Maybe If I Cut Out The Images, It’ll SEEM Shorter?
Hey folks. Think I’ve settled into a once-every-two-weeks schedule on this bastard. I swear that I always intend to keep it short, but it always gets away from me.
Beyond The Breach: Now With 100% More Logo
Next newsletter, I’m going to have a preview of BEYOND THE BREACH #1 for you, but for now, enjoy the above full cover treatment with a foxy logo courtesy of Tom Mueller.
For those unfamiliar, Damian and I have been working together for a long, long time. BEYOND THE BREACH is just our latest outing together.
Damian Couceiro and I first met back in 2005 when he responded to an ad I’d posted on Digital Webbing. I’d been flirting with the idea of writing comics and had an idea for a specialized police division that was made up of capes, tasked with combating cape-related crime (believe it or not, I hadn’t read POWER at the time). I’d received at least 100 responses to my ad, but none were the right fit and I was ready to give up when Damian dropped me an email with some Batman pages he’d done. He was leaps and bounds better than all the applicants that had applied to the gig and so we started cooking up our book THE TRADE (aka: THE DIVISION).
We pitched the book to Image and got a very gracious and kind email from then-president Erik Larsen. Even though he turned the book down, he gave some very good notes and told us to pitch the next project to them. Obviously, we were disappointed but also encouraged that we were on the right path.
However, rather than trying something new, I had tunnel vision and was convinced that THE TRADE was the book I had to write. And so, we pressed on.
We managed to find a publisher and signed a publishing deal, but…the publisher turned out to be a fairly shady operation. I halted production just as we were about to launch into #4 and before any issues were published. I desperately wanted to have a book published, but didn’t want to be tied to an exploitive publisher. And so, the book languished while both Damian and I moved on to other things.
A few years passed and in 2009, I reached out to Damian again about illustrating a short crime story I’d written for ACTS OF VIOLENCE, a crime anthology that four friends and I were publishing. Although I didn’t know it at the time, that story would go on to become the prototype for MURDER BOOK.
Then, a couple more years passed and I was finally getting some comic work thanks to the success of COMEBACK (Shadowline/Image, 2012). BOOM! had asked me to write a one-off issue of SONS OF ANARCHY, which got me the gig writing the ongoing series. Even though I was a fan of the show, the big reason I took on the gig as the series writer was so that I could work with Damian again. He and I ended up doing 8 issues of the series together and then BOOM! floated the idea of he and I doing a creator-owned — which became CLUSTER and lasted another 8 issues.
CLUSTER
Afterwards, Damian and I kept in touch, always talking about getting another creator-owned going. We manage to launch another in 2016 with STELA, an online comics company with a weird deal structure that allowed he and I to keep print and film rights, while they paid for the creation in exchange for digital and video game rights. That book, THE BIG IDEA, is a 120ish page Elmore Leonard style tale of a chiropractor hell-bent on revenge against an ex-business partner. I would love to get it out in print someday, but the formatting is set up for reading on your phone and so I’d have to do a lot of reformatting on it. One day.
THE BIG IDEA
Since then, Damian and I have managed to work on IRON FIRST, X-FORCE, OLD MAN LOGAN and GHOST RIDER 2099. All told, I believe we’ve done close to 1,000 pages worth of work together and he’s always my first call when I’ve got an idea for a new project.
Damian is one of the hardest working and most generous artists I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with. He’s an absolute master of storytelling, whether it’s an emotionally charged and grounded street-level book or an epic, fantastical space odyssey. There’s nothing he can’t do. I feel lucky to have had the chance to produce so much work with him and am happy to be back on yet another creator-owned book with BEYOND THE BREACH.
Silver Coin #3 FOC
Official Image Description:
“The grisly third installment of horror anthology THE SILVER COIN by all-stars MICHAEL WALSH, CHIP ZDARSKY, KELLY THOMPSON, ED BRISSON, and JEFF LEMIRE. After a home invasion goes bad, the mysterious coin helps its new owners outrun the law. But it's leading them down a path much darker.”
So, obviously, you’ve all already read the first two issues, penned by Chip and Kelly, respectively. And they were great, right?
I am thrilled to be part of the line-up, it’s been a great experience all around. The only way to improve the experience is for me to CRUSH Kelly and Chip in sales. CRUSH THEM INTO DUST.
So, please, help me on my conquest by ensuring you’ve asked your local comic shop to add THE SILVER COIN to your pull list. The FOC (Final Order Cutoff) on this issue is May 24th.
An Interview
Heroes Reborn: Weapon X & Final Flight #1 David Yardin Variant
Last week, AlphaFlight.Net ran an interview with me about the upcoming HEROES REBORN: WEAPON X & FINAL FLIGHT one-shot. In which I talk about my journey into comics, writing Canadian places, and why Alpha Flight needs to be something different from what they were. You can read that here.
I’m really happy with how this issue came together. It’s probably the closest to THE VIOLENT or MURDER BOOK that I’ve done at Marvel, obviously on a much larger scale, but still has that same vibe of hopelessness and betrayal that I love writing so much.
Deadpool: Black, White & Blood!
I’m gonna be writing some Deadpool! Specifically, DEADPOOL: BLACK, WHITE AND BLOOD. I had a ton of fun writing this script in which Deadpool sets out on a journey to find a long lost film from his childhood — a journey that leads him to invade a foreign country and potentially start a global war. The idea is one that I’d had in the back of my mind for years now.
And the topper? Whilce Portacio on art. Oh god, so excited.
Clownhunter!
Batman Secret Files: Clownhunter cover by Mico Suayan
My first work with DC in nearly 6 years has just been announced. BATMAN SECRET FILES: CLOWNHUNTER is a 40 page one-shot that hits shelves this fall. If you like seeing clowns getting beaten up in a billion different ways, then this is the book to help you work through that childhood trauma of yours.
Other Stuff
So, I have a BUNCH of stuff in July, aside from BEYOND THE BREACH #1, that has been solicited, but I was brought in sometime between the solicitations being sent in and now and so my name is not on the solicitations. Weird, I know, but what are you gonna do? It’s COVID-town, baby. Anyhow, it’s all very exciting stuff and I’m hoping I can talk about it in the next newsletter.
Buy Stuff
Just a reminder that my online shop is now up and running. I’ve been adding inventory as I continue my excavation of my storage room. If there’s something you’re looking for and don’t see, just drop me a message and I’ll see if I can’t find it.
Until the end of May, use the code GRANDOPEN25 for 25% off your store orders.
I Think That’s It?
I’m pretty sure anyway. If you have any questions or comments, you can either respond to this email (I think that’s how it works?) or leave a comment on the Substack site.
Thanks for reading!
Ed Brisson
Halifax, Nova Scotia