Ed Brubaker (; born November 17, 1966) is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and screenwriter who works primarily in the crime fiction genre. He began his career with the semi-autobiographical series Lowlife and a number of serials in the Dark Horse Presents anthology, before achieving industry-wide acclaim with the Vertigo series Scene of the Crime and moving to the superhero comics such as Batman, Catwoman, The Authority, Captain America, Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men. Brubaker is best known for his long-standing collaboration with British artist Sean Phillips, starting with their Elseworlds one-shot Batman: Gotham Noir in 2001 and continuing with a number of creator-owned series such as Criminal, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, and Kill or Be Killed.
He is also known for co-creating the Winter Soldier identity of Bucky Barnes with Steve Epting.
Brubaker has won numerous awards for his comics work, including seven Eisner Awards, two Harvey Awards, an Ignatz Award, and a GLAAD Media Award. In addition to his work in comics, Brubaker served as the executive producer and co-writer of the 2019 Amazon series Too Old to Die Young, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
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Early life
Brubaker was the child of a Navy intelligence officer, and spent much of his childhood in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. From childhood he read comics that included Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes, which were seminal in the storyline he would one day write when creating the Winter Soldier. Describing his affinity for Captain America's sidekick thus, he has stated, "I was a Navy brat, and he was an Army brat." As Bucky had been killed off before Brubaker began reading comics, he assumed that the character had met his demise in an elaborate, dramatic story, only to find that he had been unceremoniously killed in a single page of The Avengers #4, which Brubaker saw as an injustice, commenting, "I was a 9-year-old kid, and I was horrified." His uncle was screenwriter John Paxton.
Career
Early work
Brubaker began his career in comics as a cartoonist, writing and drawing Pajama Chronicles for Blackthorne Publishing, Purgatory U.S.A. for Slave Labor Graphics and several short stories for various small-press anthologies. His most well-known work of the period is Lowlife, a semi-autobiographical series first published by Caliber and later moved to Aeon Press. For Caliber, Brubaker also co-edited an anthology publication titled Monkey Wrench.
In 1991, Brubaker wrote one of his earliest crime stories for the Dark Horse anthology series Dark Horse Presents, which he would continue to contribute to intermittently throughout the decade. Among those contributions were the three-part serial "An Accidental Death", a collaboration between Brubaker and artist Eric Shanower which garnered the two an Eisner Award nomination in 1993, a Godzilla short story and another tale under the Lowlife title—this time a romantic triangle explored through three stories with each depicting a different participant's point-of-view. The latter story was collected by Alternative Comics into a standalone publication titled At the Seams, which in turn was nominated for Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection at the 1997 Ignatz Awards. His other work for Alternative Comics, the humorous and experimental Detour #1, was to be the first issue of a series, though only one issue was published. Detour was nominated for the "Best New Series" Harvey Award in 1998.
Brubaker's last work for Dark Horse Presents was "The Fall", a five-part story illustrated by Berlin creator Jason Lutes about a convenience store clerk who gets involved in a ten-year-old murder mystery after he uses a stolen credit card. In 2001, all five parts were collected into a one-shot by Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly. In 2004, IDW Publishing announced the first creator-owned project by Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips, a pirate-themed series titled Black Sails. The creators eventually decided to shelve the series in favor of Criminal (published under Marvel's Icon imprint), and "The Fall" remained Brubaker's last independent comics work until his move to Image in 2012.
DC Comics
In 1995, Brubaker was contacted by DC Comics to write a story about Prez for its "mature readers" imprint Vertigo, after being recommended to the editors by his "An Accidental Death" collaborator Eric Shanower (who was already attached to the project as the artist). The result—Brubaker's first work for one of the two major American comic book publishers—was a one-shot titled Vertigo Visions: Prez, a broad political satire revamping the obscure 1970s Joe Simon creation. Brubaker continued to pitch various ideas to Vertigo but kept getting rejected until Shelly Roeberg asked him to pitch "something [he] didn't think Vertigo would publish", which ended up being Scene of the Crime. The 1999 series marked Brubaker's first collaboration with two artists who would frequently work with him in later years: Michael Lark and Sean Phillips (who joined the project as the inker for issues #2–4). A slacker detective story set in San Francisco, Scene of the Crime was critically acclaimed and brought Brubaker to the attention of Hollywood producers for the first time.
