Wings of Silver, Nerves of Steel: An Interview with Ed Brisson about SilverHawks, Video Games, and Canada - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 445
00:01
In this episode of The Short Box, you mentioned, you know, writing a Thundercats, the one shot last year, I think it was called Apex. You got Silverhawks coming out. It looks like Dynamite has got a monopoly on everyone's favorite 80s cartoons. And I'm curious.
00:20
and excited to see if we get any kind of crossovers. Without spoiling anything, you know, I'll be talking high likelihood, you know, low likelihood. Honestly, it's definitely on their radar. It's definitely- And you've got the power. If you've expressed anything, is that your lobbying skills could make this happen. Yeah, it's something that's been discussed. It's something that, you know, I think Dynamite is very aware that people are sort of hungry for. I definitely have ideas. I've thrown ideas at Nate, how we could get into that sort of, that territory.
00:50
I think it's, you know, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility. I think it's just a matter of time.
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intro music plays
01:28
Yo, Short Box Nation! Hello again, welcome back. New Wednesday, new pod, you know the deal by now. Thanks for press and play today. If you're new, welcome to the show. My name is Badr and this is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about your favorite comics with the people that put their blood, sweat and tears into making them. This is episode 445 and today you'll hear from Ed Brisson, a comic writer that has been published by just about every comic publisher under the sun. A few titles that you can find his name on include X-Men.
01:58
Iron Fist and Alpha Flight from Marvel, Batman Incorporated, Storm Watch, Brave and the Bold for DC Comics, and he's no slouch in the creator-owned department either. He's got his own titles like The Violent and Sheltered from Image Comics. And come January 29th, he'll be adding yet another notch to his belt with the release of Silverhocks. Number one, gonna be the first new Silverhocks anything coming out in nearly 40 years since the show went off air in 1986. Now, if you're too young to remember, or maybe you weren't even born then,
02:27
Silverhawks revolves around a group of bionic policemen with wings of silver and nerves of steel who fight evil and keep the peace in space. Ed Brisson is writing the new Silverhawk series of artist and collaborator George Kamadaias. The new series will act as a fresh jumping on point for all the new fans of the original cartoon series and reintroduce characters like Commander Stargazer, Quicksilver, Bluegrass, Hotwing, Steel Wheel, Steelheart, and the Copper Kid, and of course, the deadly mob boss, Monstar, for a whole new generation of comic fans.
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We're here from Ed about what to expect from the new series and what else he's got going on here in a few. But first, I want to remind everyone that the short box is powered by Gotham City Limit, Jack's first premiere shop for comics, collectibles, toys and more. It's my personal comic shop that I shop at every Wednesday. And I recommend you check it out for yourself, especially with all the upgrades and new things they've got going on for the new year. So if you're local, Jack's war ever find yourself passing through Jacksonville, whether that be on vacation or a road trip. Make sure to stop by Gotham City Limit on South Side Boulevard.
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right next to Tensil Town movie theater. Tell them Botter from Short Box sent you. If you let them know you're a friend of the podcast, they'll take care of you. They'll hook you up with some killer deals and discounts. Gotham City Limit, big shout out to them. And now we can start the show. Short Box Nation without further ado, let's talk Silverhawks, let's talk about writing, let's talk about comics. Let's give it up for the one and only Ed Brisson. Hey Ed, how are you doing? Welcome to the show. Well, listen to those people. I'm pretty much excited. Yeah. Dude, I have been humming the theme song.
03:55
all day. Wings of silver, nerves of steel, silver hawks. I almost called my dad to see if he still had any of the VHSs because he was a huge Silverhawks fan. Nice. That's great. Yeah. The same here. Growing up, I was a big fan of the show. It was on during that kind of killer block of cartoons that came on after getting home from school. You could kind of sit down about four o'clock till 5.30, six o'clock and just pound
04:25
incredible like G.I. Joe Transformers. Yeah. Thundercats and Silverhawks. It was a pretty great time. What I did not know, you know, coming across this on my research was that it was like meant to be the companion show to Thundercats, which I guess, you know, it's in the name, Thundercats, Silverhawks, you know, the whole animal motif. Yeah, it was kind of silver. I was like a sister show almost like there was never any sort of crossover. And it was never really implied that they were in the same universe, but it was the same production studio.
04:53
that I think was just trying to capitalize on the success of Thunder Thunder cats by doing silver hawks and then actually they did another show afterwards called tiger sharks as well Yeah, tiger sharks. Yeah, come on. Yeah, you're bringing me back. I will say though I think so I liked out of the three we just named I think silver hawks was more of my jam because I just liked the Animation a lot of just a lot more. I don't know. It's like really slick Thunder cats was like more of my dad's thing but like silver hawks, you know I had the the badass masks and they were in space and
05:22
I mean, come on, like Bluegrass is one of the most badass, you know, cartoon characters ever. You know, like he had a bandana, the cowboy hat, he was in blue, he could, you know, play a wicked solo. Yeah, I agree. I loved, I love Silverhawks. I think, you know, I had more of the Silverhawks toys than I did of anything else. Yeah, I thought it was always just like such a really cool premise of this sort of like, these space cops versus these space mobsters. You know, even as a kid, I was a big crime fan, so like.
05:49
mixing crime and sci-fi like that was very much my peanut butter and chocolate as a kid. Well said. And something about Mondstar, I was looking through some of the character designs again. I forgot that he transforms, you know, when he gets hit by the light from the other moon and he ends up transforming. He transforms into like, you know, he's not a werewolf.
06:18
much deadlier, that's something in the comic that we're kind of holding on to. We're not getting into it right away. We're going to build and let audiences sort of anticipate that moment. Because he's still badass enough without transforming. But I mean, he would be extra badass if he transformed into a werewolf in armor. Come on. But you don't want to overdo it, right? You want to save those moments. Yeah, absolutely. You want to make it count.
06:44
Yeah, that's like an issue five moment right there, you know, like to wrap up the first story arc. And you brought up the the toys growing up. And have you had a chance to look at the the new I don't know how new, but I mean, they're pretty pretty new. But like Super 7 has been re-releasing everything from the 80s and I have a right here. I have a hot way here. So I do. Yes, I'm following them. But I do a thing I do to try and curb my own.
