Ed Brubaker


Ed Brubaker is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and screenwriter who works primarily in the crime fiction genre. He began his career with the semi-autobiographical series Lowlife and a number of serials in the Dark Horse Presents anthology, before achieving industry-wide acclaim with the Vertigo series Scene of the Crime and moving to the superhero comics such as Batman, Catwoman, The Authority, Captain America, Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men. Brubaker is best known for his long-standing collaboration with British artist Sean Phillips, starting with their Elseworlds one-shot Batman: Gotham Noir in 2001 and continuing with a number of creator-owned series such as Criminal, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, and Kill or Be Killed.
He is also known for co-creating the Winter Soldier identity of Bucky Barnes with Steve Epting.
Brubaker has won numerous awards for his comics work, including seven Eisner Awards, two Harvey Awards, an Ignatz Award, and a GLAAD Media Award. In addition to his work in comics, Brubaker served as the executive producer and co-writer of the 2019 Amazon series Too Old to Die Young, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
WWW Official Site

Early life

Brubaker was the child of a Navy intelligence officer, and spent much of his childhood in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. From childhood he read comics that included Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes, which were seminal in the storyline he would one day write when creating the Winter Soldier. Describing his affinity for Captain America's sidekick thus, he has stated, "I was a Navy brat, and he was an Army brat." As Bucky had been killed off before Brubaker began reading comics, he assumed that the character had met his demise in an elaborate, dramatic story, only to find that he had been unceremoniously killed in a single page of The Avengers #4, which Brubaker saw as an injustice, commenting, "I was a 9-year-old kid, and I was horrified." His uncle was screenwriter John Paxton.

Career

Early work

Brubaker began his career in comics as a cartoonist, writing and drawing Pajama Chronicles for Blackthorne Publishing, Purgatory U.S.A. for Slave Labor Graphics and several short stories for various small-press anthologies. His most well-known work of the period is Lowlife, a semi-autobiographical series first published by Caliber and later moved to Aeon Press. For Caliber, Brubaker also co-edited an anthology publication titled Monkey Wrench.
In 1991, Brubaker wrote one of his earliest crime stories for the Dark Horse anthology series Dark Horse Presents, which he would continue to contribute to intermittently throughout the decade. Among those contributions were the three-part serial "An Accidental Death", a collaboration between Brubaker and artist Eric Shanower which garnered the two an Eisner Award nomination in 1993, a Godzilla short story and another tale under the "Lowlife" title, this time a romantic triangle explored through three stories with each depicting a different participant's point-of-view. The latter story was collected by Alternative Comics into a standalone publication titled At the Seams, which in turn was nominated for Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection at the 1997 Ignatz Awards. His other work for Alternative Comics, the humorous and experimental Detour #1, was to be the first issue of a series, though only one issue was published. Detour was nominated for the "Best New Series" Harvey Award in 1998.
Brubaker's last work for Dark Horse Presents was "The Fall", a five-part story illustrated by Berlin creator Jason Lutes about a convenience store clerk who gets involved in a ten-year-old murder mystery after he uses a stolen credit card. In 2001, all five parts were collected into a one-shot by Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly. In 2004, IDW Publishing announced the first creator-owned project by Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips, a pirate-themed series titled Black Sails. The creators eventually decided to shelve the series in favor of Criminal, and "The Fall" remained Brubaker's last independent comics work until his move to Image in 2012.

