In a conference call today held by Image Comics, Ed Brubaker chatted with us and other sites about his upcoming ongoing with Steve Epting, “Velvet.” An attempt to a more realistic version of a superspy book in the veins of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy while matching what fans found in their run of “Captain America”, Velvet is a Cold War-era spy story starring the eponymous Velvet and her adventures in the thick a Mission: Impossible type story with real world implications.
“I had a binge week of watching old spy movies about seven or eight years ago, and I’ve been reading about the Cambridge Spy Ring from the 40’s and 50’s,” Brubaker said in regards to his inspiration for the book. “”All the women characters in those stories are really lame and weak, and there was this… Monkeypenny archetype in spy and detective fiction. I just thought, what if that Girl Friday archetype was more like a Modesty Blaise — what if she had a secret history and what if she was the most interesting person in that world?”
Having been in the works since “Criminal”, very early in his career, Brubaker pitched the book to Epting in a bar about five years ago before his contract with Marvel had run up and the discussion of the series went from there, becoming a twist on the whole spy genre as well as a grand and epic tale.
Oh, and one that’s rather violent, as the attached preview shows. The book starts with the death of another spy, and that touch of realism stays throughout. “When violence happens, it has to be brutally realistic so its not glorified at all. You can have high tension over the top action scenes, but if someone gets hit by a train they splatter, or if they’re shot in the face they’re not wearing a special Bulletproof Peel-Away Face (TM).”
The book’s setting is also important to the overall experience. For one, the book’s setting in the past takes away the advances of modern technology — cellphones in particular, which Brubaker expressed particular annoyance towards. “I like the idea of a spy being lost in a city and trying to find a safe way to get out as opposed to touching a thing on her ear and then she’s being teleported out of there.”
But on top of that, the book’s setting within the Cold War allows for a murky grey area to be explored. The way we look at modern spies is so different based on corporate espionage, and this allows the reader to be given someone and something to care about.
Brubaker also cited a great deal of research playing a large part in how the story evolved — in particular, a story of a British female spy that had been sent to seduce a friend of FDR in the 1940’s. While initially planning for a more straight-forward action story, reading non-fiction and history of the Cold War, Brubaker found that very little had to do with the women at the time. “You don’t find much about women spies except for Russian women or the odd British spy,” Brubaker said, which opened up a whole new angle for him to explore.
In terms of Velvet herself, Brubaker noted that part of the inspiration came from the British television show The Sandbaggers, and an episode where the head of the agency had to pick a new secretary — someone that could match him and be as qualified for the job as he was. “I’ve read a lot of spy novels, but haven’t seen one that had a female lead in the Cold War — it just felt more interesting that way… That, and Black Widow was almost always more interesting to write than any other character she was in a book with.”
Velvet will also be rather tonally different than the lead character of Brubaker’s other Image book, “Fatale.” Remarking that Velvet is a bit more lighter and sarcastic, Brubaker noted that it was interesting to write a series where he was afforded more jokes throughout. “Velvet is narrating the book, and she’s got a good sarcastic sense of humor.”
Continued belowPart of the book’s story will also relate to who Velvet became as opposed to who she is, as if the Black Widow had gotten a job at a desk (similar to the recent Agent Carter one-shot on Iron Man 3). “What happened to break her, and what got her put on a desk?” The long period of time that Brubaker had been sitting on the book had allowed him to explore Velvet more personally than some of the other characters he writes, and it allowed Brubaker to get in her shoes in a unique way. “The way that she acts at the office and around people, it’s all an act… All these special agents think that she’s in love with them but she’s just playing them all.”
Working with Steve Epting also produced new and closer collaboration than what they’d worked on before, citing that he couldn’t do the book without Epting. Despite the Tinker Tailor inspirations, though, Brubaker is pushing the book to still have big action scenes for Epting to draw — like John le Carre with a bigger budget. “It’s a murder mystery, and to solve the murder Velvet has to retrace the steps of one of the world’s greatest spies.”
It’s also important to note that this will be Steve Epting’s first creator-owned book. Brubaker also confirmed that, with this being a creator-owned book, Epting had a lot more freedom and was doing much more in terms of the creation of the book, from top to the bottom. Epting is in charge of the book’s design and is able to ink the whole book himself, something that wasn’t always afforded at Marvel, with Bettie Breitweiser on colors.
There was also apparently a time in the beginning where the team was a touch nervous, since this is Epting’s first, but the positive climate for creator-owned books and the market’s shift towards recognizing them has certainly made the transition a lot easier. Brubaker said he can’t imagine a world where comics aren’t a part of his life; switching from company-owned books to creator-owned was stressful at first and now that they’re in the thick of it Epting spends a good deal of time crafting the pages. “We have a Dropbox set up and I’ll constantly get notifications that Steve’s tweaking the art all the time.”
As of now, the plan for “Velvet” is very similar to “Saga.” Since Epting can’t keep that same monthly schedule with the amount of work he puts into the pages, the book will be released in five-six issue arcs, with the trade released between in each break to offer new jumping on points for readers. In keeping with tradition to “Fatale” and “Criminal,” “Velvet” will also come with a good deal of exclusive monthly backmatter written by friends of Brubaker. Comparing the monthly floppy to a less-disposable version of a magazine, Brubaker noted that he always wants to have something special as part of his books.
“Velvet” #1 goes on sale October 23 through Image Comics.
