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CRANIUM COMICS LOOKING TO TURN HEADS AT STAPLE! '08
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 02/25/08
AUSTIN – A new hero is on the streets of Austin—and the company who put him there is planning a super debut.
Brawn is the brainchild of Cranium Comics, a newly launched publishing house bringing its inaugural title to this week’s Staple! Independent Media Expo in Austin. Cranium Comics is one of more than 80 exhibitors taking part in Saturday’s convention at the Monarch Convention Center.
“We chose Staple to introduce Brawn because we’re an Austin company and we see this as an emerging hub for independent media,” Anthony Rezendes, Cranium Comics founder, said. “Staple has a collaborative environment which is very helpful when you’re trying to do something new and distinctive. The creative talent there is really at the forefront of what’s happening in the industry. We’re eager to see what’s being exhibited and to make our title part of the discussion.”
Brawn’s genesis began on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, where Rezendes, an artist, and Brandon Church, the comic’s writer, grew up. The two had long talked about doing a project together, a goal that seemed missed when Rezendes moved to Austin in the mid-1990s and Church moved to North Carolina. Then, three years ago, Church contacted his childhood friend to say he’d developed a storyline and needed an illustrator to bring it to life.
“I’d always been interested in comics but I wasn’t interested in taking the traditional super hero to the page,” Rezendes said. “I’m drawn more to the neo-realism of a Harvey Pekar or Craig Thompson. But Brandon’s story had an edge to it—the psychology was driving the action—and I knew we had the foundation for something unique. It was a long process of back and forth, but we got the product we were looking for.”
The story centers on a hard-drinking dock worker who is laid off from his job and, while inebriated, gets behind the wheel of a car. He wakes the next morning to find he’s been transformed into a being with mechanical limbs but has no memory of how it happened.
“The hook for me is that it explores what happens when someone is very powerful physically but has very human frailties. Just because you’re superhuman doesn’t make you a super human-being,” Rezendes said.
The book introduces an ongoing mystery about the origins and purpose of the transformation, one that will be explored in future issues. Rezendes said Cranium Comics is interested in developing other titles provided the stories explore alternative or non-traditional subjects.
Cranium Comics will be offering individually numbered Brawn editions 1 through 100 at the Staple Expo. The event is open to the public starting at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Monarch Center in Lincoln Village.
