The Blaze Brothers, Jack and Billy Blaze, two orphaned half brothers reared by an exiled Chinese martial arts Master and trained as deadly assassins by a secret US Black Ops force, resign their commission after a botched mission nearly costs them their lives. The two gun-toting, sword-wielding brothers resurface as high level debt collectors/Bodyguards, working exclusively for a vicious Japanese crime lord, Mr. Yamamoto. Believing the Blaze Brothers have dishonored him, Yamamoto places a two million dollar bounty on their heads. To clear their names and save their lives, the Blaze Brothers must battle every HITMAN, ASSASSIN, and KILLER in the city.
“WE RIDE – THEY DIE” – THE BLAZE BROTHERS –
Story by THE BLAZE BROTHERS
Graphic Novel Adaptation: STEVE STERN. Credits: Zen Intergalactic Ninja.
Pencils/Ink/Cover: MARAT MYCHAELS. Credits: Marvel’s Deadpool/X-Force and Image Comics’ Brigade
Colorist: Doug Sirois. Credits Hercules,FOX,IDW
Vernon Whitlock and Matt Krentz are just two regular guys from St.Louis, MO who believed in the American Dream, that anything is possible. It all started off with Whitlock (A Webster University alum) and his friend Krentz decided that they were going to make a movie. Keep in mind Whitlock is a police officer while Krentz waits tables. They didn’t come from money, they weren’t handed anything, they just said they were going to make this movie…and they made it happen. The film is called “Streetballers” (A.k.a ‘American Streetballers’, you can see the trailer here After they accomplished that goal they set a new goal. They were gonna make a comic book.
The Blaze Brothers is written by well…The Blaze Brothers. “We kept going to see different people and they kept calling saying “Oh you guys are the Blaze Brothers, right?”, And eventually we just decided to start going by that because, well I’m an African American and my partner Matt is a white dude, just like the Blaze Brothers so we both said, Ok looks like we are the Blaze Brothers” Vernon and Matt (a.k.a The Blaze Brothers) won numerous awards for screenwriting and for “Streetballers” which is distributed through Warner Brothers, but the question they asked themselves is, what’s next? They both decided to take their adoration for comic books and do the next best thing: create one. Of course I asked what were the inspirations for the series as Vernon laughed and said “Are you serious? I could list comics all day! But if I had to name one or two I would definitely say Wanted and Wolverine: Old Man Logan, but I love anything that Millar or Whedon touch as well.” After joking around a bit we started talking about the comic book itself “I would say that its probably going to be released in seven to eight issues right around summer time, then we will be releasing a graphic novel shortly after” So no exact release date is secured at this point in time when I asked why he just gave it to me straight. “Distribution, plain and simple, its no longer about getting signed, now it’s about choosing who we are gonna sign with.”
When I asked about the hardships they have had to go through to get to this point and what exactly they have had to put on the table to see this dream acquired Vernon responded with “Everything. We have had to pay for our own flights back and forth from LA, we had to finance out of our own pockets, we just wouldn’t take no for an answer. Before when we went down to talk to someone about it, people just ignored us. When we started winning awards and our movie started getting some talk, we had people trying to rep us all over the place. Before no one cared, and once they realized we knew what we were doing, people wanted to talk.” Vernon went over all sorts of issues they have had to deal with to get to this point, a lot of money and two years in the making they are finally going to achieve that goal. “There is always a yes around the corner. Never take no for an answer. Believe in yourself, if you have a good story just believe in yourself.” These are the mantras that got the Blaze Brothers in the position they are in today. I asked him if there was any more to the story of the Blaze Brothers or if the graphic novel was just going to be one and done. “Well, truth be told the Blaze Brothers graphic novel is actually the middle of the story. The prequel is called “Enter Miss Murder”, while the sequel is titled “Seven Swords of Death”, both of which will also be seven to eight issues with a graphic novel being released shortly after” So is this the only thing in the line up for the Blaze Brothers (writers) or do you have other ideas ready? “It’s funny when we met with all these companies and CEO’s they were interested in Blaze Brothers, but they wanted to know our other ideas, probably to steal them (he laughed playfully). No, we have a few other ideas, one being a historical piece with a superhero added into the mix. It’s great, I can’t wait to get the ball rolling with it.” So obviously if you are in talks with companies and CEO’s, that has to mean there is some sort of development deal going on right? So Studio’s talking movie deals with the Blaze Brothers? “I can’t really talk about it, but yes we are talking movie deals.” Ok and we will leave it at that. Anything else you wanted to add?
“Find us on facebook (here), check out our website (here) and make sure to check out the Blaze Brothers comic this summer!”
Consider it done Vernon. Make sure to keep checking back on comicbooked for any updates/new material, or release date news, as we will be the number one source for any and all Blaze Brothers!
again, good to see other people making a go at it. We need more quality content from other sources than the big three!
Thanks! It's been a long road and it's finally beginning to take off.
– THE BLAZE BROTHERS – "WE RIDE – THEY DIE"
I love your work. The writing is crisp and hard hitting and the art just gushes.
Keep it up.
I love your work. The writing is hard, crisp & real. The art just gushes.
Keep putting it down.