Stand-Up with Ed Brubaker

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