you think, “alright, I have to write”?

Um, no I don’t think there was, I think I was just always writing stories and I think most writers you’ll find are just always writing. My biggest influence as far as the kind of stuff I write I think was probably Russ McDonald who is a mystery writer from the 40’s to the 70’s and I would totally just always read his books over and over again.

I know lots of comic writers, and lots of writers in general are going into film. Do you plan on doing that at all?

I’ve written some screenplays that are in development, but I’m going to stay working in comics. It’s a lot easier.

Staying true to comics?

It’s fun. Well, I’ll stay in comics, but I’m not going to turn down making a movie or a TV show or anything like that, but all that stuff is really, you know, a one in a hundred shot for anything to actually happen and I can get comic books written and published at this point, you know, pretty easily, so, you know…

[Brian and Ed laugh] I’d say so.

Yeah. But, you know I’ve got a film that could be moving into production, actually in the next year, so that should be really awesome.

Oh, that’s cool. Can you tell us its name yet?

It’s called The Ball. David Goyer is producing it and we’re actually in the process of getting it funded.

Great, we’ll keep any eye out for that. So what’s in your future now as far as comics, writing…

Same stuff. Just workin on the next Criminal storyline, working on the next year of Daredevil and writing all this Cap stuff and still staying on the X-Men for a while longer, so no new plans really.

No, that’s cool, everything you’re doing we’re loving.

[Ed gets sidetracked as Peter David, writer of the Stephen King Gunslinger series (published by Marvel and currently on issue 2) walks by and they have a quick conversation…my thought process: should I try and get a quick Peter David interview?…no…bad form, Gilmore, bad form.]

So last question: if it was a Cage Match to the death, you or [Brian Michael] Bendis?

Oh man, that’s hard. He’s stalky. I’ve got height on him and reach, but he’s stalky. I think I get more sleep than him, so I would vote for me.

Interview by Brian Gilmore