By Tom Grozan
They Always Return To The Scene...
These days, writer Ed Brubaker is part of DC Comics' Bat-team, detailing the goings-on in Gotham City as the writer of BATMAN and CATWOMAN, with DETECTIVE COMICS and GOTHAM CENTRAL on the horizon. As with many seemingly overnight sensations to burst into the mainstream, Brubaker has an extensive bibliography going back years before he ever crossed paths with the Batman Family.
Brubaker emerged in the nineties as part of group of new comic writers (including Brian Michael Bendis, Greg Rucka, Brian Azzarello), who incorporated hard-boiled crime fiction and cinematic influences into their work. While best known as a crime writer, Brubaker's work is varied and eclectic including everything from semi-autobiographical slice of life (LOWLIFE) to sci-fi teen drama (DEADENDERS). However, it's the crime stuff where Brubaker really shines and with one notable exception, that's what we're going to be looking at this week.
Brubaker's strength as a writer of crime fiction and what I believe puts him a rung above his esteemed compatriots is that his stories are not about the crime, they are about the people who commit crimes and those that get caught in the ripple effect crime creates. They are character studies with a criminal act as the nexus point. Brubaker's books are psychologically detailed tales of the circumstances that lead the characters to that nexus point and how they react to it afterward. Brubaker, more than any other writer in comics today, understands that inhuman acts are caused by very human people.
The following are the four best examples of Brubaker's earlier work. If you are a fan of his current stuff, you HAVE to track these books down.
AN ACCIDENTAL DEATH (Fantagraphics)
Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Eric Shanower.
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Both Brubaker and Shanower's parents were stationed on the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during their youth and this story, while totally fictional, was inspired by that mutual experience. The book received an Eisner Award nomination after it was published in 1993 and brought Brubaker to the attention of DC Comics, with whom he would do a number of series over the years. They have recently signed the writer to an exclusive agreement, as well.
Set in the mid-to-late seventies, AN ACCIDENTAL DEATH tells the story of two teenage boys, Charlie Lewis and Frank Mullins, who, because of their father's military service, live in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Charlie's family is well-adjusted but Frank's is dominated by a mentally abusive father who is head of security on the base. To help pass the time in their isolated environment, they take an interest in an odd family that just moved in that consists of a Navy Officer, his midget wife and their two daughters, one normal height and one small. After looking in their windows one night and seeing the normal daughter naked, Frank becomes obsessively enamored of her. Unfortunately, she has no interest in him at all. One night, Frank tells Charlie that he's going out with her, to which Charlie is understandably skeptical. Angered by Charlie's disbelief, Frank storms off, vowing to prove that he's telling the truth. Later that night, Frank shows up at Charlie's window covered in blood, asking for help. Charlie follows Frank to the woods where he finds the girl Jennifer lying on the ground with her skull caved in. Accepting his friend's explanation that she accidentally fell from a tree, he then, under protest, helps Frank hide the body.
An Accidental Death introduces themes that resurface a number of times in Brubaker's later works. Chief among these is the protagonist being an observer who inadvertently gets caught up in sordid circumstances. Another is how the repercussions of both mental and physical abuse can be felt well into adulthood. Brubaker does a great job of getting into the heads of the characters, especially Charlie, who narrates the story, and from whose perspective we view everything. He, along with Shanower, expertly set the scene and introduce us to the odd experience of living on a military base in a hostile country. Shanower's art is wonderfully realistic and expressive in showing the relative innocence and immature confusion of these kids put in an unthinkable situation. This, along with the cinematic pacing of Brubaker's script, makes it almost seem like you're watching a movie. This is a very impressively accomplished early work and sets the mark for everything to come afterward.
PREZ: SMELLS LIKE TEEN PRESIDENT (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Eric Shanower
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Brubaker and Shanower re-teamed again for this one-shot that was spun off from Sandman #54, which featured the first modern-day appearance of The Prez. The Prez was a character that first appeared in the early seventies and was a quaintly misguided attempt to appeal to the Flower Power generation. The title chronicled America's first teen president, whose platform was that everything would be groovy if all the squares just got hip to peace and love, man. Unfortunately, like almost all social commentary in comics, PREZ was about seven years behind the times. At the time it surfaced, the hippie movement was all but dead and Watergate was redefining American politics. The title lasted about three or four issues and was best known as a favorite punchline among comic fans until Neil Gaiman redefined the character in the pages of Sandman. Switching gears in this one shot, Brubaker uses the Prez concept as springboard to present a grunge-era road trip to self-discovery.
In the story, we are introduced to P.J. and his friends, George and Jason. Growing up, P.J.'s single mother told him that he was the son of President Prez Rickard who she met at a love-in and slept with afterward. Not wanting to cause a scandal, she kept her pregnancy secret. After his mother is accidentally killed, P.J. goes to live with his best friend, George. Charismatic but prone to strange episodes, P.J. eventually becomes the singer in a band and moves in with an attractive girlfriend. However, his erratic behavior causes both situations to fall apart. Despondent and sleeping on George's couch, P.J. happens upon a National Enquirer article detailing a supposed sighting of Prez Rickard, who went missing and was presumed dead in 1987. Looking to find answers to longstanding questions about his true parentage and somehow fill the deep void inside of him, P.J. and his friends set out in search of The Prez.
