The Four Color Media Monitor

The overrated comics/novel writer Brubaker was interviewed by Alex Segura for Crime Reads about a new story for his GN series Criminal, and if there's any writer who's working for him in developing a new story, it's somebody who played a part in destroying Marvel coherency:

This month marks the release of GIANT-SIZE CRIMINAL #1, a, well, giant-sized comic book set in the acclaimed and bestselling world of writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips’ CRIMINAL series. The first new story in five years is loaded with CRIMINAL goodies – including an extra-long Ricky Lawless story, a CRIMINAL TTRPG module written by superstar comic book writer and game designer Kieron Gillen with illustrations by Phillips, an illustrated guide to the world of CRIMINAL and its key players, plus insights into the upcoming CRIMINAL TV show by Brubaker – who is also the showrunner on the show. The comic is only available in print and in comic shops – making it not only collectible, but also a key part of the universe’s gritty, grounded lore. The release of the issue gave me an opportunity to poke Ed about something else I was curious about – the upcoming CRIMINAL streaming series, which he’s running himself, with input from co-creator Phillips and a team of crack writers. I sat down with Brubaker to not only talk about the show, but what fans can look forward to when reading GIANT-SIZE CRIMINAL #1! [...]

AS: The world of Criminal boasts an impressive backlist – so that can be a little daunting to a new reader. Is this book the kind of thing new readers can step into?

EB: Yeah, I think pretty much all the CRIMINAL stories are, actually. I always assume any book or comic might be someone’s first time discovering our work and make it new-reader-friendly. This is really just spending a crazy night with one of my favorite characters from the world of CRIMINAL. And it’s also got an introduction to the world of CRIMINAL and an RPG module by my friend Kieron Gillen, so readers can make up their own CRIMINAL game. It’s a fun issue, and jam packed.

So he associates with the same writer who deconstructed Tony Stark's background in Iron Man, changing his parents to adoptive instead of biological. And it's undoubtably not the only blatant direction Gillen ever took when he was working for Marvel. That Brubaker would do work with him is decidedly galling. At least if Gillen, on his part, is no longer working at the Big Two, that's good, but with only so many other bad apples working there since, nothing's changed. Brubaker also spoke about working in TV and animation:

AS: What was it like, as a first-time showrunner, taking point on CRIMINAL? Can you talk about any lessons you learned and what you might have done differently?

EB: I’ve been working in TV on and off for 20 years trying to get to be a showrunner, but of course, once I got the job, nothing was what I expected to be. I had written most of a season of TV for Refn, with TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG and right before CRIMINAL I had been the head writer of Bruce Timm’s new Batman cartoon, so I knew there was always a lot of rewriting throughout the whole process, that’s just the nature of it, but I had never been in charge during post on anything before, and that was a really amazing experience.

I was having lunch with a screenwriter friend while I was editing and telling him how much I was learning about the process and he was like “yeah, writing the script and shooting it is just making the ingredients, post is where you have to be like a chef making it all come together into a meal.” And that was a real learning experience, seeing how some scenes that felt really alive on the page didn’t on the screen, and how you can edit and score a scene to bring that life back. Or even change it to something else that’s actually better.

As far as what I’d do differently, there’s way too much, but most of it is just technical things or being better at communicating with collaborators, the kinds of stuff we all learn on the job in this industry. Overall, I had a great time being a showrunner, even for all the struggles, and my only hope is I’ll be better at it the next time around.

I can only wonder how much of the Batman cartoon he worked on was influenced by his decidedly uninspired, shoddy work on the comics, recalling he was part of writing a crossover titled Bruce Wayne: Murderer?/Fugitive, which sacrificed a recurring character, Vesper Fairchild, for the sake of a story where Bruce is framed for murder, along with a lady employee. And then Brubaker hilariously claims he was "learning". Well what he did with Batman was decidedly too much, and too late.

If Brubaker does make the switch from comics writing to TV writing and production, it'd almost be a blessing, and certainly no loss to comicdom. But, he wouldn't be any gift for Hollywood either. Though it wouldn't be a surprise if, based on how PC he actually is, plenty of modern wokesters in Hollywood would be more than eager to work with him.

Labels: animation, Batman, dc comics, dreadful writers, indie publishers, Iron Man, marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda