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Ed Brubaker: Cat Scratch Fever

Ed Brubaker started out in the industry doing award-winning independent comics like his series’ Detour and Lowlife, and has found himself, in recent years, writing stories for some of the major comic book companies. He is often swinging back and forth from creator owned work (Vertigo’s Deadenders) to other, company owned properties on a work for hire basis (Batman). He seems to be happy with this balance, enjoying the freedom of creating his own worlds and characters, and alternately playing with the super-heroes of the Wildstorm Universe or the crime noir world of Gotham City.

His latest series for DC Comics will be the relaunching of Catwoman, re-establishing Selina Kyle as Gotham’s premiere thief, and introducing a femme fatale for the 21st century. Brubaker and his partner in crime, Darwyn Cooke, are hoping to create a more balanced and refined Catwoman than fans may be accustomed to. “What I'm not looking to do is create some kind of fanboy whack fest. This Selina Kyle has style and class, instead of huge breasts.”

I spoke with Ed by e-mail this past month and discussed his Catwoman project with him, as well as his thoughts on his co-contributor, Darwyn Cooke, and some of his other works, past and present…

MIKE JOZIC: How was it that you came to be relaunching Catwoman for DC?

ED BRUBAKER: I was actually just planning to be the regular writer on the book, but then I roped in Darwyn Cooke as the artist for my first arc, and we got really excited with our first issue and sort of redefined and redesigned the character, and the higher-ups at DC decided to relaunch the book at number one based on that. So it was kind of backwards for us, but we're pretty happy about the higher exposure, to say the least.

JOZIC: What will be your overall approach to the series and the character of Selina Kyle? Anything that we haven't seen before, or will it be more of a smoothing over of the characters many incarnations up to this point and time?

BRUBAKER: I think it'll be sort of a combination of the two. Things from her past are very important to the series, and I'm not going to be throwing out things as if they never happened, but I may not be referring to certain eras of the character at all. I am interested in exploring her as a character who came from the streets and rose to the heights of being the best burglar in the world, and being a society scenester, almost. Taking those two parts of her life, and juxtaposing them.

So, I send her on a sort of quest to figure out her goal in life now, as a person. What's important to her? She becomes much less a compulsive thief than a real character. You've got to figure, after 12 years of being Catwoman, she's got millions stashed away all over the place, so it's not like she needs to constantly steal every gem that comes through town.

JOZIC: Which periods of Catwoman's history will you be choosing not to acknowledge for the sake of the new direction?

BRUBAKER: It's not so much that I'm not acknowledging them, as I'm just not spending a lot of time dealing with her various continuity problems. I don't claim that any of the things in previous comics didn't happen though. I just try to kind of hit on the various eras of Catwoman quickly to make it seem like the current series is a natural progression of all the previous stories. One thing that I'm saying flat out, which apparently contradicts some retconning, is that Selina dated Bruce Wayne at some point. This is something I always remembered from Batman comics, but it had apparently been erased. I didn't know it, and no one stopped me, so it's back in. It's not a major part of the story, but I like that it's back.

JOZIC: I noticed that the series was actually supposed to launch this past July or something, and it was pushed back until this November. What was the logic behind the move?

BRUBAKER: Ever since they decided to relaunch with Number One, the plan was to keep the book off the shelves for at least six months, because then, not only is it off the shelves, it's not in any catalogues or anything for a few months, too, so people can really see it's gone. I think it was done to build up anticipation, and I think it worked. Plus, it gave us the chance to do the Slam Bradley back-up in Detective.

JOZIC: And the Slam Bradley lead-in story that ran in Detective, was that always planned to be a prologue to the new run, or a happy accident for you and Darwyn?

BRUBAKER: A happy accident, and a coincidence that Darwyn and I both loved the character. We were asked to do a lead-in to the new book as a back-up in 'Tec, and I immediately said, let's do it as a detective piece, where someone is searching for Catwoman, and it's Slam Bradley, who has a huge history with Detective Comics, starting with issue one, way back in 1939.

JOZIC: Did the extra time allow you to refine any of your ideas about the series, or does it pretty much stand as it was when you first approached the material?