07:13
collecting tendencies is I'll only buy them if I can find them in a store. I won't order them in. It's too easy. It's too easy. It's like on demand Amazon. They're not cheap. I don't know what they are in American, but like Canadian, I think that one was like 90 or 100 dollars for the figure. So I think it could break me real quick. Oh, yes. And Super 7 has not been playing around. I mean, as far as like the articulation, the box art is always something to just
07:43
behold in person, but that is a funny, you bring that up about your rule of only buying in person. That is one of my New Year's resolutions for my collecting habits is I'm trying to scale back everything I buy, because I just literally just do not have enough space. I'm trying to be a little more selective, a little more, I wanna support my local comic shop as best as I can. Now, Ed, are you someone that takes New Year's resolutions seriously from a comic?
08:11
From a professional perspective, do you get, I guess, whatever, reminence it about the past year? Do you look at everything you've done? Do you plan goals for the next year? And are you someone that you've got your convention schedule figured out, you got your projects all lined up? Are you someone that kind of just eases into the new year? I kind of just ease into it. I don't tend to... Like when I tend to make sort of resolutions, it's not a new year's thing. Like if I...
08:40
I'm resolved to do something. I'm doing it then. Years and years and years ago, as part of my old job, I remember we had to take a time management course. It was not me specific, everyone in our work environment had to take it. And one of the things that I took, there's a bunch of stuff that I took from it that I think was really helpful in my day-to-day life. But one of the things that he talked about was resolutions.
09:09
and this idea of putting stuff off to start at a certain day, starting at end of a month or the beginning of the year. I tend to like it. He was like, just screw that. If you're going to do something, do it and jump into it. You can resolve to make a resolution to keep with this for X amount of time. I tend to do that more than saying on January 1st, I'm going to start doing this or that.
09:37
And then I say that and then I did create a whole new rotating cleaning schedule for the house at the beginning of the year. But that was more like I could just, I warned my family that it was coming more than it was a revolution. Like, you know- Cleaning is coming. Yeah. January 1st, this is a brand new cleaning schedule for how we're going to handle. And it actually weirdly has been so far two weeks in a very beneficial thing. And it's a, I like breaking things down into bite size.
10:07
chunks. And that's very much what this is. It's a way to do it. You know, coming into 2025, obviously, we're going to, you know, I've mentioned Silver Hawks and we'll talk more about that Silver Hawks. But what else is on your plate, comic book wise? Like, what else are you writing? What other projects do you currently have? So right now, by the time people hear this, it will have been out for a week already. But I wrote a Creepshow story that's in the Creepshow number five through Skybound, which is the third volume of Creepshow.
10:37
I apologize, I don't know if you can hear my dog is scratching underneath my table here. I have Silverhawks, obviously, that comes out in a couple of weeks here. I've got Thundercats Lost, which is a spin-off Thundercats book that I'm doing at Dynamite. It's an ongoing series. I have four other books that will be coming out at some point over the course of the year. They're all, all of them, I think are like five issue mini-series.
11:02
One of them is an OGN, like a straight to graphic novel, but it's the same length as a five issue mini. None of those have been announced yet, though. One of them is completely done. It's written. It's, I think we're just in the final pass of lettering and colors on it. I don't know when it gets announced. One of them's about 80% done. And then the other two, I think one's, one we're about halfway through, and the other one, I'm just about to start. So I haven't even started on it yet.
11:31
So, but because they're not announced, I can't really say too much about them. No, that's fair. But yeah, those are kind of in the works. I've slowed down a bit on comics over the last year because I've also been working in video games, which has been taking up the majority of my time on that full time. So I'm writing comics, you know, early in the morning and then after I finished my shift and then in the middle there, nine to five, I'm writing video games. I just wrapped up playing Red Dead Redemption 2.
12:01
Well, I guess my first question to you is, are you a video gamer? Yeah. So I was a lapsed video game player. Like I played a lot when I was younger and then I was lapsed for years. And then when the pandemic started, everything was like pencils down and I had work coming in. And so I think I went nuts. And I just sat down and for like eight or nine months was like just playing video games, like 10 hours a day.
12:30
You know, periodically I would have things come in, but it was a real sort of neat time comic book wise. And I was just blasting through so many video games. And yeah, Red Dead Redemption 2 is right up there with one of my old timers. Can you talk a little bit about the video games that you're working on? And if not, if the projects are a secret, I guess could you talk about the difference in discipline between like writing a comic and working in video games? Is there a lot of like overlap? Do you find like some of the skills that you've picked up?
13:00
throughout the years writing comic books, it comes in handy with writing video games and scripts. Yeah, so yeah, I can't unfortunately talk about the game because I'm NDA'd up to wazoo and I would be murdered if I mentioned it. But yeah, I think there is a lot of, there's definitely a lot of crossover. It's a lot different in terms of doing sort of branching writing, because it's almost like a choosier adventure you have to, at times.
13:30
It's interesting because I feel like writing comic books really prepared me for writing video games and it kind of actually freaked me out when I started writing video games at the start because comic books is very much like everything was due yesterday and you get one or two passes at a script or an outline and then it just, we have to keep the train moving. We got to keep going.
13:58
Whereas video games, there's a lot more time spent developing and really world building. I'm still fairly new to it. I'm a year into working in video games. So my experience may not be the same as someone who's been at it for longer or someone on a different game. But my experience so far is that there's a lot more time spent really developing. There's a lot more time. I spend a lot more time researching.
14:27
in video games versus what I can do in comics because I have to move so much faster for comics. And because the deadlines are so much tighter in comics, I think I'm trained to move faster. Whereas like when I started in video games, it's almost like I had to stop and slow down a little bit and take my time. And I appreciate that. It's great that you can sort of spend...
14:53
more time development because obviously there's a lot more money there. It's a longer development process. Games take several years from conception to the time that they hit the shelf. There's a lot of similarities for sure, but I feel like I'm claiming that as a casual pace. There's a much slower pace. That's not necessarily the truth. It can move pretty quickly, but there's just so much.
