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Ed Brubaker Interviews

Ed Brubaker may not be a household name yet, but for the past seven years he's been hard at work. Starting with Purgatory USA (Slave Labor Graphics) in 1989 and continuing through such great titles as An Accidental Death (Fantagraphics Books, drawn by Eric Shanower), and now the comeback of the unlikely 70s character "Prez" in a comic appropriately entitled Smells Like Teen President (one of my all time personal favorites), he has put together an impressive body of work. Ed did have second thoughts about such an unmistakable Nirvana-inspired title, however. "I just kind of tagged the book with it, but when it was time to put it out, I wanted to call it something else. It just seemed too obvious. My editor thought it was perfect, though." He even managed to tie into the Vertigo comics universe what was basically a stand-alone series about an 18-year-old (and friends) running the country — nicely done! Much to the chagrin of his growing number of fans, it's been quality over quantity with Ed, considering his relatively tiny output. But the imoprtant thing, of course, is that they're just about all keepers!

Ed is perhaps best known for his semi-autobiographical comic, Lowlife (Aeon Comics), a classic "modern" comic series in the tradition of Yummy Fur, Love & Rockets, and so on. "Especially early on, I was influenced by American Splendor, Lynda Barry, etc.," notes Ed, "but now I'm more influenced by writing — more literature than cmoics." This particular comic deals with one young man's everyday life, loves, and employment. It's been called the perfect book about slackers, and seems to pretty much have the "Generation X" (hate the phrase, but it is descriptive!) lifestyle down — a view from the inside out. "It's basically all stuff that really happened, just changed enough to avoid complications," notes Ed. The artwork has a realistic-yet-cartoony feel. "I grew up on Archie comic, and Archie people tend to be really skinny with big heads — the next comics will be more in proportion!"

As in the best "real life" comics, it's easy to find a bit of yourself in each of the stories; if you happen to know Ed, that can be literally true! That feeling is helped along by the narrative style as the main character (Tommy) confides in yuo, revealing choice recent events in his often bewildering existence. As Ed points out, "Life tends to not have a point." Sadly, the series is finishing off with the current issue, #4. This final issue even includes a story featuring the now-30-year-old Tommy. The long gaps between issues probably didn't help, but it's been noted that if you're actually in your comic, even just a little, you take a little more care with each issue, "I've felt trapped by Lowlife as both a name and an entity for some time now. I don't want to do the same kinds of stories with the same characters anymore. So I'm giving myself a fresh start."

Fans should also be aware of an auxiliary Lowlife storyline running through the current issues of Dark Horse Presents (issues #113-115, Dark Horse Comics). But alas, the long-rumored movie project based on the book has fallen through, though the screenplay (written by Ed himself) is still ready to go. Naturally, Mr. Brubaker has a new series ready set to debut next spring. The boko itself is currently untitled, but the main storyline will be called The Sleepwalker. "I'm pretty much done with the autobiographical stories. The new stuff is a lot more fiction-based. It's a post-modern take on things; still about real life, but more about the unreal elements of it."

That's not the only change. "Sleepwalker is about a guy's obsession with his own past," reveals Ed. "He gets wrapped up in reliving relationships and happy moments that have long passed. As the guy gets older, he gets more and more detached from reality. There will also be an independent backup story in each issue. And that's a big difference from my previous series. I'll be using these backup stories to experiment with both storyline and art. The first storyline, for example, takes place in San Francisco, and it seems to take place now, but the city is racked with earthquakes on a pretty much daily basis." Of course, events and characters from Ed's own life make an occasional appearance. "I had a roomate and he had this thing where he thought he was the only person that ever cleaned up the house, so I thought it would be funny to have a character in one story always cleaning up after the earthquakes, always just one step behind. It gets to the point where he's spying on his roomates to catch them in the act of messing up the house."

As for other future projects, look for The Fall (Dark Horse Comics, illustrated by Jason Lutes) and The Complete Lowlife (Black Eye Productions. Keep an eye out — you won't be disappointed!

Images, characters and likenesses © and TM Ed Brubaker