Greg’s next novel Alpha from Mulholland Books will debut this May 22 in the U.S. and U.K.

For the visitors to Wilsonville, the largest theme park in the world, the day begins with a smile. But, by the end, they start to wonder: will they escape with their lives? Undercover Delta Force operator, Master Sergeant Jonathan “Jad” Bell has been deployed to act as Wilsonville’s lead undercover security officer. The threat begins with the announcement of a hidden dirty bomb, but quickly becomes something far, far worse.

Trained since the age of 18 to save innocent victims from impossible hostage situations, Jad scrambles to assess the threat and protect the visitors. He will come face to face with a villain whose training matches his in every way—and presents a danger Jad may not be able to stop.

Art by Matthew Southworth

Greg was named as a Pacific Northwest College of Art Graphic Literature Award finalist today, alongside Graham Annable, Aidan Koch, Sarah Oleksyk, and Joe Sacco. Greg was honored for his work on Stumptown, the series from Oni Press with art by Matthew Southworth that focuses on Dex Parios, a private investigator who runs Portland’s Stumptown Investigations.

A ceremony will be held April 23. For more on the Oregon Book Awards, see the write-up on Oregon Live.

This week, War Rocket Ajax is proud to welcome the Eisner Award-winning writer Greg Rucka to the show! Following last week’s release of The Punisher #1, he talks to us about what makes Frank Castle work, his awesome runs on Detective Comics and Wonder Woman, his new webcomic and why he hates the Joker — and you can listen to it right here at ComicsAlliance!

Give the interview a listen at ComicsAlliance!

Greg has been talking to lots of folks this week about his debut issue on the Punisher. Here’s a round-up of interviews published thus far:

MTV Geek’s Charles Webb goes through the first issue page-by-page with Greg as part of their Creator’s Commentary series:

I really wanted to control what we see of Frank, what we know of him, and in doing that try to force the reader’s perspective and view of him through the eyes of those around him, the Good Guys and the Bad. Frank has been expertly explored by so many writers in recent years–Garth Ennis probably the foremost amongst them, but Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, Matt Fraction, all of them–that it seemed to me following him closely, getting into his head, that had been done, and done quite well.

There’s an odd paradox in this, too, because I really feel that Frank is one of the most isolated, lonely people in the entirety of the Marvel Universe. By separating him like this, by keeping him silent, I wanted to emphasize that isolation.

Laura Hudson at Comics Alliance has an in-depth discussion on Frank Castle and asceticism:

I think there’s a danger in humanizing Frank too much. He’s not crazy — I don’t even want to write him as crazy. He’s not inhuman, and I don’t want to write him as inhuman. But he is alien, and he needs to be alien to your experience, to my experience. This is a guy who has been through an obscene crime, just a horrible, hateful, devastatingly damaging trauma. And his response to that trauma is likewise dangerous and devastating.

And Royal Nonesuch of The Outhousers talks at length with Greg not just about Punisher, but Comic Con, Tr!ckster, novel writing, Lady Sabre, Stumptown, Queen & Country, the whole nine yards:

Frank really shouldn’t work. As a character, he really should not work. He’s inherently a revenge story, and revenge stories pretty much all end the same way. They end with the guy seeking revenge, getting it, and then dying because there’s an imposed morality there and a variety of expectations. The fact that Frank can continue, and has continued, I think, makes him really remarkable and fascinating and worthy of more examination.

I Am An Avenger #2

Word from San Diego is that Greg and artist Michael Lark’s “Post Mortem,” from I Am An Avenger #2 has won the Eisner Award for Best Short Story!

When nominated in April, Greg shared the script for the story in a blog post describing the collaborative process of comics:

In the spirit of attempting to put some utility to this blog, I’m posting the following – the complete script to the story “Post Mortem,” which appeared in I Am an Avenger, Issue #2. It’s in PDF, and I provide it mostly as a curiosity, so one can see – first of all – how I script, and – far more importantly – that in the realm of comics, I am one but cog in a much larger machine. The machine, in this instance, included not only myself and Michael Lark, but crucially Stefano Gaudiano, Matt Hollingsworth, Travis Lanham, Alejandro Arbona, and Steve Wacker, and those are just the credited names.

That’s what you can’t see in reading a script, and what is so often overlooked in reading a comic book. That is, to me, the magic of the medium; the alchemy that allows the creation of a story, of a piece of art, that can genuinely become more than the sum of its parts.

The script for “Post Mortem” is still available for download.