Oscar Isaac on His Graphic Novel Head Wounds: Sparrow at NYCC

During his spotlight at New York Comic Con, Oscar Isaac brought on stage a couple of his creative collaborators: illustrator Christian Ward and writer Brian Buccellato. The three teamed up last year to help bring Head Wounds: Sparrow to life via Kickstarter, in collaboration with Legendary Comics.

Head Wounds follows Leo, a crooked ex-cop who has wounds that nobody else can see. He has to find the people who have the injury in the real world and help them get justice. As he does, so he gets caught up in a war between good and evil, dealing with angels and a very Christian mythology that begins to feel more like a curse than a blessing.

When asked why he’s drawn to comic books, Isaac said that he connects to how “humans have always explored really complex ideas through myth and abstractions. And sometimes you’re able to speak more deeply the more you abstract, because you can make much more emotional parallels to things as opposed to just so literal. It’s a spiritual analogy.”

Ward said that while he’s not really known for the kind of gritty story that they were asking him to do, he was inspired by the characters. “You have to connect to the characters. You have to love them,” he said at the panel. “Once you have that in mind you can start building. You use their viewpoints as a foundation.”

Isaac was asked what it was about ‘70s crime drama and film noir that he admires. “It marked the rise of the antihero in popular cinema,” Isaac said. “Films like Taxi Driver, Serpico, these gritty, realistic stories speak to a disaffected kind of feeling. A disillusionment… it’s an interesting base to go back to, especially when you’re dealing with something that’s much more esoteric and spiritual, like Head Wounds does.”

When asked what the team is excited for readers to experience, Isaac said that he can’t wait to see people get a new look at the revisionary Judeo-Christian mythology that the book deals with. “We deal with angels and demons, but in a very unique way, I think,” he said. “But the heart remains a deeply true feeling of wrestling with something inside of you that nobody else can see.” Ward says that he’s excited for readers to experience the story itself, as it “goes places that readers won’t expect.” Buccellato can’t wait for readers to get to know Leo. “He’s a wounded person himself. Bad Lieutenant was a reference point. Starting in such a bad and terrible place gives him a long way to go in order to dig himself out.”

Head Wounds: Sparrow is published by Legendary Comics and is available now.

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