DC Comics

In 1995, Brubaker was contacted by DC Comics to write a story about Prez for its "mature readers" imprint Vertigo, after being recommended to the editors by his "An Accidental Death" collaborator Eric Shanower. The result—Brubaker's first work for one of the two major American comic book publishers—was a one-shot titled Vertigo Visions: Prez, a broad political satire revamping the obscure 1970s Joe Simon creation. Brubaker continued to pitch various ideas to Vertigo but kept getting rejected until Shelly Roeberg asked him to pitch "something didn't think Vertigo would publish", which ended up being Scene of the Crime. The 1999 series marked Brubaker's first collaboration with two artists who would frequently work with him in later years: Michael Lark and Sean Phillips. A slacker detective story set in San Francisco, Scene of the Crime was critically acclaimed and brought Brubaker to the attention of Hollywood producers for the first time.
In late 2000, Brubaker signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics. That same year, he wrote his first mainstream superhero work, taking over Batman with issue #582. Brubaker would continue writing various series starring Batman and his List of [Batman supporting characters|ancillary characters] until late 2003, including contributions to inter-title crossover storylines such as "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" and "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive", as well as a stint on Detective Comics that was cut short due to an unspecified dispute with the editors. Also in 2000, Brubaker launched his second creator-owned property at Vertigo, the science fiction series Deadenders with artist Warren Pleece, which lasted 16 issues before its cancellation in 2001. Brubaker's last work for Vertigo was Dead Boy Detectives, a four-issue The Sandman spin-off limited series illustrated by artist Bryan Talbot.
In 2001, Brubaker teamed up with artist Darwyn Cooke to revamp Catwoman, redesigning and redeveloping the character's costume, supporting cast and modus operandi. The pair's stint started with a four-part serial "Trail of the Catwoman", published in Detective Comics #759–762, in which private detective Slam Bradley attempts to investigate the death of Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, and continued into the new Catwoman series which launched in late 2001. Brubaker stayed on the series until #37. During this time, Brubaker and Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis discussed co-writing a team-up tale between DC's Batman and Marvel's Daredevil. The two writers were enthusiastic about their ideas, which included a fight between Batman and Marvel villain Bullseye as well as another fight between Catwoman and Elektra. DC editors Matt Idelson and Bob Schreck were also enthusiastic, but DC Publisher Paul Levitz objected to the project due to a prior disagreement with Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.
In 2002, Brubaker did his first work for Wildstorm, another DC imprint, penning the five-issue Wildcats spin-off Point Blank. The series, drawn by New Zealand artist Colin Wilson and starring Wildcats' member Grifter, took existing characters and concepts from the Wildstorm Universe and used them to set up Brubaker's Sleeper series which debuted later that year. A collaboration with artist Sean Phillips, Sleeper starred Holden Carver, a secret agent who goes undercover in a supervillain's powerful organization only to have his only contact in law enforcement fall into a coma. With the authorities believing him a dangerous criminal, Carver is caught between the two warring sides with unclear allegiances. Although Sleeper was a success with critics and fans on the Internet, the series underperformed commercially. In December 2003, in a unique publicity stunt conceived to help promote the first trade paperback collection of Sleeper, Brubaker organized an arm wrestling competition at San Francisco's Isotope Comics. If participants were able to beat Brubaker at arm wrestling, they were awarded free signed comic books. According to Brubaker, he wrestled around 40–50 people and won most of the time, losing only to eight or nine contestants.
During the series' run, Sleeper also took part in the line-wide crossover "Coup d'Etat", with Brubaker scripting the first issue of the eponymous limited series. "Coup d'Etat" featured a series of events that led the Authority, a powerful team of superhumans in the Wilstorm Universe, to take over the United States. Following the crossover, Brubaker and artist Dustin Nguyen produced the 12-issue The Authority: Revolution series which explored the ramifications of the team's actions, while Sleeper was relaunched with the Season Two subtitle under the first volume's creative team.
Brubaker's last major project at DC was Gotham Central, co-created by Brubaker, writer Greg Rucka and artist Michael Lark. The series focused on the activities of the Gotham City Police Department, with writers either co-scripting storylines or alternating between the arcs. After Brubaker and Lark left the series due to their newly-signed exclusive contracts with Marvel, Rucka decided to discontinue the title, and Gotham Central was cancelled with issue #40.