15:20
more to research and so much more to build upon that it's, you know, I find that we're constantly revising, constantly revisiting and going back, which is a great thing where we don't have the opportunity to do that in comics. I can't go back and rewrite issue one when I'm writing issue five, you know what I mean? Whereas with games, like because it's almost like this organic, constantly developing thing, we can go back and change something that happens early in the game and often will to suit something that's going to happen later.
15:49
And I imagine in video games, you're also working with, like, because of the size of the team. Like, I imagine there's a lot more opportunities for revisions and I guess maybe like, you know, getting like a second opinion or, you know. Yeah, there's a lot of back and forth. And it's not like, you know, it's not like I'm driving a story and it's like just me and the artists, you know, on a me artist and editor, I guess, on a book where it's like three of us kind of just batting things back and forth. It's a much larger.
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a group of people that you kind of have to satisfy and make sure that everyone's needs are being met and we're kind of all on the same page. Has this always been kind of like the goal growing up, whether that be like writing comics or video games? Like, was that, did you always want to be a writer? I want to be an artist. I want to be a comic book artist growing up. And I originally only started writing comics because I needed something to draw. It was pre-internet when I started.
16:48
drawing my own stuff for like very early days internet so it's not internet like we this it's not like anything like we're doing now. And so there wasn't you know, forums and stuff where you could go and team up with a writer. You know, I ran into one writer that threw a local comic shop and he and I did not sort of see eye to eye. It was like very much he was like one of these writers who's
17:16
sees himself as the almost like the sole storyteller and the artist is just there to realize his greatness for the world. I didn't like it. I didn't like his writing, but the attitude was the thing that really threw me off because the thing that I like about comics is that it is a collaborative storytelling. You're getting both people get their fingerprints all over the product.
17:46
That was the only time I'd run into a writer and I just didn't think it would work. And I would rather just be in a closet drawing by myself and writing stories. And I started writing just so I could have stuff to draw. And I just kind of kept pushing myself forward and I would self-publish mini comics. I spent way too much money when I was like 18 publishing a comic that I thought was gonna be the thing to make me into a superstar, absolutely not. But...
18:15
I wrote, I drew, I lettered, and I colored all my own stuff for about 15 years. Self-publishing it, putting stuff online, etc. And then at a certain point, I realized that I liked the writing more than I liked doing the art. My brain was working faster than I could draw. And so, I had these stories that I just wanted to get out and I couldn't keep up with it. And my art style is fairly cartoony. It's more like an indie sort of like fanographics. They're drawing a quarterly style art that's...
18:43
doesn't really suit a lot of the stories that I wanted to tell. And also, like, I just, going back to the collaborative thing, it's like, at a certain point I wanted to work with other people. I just didn't want to be by myself, cranking the stuff out. And so I stopped drawing. I started just focusing on the writing and, you know, through having self-published and been part of, like, the Vancouver Comics community for a long time, I knew people who were artists there.
19:12
And so I would, you know, I approach a couple of them and was like, Hey, I want to start doing this sort of stuff. Are you interested in drawing a short story? And I would do these like five to 10 page stories. They're all crime stories under the banner of murder book. Um, and I did those for, you know, a few years, I think, you know, almost like 200 pages worth of, worth of content. And, um, then I started to get some attention from publishers, you know, I had an image book in late 2012.
19:41
Another in 2013, 2014. I think one every year for a good six years. And then I got hired by Marvel, DC, et cetera, and just sort of now have a career where I'm a writer. Video game thing was never anything that occurred to me when I was younger. Where I could understand that there were people who wrote and drew comics when I was younger.
20:06
I couldn't wrap my mind around that with video games. It felt like they felt otherworldly, like they were just somewhere else. It was like trying to go work for Hollywood or something like that. So that is something that over the last half decade or so that I've really started to pay attention to and been trying to sort of dip my toe into. As a writer, I love writing comic books, but I also want to kind of try other things. I want to try writing video games for a bit.
20:35
Yeah. I've written some short films that, you know, were quite enjoyable to do as well. So I like to spread around, but still in that in that vein where I'm like collaborating with others. I don't really have a lot of interest in writing short fiction or novels or anything like that. Again, I just, you know, I'd like working with other people. I guess I should take a step back and ask because you brought up before we hit record that you grew up in Toronto, you just mentioned that.
21:02
You're part of the, you also lived in Vancouver. You were part of like that emerging and underground comic book scene. And I've always wanted to ask, what is in the water in Canada that has just given us so many talented comic creators? I was looking at a list of like Canadian comic book creators and obviously, you know, some that immediately come into mind is, you know, you're Todd McFarland, you're John Burns, but I mean, the list really does go on. I mean, you've got, you know, Dave Sim is from Canada, Fiona Staples.
21:30
How foster and so on and so on what was the comic book scene like growing up? Did that seem like a viable I guess the comics seem like a viable career, especially in Canada I guess what was the comic book scene in culture like in Canada? where so I you know, I grew up mostly in Oshawa, which is I was born in Toronto, but grew up just outside and Really when I was growing up I was like
21:55
I was the only one of my friends who read comic books, so I didn't have a whole other people that I was talking about comics with or anything like that. And then I moved to Kelowna, BC, which is inland BC when I was 14, lived there for a few years. And it wasn't until I moved to Vancouver that I started to... Part of why I moved to Vancouver just real quickly is I really wanted to get in comics, I wanted to be a comic book artist in Kelowna.
22:22
If you look back at my yearbook, it says that I'm going to be a complicate artist. I told anyone who would listen that I would be a complicate artist. But it was one of those things where it felt like I was pretty confident in myself. And I had no reason to be because my art was terrible. But I was pretty confident, but also didn't know what the real path was, other than I was sending in packets to Marvel and to DC and not really kind of getting any...
22:52
any response. But when I moved to Vancouver, part of why I moved there is I'd heard that there was this sort of comics community. In Kelowna, towards the end, there was me and a couple of friends who were like wanting to be comic book creators. But Vancouver was a big city to us and there were these group of comic, kind of more like indie underground
23:20
I'd heard that they, you know, you'd have these monthly get-togethers and, and they would hang out. And I think as soon as I moved there, those monthly get-togethers stopped and they weren't happening. But like slowly, you know, I lived there for about two or three years before I really started to actually start meeting people who were in the comic scene. And actually weirdly, just coincidentally, I worked at a bookstore and I didn't realize that one of my coworkers was, was one of the people who was part of that.
