Brian Azzarello (born August 11, 1962) is an American comic book writer and screenwriter who first came to prominence with the hardboiled crime series 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. Azzarello is best known for his numerous collaborations with artists Eduardo Risso (100 Bullets, Batman: Broken City, Spaceman, Moonshine) and Lee Bermejo (Batman/Deathblow, Luthor, Joker, Batman: Damned), his contributions to the Watchmen prequel project Before Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns sequel series DK III: The Master Race, as well as for his stints on the long-running Vertigo series Hellblazer and The New 52 relaunch of the Wonder Woman title.
Early life Azzarello grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where his mother managed a restaurant and his father was a salesman. As a child, he read monster and war comic books, but avoided the superhero genre. He attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, studying painting and printmaking. In 1989, after several years of working various blue-collar jobs, Azzarello moved to Chicago, where he became interested in the work of Black Lizard Press, a small publishing house which reprinted hardboiled detective and noir fiction. He also met his future wife Jill Thompson, a comic book artist who was working for DC Comics's imprint Vertigo.
Career Azzarello began working in comics in 1992, joining Comico as the production coordinator. He was soon promoted to managing editor, before becoming Editor-in-Chief—or, as he was often credited, "line editor"—the position he held from 1993 until the company's demise in 1997. During this period, Azzarello's wife Jill Thompson introduced him to Lou Stathis, an editor at DC Comics' Vertigo who wanted to move away from the light fantasy stories the imprint was known for at the time, and Azzarello was eventually hired as a writer. He contributed short stories to a number of Vertigo's anthology titles and penned Jonny Double, a 4-issue limited series which marked his first collaboration with Argentine artist Eduardo Risso.Irvine "Jonny Double" in Dougall (2008), p. 112 In August 1999, Azzarello and Risso launched 100 Bullets, a hardboiled noir series for Vertigo. The series ran for one hundred issues, from 1999 to 2009, and was noted for Azzarello's use of regional and local accents, as well as the frequent use of slang and oblique, metaphorical language in his characters' dialogue. Azzarello's other work for Vertigo includes a run on Hellblazer, the 2005 western series Loveless with artist Marcelo Frusin and an original graphic novel Filthy Rich, one of the two titles that launched the Vertigo Crime line in 2009.
In 2003, Azzarello was assigned to write arcs for DC Comics' Batman and Superman, commenting to Chicago Tribune, "DC is giving me the keys to both cars in the garage, the Maserati and the Ferrari... Somebody told me, 'Don't drive drunk.'" The results were the 6-issue Batman: Broken City and the 12-issue "Superman: For Tomorrow", which was supposed to be the centerpiece of a larger storyline consisting of several interconnected mini-series, including one written by Azzarello, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. The initiative, unofficially dubbed "Superstorm" due to the fact that the mini-series were edited by the team of DC's Wildstorm imprint, experienced production problems and delays, causing Luthor to become a standalone work only loosely connected to "For Tomorrow". In the following years, Azzarello continued to write more Batman-related stories such as the 2008 graphic novel Joker, a serial for Wednesday Comics in 2009 and Flashpoint: Batman — Knight of Vengeance.Manning "2010s" in Dougall (2014), p. 318: "In this powerful reimagining of the Batman legend, writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso joined forces for a three-issue examination of Flashpoint's Batman." In April 2015, Azzarello was announced as the co-writer of an eight-issue sequel to The Dark Knight Returns, titled The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, with Frank Miller and artist Andy Kubert. The series, released bi-monthly, was launched in late 2015. Azzarello's most recent Batman work was the Batman: Damned three-issue series for the DC Black Label imprint with artist Lee Bermejo.
Azzarello was one of the architects of First Wave, a new publishing line for pulp characters then-recently acquired by DC Comics, set outside the main DC continuity. He wrote the opening one-shot for the line, Batman/Doc Savage, continuing with the First Wave limited series. In 2011, Azzarello spearheaded The New 52 relaunch of the Wonder Woman series with artist Cliff Chiang. The pair stayed on the title until issue #35 (Dec. 2014). In 2012, Azzarello wrote two limited series for the Before Watchmen project, focusing on Comedian and Rorschach. In 2014, Azzarello became the co-writer of the weekly series The New 52: Futures End along with Jeff Lemire, Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens.
