Ed Brubaker: Reviews

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Ed Brubaker Reviews

August 29, 1997
Comics Buyer's Guide #1224
Publishers' Picks

Our retailers recommend: Detour: B+

S.A. Bennett: Shifting from autobiographical to exploratory fiction in Detour has brought into sharp focus all of Ed Brubaker's considerable strengths. The near-future of "Live on the Fault Line" is conveyed through a few sparse details that make the unknown instantly mundane. Grade: A.

Steve Ginsberg: All I can recommend to the protagonist in Brubaker's latest work is: Try some fiber laxative. And you, dear reader, should try Detour, particularly if you've been feeling a little smug lately about your own life. Not altogether downbeat, just filled with that darned realism. I give this bathroom tome a B.

Cliff Biggers: Brubaker is a master of the comic book form as an intensely personal art form; his work is both visually apealing and thought-provoking, dealing with troubled characters and their troubling lives in an existential, sometimes nihilistic way. If you're looking for grand struggles and epic battles, look elsewhere.

Phil Mateer: Brubaker, who first attracted attention with the autobiographical comic book Lowlife, has been adding more and more fictional elements to his work, and with Detour he's become a magical realist: The result is a near-future story with a few fantasy elements and closely observed, realistic characters. That's a potent (and encouraging) combination, although with only one issue it's hard to tell if Brubaker's bridged the difference between observing life and being able to recraft it into a workable plot. This is a good beginning. Grade: B.

Tom Lawton: In spite of what the press release says about this being the story of one man's struggle to cling to his moral standards, it becomes clear that this man's high morals are merely convenient excuses for his own hatred and intolerance. He's not a sympathetic character. Which is fine. As each imagined slight piles up, Ed Brubaker's protagonist moves further and further into his isolation. Though Detour is less compelling than Brubaker's previous Lowlife, it is, nonetheless, fine reading for those interested in realistic graphic fiction. Grade: A-.