23:50
comic scene because we just kind of knew each other on first name basis. I can't remember, I found out her last name. I was like, oh, you know, I know who you are. You're part of the comic scene here. And through her, I ended up meeting some other folks there. I had a few friends who are also like one of my friends from Kelowna kind of moved up with me and we were doing comic books, self-publishing stuff. But it was like kind of like a really indie, more cartoony sort of scene.
24:20
And then in 2004, I started the Vancouver Comic Jam, which is like a monthly meetup for comic book artists, writers, whatever, where you could come and we would do comic jams where like one person draws a panel, they pass down. It was at a bar, so you know, people could have a couple of drinks and sort of like be social. You know, through that, some people started coming out and started meeting more people, which is great. The comic jam, even though I'm not there, is still going.
24:48
on his 21st year, which is great. But yeah, so I started meeting more people. And I remember I met Steve Rolston, who did, he drew Queen and Country, the Greg Ruck book. He did, oh God, I'm blanking him name, One Bad Day, I think, which is a Brian Wood book. And he was the first guy I met who was like a guy who was working in comics. And it was very exciting to me, but it actually made it.
25:18
It made this abstract thing kind of feel more real when I met him. And I started to really sort of double down my efforts in terms of like putting together my own stuff and just getting my work out there. And, you know, through that period, I had met like Simon Roy, who drew my first murder book story. I met John and Christmas, who did a murder book story, we did two murder book stories together. And then we did a series called Sheltered.
25:48
So I started to meet some people who were trying to get into the industry. I think there was a really great period around 2010 to 2015, 16 in Vancouver, where there was a lot of comic book creators around who had moved to Vancouver. And we were all kind of feeding off of each other, just like the energy that was there. And we ended up.
26:16
all like so many of us ended up getting into comics, you know, just, but I think all independently, like it wasn't like we got in through someone else. It was just like independently are working together. We got into comics. And it was a great period of time, but then, you know, I left Vancouver in 2016. And I think at this point, most of the people have left Vancouver. Vancouver is a very, I can complain about this a lot. I did an entire book about it, but it's a very...
26:43
expensive, very hard city to survive in if you don't have a lot of money. And unfortunately, that seems to have, there is still a comic community there. There's still some really great people, but it's not sort of as large and vibrant as it was maybe about a decade ago. Ed, I've been dying to ask this since you mentioned that, you know, you started as an artist for our video listeners, video viewers, sorry.
27:10
You've got a lot of original what looks like original comic art behind Yeah, it looks like you're in your studio. You got your shelf to your right and and then original comic art behind you What's some of the pieces behind you? Like who do you hung up on the wall? All of this stuff is from books I've written. It's like another way like we talked about earlier for me to curb my my my collecting tendencies that I'll only pick up art from books I've written so
27:37
This is the cover from There's Something Wrong with Patrick Todd, number four, I believe. So it's a Gavin Guidry. This one right here, that's from Ghost Rider four, maybe four or five. That's by Aaron Kuder. This is an Iron Fist page. That's by Mike Perkins. That above is from an Alpha Flight story I wrote from Alpha Flight True North.
28:06
Scott Hepburn, this is from Dead Man Logan, that's a Mike Henderson page. You probably can't see, because it's a fairly fine line from where you are, but that's a Glob Herman, who's one of my favorite characters. It's a scene where he's caught. Forge catches him on a dating website. This is John of Christmas, it's a variant cover for Sheltered, number one. This is Ninja Turtles.
28:32
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X-Files crossover issue I wrote for IDW about 12 years ago. I have a look at that. Michael Walsh artwork, Adam Gorham inks. And then this last one that you can see here is Old Man Logan by Damien Casero, who's a guy I work with a lot. It's a ship, it's a shot of a.
28:56
Logan getting aboard a ship with Alpha Flight who had just returned from being in space for a long time. The fun thing for me about this page is that any Canadian who's been away for a little while can relate to, is that Logan brings Puck a bag full of Coffee Crisp chocolate bars because Puck has not had them. They're only available up here in Canada. That's awesome. Then you can't see, but there's a Dylan Burnett X-Force page.
29:24
from X-Force number four, which has got Strife and his MLF. And part of the reason, I'll tilt it a bit here, maybe you can see it. My light is shining. But the part of the reason I love this page here is that two of the characters that I introduced to MLF, our characters are created when I was 12 years old and then sort of brought out. This one here is another Michael Perkins. It's the very first page to my run on Iron Fist with him.
29:52
And then this is a James Stokoe cover for Cluster Number One, which is a book I did through Boom about 10, 11 years ago, I think. Did you own an original James Stokoe piece? That is, I mean, a plot worthy right there. And he's actually, he's one of the guys who was based out of Vancouver at the same time that I was living there. Ed, who would you say is on your Mount Rushmore of like comic book artists? Whether that be maybe your own?
30:21
you know, inspiration growing up, you know, hey, these are my favorite, you know, artists, you know, I was trying to emulate or even like, fast forward now, like, hey, these are my favorite artists. It doesn't have to be definitive. Obviously, this could change any day. But who's on that Mount Rushmore? One of the guys who I think I idolized for a very long time, and who made me think that it was probably possible to get into comics, being a Canadian, was Todd McFarlane. He was huge, huge for me growing up.
30:48
I was such a massive fan. I wanted to be Todd Muffallan growing up. I tried to draw like him. I could not become as strong like him. Have you had a chance to meet him? I've never met him personally. I don't typically get starstruck, but I was at a convention in Vancouver years ago and we were taking the elevator up to our room and it was me and my wife in the elevator and two people got on. I'm not a very expressive person all the time. I think my mood changes are very
31:17
subtle and very not always perceptible to people, I think. But these two guys got on the elevator and my wife turned to me and she's like, what's wrong? I'm like, you know, she's like, what's going on? What's wrong? What's wrong? I'm like, just like, keep it cool. Keep it cool. It was Todd McFarlane and his dad. And my wife had to talk to his dad, but I was just, I just couldn't. I was just, you know, it was too much for me. You were just taking in the moment.
