Brubaker Talks About His Exclusive Deal with Image Comics

He will produce comics for Image for five years.

At last week's Image Expo, Ed Brubaker was saved as the last creator to take the stage, and with good reason. The crime comics writer announced that he and his longtime collaborator Sean Phillips had signed a five-year contract to produce comics exclusively for Image. This is widely unheard of when it comes to creator-owned comics, so we grabbed Brubaker for a quick West Wing-style walk-and-talk interview as he went from his signing booth back to the main stage for his next presentation.

He also gave us some details on his newly announced series called The Fade Out, his plans to end Fatale, and was he kind enough to give us his thoughts on the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Solider movie.

IGN Comics: Can I get your reaction on the big news?

Ed Brubaker: Yeah, this is something we've been planning for a few months, and I was waiting to announce it because Sean and I agreed to it, like, I think early October we started talking about it; it just seemed too crazy to actually do. It was exactly what I wanted, because I hate having to pitch things, and I hate having to solicit things even. If it were up to me, the comic stores would just get something every month from us and not have a choice in how many they get. [Laughs] They'd just get a ton. But yeah, it is what I've always wanted. It's almost like having your own label or something. Just the fact that we can green-light our own projects and we have approval over format, everything. Our relationship with Eric and Robert has really been amazing, and Fatale has been the most successful thing we've ever done. It's just rocksteady sales. Our sales right now on Fatale are exactly the same as our initial orders for #1 were before the big spike for five or six issues of speculators and multiple printings. I feel like we have such a core audience that seems to follow us from thing to thing, so let's take advantage of that and really just experiment and go crazy and just be artists.

IGN: You mentioned Fatale, which you said during your presentation is ending on issue #24?

Brubaker: 24, yeah. 24 is the final Fatale.
Fatale #20 cover by Sean Phillips.

Fatale #20 cover by Sean Phillips.

IGN: Why are you choosing to end it now?

Brubaker: Well, it was always intended to end. It started out, it was only going to be 12 issues, and then it was going to be 15. Then I realized that I couldn't fit it into 15, so I'll just say it's ongoing until it's over. So from now on, everything I do, I just say I don't know how many issues it's gonna be. It'll go until it's done. Like, The Fade Out, which we just announced, I'm guessing a year-ish, but I have no idea. It's also the world that it takes place in, like I told [Robert] Kirkman, basically what we're doing is kind of like a David Lynchian, sexier, dirtier, weirder, creepier version of something like Mad Men, where it's got a lot of crime and murder, but a lot of grammar and hot cars and movie stars. It's just a story I've always wanted to do. But I also want it to be an epic, so I couldn't do it in five issues, I couldn't do it in six issues. I had to have free reign to be able to tell the story, because I want it to be expansive.

The thing that's great to me about things like Mad Men or Breaking Bad is that they can expand. They don't have to be over in 100 pages. I love the ability to just tell stories and not ever have to worry if anything's going to get cancelled. Ever since we started Criminal, our sales have just gone up exponentially with each thing we do, so I felt like now's the time to stop even worrying about it. In the back of your head, you're always a little bit worried, like, "Is this commercial enough?" I realized, the stuff that people really gravitate to with me is stuff that I thought was never going to sell to begin with, like Sleeper or Gotham Central or Fatale -- even Velvet. Velvet we've sold close to 70,000 of the first issue. I thought it was going to do, like, 25,000 copies, so... [Laughs] I've just got to keep following my muse, and Sean really wants to be able to just experiment and push himself artistically. It just seemed like the perfect deal to make. No one has ever done anything like this in comics, and I realized, if we're never gonna have a Walking Dead, where it's just the franchise that people keep coming back to, the only way to do this and keep being successful at it is for us to be the franchise, as creators -- me and Sean, and Betty signed on for our next few projects too. Just to keep that team together and make us the franchise will keep selling our backlist and keep more excitement about every new project we do.
The Fade Out.

The Fade Out teaser.

IGN: You said you signed a five-year contract, so how many different projects do you have in mind for that timeframe?

Brubaker: Right now I've got the first two; I know what they're going to be. I've got plans for a couple of one-shot ideas and stuff, but I don't really ever want to talk about anything until we're almost about to do it. The problem with me is, when I get to the last couple issues of anything that I'm working on is when I really decide what I want to do next. Sometimes you think you want to do one thing, and then you realize right before you start it, you're like, "You know, I'm not really ready for this yet. I want to do this other thing instead." That's always been how it is with me. Like, I was planning to go back to Criminal three projects ago, and I just didn't.

IGN: This is where we part ways, but before I let you go, what do you think of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie coming up?


IGN: Really, no kidding?

Brubaker: No, it's going to be amazing. It's gonna make a billion dollars. I got to go and be on set for awhile and watch them film and stuff. It was just amazing. I couldn't be happier with how it came out. Yeah, I can't wait for the premiere. I hope to get to actually talk to Robert Redford at it -- I got to shake his hand, but I didn't get to actually talk to him. He's like an honorary Brubaker, because my whole life people have come up to me like, "Oh, like the Robert Redford movie!"
