Brothers

A pain in the arse week. Four days straight at work (doesn't happen very often) and a heavy cold to boot mean my output on the writing front has been non-existent. I have Tuesday and Wednesday off though, so meaningful work on Brothers can finally begin again then.

I say "again" because Brothers was one of the projects I noodled about with at various points last year without actually finishing it. Having a look through the script the other day I realised that I'd actually got about half of it written so I'm hoping to have it done, dusted and with artist Will Sliney by the end of April.
The story itself is a superhero yarn set in modern London. Brothers Tom and Phil Burgess are members of Crime Crushers (there's a good chance that name will change), England's answer to the JLA or Avengers.

Tom – aka Empire State Human – has the power to expand his size and strength exponentially, while Phil – aka Firework – can emit powerful blasts of brightly coloured energy from his fingers. Tom's a priggish square, Phil's a boozy troublemaker. They don't get on very well, something which constantly undermines Crime Crushers' ability as an effective force for good.

Tom and Phil's stormy sibling relationship has been mostly inspired by that of Noel and Liam Gallagher (with a pinch of Matthau and Lemmon's The Odd Couple thrown in for good measure). Musically, Oasis haven't particularly interested me for the best part of a decade but I've always found Noel and Liam's squabbling and merciless baiting of each other both fascinating and hilarious. It's a relationship dynamic that's an absolute gift for a writer because every scene they share together gives you the opportunity to create conflict (the essence of drama, according to many writers).

What happens though when great danger stalks the team – can Tom and Phil put aside their personal enmities and face it head-on together? You'll find out later in the year...