Ed Brubaker has been interviewed at length by Tom Spurgeon about life, love and comic books. Here are three of the many highlights…

On leaving Cap (but staying on Winter Soldier)

SPURGEON: Now, you told me that you’re wrapping up on Captain America.

BRUBAKER: Yeah. By the time this interview comes out, I will have written my last issue.

SPURGEON: Congratulations. And that’s… eight years on Cap?

BRUBAKER: A little less than eight years. I think I started in August or September of 2004 writing my first issue, which came out in November of that year.

SPURGEON: So why now?

BRUBAKER: Partly, it’s the beginning a shift from work-for-hire to books I own, instead. I hit a point with the work-for-hire stuff where I was starting to feel burned out on it. Like my tank is nearing empty on superhero comics, basically. It’s been a great job, and I think I found ways to bring my voice to it, but I have a lot of other things I want to do as a writer, too, so I’m going to try that for a while instead.

Which, considering that Cullen started co-writing the comic with issue 15, means that Brubaker’s last issue will be #20.

On working with the Marvel system;

SPURGEON: Don’t they team you up with a writer to transition out of these titles? Like baton pass it to them?

BRUBAKER: That’s not on purpose for this one. That was a situation with scheduling. Marvel is trying to do this thing now that with some of their better-selling books they want to get out more copies per year than 12. They want to get out 15 or 18 issues.Amazing Spider-Man‘s been doing more than one a month for a while now; someone I know does Uncanny X-Men or one of those books, and that comes out 18 times a year.

I couldn’t keep up with that schedule, honestly. I knew I was getting to the end of my run. I wanted to wrap up my run earlier. And [Marvel Senior Vice President Of Publishing] Tom [Brevoort] was like, “Well, you’re going to leave a bunch of plot lines dangling… do you want to go out like that? It’ll seem like you threw up your hands and said ‘I can’t keep up with this schedule.’” I was like, “No, I don’t want to go out that way.” So we brought in Cullen Bunn to write an arc with me. I gave him a list of a bunch of stuff. “Here’s all the dangling plot threads and here’s where we need them all to be by the time I get to my last issue.” And then we figured out a storyline together.

It’s strange. I did all these issues as an uninterrupted run. Then there’s four issues co-written by someone. Then there’s a last issue. [laughs] It’s a little odd.

 

Wow I had no idea he had been on Cap that long, never gave it much thought.

Ugh, horrible news, and to make it worse, more Cullen Bunn? Really? REALLY?

Well this sucks. It's been awesome, sad to see him go.

This is sad news for me. His work with Captain America has been my favorite run of comics ever. As long as he stays with Winter Soldier, I will be happy. He created him. I wish he owned the rights to Bucky and Widow and could take them with him if he decides to focus solely on his creator owned products. It is hard to blame him for leaving since he is so successful with creating his own characters.

 “Well, you’re going to leave a bunch of plot lines dangling… do you want to go out like that? It’ll seem like you threw up your hands and said ‘I can’t keep up with this schedule.’”

@War Killer said:

@Mercy_:

“Well, you’re going to leave a bunch of plot lines dangling… do you want to go out like that? It’ll seem like you threw up your hands and said ‘I can’t keep up with this schedule.’”

Sounds like they tried to guilt him into staying on longer than he wanted to, or at least that's what I got from this part in the interview. Overall it sounds like Marvel is more focused on getting more comics out which would equal more money and are pushing their writers to the point of burning them out.

I get the same feeling. It's sad that one of the best writers that they have will only be writing one series (and even though it is my favorite book currently, Winter Soldier isn't really a mover and shaker of the Marvel U). I hope that they don't push out the best writers for those who can just churn out mediocre stories quickly (Bendis).

@War Killer said:

@Mercy_:

“Well, you’re going to leave a bunch of plot lines dangling… do you want to go out like that? It’ll seem like you threw up your hands and said ‘I can’t keep up with this schedule.’”

Sounds like they tried to guilt him into staying on longer than he wanted to, or at least that's what I got from this part in the interview. Overall it sounds like Marvel is more focused on getting more comics out which would equal more money and are pushing their writers to the point of burning them out.

I get the same feeling. It's sad that one of the best writers that they have will only be writing one series (and even though it is my favorite book currently, Winter Soldier isn't really a mover and shaker of the Marvel U). I hope that they don't push out the best writers for those who can just churn out mediocre stories quickly (Bendis).

I'm happy he's still on Winter Soldier so I have no complaints over the news.

@War Killer said:

To be honest, if Brubaker leaves Marvel completely, I wouldn't be surprised if Winter Soldier was cancelled. I'm just not sure how other writers would handle the character.

I completely agree. If it isn't cancelled, then there will be a significant change of format. I don't think anyone else would be able to weave the type of espionage story that Brubaker is putting out. I don't see anyone else's type of story that will go well with the art. It would have to change into a standard Marvel U Story/Art format. Bucky is my favorite character, but that could solely be because Brubaker is my favorite writer. I don't know how anyone else would handle the character as well.

The first comics I read were "Death of Captain America". It had been out for quite a while but Brubaker is the reason I got into comics. I looked for whatever he wrote. Now I have a pull list and all. Winter Solider is on the top of my list. I understand getting burned out and all but never stop writing Winter Soldier Ed!

It was time. His run on Cap is, in my mind, definitive. He put out awesome, awesome stuff, but nothing lately has really grabbed me and made me think "this is why I'm reading this book." I'll be much more interested to see what he does outside of superhero comics.

It was what it was.

My sorrow could drown an army of Hydra agents.

@fodigg said:

It was time. His run on Cap is, in my mind, definitive. He put out awesome, awesome stuff, but nothing lately has really grabbed me and made me think "this is why I'm reading this book." I'll be much more interested to see what he does outside of superhero comics.

I agree

Wow, 8 years of solid and integrating stories is quiet a feat! Way to go Mr. Brubaker! Hate to see him go.......and hate to see Bunn arrive. They should put Rucka on the Captain America title, he is doing a great job on Punisher. It would be so cool to read Cap and Punisher (who are polar opposites, when it comes to there approach to crime fighting) being written by the same writer at the same time. Kind of a compare and contrast.

It's because of Mark Millar and Ed Brubaker that I got really into comics so it is very sad to see him leave the title. With that said, he gave us eight great years of Cap, the Winter Soldier and Death of Captain America arcs were some of the best comics ever. Looking forward to what he does next and for what Marvel has planned for Captain America.

Maybe tge best Captain America writer ever.

@Scioli54 said:

It's because of Mark Millar and Ed Brubaker that I got really into comics so it is very sad to see him leave the title. With that said, he gave us eight great years of Cap, the Winter Soldier and Death of Captain America arcs were some of the best comics ever. Looking forward to what he does next and for what Marvel has planned for Captain America.

I agree 100%. Those are my 2 favorite arcs of all time.