In late 2000, Brubaker signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics. That same year, he wrote his first mainstream superhero work, taking over Batman with issue #582 (Oct. 2000). Brubaker would continue writing various series starring Batman and his ancillary characters until late 2003, including contributions to inter-title crossover storylines such as "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" and "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive", as well as a stint on Detective Comics that was cut short due to an unspecified dispute with the editors. Also in 2000, Brubaker launched his second creator-owned property at Vertigo, the science fiction series Deadenders with artist Warren Pleece, which lasted 16 issues before its cancellation in 2001. Brubaker's last work for Vertigo was Dead Boy Detectives, a four-issue The Sandman spin-off limited series illustrated by artist Bryan Talbot.
In 2001, Brubaker teamed up with artist Darwyn Cooke to revamp Catwoman, redesigning and redeveloping the character's costume, supporting cast and modus operandi. The pair's stint started with a four-part serial "Trail of the Catwoman", published in Detective Comics #759–762, in which private detective Slam Bradley attempts to investigate the death of Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, and continued into the new Catwoman series which launched in late 2001. Brubaker stayed on the series until #37 (Jan. 2005). During this time, Brubaker and Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis discussed co-writing a team-up tale between DC's Batman and Marvel's Daredevil. The two writers were enthusiastic about their ideas, which included a fight between Batman and Marvel villain Bullseye as well as another fight between Catwoman and Elektra. DC editors Matt Idelson and Bob Schreck were also enthusiastic, but DC Publisher Paul Levitz objected to the project due to a prior disagreement with Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.
Marvel Comics
Brubaker's first work for Marvel was volume five of the Captain America series. Paired with artist Steve Epting, Brubaker introduced new villains and resurrected the long-dead supporting character Bucky Barnes as "the Winter Soldier". The relaunch was a commercial and critical success from its first issue, with its most well-known storyline involving the assassination of Steve Rogers and subsequent passing of the Captain America mantle to Bucky Barnes. Brubaker wrote Captain America for eight full years, from November 2004 to October 2012, alongside several spin-off titles and associated series based around the character, including the 2009 mini-series Captain America: Reborn, which featured the return of Rogers, the eight-issue The Marvels Project limited series, as well as Secret Avengers, an ongoing series that followed the adventures of the eponymous team formed in the aftermath of the company-wide crossover storyline "Siege".
Brubaker's workload at Marvel increased in 2006. He wrote two limited series, Books of Doom with artist Pablo Raimondi, retelling and expanding on the origin of Doctor Doom, and X-Men: Deadly Genesis with artist Trevor Hairsine, retconning the origins of the All-New, All-Different X-Men team that debuted in 1975. After finishing Deadly Genesis in July 2006, Brubaker became the regular writer of Uncanny X-Men, working with artists Billy Tan and Clayton Henry. In addition to that, he also took over Daredevil, having already planned his run with outgoing writer Brian Michael Bendis. Once again teaming up with his Scene of the Crime and Gotham Central collaborator Michael Lark, Brubaker explored the ramifications of the character's imprisonment which occurred at the close of Bendis' run. Another notable launch of the year was The Immortal Iron Fist, an ongoing series co-written by Brubaker and Matt Fraction which started in November 2006.
Also in 2006, Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips launched their first creator-owned series Criminal, published under Marvel's Icon imprint. The title received generally positive reviews and its first arc, "Coward", won the 2007 Eisner Award for Best New Series. In 2008, after two volumes of Criminal, Brubaker and Phillips took a break from the series to launch another Icon title, Incognito, which Brubaker described as being "about a completely amoral guy with super-powers forced to pretend he's a normal law-abiding citizen, because he's in Witness Protection, and how that shapes what he becomes. It's also a brutal noir twist on the super-hero/super-villain genre that delves more into their roots in the pulps, and it's going to be pretty over-the-top and action-packed."