In this story, Brubaker takes on the social apathy and trivial priorities of the so-called Generation X. The point conveyed is that, eventually, even overwhelmed by the rampant and soulless commercialism that makes almost every aspect of life seem disposable, we move on to a deeper meaning of our place in the world. That the inconsequential minutia we obsess over is just distraction to avoid facing social and personal responsibility. Are you going to let yourself be labeled or create your own identity with ideals and convictions? This is a comic that makes you think and take a hard look at yourself. A quality that is present in the best of literature but that comics don't often aspire to create. Brubaker is once again ably assisted by Eric Shanower, who brings heart and emotion to both small conversational scenes and big surreal ones, like J.P.'s peyote fuel journey to enlightenment. This is real change of pace from what most comic readers are used to but it's an invaluable social commentary of a time that we will look back on in the future as an important turning point for a generation.
THE FALL (Drawn & Quarterly)
Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Jason Lutes
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Brubaker returned to the criminal element with THE FALL. Originally serialized in DARK HORSE PRESENTS, it also represented a shift to murkier moral ground.
It opens in 1988 with a woman being pushed from an overpass to her death. Nine years later, a gas station attendant named Kirk is reading a book during his late night shift, when a woman turns in a lost credit card she found by the pumps. Figuring the owner is going to cancel it the next day anyway, Kirk runs up some charges and then destroys it instead of putting it in the lost & found. The next day he tells his boss he knows nothing about the card, not knowing that woman who turned it in is the boss's wife. Knowing she has him over a barrel, the lady, June, blackmails him into servitude by having him do chores around her house. It's while gardening that he digs up a purse in June's back yard. He becomes obsessed with the contents of the purse and its owner, idealizing her in his mind. His obsession leads him on a trail that opens up a murder and secrets long thought buried.
The big difference between THE FALL and AN ACCIDENTAL DEATH is the shift to more of an ambiguous morality with the main characters. The two main protagonists are a thief and a blackmailer, both acting for personal gain. Even Kirk's investigation into what happened to Emily Keating, the owner of the purse, is selfish, borne more out of a desire to connect with his fantasy than to find the truth. This is a big progression in characterization, an acknowledgement that people don't always act nobly and not all situation are wrapped up neatly in the end. Brubaker is aided in the visual department by Jason Lutes (writer/artist of BERLIN and JAR OF FOOLS) whose art is simple & stark in a way that seems like you're getting the perfect amount information you need. This is a great book, and Brubaker's blossoming understanding of the complexities of tainted people would go on to serve him well in fleshing out formerly one-note characters like Catwoman.
SCENE OF THE CRIME: A LITTLE PIECE OF GOODNIGHT (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Michael Lark
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SCENE OF THE CRIME is my favorite of Brubaker's work and one of my favorite comic book stories EVER. This is a perfect amalgamation of Brubaker's influences and the themes and characterizations he had been developing up to this point. In interviews, Brubaker has stated that SCENE OF THE CRIME came about through his attempts to do a true mystery in comic form, as most "mysteries" in comics were crime stories with no mystery at all. Boy, does he succeed, crafting a page-turner that would be right at home on any bestseller list next to your favorite mystery/suspense novelists.
SCENE OF THE CRIME details the adventures of Jack Herriman, an ex-junkie turned private investigator who shares an office with his uncle Knut, a famous crime scene photographer much like the infamous Weegee. Jack's brought a missing person's case by his father's partner on the police force, Paul Raymonds. The two have a long and complicated history; Jack's father was killed by a bomb meant for Raymond, while borrowing his car. Such is the case that Jack doesn't question the fact that the woman Raymond brings to him is obviously his mistress. The woman, Alex Jordan, wants Jack to find her sister Maggie, who's been missing for a month. Jack soon does, but the situation quickly turns from open and shut to complicated, when Maggie is murdered soon after Jack leaves her and the police find ten thousand dollars in her room. Jack's subsequent search for the truth puts him on the trail of a new age cult and illuminates a labyrinth of family secrets, including some of Jack's own.
The brilliance of the story is the multiple layers involved in the mystery. There are no red herrings here; each layer of truth uncovered leads to another greater truth, until all the shocking details are revealed. The story goes in directions you don't expect and there's no way you can figure out on your own. Like all great mystery fiction, it keeps you guessing as it unfolds before you. The other great accomplishment of SCENE OF THE CRIME is the complexity of the characters. The cast is not merely full of ciphers meant to move the plot along, they are fully formed people with emotionally complex back-stories. You come away not merely having read an entertaining story, but feeling that you've truly gotten to know these people. They come alive on the page. Michael Lark's art hits the right balance between noir moodiness and character-building scenes. It's a shame we haven't seen more from him over the last couple of years.
I feel so strongly about this book that if you try but one thing I recommend, let this be it. This is also a perfect read for those of you wanting to dip your toes in the comic book pool but afraid to brush up against any superhero dookie. I'm surprised that this is not in development at some studio, as it's far superior, story-wise, to almost all the recent films in this genre.
Again, feel free to discuss/debate these selections in the Shoot-Back section and I'll be back next week with a look at one the great underrated and overlooked comic book runs, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Phil Hester's SWAMP THING.
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