31:44
Yeah, I just, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not an extrovert by any stretch. And so for me to just be like, Oh my God, you're, I'm such a big fan. It's not possible. Better than what I, how I probably would react. I probably would have screamed, it's the Todd father. I'm the opposite. Uh, so he, he's huge for me. Um, there's, uh, an Italian artist named GP, who's a really incredible artist slash writer, uh, who I would put on my Rushmore.
32:14
David Latham who did Straight Bullets would be up there for me. I think Frank Miller, you know, like the Sin City Frank Miller stuff was like mind blowing for me when that game changed. So I think those are the folks that put it on. Now I'm looking at my shelf to see what else, you know, a big Edward Rizzo fan, Daniel Klaus is a big one for me as well. Just from the artwork on your wall.
32:41
I think tells the story of your career, which is, you know, you mentioned 2012 kind of like breaking in and then obviously, you know, we're looking at a 12th less year career still going strong. You know, every publisher underneath your belt, Marvel, DC, Image, Boom, etc. Is there maybe one or however many come to mind? Are there any projects that really come to mind for you when it comes to what helped you elevate or become a stronger writer? Like was there, is there a title or a project that like
33:10
maybe really pushed you to go to reach that next level of being a comic writer? I think Murder Book, which I talked about a bit earlier, the thing that I just, when I stopped drawing, I just focus on writing that. That was very much even when I was drawing my own stuff, I was doing a lot of autobiocomics, I'm doing more like indie style stuff. Most of it I was kind of doing for myself, but there was always that kind of like thought of the audience, you know, like who, who reading this and what are they going to like and stuff.
33:38
And when I started doing Murder Book, it was literally just I was writing to please myself. I was writing things that I wanted to read. I was writing the kind of stories I wanted to read. And I was less concerned about who's going to like this and more concerned with do I like this? It sounds like a very simple thing in terms of writing. How much is this about me and how much is this about trying to meet some sort of expectation that some...
34:09
faceless fan out there might have. And I think that is what really pushed me when I tapped into that energy. Really pushed me. And it's a thing that I need periodic reminders. You kind of get caught up in writing for other companies and they have expectations and stuff. And it's easy to kind of lose that thread. So I constantly need to remind myself that this is the thing. I need to write for the audience of me first. And then it's something that I can...
34:39
feel good about, then theoretically, other people are going to react to the thing that I'm liking about it. So yeah, Murder Book is the big one. I think that both Comeback and Sheltered, which were my first two creator-owned, I think really helped sort of cement the kind of voice and what I wanted to say, kind of stories I wanted to tell. The other thing about your career that I find fascinating is that you've got a
35:05
a good balance of creator owned as well as, you know, working and playing, you know, in other people's sandbox. How different is your process or approach when it comes to like, you know, doing the creator on route or playing as someone else's sandbox, whether it be like Marvel DC or in a, you know, in this case, Silverhawks, like, do you have a preference? And then obviously like, how does your approach change? So I like doing both. I like having a healthy balance of both, which I know sounds like a cop out answer, but it's
35:34
It's the truth. I really enjoy doing creator-owned. But for me with creator-owned projects, they're typically things that I stew over and think about for a long time before I start. You know, like I have a project right now that I want to do, but I've been thinking about it for a year already, and I can see myself going another two years trying to figure it out because there's a lot of moving parts before I have it.
36:03
I you know the real difference is really that like there are more guardrails when you're doing stuff for a work for hire like if you know if I'm doing a Silverhawks or if I'm doing a Marvel or DC book there's guardrails there's certain things I can't do right I can't come in and kill Batman I can't come in and kill Spider-Man which is I'm not saying I want to come in and kill every character but like
36:31
There are certain guardrails, there are certain things where you have to almost like, you can't destroy the toys, right? Because after you, there's going to be somebody else and you need to leave them in a position where they can pick them up and tell their stories. Whereas, I don't have that same worry or concern when I'm doing creator-owned. It's just me and the artist. The two of us have to be satisfied.
36:57
That's the only audience I really initially have to worry about satisfying. I don't have to worry about the editor, the licensor or whatever. But I think once I get into it, there's not a ton of difference beyond that. I think I'm just trying to tell good stories. But one, there's no blueprint. There's no 20 years of continuity that I have to worry about. Whereas that is something I have to consider when I tell a...
37:25
a story for another publisher. And I'm glad you said that because I know that question for some maybe listening sounds like a very straightforward dub otter type of question. But I have heard from other creators that have said that, you know, the amount of work that you put into a creator owned sometimes can be way more, you know, it can be very more, it can be a lot more intense. And then, you know, like you had mentioned, sometimes you can get in your head about things, you can overthink things. And some creators prefer like to have like those guardrails to know like, okay, this is what I can and can't do.
37:54
Here's what's already been established. You know, like I know that I can only pull the rubber band back so far. And, you know, there's a sense of, I guess, reassurance or ease to like maybe working with an established character, even though they may have like years and years and years of continuity. Like you just know, you know, where you stand. And sometimes, you know what they say, like sometimes having rules and parameters. I mean, you know, this is one hell of a stretch.
38:19
Like you were saying about the bookcases, you know that, hey, I can only fill these two bookcases up and everything else, you don't got to worry about. Just leverage brain power and time because I know that sometimes is a valuable resource in itself to keep yourself from feeling burnt out and things like that. Yeah. I think that the idea that a creator-owned is more work is definitely 100% true because you're starting with nothing, right? Yeah.
38:49
We know that his parents were killed in an alley. We know he's got Robin. We know he's got the spirit. There's things that you don't have to think about. They're already there. There's a stage already kind of set for you. And it's up to you how you're going to rearrange it and play there. But like, yeah, when I, you know, we did something like Come Back or Sheltered or, you know, The Displaced, it was all, everything was being built from the ground up. So there's definitely a lot more legwork in sort of establishing the world, establishing the characters and.
