I really wanted to do Ed Brisson for the very first Sucker Punch, but as busy as he is I imagined he wouldn't respond for a while, if at all. I was pretty surprised to find Ed to be the very first person to respond!

So who's Ed Brisson? It's all in the Q & A.

STUMBLEBUM - You invented and run Strip Fight, The Crown Commission, The Daily Grind and the Journal Comic Jam.. at the same time you draw Sob Story, run a message board and work on Fizz Films. Are you allergic to sleep or are you addicted to coffee?

ED - I haven't had coffee in about 3 years now. I am, however, an insomniac. I usually only get about 3 hours of sleep a night.

Strip Fight was based off Song Fight, a weekly competition where people have to write and record songs based round a title that they're given. I thought that it was a great idea that would work well with comics, which it has. But, full credit to Song Fight for being the innovator.

The Crown Commission (formerly Bent Comics) was actually started by Brian Fukushima, Emily Sciochet, Nick Sheehan and Tim Harvey (B.E.N.T.) back in 2000 or 2001. I didn't come along until about 6 months later when Nick asked me to join. Just about all of the credit for starting everything has to go to Brian. I didn't really start helping out with the site until late 2003, then it looked like Bent's days might be numbered. We sort of rebooted then. Dropped some members who were no longer contributing and added some fresh blood and, since then, things seem to have really flourished.

The Daily Grind started out as a challenge that I'd issued to Brian, since neither of us was really keeping on any sort of schedule like we'd wanted to. Les and Billis joined that first challenge, which lasted about a year. When the second one started to come together, I don't think that anyone thought that it would be this huge.
I've been pretty lax with Sob Story lately, spending the time concentrating on getting New Reliable Press off the ground. Putting together the You Ain't No Dancer anthologies has been a much larger task than I thought it would be when I set out to do it.

As for Fizz Films, that's pretty much done with now. I spent a few years making films, but think that I've got it out of my blood. For now at least. I prefer to draw comics - I can tell the same stories at a fraction of the cost and without all of the stress related to filmmaking.

STUMBLEBUM - Where do the ideas for all of these projects come from?

ED - Depends on which project. Some, such as Strip Fight, are inspired by other things that are going on. As for the rest, who's to say where ideas really come from? I usually think of something while daydreaming at work or trying to fall asleep at night and, if I find that I'm still thinking about it a couple weeks later, I'll generally try to get it done.

STUMBLEBUM - Sob Story started out as a journal comic, when did it change and why?

ED - Originally, back in 1994, Sob Story was an autobiographical comic which was about my life from a couple years previous. The difference, to me, between autobiography and journal is that autobiography gives you the chance to distance yourself from the events a little and organize and edit to make for a better story. Because journal comics don't have that distance and are generally more immediate, you don't get that.

When I started doing Sob Story daily in early 2004, journal seemed like the best and easiest way to go. I was never really happy with the journal strips and stopped when one day I sat down and read three separate journal strips and noticed that all three were almost identical. Worse yet, mine was one of them. I think that people who produce journal strips generally fall into a rut of 3 or 4 strip types or "plots" that seem to repeat themselves. I hated being part of that. There's not enough flexing of your creative muscle if you're just documenting "facts" about the cute thing that your girlfriend said/did that day or about how you can't think of anything interesting to draw for a comic that day or about how much your life sucks or whatever.

I wanted to get back to actually thinking about and writing strips, and for the most part, I think I'm doing that now.

STUMBLEBUM - What do you do to pay the bills?

ED - I work as a Production Coordinator for a Health & Safety organization here in Vancouver. Basically, I do a lot of writing, editing and design work for them. I handle jobs from the concept stage right through to the final printed product. I also maintain the website and all that sort of junk.

STUMBLEBUM - Who is your favorite webcomic today?

ED - Achewood. It's the first thing I check when I sit down at my computer in the morning. Others that I read on a regular basis are Wigu, Overcompensating, Diesel Sweeties, Nothing Nice To Say, Goats, etc...

Check out the more of Ed's stuff at www.sob-story.com, www.fizzfilms.com and www.crowncommission.com.