East Coast Dispatches: November 23, 2022
Hey folks,
It’s a relaxing morning up here in Halifax. I’m typing away in my office, sipping on coffee, and watching the doe and buck that have been hanging around in our front yard for the last couple of days.
Comeback: Ten Years Later!
This week marks the ten-year anniversary of Comeback #1, my first published work. I’d been self-publishing comics for more than a decade and a half before Comeback, but this was the first book with an honest to god publisher.
I’d first met Comeback collaborator and co-creator Michael Walsh when he’d hired me to letter a pitch he was writing and drawing back in late 2010 or early 2011. I believe it was called Delta (Michael, correct me if I’m wrong). I fell in love with his work and rather than billing him for the lettering work, I took a shot and asked if he’d be interested in drawing one of the Murder Book short scripts I’d recently finished. I figured we could work out a deal where he’d knock the cost of my lettering off his page rate — but, as luck would have it, Michael was into Murder Book and was happy to jump on the short comic on a collaborative basis (we shared ownership, as is the case with every artist on Murder Book). That comic, Settling Up, you can read here.
After finishing the short together, we realized that we worked well together and set out to come up with a plan to (hopefully) get a book picked up by Image Comics — something both he and I were desperate to do.
I don’t remember where the plan came from, I believe it was a take on a Robert Kirkman approach that I’d read about somewhere. Michael and I decided that what we’d do is take a year (from late 2011 through 2012) and create as many pitches as we could, sending them out as soon as they were done and moving on to the next one while we waited for word on the one we’d just sent.
The route we’d decided on was like so: come up with an idea that we could both get behind, I write the pitch document and five script pages, then hand them off to Michael to draw. While he was drawing those, I move on to the next idea, creating the pitch document and writing script pages. Wash, rinse, repeat. The hope was that over the course of a year, we could get six or seven pitches together, praying that just one would get approved.
The first was a straight crime story called Five Years, which managed to get some interest, but ultimately was not picked up. After some digging, I managed to find the files for that pitch, you can check them out here. I was really into this idea at the time, it’s very much Murder-Book-But-Longer type of project that I love to do (see: The Violent), but is hard to convince publishers is worth the risk.
Our second pitch was Comeback, which we’d been lucky enough to get Jordie Bellaire on board for. She was quickly establishing herself as one of the best colourists in the industry and well on her way to comics superstardom. I’ll always be grateful to her for agreeing to work with a couple of no-name creators.
The premise, for those unfamiliar, is that time travel exists, but is limited to 67 days. It’s illegal for a myriad of reasons. An operation calling themselves Reconnect have been offering time travel services to rescue those who’ve died via unnatural causes (car accidents, murder, etc) for a premium fee. The book follows two agents who not only rescue the recently deceased, but also stage scenes to make it appear as though they’re still dead.
Instead of pitching Comeback to Image Central, we pitched it to Shadowline, Jim Valentino’s imprint at Image. I’d been doing some lettering work for Shadowline at the time and was hoping that would give us a bit of an advantage in having the pitch looked at since I was already in regular communication with Jim. It did give us an edge, but Jim is a tough nut and doesn’t pull punches on critiques — I had pitched books to him in the past and he’d passed on all of them. He had a few notes on the pitch and we had to jump through a few hoops, but eventually, we got the greenlight.
I was so excited, anxious, and nervous that I threw up.
At the time, comic sales were in a bit of a slump, so we knew that we likely would only sell about 5-6,000 copies of #1. That was the average at the time. But, we got lucky in that Comeback #1 (released November 21, 2012) came out just as Image was experiencing a wave of increased sales. Our book sold double what was expected and, not one to waste an opportunity, I roped Johnnie Christmas into pitching Sheltered, which we were able to get approved based on the success of Comeback.
Looking back on Comeback, is always tough, there’s so much I would change if I could, but that’s always going to be the case with early work. I’m still proud of the work that Jordie, Michael, and I did and am certain that without Comeback, I wouldn’t have the career that I do now. Comeback led directly to work with IDW and Boom, which led to work at Marvel and DC.
Michael and I are still close and talk nearly every day. Last year, I was lucky enough to write an issue of Silver Coin for him.
Comeback has been optioned a few times over the years and is still in development as a film. Whether or not that film ever materializes is yet to be seen. I’m cautiously optimistic, but don’t want to jinx it by talking too much about it or saying anything beyond what’s already out there in press releases.
Man. Ten years. Honestly feels like I only just got started.
For those interested, I’ve just restocked my online shop with copies of the Comeback trade. I’ve only got a few left and am not sure when I’ll be ordering more.
Deathstroke Inc. #15 is Out!
Yesterday, the final issue of Deathstroke Inc. dropped, which wraps up my Deathstroke: Year One arc and my first solo run on a book at DC.
It feels like I only just started working on the book, so it’s strange for me to see the final issue out on stands already.
Deathstroke is a complicated character and one who’s tough to get right, I think. He’s an unrepentant killer and someone difficult to have any sympathy for. Trying to get into an origin story that shows his motivation and drive, while maintaining his cold-hearted bastardness (it’s a word, look it up) was an incredible challenge, but I think we did him well. I’m proud of it.
Dexter Soy was an incredible collaborator to ride with through this adventure. Veronica Gandini’s colours gave us life, Steve Wands made it all work, and Mikel Janin’s covers were second to none. Thanks to Ben Abernathy, as always, for inviting me along on this adventure.
With all that wrapped, there should be some other announcements coming soon(ish).
Big Country Comics Expo - This Weekend
I’ll be at Big Country Comics Expo in Fredericton, New Brunswick on Saturday, November 26th and Sunday, November 27th.
My schedule is as follows:
Saturday, November 26th:
Panel “How I Broke Into Comics” 3-4pm
Signing at 4-5pm
Sunday, November 27th:
Signing at 11am-noon and 3-4pm
I’ll have stock with me to sell and, as always, I’ll sign whatever you’ve got for free.
What’s Coming Up
There’s Something Wrong With Patrick Todd has had a delay due to printer issues. I’ll try to update when #4 and #5 are rescheduled):
WildStorm 30th Anniversary Special (November 29)
There’s Something Wrong With Patrick Todd #4 (Delayed - January, maybe?)
Predator #5 (December 7)
Batman Incorporated #3 (December 13)
Alright, I’m going back to deer watching.
Talk to all of you later,
Ed Brisson
Halifax, Nova Scotia