BRUBAKER: It's hard to say. I'd written two issues before they decided to do the relaunch, so I don't think I changed anything about the way I wanted to do it. If anything, it just gave me a chance to think farther ahead with the series and plan upcoming storylines.

JOZIC: Just how far ahead have you plotted stories for the series?

BRUBAKER: About two years, or so. I've written up to issue 9 already.

JOZIC: I also noticed that Darwyn, who I understood was going to be doing the series on a regular basis, is no longer attached to the book as of issue number 5. Did the delay have anything to do with that?

BRUBAKER: No, Darwyn was always just going to do the first storyline, because he wanted to be there for the redesigning of the character, and the new direction, because he likes Selina as a character. But Darwyn has a lot on his plate, as a writer and an artist. He's got more projects waiting for him than I do right now, and they all sound really cool. It was only because they decided to relaunch the book that it became a big deal that he wasn't staying on for my whole run.

JOZIC: How did you find working with Darwyn?

BRUBAKER: He's one of the most talented people working in comics right now. It was a really gratifying experience to see my stories come to life under his pencil, and I learned a lot from his animation background, too, about more dynamic storytelling. Not that I always follow the lesson, but still...

And as I said, he's got his own stories to tell, so I'm lucky to have gotten the chance to work with him, I think few writers will get to. He's simply one of the best.

JOZIC: The image of Brad Rader's that you have on your site looks very nice and, not surprisingly, similar in style to what Darwyn was doing. Did his experience doing work for the Batman animated series have anything to do with his getting the assignment?

BRUBAKER: That was why they hired Brad. the plan had always been to go with another storyboard style artist, to keep the same basic art direction on the series, and to make sure it still has a very dense and readable feel to it.

JOZIC: Will Selina be interacting with other characters in the DCU, or at least Gotham City, on any kind of regular basis, or will you be trying to have her stand on her own two feet and give her some room to develop independently of all that shared universe stuff?

BRUBAKER: Yeah, it's more of a self-contained book than a lot of DCU books are. She'll meet Batman and Slam Bradley and other characters from that world sometimes, but it's not continuity oriented in any way. Her book is her world right now, and that's for the best, I think. Too much continuity gives us all a headache.

JOZIC: Darwyn had told me, in an interview I did with him a while ago, that this Selina Kyle would be one that female readers could genuinely enjoy (unlike some past incarnations of the character). What would be your take on that, and are you hoping to get a strong female readership for the book?

BRUBAKER: I would love to have a strong female audience on this book, and yeah, I'm looking to create a book that is appealing to women and men. What I'm not looking to do, and Darwyn wasn't either, is create some kind of fanboy whack fest. This Selina Kyle has style and class, instead of huge breasts.

But, in general, the cast of the book is largely female, and they are all characters that I've come to love as I've written them. I got a bit of a reputation as one of those writers who writes good women characters thanks to Deadenders (not that the book sold gangbusters because of that, but still) and I would like to think that it'll carry over in Catwoman, too. This is definitely the Catwoman book Warners will be showing people like Ashley Judd when they are putting together the movie, I'm sure. She's a strong and classy lady this time around, and I think it shows immediately.

JOZIC: Do you think readers of your previous work with Batman or Deadenders will follow you over to Catwoman?

BRUBAKER: I hope that people who like my work will follow me, but since Catwoman looks to be a pretty big book, at least at first. I would really hope that people who read and like Catwoman will follow me to other work, like my upcoming Wildstorm projects.

JOZIC: Speaking of Deadenders, did it sting when that book got cancelled, or did you see that one coming?

BRUBAKER: It was actually my idea to end it. It wasn't doing well, and I didn't like the idea of my publisher, who was showing so much faith in me, losing money on my project. As it turned out, I had to end it a little quicker than I had planned, though.

JOZIC: You mention on your website that Deadenders was you strip-mining your own youth. Was it a pretty personal book for you?

BRUBAKER: In some ways. I just really wanted to do a sort of Vertigo version of Archie or Swing with Scooter.

JOZIC: Was it difficult for you to tie things up to end that series when you did?

BRUBAKER: It could have been less difficult, but I fit in everything I wanted to. I wish I'd had two more issues to tell it, though.

JOZIC: Are you satisfied with the run as it stands, or are there more stories from New Bedlam just dying to be told?