Marvel Comics

Brubaker's first work for Marvel was volume five of the Captain America series. Paired with artist Steve Epting, Brubaker introduced new villains and resurrected the long-dead supporting character Bucky Barnes as "the Winter Soldier". The relaunch was a commercial and critical success from its first issue, with its most well-known storyline involving the assassination of Steve Rogers and subsequent passing of the Captain America mantle to Bucky Barnes. Brubaker wrote Captain America for eight full years, from November 2004 to October 2012, alongside several spin-off titles and associated series based around the character, including the 2009 mini-series Captain America: Reborn, which featured the return of Rogers, the eight-issue The Marvels Project limited series, as well as Secret Avengers, an ongoing series that followed the adventures of the eponymous team formed in the aftermath of the company-wide crossover storyline "Siege".
Brubaker's workload at Marvel increased in 2006. He wrote two limited series, Books of Doom with artist Pablo Raimondi, retelling and expanding on the origin of Doctor Doom, and X-Men: Deadly Genesis with artist Trevor Hairsine, retconning the origins of the All-New, All-Different X-Men team that debuted in 1975. After finishing Deadly Genesis in July 2006, Brubaker became the regular writer of Uncanny X-Men, working with artists Billy Tan and Clayton Henry. In addition to that, he also took over Daredevil, having already planned his run with outgoing writer Brian Michael Bendis. Once again teaming up with his Scene of the Crime and Gotham Central collaborator Michael Lark, Brubaker explored the ramifications of the character's imprisonment which occurred at the close of Bendis' run. Another notable launch of the year was The Immortal Iron Fist, an ongoing series co-written by Brubaker and Matt Fraction which started in November 2006.
Also in 2006, Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips launched their first creator-owned series Criminal, published under Marvel's Icon imprint. The title received generally positive reviews and its first arc, "Coward", won the 2007 Eisner Award for Best New Series. In 2008, after two volumes of Criminal, Brubaker and Phillips took a break from the series to launch another Icon title, Incognito, which Brubaker described as being "about a completely amoral guy with super-powers forced to pretend he's a normal law-abiding citizen, because he's in Witness Protection, and how that shapes what he becomes. It's also a brutal noir twist on the super-hero/super-villain genre that delves more into their roots in the pulps, and it's going to be pretty over-the-top and action-packed."
In February 2010, a controversy arose around Captain America #602, which depicted a group of anti-tax protesters, understood by some readers to be a Tea Party, which was characterized by the Falcon as exclusively white and racist group. Brubaker and Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada apologized for the matter, explaining that, although Brubaker did not intend the protesters to represent any particular real-life group, one of the signs depicted in the scene read, "Tea Bag The Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!". The slogan was not in Brubaker's script and was instead added by letterer Joe Caramagna, who, under deadline pressures, used messages from signs he found online at the last minute. Quesada further assured that the error would not appear in future reprints of the issue. In an interview following the controversy Brubaker stated, "I had to shut down my public email because I started getting death threats from, y'know, peaceful protesters."

Image Comics

In January 2012, Brubaker and Phillips launched Fatale at Image Comics. The series was initially announced as a twelve-issue maxi-series but was extended to an ongoing title in November 2012. Jesse Schedeen of IGN stated that "You can't go wrong with a Brubaker/Phillips collaboration. Even so, Fatale is making a strong case for being the best of their projects." In October 2013, Brubaker signed a five-year contract to produce comics exclusively for [|Image]. Under the terms of the deal, Image would publish any comic Brubaker brought to them without having to pitch it. Brubaker stated this arrangement was something he has always wanted. The first series released under this contract was The Fade Out, a Hollywood period piece made with frequent collaborator Sean Phillips.
Brubaker's other projects for Image include Velvet, a spy series illustrated by his Captain America collaborator Steve Epting.

Film and television work

In March 2009, Brubaker premiered his web series Angel of Death on Crackle. Brubaker made a cameo appearance in the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, playing the Winter Soldier's handler. In 2016, Brubaker joined the writing staff for HBO's Westworld. He co-wrote the episode "Dissonance Theory" with Jonathan Nolan.
In 2019, Brubaker partnered with Nicolas Winding Refn to produce Too Old to Die Young, a 10-part neo-noir miniseries for Amazon. In 2022, it was announced that Brubaker would serve as head writer and executive producer on the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader. In 2023, Criminal was announced to be in development at Amazon Prime Video with him serving as writer, executive producer and showrunner. A year later, in 2024, the series was ordered to series with Jordan Harper joining as co-showrunner and Phillips as executive producer.

Personal life

Brubaker lived previously in Seattle, with his wife, Melanie.
Brubaker currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and dog.