39:18
But I find that with a lot of creator, once I get into that zone, once I'm writing it, it sometimes comes easier than it does work for hire. Well said. And I guess almost an hour into this interview, let's really get to talking about Silverhawks, which I wouldn't say has a lot of continuity, but it's also not a brand new thing. We're talking about an almost 40 year.
39:43
franchise and property that is coming to light again. You were given the responsibility of bringing Silverhawks back into the forefront after almost 40 years of the characters and the IP just not being used. I want to know what was the inception of you getting this opportunity to write Silverhawks for Dynamite? This was me lobbying for the book hard. When Declan was first announced that he was writing Thundercats,
40:13
I reached out to him and I was like, I need to know when they're doing Silverhawks. Like if Thundercats takes off and they're going to do Silverhawk, I want to know and I want in. And I've known Declan for a long time, so I could reach out to him and I'm like, no. So basically I just said, if they're doing Silverhawks, just please put my name in the hat, in the ring. And I would bug him every so often. And then Nate reached out to me, who's the editor on Thundercats.
40:43
about writing the Thundercats Apex one-shot. And when he called me, I was like immediately out, I'm like, is this about Silverhawks? Is this? And he's like, no, no, we're doing the Thundercats book. He's like, you want to write Silverhawks? And I was like, yeah. I'm like, are you guys doing the Silverhawks book? And they hadn't planned one. And I was like, look, I love Silverhawks. So if you are doing one, please, like, let me know. Let me have a crack at it.
41:10
And it was within a week that he called me back and said, you know, like, if you want to write it and let's do it. Okay. So you were not blank. You actually like, Yeah, I love it. Brought it to life. Yes. I feel like, you know, I manifested this book in some ways. That's not something that generally works. Like harassing an editor until you get another book. You know, and I was harassing, I was like, just soft poking them about it. But
41:37
But still, it's a thing that I wanted to write. I had some ideas. And so when Nate called me back and did offer it to me, he and I had conversations that we were talking about influences and kind of things that we wanted to take to book. We were both very much on the same page, both approaching it as this sort of Untouchables in Space type story. Some of the touch points we had were like we were talking about Homicide Life in the Streets, which is a favorite show of mine from back in the day. And
42:06
So we're bringing some of that procedural and I hate using the word gritty, but more like feet on the ground style cop type stories to this book. Even though it's still a very fantastical future sci-fi, high flying adventure, we still have these moments that are very much grounded so that each of the characters are grounded, the motivations are grounded. It's just the action that's just...
42:35
It's big explosive. OK, because I was going to ask what was it about Silverhawks that made you push for it so hard? So it sounds like the ability, one you mentioned earlier that you were always a fan of kind of like that noir storytelling and crime procedurals and things like that. So it sounds like Silverhawks is kind of like the perfect vehicle to scratch that itch, tell that story.
43:00
And I would assume it's also because the bad-ass character designs, because like I said, I think, you know, they are, the character designs still hold up for me. I agree that they look killer. They still look killer. They're amazing. They're a lot of fun to play around with. I think that one of the things that I really like about Silverhawks is there's a lot of like fertile territory there for telling stories because the cartoon, you know, they kind of introduce the characters pretty quickly. And then we have this sort of adventure of the week.
43:30
And we hear about a lot of places, but we never really see them. We don't know a lot about the backgrounds of any of the characters beyond like a sentence or two that were told in the first episode. So there's, you know, we know who the characters are from watching the show week to week or from day to day, you know, over the course of the 65 episodes, but we don't get a whole lot of background on them. You know, we don't even know what bluegrass is real name is in the show. They never, never mentioned hot wing. We don't know what his real name is either. Like
43:59
Uh, so like, you know, the thing I like is that we can take, take that and like expand upon it and explore who these characters are, you know, what their names are and, and, and where they come from and what their backstory is and, you know, why they would agree to sign up for this program where they're giving up half of their, you know, most of their organic body and becoming these sort of, you know, Robocop like, you know, uh, um, uh, officers, uh, like.
44:28
So why would they do that? So we explore how Monster impacted their lives, directly or indirectly, or how members of their crime cartel have pushed them to this point in their lives that they want to join up. So we get a lot more backstory about the characters going in. And we take our time putting the team together. How much of the existing content, shows or the comics, did you research or watch or read? Yeah, all of it.
44:58
comics are mostly just like episodes in comic form. Although in the comic they do give Bluegrass a name, which they don't do on the show. I gotta know now. What's Bluegrass's real name in the comics? T. Boone Pickens. Of course. Which is also the name is like some industrialist from the, or businessman from the early 1900s. That's better than anything I could have come up on the spot. T. Boone Pickens, aka Bluegrass.
45:27
It works. But yeah, so I've gone through, you know, I own the series. I'm my second rewatch right now of it. So yeah, I dipped into all of that stuff, because as much as I want to make it feel modern, I still want to keep that sort of vibe of the old show. Even in terms of like, we're updating a few designs and stuff like that, but just more like, I feel a little bit more modern. But I still love the idea.
45:54
because it's set in sort of the far-flung future. And I like the idea of building a future, but as though you're in the 80s looking forward, rather than like through our lens now looking forward, because now we would have all sorts of like, you know, I don't know, like everyone would have an iPhone, whatever the version of the iPhone is, you know, a thousand years in the future. I wanted to keep it like, I like this sort of like,
46:22
vision of future tech in the cartoon. And so really we're kind of expanding on that and playing around with it, because I think that's so fun. And it's a thing that's unique to the book, but still making it feel like quite modern. I think we're making it feel fairly modern. So I'm assuming you had pretty much like free rein when it came to like the story you wanna tell. I guess, you know, us talking about like the guardrails, did you find?
46:47
maybe a wider lane to play playing because it's been so long or? Yeah, they've been pretty chill. And I don't know if this is just because I've written a lot of licensed stuff over the years that I just intuitively know how far I can push. And I do try and push sometimes at the boundaries. Like when I was writing Predator, every so often I would push just to see what I could get away with. Because there are some things I thought there's no way they would let me do.
