Posted in: Comics | Tagged: ed brubaker, friday, Marcos Martin, panel syndicate

Friday, a New Digital Comic by Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin Out Today

Published Wed, 15 Apr 2020 13:06:26 -0500

Friday is a new digital comic book by Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente published today on Panel Syndicate. Announced in the Hollywood Reporter, the comic is described as a mix of Encyclopedia Brown, Lovecraft and noir fiction, as a post-YA graphic novel. It seems to take on the trope of the teenage detective, looking at what happened to their life after none of that panned out. Brubaker states "It's an idea I've been circling for a long time, because it let me tap into my own nostalgia for my youth and the YA books I loved back in the '70s and '80s — stuff like the Great Brain, or John Belliars books, or Harriet the Spy, or Encyclopedia Brown — to take that concept of the teen detective, but then let them grow up and have all same problems we all do, and encounter a much more dangerous world." The world was described to Brubaker to Martin as "Lovecraft's New England colliding with Edward Gorey's."

The book is published by Marcos Martin and Brian K. Vaughan's own digital publisher Panel Syndicate on a pay-what-you-want deal. In a world where print publishing and distribution is suddenly more precarious than ever, it means that they have been able to launch a new comic book without a lot of competition.

As to the art style, distinct from his other work for Panel Syndicate, Martin states that "It drove me to look into comic book artists and book illustrators I had always liked but never had found a way to incorporate. People like the aforementioned Gorey, who is probably not only the strongest influence in the character designs but also conceptually, in the overall visual mood and atmosphere of the book. And also Tove Jansson, Crepax, Matsumoto or Harry Clarke among others have been a constant reference in my struggle to find the right balance between the strong and simple black and white areas and the more intricate line work." The first issue by Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin is available to read now at the Panel Syndicate site. A short preview runs below.