Awards and nominations

Awards

  • 2003 Prism Award
  • 2004 GLAAD Media Awards – Outstanding Comic Book
  • 2006 Harvey Award Winner – Best Writer
  • 2007 Eisner Award – Best Writer, Best New Series
  • 2007 Harvey Award – Best Writer
  • 2008 Eisner Award – Best Writer
  • 2010 Eisner Award – Best Writer, Best Single Issue
  • 2011 Scream Award – Best Comic Book Writer
  • 2012 Eisner Award – Best Limited Series or Story Arc
  • 2015 Eisner Award – Best New Series
  • 2016 Eisner Award – Best Limited Series
  • 2019 Eisner Award – Best Graphic Album—New

Nominations

  • 1993 Eisner Award nominee – Best Writer-Artist Team
  • 1997 Ignatz Award nominee – Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection
  • 1998 Harvey Award nominee – Best New Series
  • 2000 Eisner Award nominee – Best Writer and Best Mini-Series
  • 2007 Eisner Award nominee – Best Continuing Series
  • 2010 Eisner Award nominee – Best Limited Series or Story Arc
  • 2013 Eisner Award nominee – Best Continuing Series
  • 2013 Eisner Award nominee – Best New Series
  • 2013 Eisner Award nominee – Best Writer

Early work

DC Comics

Vertigo

DC Universe

Wildstorm

  • The Sleeper Omnibus collects:
  • *Point Blank #1–5 also collected as Point Blank
  • *Sleeper #1–12 also collected as Sleeper: Season One
  • *Coup d'Etat:
  • ** Coup d'Etat #1 also collected in Coup d'Etat
  • ** Coup d'Etat: Afterword: "Sleeper Prelude" also collected in Sleeper: Season Two
  • *Sleeper: Season Two #1–12 also collected as Sleeper: Season Two
  • Masks: Too Hot for TV!: "Introduction"
  • Tom Strong #29–30 collected in Tom Strong Book Five
  • The Authority: Revolution #1–12 collected as The Authority by Ed Brubaker and Dustin Nguyen
  • The Razor's Edge: RedBird
  • * Three issues were solicited before the series was pulled off schedule.

Marvel Comics

Image Comics

Criminal (2006-present)

After collaborating on Sleeper for DC Comics, Brubaker and Sean Phillips took their partnership to Marvel to create Criminal. In 2016, the duo moved the series to Image Comics, producing a series of one-shots and original graphic novels, before launching a new ongoing series in 2019.
Trade paperbacks
Deluxe hardcovers

Incognito (2008-2011)

Following the success of Criminal with Marvel's Icon imprint, Incognito was the second series launch for Brubaker and Phillips. It tells the story of Zack Overkill, who was placed in witness protection after informing on his supervillain boss. The series was reprinted by Image Comics in 2017.
TitleIssues collectedPagesFormatPublisherReleasedISBN
IncognitoIncognito #1-6176TPBIcon
Incognito: Bad InfluencesIncognito: Bad Influences #1-5144TPBIcon
Incognito: The Classified EditionIncognito #1-6; Incognito: Bad Influences #1-5336OHCIcon
Incognito: The Classified EditionIncognito #1-6; Incognito: Bad Influences #1-5368OHCImage

Fatale (2012-2014)

With art from Phillips, and colors from Dave Stewart, Fatale is a part-pulp, part-horror story of a femme fatale, set between the 1950s and 1970s.
Brubaker said the story came from trying to push himself creatively. "It seemed like a bigger challenge to try to do three noir tales that are wound around a horror story examination of the idea of the femme fatale archetype."
TitleIssues collectedPagesFormatPublisherReleasedISBN
Fatale Vol. 1: Death Chases MeFatale #1-5144TPBImage
Fatale Vol. 2: The Devil's BusinessFatale #6-10136TPBImage
Fatale Vol. 3: West of HellFatale #11-14128TPBImage
Fatale Vol. 4: Pray For RainFatale #15-19144TPBImage
Fatale Vol. 5: Curse The DemonFatale #20-24144TPBImage
Fatale: CompendiumFatale #1-24656TPBImage
Fatale: Compendium Fatale #1-24656TPBImage
Fatale: The Deluxe Edition Vol.1Fatale #1-10288HCImage
Fatale: The Deluxe Edition Vol.2Fatale #11-24440HCImage

Velvet (2013-2016)

