Ed Brubaker (w), Stefano Gaudiano (a), "Here and Now," Dark Horse Presents # 96, April 1995.
Digging through my comics collection I stumbled upon the above anthology with the first installment of a story I remember loving twenty years ago... ...and then it hit me: there's no Ed Brubaker in my comics canon! How is that even possible? What a blunder!...
Well, that's corrected now. I don't remember a thing, really, but I'm confident enough to include "Here and Now" and An Accidental Death in my first post (the latter was also serialized in Dark Horse Presents, # 65 - 67 - August - November 1992, to be exact, being compiled later by Fantagraphics Books - see below).
I followed Ed Brubaker's career since his Lowlife days until his noirish, mainstreamy collections Criminal 1 - 5 and 6 - 10, 2007. It's true that he was a mediocre draftsman, but he was (is?) a brilliant writer.
If you can tell me what's Ed been doing since then, please don't hesitate and do.
Ed Brubaker (w), Eric Shanower (a), An Accidental Death, Fantagraphics Books, December 1993.
9 comments:
While personally I have nothing to contribute, as I stopped following Brubaker's work even sooner than you did, around the time he finished Sleeper for Wildstorm/Image (this despite largely appreciating his writing, I simply drifted away for no particular reason), Ng Suat Tong recently reviewed The Fade Out, one of his current ongoing series, in less than charitable terms towards Brubaker's writing.
Here's the link in case you're interested and didn't already know about it: http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2015/10/the-fade-out-hollywood-meh/
Obrigado, Mário! O Suat, tal como eu e o Matthias, que parámos por completo (ou quase), vai escrevendo menos no Hooded Utilitarian e esta colaboração tinha-me escapado (ou não lhe dei a atenção devida), mas responde amplamente à minha pergunta. Desde os tempos de Criminal que Ed Brubaker e Sean Phillips continuam a colaborar e a bater na mesma tecla. É triste que um escritor ou artista de banda desenhada não possa ser profissional a tempo inteiro sem se ter de sujeitar a regurgitar incessamtemente o lixo que sabemos, chame-se caca de super-heróis ou outra treta qualquer.
Por outro lado não fui completamente sincero no meu post: a verdade é que de 1995 a 2007 só li The Fall (com Jason Lutes; Drawn & Quarterly, 2001) também anteriormente serializada em Dark Horse Presents.
Holy shit, you actually praised a mainstream comic writer. Are you aware of his lauded run on captain america?
Nope, but you should check out his Lowlife comic. Translating part of what I say above: it's a shame that, in order to build a professional career in comics, a comics writer or a comics artist needs to regurgitate superhero crap or some such trash.
I wanted to ... well not really recommend but acknowledge The Fade Out. And seeing the mention of Ng Suat Tong's review makes it a bit easier, because I don't think he is mistaken. But I still enjoyed the comic a lot more than every other comic Brubaker wrote since Sleeper (or at least some odd issue of Winter Soldier or Secret Avenger where, for a second, this weird convergence of writing and art coalesced into something really stylish).
It really does bring to mind movies like Sunset Boulevard and Chinatown and its contribution to this type of story is infinitesimal, but at least it's not a tired xeroxed copy of them in the way some of his (and his peers') comics can be tired xeroxed copies of old crime movies (or even worse, of Miller's xeroxed copies of crime movies).
Thanks for the tip, and the thoughtful comments, Alin!
Existem outras séries do Brubaker, boas e bem escritas, possivelmente a melhor sendo o Fatale (24 números, 5 volumes dos quais já publiquei os primeiros três em português este ano). No geral, acho-as todas competentes e bem contadas, incluindo o Fade Out, que embora ligeiramente (excessivamente) complicado e muito cheio de clichés, é na minha opinião uma boa história do género. Vou publicar também para o ano Velvet, uma série de espionagem passada nos anos 70 que também é bastante razoável. Como séries mainstream são todas altamente legíveis e representam uma nova diversidade de géneros na edição de BD nos EUA que há muito que não se via. O Criminal continua a ter muito boas histórias editadas. E o Incognito é uma divertida história referencial aos universos de super-heróis.
No geral acho o Brubaker muito acima da média dos escritores decomics americanos.
Obrigado pelo comentário, José. Bom ano!
Obrigado, e o mesmo para ti!
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