In 2016, Azzarello launched the 12-issue maxi-series Moonshine with frequent collaborator Eduardo Risso at Image. In 2019, the series resumed publication with issue #13 as an ongoing title. The series lasted for 28 issues, ending in 2021.
Awards Azzarello and Risso won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story in 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".Irvine "100 Bullets" in Dougall (2008), pp. 11–17
Influences Azzarello cites Jim Thompson and David Goodis among his influences.
Personal life
Azzarello was married to fellow comic book creator Jill Thompson.Rockford Register Star staff. (November 7, 2005). "Meet a couple of comic book creators". The Rockford Register Star. Pg. 1E The couple resided in Chicago. In a 2021 interview on the Word Balloon podcast, Azzarello mentioned that he was no longer married to Thompson.
The character "666" from Mark Waid and Alex Ross' 1996 mini-series Kingdom Come is physically modeled after Azzarello.
Bibliography Early work Northstar: Slash #1: "Mega Mounds and the All-Nighter" (with Nathan Loggins, anthology, 1992) Cold Blooded #1: "An Undead Evolution" (1-page prose story illustrated by Kyle Hotz, 1993) Comico: Lady Bathory: Overstreet's Fan #7–9: "Thicker Than Water" (with Jim Callahan, co-feature, Gemstone, 1995–1996) Primer vol. 2 #1: "The Assassin's Song" (with Vincent Proce, anthology — cancelled after one issue, 1996) Red Dragon #1: "Enter Red Dragon" (with Tony Akins, cancelled after one issue, 1996)
DC Comics Vertigo Weird War Tales vol. 2 #1: "Ares" (with James Romberger, anthology, 1997) Gangland #1: "Clean House" (with Tim Bradstreet, anthology, 1998) collected in Gangland (tpb, 112 pages, 2000, ) Jonny Double #1–4 (with Eduardo Risso, 1998) collected as Jonny Double: Two-Finger Discount (tpb, 104 pages, 2002, ) Heart Throbs vol. 2 #2: "The Other Side of Town" (with Tim Bradstreet, anthology, 1999) Flinch (anthology): Book One (tpb, 192 pages, 2015, ) includes: "Food Chain" (with Eduardo Risso, in #2, 1999) Book Two (tpb, 192 pages, 2016, ) includes: "Last Call" (with Danijel Žeželj, in #10, 2000) "The Shaft" (with Javier Pulido, in #13, 2000) 100 Bullets (with Eduardo Risso): 100 Bullets (1999–2009) collected as: Book One (collects #1–19, hc, 456 pages, 2011, ; tpb, 2014, ) Includes the "Silencer Night" short story (art by Eduardo Risso) from Vertigo: Winter's Edge #3 (anthology, 2000) Book Two (collects #20–36, hc, 416 pages, 2012, ; tpb, 2015, ) Book Three (collects #37–58, hc, 512 pages, 2012, ; tpb, 2015, ) Book Four (collects #59–80, hc, 512 pages, 2013, ; tpb, 2016, ) Book Five (collects #81–100, hc, 512 pages, 2013, ; tpb, 2016, ) 100 Bullets: Brother Lono #1–8 (2013–2014) collected as 100 Bullets: Brother Lono (tpb, 192 pages, 2014, ) Strange Adventures vol. 2 #4: "Native Tongue" (with Esad Ribić, anthology, 2000) Hellblazer (with Richard Corben, Marcelo Frusin, Steve Dillon (#157), Guy Davis (#162–163) and Giuseppe Camuncoli (#168–169), 2000–2002; with Rafael Grampá, 2009) collected as: John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 14 (collects #146–161, tpb, 384 pages, 2016, ) Includes "The First Time" short story (art by Dave Taylor) from the Vertigo Secret Files & Origins: Hellblazer one-shot (2000) John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 15 (collects #162–174, tpb, 320 pages, 2017, ) John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 22 (includes the co-feature from #250, tpb, 392 pages, 2020, ) El Diablo vol. 2 #1–4 (with Danijel Žeželj, 2001) collected as El