Co-created with Captain America artist, Steve Epting, Brubaker said Velvet was "A Cold War-era story about a spy that nobody sees coming, even—or especially—all the spies around her".
The story came to comics after being rejected as a television pitch. Brubaker said: "The notes that we got from everybody were that she needed to be 25, and an agent-in-training learning from the cool male secret agent. I was just like 'OK, this is... just appalling to me.' Rather than a character that had lived a real life, they wanted a woman 20 years younger, stripped of Velvet's expertise and maturity."
TitleIssues collectedPagesFormatPublisherReleasedISBN
Velvet Vol. 1Velvet #1-5128TPBImage
Velvet Vol. 2: The Secret Lives Of Dead MenVelvet #6-10128TPBImage
Velvet Vol. 3: The Man Who Stole The WorldVelvet #11-15136TPBImage
Velvet Deluxe EditionVelvet #1-15414OHCImage

The Fade Out (2014-2016)

Set in Hollywood 1948, Brubaker and Phillips' The Fade Out tells the story of a screenwriter who awakens in a room with a dead actor. Brubaker said: "It's all based on things that have happened. Not the murder itself and the coverup, but the details. The way that the FBI had informants and people fronting, pretending they were working for the studios."
TitleIssues collectedPagesFormatPublisherReleasedISBN
The Fade Out: Act OneThe Fade Out #1-4120TPBImage
The Fade Out: Act TwoThe Fade Out #5-8112TPBImage
The Fade Out: Act ThreeThe Fade Out #9-12128TPBImage
The Fade Out: The Complete CollectionThe Fade Out #1-12360TPBImage
The Fade Out: The Deluxe EditionThe Fade Out #1-12384OHCImage

Kill Or Be Killed (2017-2018)

Brubaker and Phillips collaborated to tell a 20-issue story in which a relatively normal art student turns into a gun-toting antihero. Kill Or Be Killed was described as Death Wish meets Breaking Bad.
TitleIssues collectedPagesFormatPublisherReleasedISBN
Kill Or Be Killed Vol. 1Kill Or Be Killed #1-4128TPBImage
Kill Or Be Killed Vol. 2Kill Or Be Killed #5-10176TPBImage
Kill Or Be Killed Vol. 3Kill Or Be Killed #11-14120TPBImage
Kill Or Be Killed Vol. 4Kill Or Be Killed #15-20144TPBImage
Kill Or Be Killed CompendiumKill Or Be Killed #1-20600TPBImage
Kill Or Be Killed: The Deluxe EditionKill Or Be Killed #1-20624OHCImage

Reckless (2020-2022)

Co-created with Phillips, Reckless is set in Los Angeles during the early 1980s. It tells the story of former FBI agent, Ethan Reckless, and projectionist Anna, with their crusade for payback on villains.
Brubaker's inspiration was to wonder what a pulp hero would look like without "all the blatant racism and sexism" that was prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s version of the genre. The idea came out of the Covid-19 pandemic. " were both looking for some kind of escape. Something that we could throw ourselves into."
TitlePagesFormatPublisherReleasedISBN
Reckless144HCImage
Reckless: Friend Of The Devil144HCImage
Reckless: Destroy All Monsters144HCImage
Reckless: Ghost In You144HCImage
Reckless: Follow Me Down144HCImage

Friday (2021-2024)

Originally published on Panel Syndicate as an e-comic, Friday was co-created with Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente. The series was re-released as a trio of paperbacks by Image Comics.
TitleIssues collectedPagesFormatPublisherReleasedISBN
Friday Book One: The First Day Of ChristmasFriday #1-3120TPBImage
Friday Book Two: On A Cold Winter's NightFriday #4-6120TPBImage
Friday Book Three: Christmas Time is Here AgainFriday #7-9128TPBImage
Friday: Deluxe EditionFriday #1-9368OHCImage

Other publishers

Screenwriting credits

Television

Westworld
  • * "Dissonance Theory" Too Old to Die Young
  • * "Volume 1: The Devil"
  • * 'Volume 2: The Lovers"
  • * "Volume 3: The Hermit"
  • * "Volume 4: The Tower"
  • * "Volume 5: The Fool"
  • * "Volume 6: The High Priestess"
  • * "Volume 7: The Magician"
  • * "Volume 8: The Hanged Man"
  • * "Volume 9: The Empress" Batman: Caped Crusader
  • * "Kiss of the Catwoman"
  • * "The Night of the Hunters"
  • * "Savage Night"