Image Comics
In January 2012, Brubaker and Phillips launched Fatale at Image Comics. The series was initially announced as a twelve-issue maxi-series but was extended to an ongoing title in November 2012. Jesse Schedeen of IGN stated that "You can't go wrong with a Brubaker/Phillips collaboration. Even so, Fatale is making a strong case for being the best of their projects." In October 2013, Brubaker signed a five-year contract to produce comics exclusively for Image. Under the terms of the deal, Image would publish any comic Brubaker brought to them without having to pitch it. Brubaker stated this arrangement was something he has always wanted. The first series released under this contract was The Fade Out, a Hollywood period piece made with frequent collaborator Sean Phillips.
Brubaker's other projects for Image include Velvet, a spy series illustrated by his Captain America collaborator Steve Epting.
Film and television work
In March 2009, Brubaker premiered his web series Angel of Death on Crackle. Brubaker made a cameo appearance in the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, playing the Winter Soldier's handler. In 2016, Brubaker joined the writing staff for HBO's Westworld. He co-wrote the episode "Dissonance Theory" with Jonathan Nolan.
In 2019, Brubaker partnered with Nicolas Winding Refn to produce Too Old to Die Young, a 10-part neo-noir miniseries for Amazon. In 2022, it was announced that Brubaker would serve as head writer and executive producer on the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader. In 2023, Criminal was announced to be in development at Amazon Prime Video with him serving as writer, executive producer and showrunner. A year later, in 2024, the series was ordered to series with Jordan Harper joining as co-showrunner and Phillips as executive producer.
Personal life
Brubaker lived previously in Seattle, with his wife, Melanie.
Brubaker currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and dog.
In August 2026, ljaaz Noohu, the former production assistant of Criminal, filed a lawsuit against Brubaker for sexual, racial, national origin, and religious harassment in the workplace. Despite initial public outcry against Brubaker in the wake of this litigation, multiple outsopken crew members from the production have come out in his defence in the comments section of Deadline.com's reporting of the allegations, both anonymously as well as avowedly. One such comment denounces Nuhoo as a "Social Media PA" who was allegedly fired for demanding an Executive Producer credit, despite him apparently being unprofessional and contributing little to the actual show.
Awards and nominations
Awards
2003 Prism Award ("Disguises" from Catwoman #17–19)
2004 GLAAD Media Awards – Outstanding Comic Book (Catwoman by Ed Brubaker)
2006 Harvey Award Winner – Best Writer (Captain America)
2007 Eisner Award – Best Writer (Daredevil, Captain America, Criminal), Best New Series (Criminal with Sean Phillips)
2007 Harvey Award – Best Writer (Daredevil)
2008 Eisner Award – Best Writer (Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil and Immortal Iron Fist)
2010 Eisner Award – Best Writer (Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, The Marvels Project, Incognito), Best Single Issue (Captain America #601 with Gene Colan)
2011 Scream Award – Best Comic Book Writer (Captain America, Captain America: Reborn, The Marvels Project, Steve Rogers: Super Soldier)
2012 Eisner Award – Best Limited Series or Story Arc (Criminal: The Last of the Innocent with Sean Phillips)
2015 Eisner Award – Best New Series (The Fade Out with Sean Phillips)
2016 Eisner Award – Best Limited Series (The Fade Out with Sean Phillips)
2019 Eisner Award – Best Graphic Album—New (My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies with Sean Phillips)
Nominations
1993 Eisner Award nominee – Best Writer-Artist Team ("An Accidental Death")
1997 Ignatz Award nominee – Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection (At the Seams)
1998 Harvey Award nominee – Best New Series (Detour)
2000 Eisner Award nominee – Best Writer (Scene of the Crime) and Best Mini-Series (Scene of the Crime)
2007 Eisner Award nominee – Best Continuing Series (Daredevil with Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano, Captain America with Steve Epting)
2010 Eisner Award nominee – Best Limited Series or Story Arc (Incognito with Sean Phillips)
2013 Eisner Award nominee – Best Continuing Series (Fatale with Sean Phillips)
2013 Eisner Award nominee – Best New Series (Fatale with Sean Phillips)
2013 Eisner Award nominee – Best Writer (Fatale)
