Unexpected comics career wins critical acclaim

“My background is in classic literature. But comics offer to me a reconciliation of my loves of storytelling and art.”

How does an aspiring novelist who majored in art history, Spanish and classic books go on to become one of the most talked-about new writers of the comic book world?

“I was starting to write novels. That’s what I thought eventually I would be doing,” Nathan Edmondson said. “The comics thing happened accidentally. I had an idea for a comic that was picked up, so I started doing that. But at no point was I thinking comics were part of the timeline. My interest was in doing a lot of different things.”

Edmondson wrote the acclaimed graphic novels “Who is Jake Ellis?” and “The Activity.” He is also currently writing DC’s superhero comic “Grifter.” If Edmondson’s goal is to dominate the full spectrum of the literary world starting with comics, he’s off to a good start.

After finishing the graphic novels “Olympus,” which is a modern-day story involving Greek myths, and “The Light,” a disaster story, Edmondson struck gold with the spy thriller “Who is Jake Ellis?” When the book scored a spot on NPR’s list of the top six graphic novels for 2011, it suddenly became one of the bestsellers in its category on Amazon.com.

Many have attributed the success of the story with the fact that it’s accessible even to readers who don’t usually read comics and can’t tell the difference between a Spider-Man and a Sinestro.

“I don’t have a background in comics, so I suppose it makes sense that what I write would appeal to other people that don’t have a background in comics,” Edmondson said.

As an outsider of sorts, Nathan feels that it’s his duty to help bring non-believers into the comic book fold. The success of “Who is Jake Ellis?” prompted the folks over at DC Comics to approach Edmondson about helping them reboot a lesser-known character for their much-publicized “New 52” event, in which all of their heroes’ continuities would start over from scratch. Edmondson was asked to re-invent “Grifter,” an ex-military con man who gets mixed up in some extraterrestrial affairs.

“They wanted a completely new take on the character,” Edmondson explained. “They actually told me not to pursue any more research on him and to just create him as if he was my own character, at least in the beginning.”

When asked if he was worried about negative fan reaction, he responded, “I sort of left those concerns to the editors. They hired me to do a job, and I was going to do it, but I tried to find ways to please long-term fans.”

Another group of scrutinizing fans that Edmondson doesn’t want to tick off are the readers of his latest ongoing series “The Activity,” which features an elite government task force tackling secret missions around the globe. The technology and tactics in the story are so exhaustively researched that even the U.S. Military has taken note.

“People within the military have reached out to us and are excited about what we’re doing. We’re getting invitations to engage in some pretty unique ways with the Special Forces community. “

Coming from an art history background influences Edmondson’s ideas about the value of comics as opposed to traditional gallery art.

“The great thing about comics is that it’s one of the few places in the world where artists are still paid to just be artists,” Edmondson said. “Because of the modernization of the world, art has gone by the wayside…we’ve passed the age of great painters. That’s given way to great filmmakers and storytellers in other mediums. But in comics, that’s still very much alive.”

He also expressed a love of comic conventions where fans can meet artists and writers like himself.

“All weekend long these phenomenal artists with acrylic paints stand in front of easels and paint great works right in front of your eyes,” Edmondson said. “Where else do you get to see that? If you go wandering the halls of the Louvre, you see people copying paintings… but there’s a whole industry built around it in comics and that’s really worth talking about.”

Edmondson admitted that a big part of why he loved writing comics was because it gave him a chance to work with artists he admired. When asked if he had given up on traditional novels in light of his success writing comics, he had this to say. “I finished one novel last year and I’m working on another right now. Even once I started writing comics, I knew I was going to keep pursuing novels.”

Fans of Nathan’s work will be pleased to hear that he has several unannounced series in the works as well as more of “The Activity” and a new five-part story from Image comics called “Dancer.” It’s a tale of ballerinas and bullets that Nathan describes as, “right up the alley of anyone who liked “Who is Jake Ellis?”

Edmondson, along with dozens of other comic book creators, will be available for autographs at the Wizard World New Orleans Comic Convention at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on Jan. 28 - 29. More information about the event can be found at http://www.wizardworldcomiccon.com/home-neworleans.html