Fan Expo Vancouver 2020: Catching Up With Writer Ed Brisson
Comic book writer, Ed Brisson, at Fan Expo Vancouver 2020 (Photo credit: Chris Doucher for GeekNerdNet)
The written story, as well as recorded interview were done by Chris Doucher, Editor-in-Chief, Writer and Comic Panel Moderator for GeekNerdNet. (Photo credits to: Chris Doucher)
Ed Brisson is a Canadian comic book writer, and let me tell you, he’s damn great at what he does. I caught up with him at Fan Expo Vancouver, the first Canadian convention on the 2020 schedule. Currently, he’s writing NEW MUTANTS for the latest incarnation of the X-books - which Marvel isn’t calling a “reboot,” - but many longtime fans are. Here’s Brisson’s reaction to when Jonathan Hickman asked him to write NEW MUTANTS: “It’s pretty exciting. When Hickman first asked me if I wanted to do it, I mean, New Mutants is one of those teams I grew up reading. I tend to gravitate toward the, I don’t know if we consider them teens…but we’ll say, 20-ish-year-old characters…and I find that they’re a lot of fun to write.”
Before Marvel, though, Brisson has a collection of fantastic, and critically-acclaimed creator-owned books, including MURDER BOOK, SHELTERED, THE FIELD, THE MANTLE, THE VIOLENT and COMEBACK. His other highly touted Marvel books span many great characters such as runs on OLD MAN LOGAN, DEAD MAN LOGAN, GHOST RIDER and IRON FIST. Brisson’s NEW MUTANTS comes into play soon after that, and this is just one of his many books we talked about.
Brisson’s excitement behind his first Marvel writing gig OLD MAN LOGAN - aka Wolverine - is pretty fantastic. And the funny thing is, he got the phone call to work on that title while he was sitting at his booth during Fan Expo Vancouver 2017. Another series that Brisson wrote was IRON FIST. Here’s a fun backstory: his dad who was a cop, also taught martial arts (karate), and how when Ed was a kid he’d sit in the Dojo reading comics while his dad taught classes. “He’s a constant source of research for me. I’m constantly calling him…and it was great with Iron Fist to be able to call him up and ask him specific martial arts stuff. It’s weird to feel like that that thing you didn’t know you were preparing for as a child becomes your job later on in life,” Brisson says about his dad.
One of my favourite creator-owned Brisson (with artist Michael Walsh) books - and you should make it yours, too - is COMEBACK. He says that he’s a big time travel guy, but he felt that when tackling this story that there should be caps and limits on just what you can do with this technology. He wanted to make a world where time travel can be done in today’s world. Not perfect and definitely not flashy. Essentially, focused on illegal time travel where you can only go back 67 days to save someone, and you can’t go to the future. And that has be done only died of unnatural causes like a car accident, but you can’t save a person who is sick and is going to die anyway. These are just some of the things that made that book so great.
Look for more creator-owned books in 2021. In the meantime, listen to the full audio interview from Vancouver Fan Expo (below).
And to see more of Brisson’s work head over to his site.
LISTEN NOW: Select “Listen in bowser” on the Soundcloud link. Depending on which device you’re accessing this interview, you may also click/select the SoundCloud Play button.