Ed Brubaker (/ˈbruːbeɪkər/; born November 17, 1966)[1] is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and screenwriter who works primarily in the crime fiction genre.

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.

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.

[3] 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.

[8] 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.

[9][10] The creators eventually decided to shelve the series in favor of Criminal (published under Marvel's Icon imprint),[11] and "The Fall" remained Brubaker's last independent comics work until his move to Image in 2012.

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).

[12] 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.

[12] 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.

[15] 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?

[20] 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.

[21] Brubaker's last work for Vertigo was Dead Boy Detectives, a four-issue The Sandman spin-off limited series illustrated by artist Bryan Talbot.

[22] In 2001, Brubaker teamed up with artist Darwyn Cooke to revamp Catwoman, redesigning and redeveloping the character's costume, supporting cast and modus operandi.

A collaboration with artist Sean Phillips, Sleeper starred Holden Carver, a secret agent who goes undercover in a supervillain's powerful organization only to have his only contact in law enforcement fall into a coma.

In December 2003, in a unique publicity stunt conceived to help promote the first trade paperback collection of Sleeper, Brubaker organized an arm wrestling competition at San Francisco's Isotope Comics.

"Coup d'Etat" featured a series of events that led the Authority, a powerful team of superhumans in the Wilstorm Universe, to take over the United States.

[28][29][30] After Brubaker and Lark left the series due to their newly-signed exclusive contracts with Marvel,[31] Rucka decided to discontinue the title, and Gotham Central was cancelled with issue #40 (Apr.

[33] 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.

After finishing Deadly Genesis in July 2006, Brubaker became the regular writer of Uncanny X-Men, working with artists Billy Tan and Clayton Henry.

[39] Once again teaming up with his Scene of the Crime and Gotham Central collaborator Michael Lark,[40] Brubaker explored the ramifications of the character's imprisonment which occurred at the close of Bendis' run.

The slogan was not in Brubaker's script and was instead added by letterer Joe Caramagna, who, under deadline pressures, used messages from signs he found online at the last minute.

[63] In 2023, Brubaker's and Sean Phillips comic book Criminal was announced to be in development at Amazon Prime Video with him serving as writer, executive producer and showrunner.