Diablo (tpb, 104 pages, 2008, ) Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place (with Joe Kubert, graphic novel, hc, 144 pages, 2003, ; sc, 2004, ) Loveless (with Marcelo Frusin (#1–5, 9–10), Danijel Žeželj (#6–8, 13–15, 22–24) and Werther Dell'Edera, 2005–2008) collected as: A Kin of Homecoming (collects #1–5, tpb, 128 pages, 2006, ) Thicker Than Blackwater (collects #6–12, tpb, 168 pages, 2007, ) Blackwater Falls (collects #13–24, tpb, 288 pages, 2008, ) Vertigo Crime: Filthy Rich (with Victor Santos, graphic novel, hc, 200 pages, 2009, ; sc, 2010, ) The Bat-Man (with Cliff Chiang, unproduced series intended for publication under the First Wave imprint, then under Vertigo, c. 2010–2011) Spaceman (hc, 224 pages, 2012, ; tpb, 2014, ) collects: Strange Adventures (with Eduardo Risso, untitled 8-page prelude in the anthology one-shot, 2011) Spaceman #1–9 (with Eduardo Risso, 2011–2012)
DC Universe Batman: Batman by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (hc, 240 pages, 2017, ) collects: Batman: Gotham Knights #8: "Black and White" (with Eduardo Risso, co-feature, 2000) also collected in Batman: Black and White Volume 2 (hc, 176 pages, 2002, ; tpb, 2003, ) Batman #620–625: "Broken City" (with Eduardo Risso, 2003–2004) also collected as Batman: Broken City (hc, 144 pages, 2004, ; tpb, 2005, ) Wednesday Comics #1–12: "Batman" (with Eduardo Risso, anthology, 2009) also collected in Wednesday Comics (hc, 200 pages, 2009, ) Flashpoint: Batman — Knight of Vengeance #1–3 (with Eduardo Risso, 2011) also collected in Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Batman (tpb, 272 pages, 2012, ) Batman: Gotham Knights #35: "Cornered" (with Jim Mahfood, co-feature, 2003) collected in Batman: Black and White Volume 3 (hc, 288 pages, 2007, ; tpb, 2008, ) Solo #6: "Poison" (with Jordi Bernet, anthology, 2005) collected in Solo (hc, 608 pages, 2013, ) Joker (with Lee Bermejo, graphic novel, 128 pages, 2008, ) Batman vol. 2 #44: "A Simple Case" (co-written by Azzarello and Scott Snyder, art by Jock, 2015) collected in Batman: Superheavy (hc, 176 pages, 2016, ; tpb, 2016, ) Batman: Europa #1–4 (co-written by Azzarello and Matteo Casali, art by Jim Lee (#1), Giuseppe Camuncoli (#2), Diego Latorre (#3) and Gerald Parel (#4) from layouts by Camuncoli, 2016) The series was initially announced in 2004 with Gabriele Dell'Otto slated to draw issue #4; it was first solicited for a 2011 release with Jock as the fourth issue's artist. Collected as Batman: Europa (hc, 144 pages, 2016, ; tpb, 2018, ) The Dark Knight III (co-written by Azzarello and Frank Miller): Batman: The Dark Knight — The Master Race (hc, 392 pages, 2017, ; tpb, 2018, ) collects: The Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1–9 (art by Andy Kubert, 2016–2017) Dark Knight Universe Presents (series of 12-page mini-comics): The Atom (art by Frank Miller, originally published as an insert in issue #1, 2016) Wonder Woman (art by Eduardo Risso, originally published as an insert in issue #2, 2016) Green Lantern (art by John Romita, Jr., originally published as an insert in issue #3, 2016) Batgirl (art by Frank Miller, originally published as an insert in issue #4, 2016) Lara (art by Frank Miller, originally published as an insert in issue #5, 2016) World's Finest (art by Frank Miller, originally published as an insert in issue #6, 2016) Strange Adventures (art by Frank Miller, originally published as an insert in issue #7, 2017) Detective Comics (art by Frank Miller, originally published as an insert in issue #8, 2017)