Posted in: Boom, Comics | Tagged: boom studios, brzrkr, keanu reeves, matt kindt, ron garney

Keanu Reeves BRZRKR #1 Is Boom Studios Biggest Ordered Comic Ever

It's BRZRKR time. We just mentioned that orders for Maria Llovet's Luna comic from Boom were booming right now. But she's not alone. And as uncommon as it may have been in the past, that seems to be the story with Boom launches in 2020 and now 2021 – orders keep going up with double-digit increases at FOC that regularly land them on the weekly Top Advance Reorders list and setting new Boom sales records on a regular basis. In 2020, Boom broke their sales records with Wynd, then again with Seven Secrets, and again with We Only Find Them When They're Dead. And while Luna will not break those records, there is a title that has had an excellent adventure – or maybe a little of a bogus journey – but that will shatter sales records across the industry.

That title, of course, is Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, and Ron Garney's BRZRKR, which is poised to be the biggest creator-owned launch of 2021. As we understand it, BRZRKR #1 initial orders are already the highest Boom has ever received — bigger than Something Is Killing the Children and We Only Find Them When They're Dead. With virtually every Boom launch receiving 30-40% bumps at FOC, what does that mean for BRZRKR? Comic shops' final-order-cut-off date is the 26th of January, and BRZRKR #1 will be on sale in comic shops on the 17th of February.

BRZRKR is the first comic book and graphic novel series from Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, a new artist on the series, Ron Garney, colourist Bill Crabtree and letterer Clem Robins about one immortal warrior's fight through the ages. The initially announced artist on the series was changed under unclear circumstances. Still, now we get a better look at Garney's work on the series, in these pages released to Kickstarter backers.

The man known only as Berzerker is half-mortal and half-God, cursed and compelled to violence even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the world for centuries, Berzerker may have finally found a refuge – working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, Berzerker will be granted the one thing he desires – the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence and how to end it.

BRZRKR will be released in 12 chapters and collected in 3 graphic novel volumes, each containing four comic book chapters (issues). Each graphic novel is a 7"x10", 128-page full-colour book, released in September 2021 (Volume 1), April 2022 (Volume 2), and September 2022 (Volume 3).

Talking about the series, Keanu said "The structure of the story is, in the modern-day, we're following a character named B and then so we have the origin story of this character where we learn about his parents, how he was born, how did he become a kind of a half-mortal half god. At the same time, we're in present-day America where our character B has made an agreement with the United States government, where he can hide in that with his violence and what he has his compulsion to do, which he doesn't really want to do anymore. But in exchange, they're studying him, and so there's a scientific, emotional/psychological kind of background in his present day. The origin story that kind of flashes back and so these parallel worlds come into this moment through the architecture of the piece. We're hoping for 12 issues. I mean that's what we're aiming to do…."

"I was talking to the director of John Wick, Chad Stahelski, well, I've got this idea, and I want to do this thing where like a guy punches through someone's chest or rips an arm off or slices someone in half and maybe fights through different eras and times. He's a Viking; he's with the Roman armies and the Napoleonic army. He's in the first World War and then started to turn into, well, who is that person, who is that guy, who can be that vessel, what's that story. And then this kind of origin story of… I don't want to give too much away. His dad's not immortal, and then that turned into the kind of potential of this guy who's cursed. He's compelled to violence, but he doesn't want kill, he finds life precious, but he can't die. And so I thought that was an interesting problem and I thought it was a kind of interesting psychological journey – for us time speeds up, for him time is slowing down. He wants it to end; he wants his mortality; he wants not to be compelled to this violence. And I thought that this also could shine a light on some of our own nature, and just having this kind of the pathos to this character, who's got trauma. He can remember everything, but he's got memories that he doesn't want to remember, so I thought that was psychologically interesting and something that we could all relate to."

BRZRKR (BERZERKER) #1 CVR A GRAMPA (MR)
BOOM! STUDIOS
AUG200959
(W) Matt Kindt, Keanu Reeves (A) Ron Garney (CA) Rafael Gramp?
* Discover the next blockbuster action franchise from the iconic KEANU REEVES in his Must Read comic book writing debut alongside New York Times best-selling co-writer Matt Kindt (Folklords, Bang!) and acclaimed artist Alessandro Vitti (Marvel's Secret Warriors) in a brutally violent new series about one immortal warrior's fight through the ages.
* The man known only as Berzerker is half-mortal and half-God, cursed and compelled to violence…even at the sacrifice of his sanity.
* But after wandering the world for centuries, Berzerker may have finally found a refuge – working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else.
* In exchange, Berzerker will be granted the one thing he desires – the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence… and how to end it.
NOTE: This is for Mature ReadersIn Shops: Feb 17, 2021 SRP: $4.99

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