47:17
And turns out I was right. They wouldn't let me do it. And other things that I thought were really interesting ideas, but I didn't know if they would go for that, they did. So that was something that I think was great. Now, do you get the freedom to, I guess, introduce new characters when it comes to this? Or are they like, hey, only play with the characters? Yeah, no. So in ThunderCats Lost, which comes out in March, which is a book I'm writing about the second season ThunderCats came in, which is Langso Bengali and B.
47:46
Pumara, we introduced two new Thundercats onto the team. And even the villain side, we have a villain, the main bad guy is from the original cartoon, but his sort of right-hand guy who's driving the whole thing is the creation of Rafa and I. In Silverhawks, I don't know how much this is a spoiler, I'm just going to say it anyway, but one of the things that we...
48:15
talk about in Silverhawks is that the Silverhawks that you know and love, like the Quicksilver, Still Will, Still Hard, etc. They are actually like second generation Silverhawks. And it's kind of implied in the cartoon that that because there's Condor comes in later, who was like an early sort of like Silverhawk who fought alongside Stargazer. So we have in the first issue we introduce like the first generation Silverhawks who were around like 100 years ago.
48:43
Because right now when we come into the series of Galaxy, you know, Bedlamma and the Galaxy Limbo, it's in a time of like relative peace because Monstar has been buying bars for a hundred plus years. And the original Silverhawks led by Stargazer were the people who took them down the first time. But now that Monstar's out of prison and he's causing all sorts of chaos around the galaxy, they need to shut them down. But these, the original Silverhawks are all...
49:12
They're retired, they're older, they're arthritic. There's no way, like even at their peak, they barely took them down, right? They barely did it. So this is how we bring in our new Silverhawks and they get trained through the old Silverhawks. So yeah, we introduced, Condor and Stargazer were already in the original series, but there's four, five, I'm bad with counting right now, four or five other new.
49:41
old Silverhawks that we're introducing in the first issue. That was one of the things that came from us. George and I came up with these characters, introduced them in the book. No pushback. Everyone seemed cool with the idea. So far, I haven't done anything that I've had any real pushback on. And I'm glad you brought up George. We're talking about these series artists. George, help me out here again. Campadias? George Campadias.
50:09
What do you feel like George brings to the table in terms of his art style and, you know, updating the characters and giving them like a, you know, pun intended, a fresh polish? So, yeah, George is a, he's good. He's a guy who like, he and I have talked a little bit over the years about like finding a project to work together on. He's got such a unique style. He doesn't look like any other artist out there on the shelf, right? That's incredibly unique. He, he's really good with handling like tech.
50:36
in a very interesting and different way, I think, from a lot of other artists. His art sounds super kinetic. He's got like sort of like, you know, there's some manga influence in there a little bit. And you can see that in a lot of the action sequences and stuff. So he's bringing like a really great sense of energy to the book, but he's also pretty good at the quiet moments, the emotional moments, like the heavy moments. He handles those with
51:06
equal measure. He's great. He's been a great collaborator. His his designs, you know, like we did a very, very light touch in terms of redesigning any of the silver hawks. In fact, most of them look almost identical to what they did. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Yes. But we did give bluegrass a slight, slight update. It is super minor. And I think when people see it, they'll be like, yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
51:35
And then Hotwing as well, we just gave him a little bit of an update mostly in the way that we handle the flames on his armor. Okay. And I'm looking through the solicitations now and there's solicitations up to issue three, which would come out on March 26th. I guess how many issues is this first run planned out for? It's an ongoing, so hopefully it goes on forever. I have...
52:04
plotted at 10 issues. Oh, hell yeah. Assuming nothing goes terribly wrong, then we get at least 10 issues in the can. And based on the success of Thundercats, I'm hoping that we can surpass 10 issues and keep going. And speaking of Thundercats, because I'm hearing you talk about Declan Shelby, the success he's having of Thundercats. I mean, that series has been knocking it out the park. I mean, they're still going, and that's awesome to see.
52:33
You mentioned riding a ThunderCats, the one shot last year, I think it was called Apex. You got Lost coming out, you got Silverhawks coming out. It looks like Dynamite has got a monopoly on everyone's favorite 80s cartoons. And I'm curious and excited to see if we get any kind of crossovers. Because I feel like this is just kind of like prime in the making. I guess, without spoiling anything, I'll be talking high likelihood, low likelihood.
53:02
I don't know. It's definitely on their radar. It's definitely- Ed, you've got the power. Have you expressed anything is that your lobbying skills could make this happen? Yeah. It's something that's been discussed. It's something that I think Dynamite is very aware that people are sort of hungry for. But I think the important thing is first to establish each book as its own thing and not rush into it. I think that let's give Silverhawks time to breathe and-
53:30
and build its audience and ensure that it stands on its own. Same with Thundercats loss. You know, let's make sure it's established, it's entrenched, that it has its own voice, it's its own thing. And I think then is the time to start looking at doing crossovers. I definitely have ideas. I've thrown ideas at Nate for how I think, how we could get into that sort of that territory. And I think it's, you know.
53:57
I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility. I think it's just a matter of time, probably. There we go. Ed, it's no pressure, but it's all on you, buddy. Perfect. I got one more question about Silverhawks. Among the many great things that Dynamite does when it comes to their comics, they do variant covers very, very well. I mean, especially when it comes to a first issue release, you can set your clock to it. Dynamite is going to have some killer variant covers and additional cover offerings.
54:26
And I'm looking at the variant covers for issue one. And you've got covers from Jay Lee, who always, I think he is my favorite Dynamite cover artist out there. I mean, he has just a way of making any property he gets his hands on even cooler. But you got Jay Lee variant cover, you got a James Stokoe variant cover, Declan Shelby is in the mix as well. How involved, one, have you had a chance to see all the variant covers for SuperHawks? I've seen most of them, but like I was on a podcast earlier today
54:55
put one on screen that I hadn't seen before. So clearly, I haven't seen them all. But yeah, I've seen most of them. Nate's pretty good about sharing them. Holy shit, there is a Mark Bagley variant cover. There is, yes. It's mind blowing. So OK, so you get shown some of these later, some of these other variant covers as they come in. Is there maybe one in particular that maybe stands out among the ones that you've seen so far? Man, that's, I feel like.
