Ed Brisson is a comic book writer who’s has been published by Image, Marvel, BOOM! and IDW. Before getting being published by others, Ed spent nearly two decades creating and self-publishing his own comics.
What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?
I don’t remember a time where I didn’t want to work in comics. I’ve been reading comics since I could read and probably started drawing my own not long after. It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.
Initially I wanted to be a comic artist and only started writing them because I didn’t know anyone else who could. This was before the internet was around, so I didn’t have access to scripts either. Slowly, and over a long period of time, I realized that I enjoyed the writing more than I did the illustrating and gave up the latter to focus in solely on writing.
What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?
I’m not sure. I tend to be pretty scatter brained and have a lot of trouble focusing in when the time comes. I takes a lot of effort and is thoroughly exhausting. I need a nap after I’ve written four or five pages.
Another thing I have trouble with, something that I rarely hear people talking about to aspiring creators, is making sure that I have downtime. I mean, you work hard for a long time to “break into” comics, to have people notice you and when they finally do, the offers will come flooding in and you have to be aware of how much you can handle and making sure that you leave some time for you. Otherwise you’re going to burn out.
I *try* to leave my weekends free for me time (which means mostly spending time with my wife and daughter), but still generally end up working through them. I’m working on it though.
If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?
My advice would be to jump in, head first, and just start creating comics. Stop talking and start doing. I know too many people who have a “great” story they want to do, but never put rubber to road. Just start. Now. Start with 5-10 page stories. Build to single issues and then focus on doing longer stories once you have that down – once you’ve discovered your voice. Scrap your idea for a 200 issue epic. Start small and grow.
Follow Ed’s work at http://edbrisson.com/
Honestly, if you have to ability to listen to other’s advice Mr. Brisson (and Palle and many others) are so right about starting small. I did not. I have a vision for a 200 issue epic – and that is what I have started. But 32 pages in I am now struggling with many issues like – Do I know how to tell a story that long, what if I want to change my drawing style, and how can I get people to read a story that will take me months to get another issue of?! And that is just what I can think of in this very moment….. Elephants are hard enough to eat, who wants to eat 200 in a row…. just start small.
Oh boy, SO right! I was I had learned this earlier. At least I didn’t make it a hundred pages in to MY epic, but I have a few ditched projects behind me for exactly that reason: The sheer scale of it made it IM-POSSIBLE . That, and not knowing where – and how – to end the story. Now I absolutely DO NOT START ANYTHING, before I have a full script and a plan of execution. You don’t start running by running a marathon either!