BRUBAKER: I'm happy with it.

I have plenty of other things to write about, really, and always two or three fighting to get to the surface.

JOZIC: You've also done Dead Boy Detectives for Vertigo, building on characters Neil Gaiman created over in Sandman. Was that a hoot to do, or was it a difficult series to put together?

BRUBAKER: Oh no, it was a lot of fun, and Neil was very supportive and apparently, very pleased with the series, too. It got to the point, by the time Bryan [Talbot] and I were through, that I wished we'd created Edwin and Charles, because I liked them so much.

JOZIC: So, you've heard Neil's reaction to the story?

BRUBAKER: Through Shelly Bond, I did, and as I said above, he apparently really liked it, and suggested we try to do some more, but I just don't have time right now.

JOZIC: You seem to be very interested in "crime" stories. What is it about the mystery, or hard-boiled detective story that appeals to you?

BRUBAKER: I don't know, really. I like the puzzle aspects of good mysteries, like Ross Macdonald's books, and I like the way you can explore things you couldn't otherwise, like family tragedies. Pulp mysteries are sort of like Shakespeare if they're done right. I also just like stories about people who are down and out, willing to do anything.

JOZIC: By the way, how is the Batman gig working out for you?

BRUBAKER: Good. Batman is a mixed bag, sometimes you're a little shackled, because he's so continuity-oriented, but other times it's just really cool to be writing Batman, y'know?

JOZIC: Does that interest in crime fiction influence the way you approach your Batman stories on a regular basis (obviously the Gotham Noir book wears its influences on its sleeve)?

BRUBAKER: To some degree, I would guess that I approach my mainstream work more from a crime fiction perspective than say, a cyberpunk perspective, as a lot of writers do.

JOZIC: Do you ever find it strange that someone who started out pretty independent is now writing "the most popular comic book character of the 20th Century"?

BRUBAKER: Yeah, but you never know where your career is going to take you. You get used to it after a while.

JOZIC: You seem to maintain a decent balance between creator owned material and work-for-hire stuff. Do you plan it out to be that way, or do you just take the projects as they come to you?

BRUBAKER: The latter, really. Lately I feel I've been doing a little too much company-owned material, but I don't really mind much. I'd like to do another Scene of the Crime, and Sean Phillips and I are getting a piece of Sleeper, so... I would like to maintain a balance. You sort of hope your work-for-hire material turns people onto your other stuff.

JOZIC: You've been writing stories meant for other artists for some time now. Do you prefer letting other people draw your stuff as opposed to handling it yourself?

BRUBAKER: I'm a really slow and meticulous artist (and not a very good one), so it's nice to just write. Usually the stuff I want to draw myself isn't anything I imagine anyone else would want to draw, anyway.

JOZIC: Do you ever plan on drawing a story again, yours or someone elses?

BRUBAKER: I'll do some more comics that I both write and draw, but it won't be for few years, at least. All my free time for side projects is pretty full right now.

JOZIC: What sorts of comics or books are you into at the moment?

BRUBAKER: I like all kinds of things -- I'm enjoying Alias (both of them), Age of Bronze, that new Lee Weeks Tangled Web, I like JSA and Flash, the new Acme Novelty Library that I just got, 100 Bullets continues to delight and confuse, the Golem's Mighty Swing was awesome, and the last two Drawn and Quarterlies have been amazing, as well. I'm no longer a genre snob, and I'll read good comics no matter what genre they are. I recently reread Nausicca (sp?) and it's still a favourite.

As far as books go, I'm mostly reading mysteries and non-fiction lately. George Pelicanos and Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly for new stuff. Greg Rucka has just published his best book, Critical Space. I found a bunch of Ed McBain books at a small town used bookstore near where I live, and those are classic. And I'm always reading the 1001 Arabian Nights and Ross Macdonald.

For more Catwoman you can visit her DC Comics mini-site.

For More of Ed, check out his website at www.edbrubaker.com


	Mike Jozic has spent the last several years interviewing comic book creators and other entertainment related personalities for various publications. He has been published both online and in print, with his work appearing in The Comics Journal, FearsMag.com and Silver Bullet Comicbooks. He maintains his own website at www.meanwhile.net and currently serves as the Features Editor for SBC.

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