55:24
I would feel weird picking favorites. But I'm a big fan of, I like all the covers. The Jay Lee, oops, covers is my phone screen. That's your phone background, that's cool. But I love the Declan one as well. I'm just a big fan of James Stokoe. So I was very excited that we could get him to do the variant covers. And he's got some really kind of crazy.
55:53
80s energy going on on those covers. Yeah, this looks incredible and in true James Stoker fashion. Oh yeah. I had a chance to read actually the first issue of Silverhawks. I had a lot of fun. I'm excited to see where you go with it. And whenever you do get a chance to introduce my boy Bluegrass, aka what is it? T Pickens Boone? Yeah, T Boone Pickens. That's issue two. I'm looking forward to that. And the Mozstar Transformation Reveal.
56:20
Before we wrap up, I have a question for you that was submitted from a listener. That's one of the perks of being a patron of the show and a Patreon subscriber is that I will reach out to the patrons and ask them, tell them about these interviews and have them send in any questions if anyone's like a big fan. And I think it's safe to say I might have found one of your biggest fans. He sent something in. So here we go. This is from a good friend of the show, Jeff Frimmett. He sent in a voicemail with a couple of questions for you and I want to play it.
56:50
Yo, Shortbox Nation, Big Jeff here wishing everyone the best in this new year. Ed, I've been a fan of your writing for over a decade now from murder books through Predator the Last Hunt. Greatly looking forward to your reinvention of Silverhawks coming out. Your Iron Man run is my favorite since Matt Fraction. So first question, if you were given the opportunity to do a team up with any character of your choosing, who would that be?
57:20
Um, big fan of horror. The silver coin was amazing. Do you have any horror projects on the horizon that you're working on? And lastly, can we please get you to come to our city of Jacksonville, our fair city, um, that hosts collective con every March. We'd love to see you there. Thanks. Peace. Big shout out to Jeff and those, uh, uh, crows cocking in the back as well. That would be a part of it as well. Um,
57:48
Yo, he put you in pretty high regard. He said your Iron Man run. I think you meant Iron Fist, but yeah, yeah. But yeah, Iron Fist, I loved writing. To answer his question, if I did a team up with Iron Fist, who would I want? And I mean, Luke Cage is like the obvious sort of answer. The other answer, too, I think for me, is just I always love the interaction between Iron Fist and Matt Murdock and Daredevil. So that's what I do.
58:18
That's another thing, you know, those two together, I know they've had their sort of run ins and such. So that might be another one for me, because I'm just a big Daredevil fan as well. I love Iron Fist. I love Daredevil. But it would probably be Luke Cage, honestly, probably. Side with him on that. And in terms of he asked if I have any other horror stuff in the works. I think I mentioned already, I did the Creepshow short story.
58:47
Now, I do one of the four projects I have coming out this year is a horror project that I have been working on for about two years. It's something I'm very excited about. Obviously, it's not announced yet, so I can't say too much. I'm reteaming with Damian Casero, who's an artist I've worked with a bunch. We worked on Cluster together. We worked on Sons of Anarchy together. We worked on...
59:15
Lord, I don't know. He was on Iron Fist last couple of issues. We did a Ghost Rider 2099. He's an artist I've worked with the most over the last 20 years, a great guy. He's done designs for the lead character in this. I don't want to give too much away, but it's this kind of like throwback to 80s slasher movies, which is what I grew up on. And I think it's a really fun take on it. And that will be a.
59:44
later this year. So I guess just keep an eye out for an announcement with Damien and I working on something together and then you'll know what it is. But it's straight horror in a very fun and interesting way. Good stuff. And then, Ed, do you have any conventions planned for this year? No. So I have. I'm doing one later this year. It's not been announced since in August. So I don't want to sort of jump to the show and announce ahead of them.
01:00:14
But no, I don't really have anything else planned. I've been kind of taking it easy on cons for the last couple of years. I think the pandemic, the first couple of years of pandemic where nothing was happened really trained me to just like to be at home a lot. Even normally I go to New York Comic Con every year and I skipped this last one. I just went on a vacation with my wife instead, which after 12, 13 years of working in comics was not something I realized you could do.
01:00:41
I'm going to go on an occasion that's not comic book related at all. I just had that one booked. I've been talking to a couple. I'm still considering a few shows for this year and next, but I have something coming up in March that will decide what the rest of my year is going to look like. I don't want to commit to anything before I know what's happening with this thing.
01:01:11
Well, look, if you're ever in search of warmer weather, I got to connect that collective con. I can get you. And we'd welcome you if open arms, Ed. Well, tell them to reach out to me through my site or whatever. And we can definitely discuss. Because warmer weather during the winters here is something I'm more than interested in. Say less. Ladies and gents, this is the Shorebox Podcast. And we just finished talking with Ed Brisson about the Silverhawks.
01:01:37
which comes back with a brand new comic series starting with issue one on January 29th. Go pick that up from your local comic shop or anywhere else you get your comics and give Ed a follow on your social media platform of choice. I'll have links to his Instagram and X account in these show notes as well as website. He's a good follow, so check him out. And I'll have some additional links in these show notes to some of the other stuff we talked about today. So check those out too. Look, the show notes is your source for all of this stuff. So check out the show notes.
01:02:05
Ed, I just want to say thank you for your time. This was a fantastic conversation. Oh, thanks for having me. Do you got any parting words or shameless plug before we wrap up and call it a day? No, I think just please go order Silverhawks, go order Thundercats Lost. At the time that we are talking, it was just announced that Diamond has gone into bankruptcy protection, which is a little bit scary for everyone in the industry. And I think now more than just about ever.
01:02:34
comic stores are going to rely on you coming in and telling them what you want in advance. So not just for, you know, obviously, Thundercats, Lost, Silverhawks, top of your list, but anything else you want, make sure to let your store know. Damn right. Support your local comic shop. And that's it. That's all I got. Just support your comic shop, let them know what you're after, because it's going to be some weird times ahead. Well said. Thank you, Ed. There you have it, Short Box Nation. That's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out.
01:03:04
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01:03:32
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01:04:01
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01:04:49
and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon, peace.
