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.[1]
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.[2] 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.[1] 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.[3] In August 1999, Azzarello and Risso launched 100 Bullets, a hardboilednoir series for Vertigo.[4][5] 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[6] and an original graphic novel Filthy Rich, one of the two titles that launched the Vertigo Crime line in 2009.[7]
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.'"[8] The results were the 6-issue Batman: Broken City[9] 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.[10][11][12] 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".[13] 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[14][15] and Flashpoint: Batman — Knight of Vengeance.[16] 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.[17] The series, released bi-monthly, was launched in late 2015.[18] Azzarello's most recent Batman work was the Batman: Damned three-issue series for the DC Black Label imprint with artist Lee Bermejo.[19]
In 2016, Azzarello launched the 12-issue maxi-series Moonshine with frequent collaborator Eduardo Risso at Image.[26] In 2019, the series resumed publication with issue #13 as an ongoing title.[27] The series lasted for 28 issues, ending in 2021.
Azzarello and Risso won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story in 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".[28]
Azzarello was married to fellow comic book creator Jill Thompson.[31] The couple resided in Chicago.[8] In a 2021 interview with Word Balloon Podcast Network, Azzarello mentioned that he was no longer married to Thompson.[32]
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;[36] it was first solicited for a 2011 release with Jock as the fourth issue's artist.[37]
Following the success of Joker, DC reprinted the series with newly created story pages as Luthor (hc, 144 pages, 2010, ISBN1-4012-2930-1; tpb, 2015, ISBN1-401-25818-2)
The "enhanced" version of the book was re-released as part of the two-volume set Absolute Luthor/Joker (hc, 384 pages, 2013, ISBN1-4012-4504-8)
Superman/Batman #75: "Joker and Lex" (with Lee Bermejo, co-feature, 2010) collected in Superman/Batman Volume 6 (tpb, 328 pages, 2017, ISBN1-4012-7503-6)
Includes the Wonder Woman short story (co-written by Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, art by Goran Sudžuka) from Secret Origins vol. 3 #6 (anthology, 2014)
Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang: The Absolute Edition Volume 1 (collects #0–18, hc, 484 pages, 2017, ISBN1-4012-6848-X)
Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang: The Absolute Edition Volume 2 (collects #19–35, 23.2 and the short story from Secret Origins vol. 3 #6, hc, 456 pages, 2018, ISBN1-4012-7749-7)
Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang Omnibus (collects #0–35, 23.2 and the short story from Secret Origins vol. 3 #6, hc, 928 pages, 2019, ISBN1-40129-109-0)
The Authority vol. 2 (with Steve Dillon, cancelled relaunch of the series intended for publication under the Eye of the Storm imprint[38][39] — initially announced for April 2002)[40]
Birds of Prey (with Emanuela Lupacchino, one-shot, 2020)
The project was initially announced as an ongoing series set in the main DC continuity with an October 2019 launch date.[41]
Two issues were solicited[42][43] before the series was postponed until the release of the Birds of Prey film and relegated to the Black Label imprint.[44]
Initially announced as a 4-issue limited series titled 3 Floyds: Rise of the Alpha King, to be written by Azzarello solo and intended for publication by Heavy Metal Media.[45][46]
Manning, Matthew K.; Dougall, Alastair, ed. (2014). "2000s". Batman: A Visual History. Dorling Kindersley. p.269. ISBN978-1465424563. Editor Bob Schreck gave two more big name creators a shot at the Batman when he hired writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso for a six-issue noir thriller.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Cowsill, Alan; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "2000s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p.338. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. [Wednesday Comics] contained fifteen continuous stories including...'Batman' with a story by Brian Azzarello and art by Eduardo Risso.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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."
Narcisse, Evan (August 16, 2018). "The Team Behind Batman: Damned Say They're Going to Fuck With the Dark Knight's Head". io9. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. DC Comics will launch its new prestige imprint DC Black Label. The publisher is going to be kicking it off in grand fashion with Batman: Damned, which reunites the iconoclastic team of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo, the same creatives behind 2009's arresting Joker graphic novel.
Cronin, Brian (April 17, 2008). "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #151". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013. In Kingdom Come, Alex Ross DID specifically use [Jill] Thompson as the model for Joker's Daughter (and her husband, Brian Azzarello, as the basis for another character, the villain 666).
