Oscar Isaac, best known for his captivating roles in Ex Machina, Dune, and Moon Knight, has shared his latest project, a debut graphic novel titled Head Wounds: Sparrow.
Head Wounds: Sparrow, published by Legendary, is slated for release in August. Co-developed by Oscar Isaac and Jason Spire, written by Brian Buccellato, illustrated by Christian Ward, and created by Robert Johnson, with a story by John Alvey and Johnson. A creative collaboration of the highest order.
Longtime friends of Isaac, Alvey and Johnson first approached him with Head Wounds originally with the intent to develop a television show. But the story, Isaac said, in a chat with the U.S Book Show this week, “was so fantastical, and the scale of it is so big,” that going with the graphic novel format would ensure they wouldn’t have to sacrifice vision or imaginations to fit the constraints of a production budget.
Isaac went on to discuss his new production company Mad Gene Media, which he co-founded with his wife, Elvira Lind, who also signed on to produce the graphic novel. “We are in a time when [graphic novels] are taken quite seriously, and there is a much bigger opportunity to be able to bring these wild stories to life.”
Head Wounds follows the story of Leo Guidry, a dirty cop in New Orleans. One day, he is visited by an otherworldly presence and suddenly begins to take on the wounds of the citizens he is sworn to protect—“a kind of stigmata,” Isaac said—until he changes and becomes empathic toward others. “You can imagine different people in authority would be more apt to do the right thing if they were literally feeling the pain of others,” he goes on to say.
A collector in his youth of X-Men and Spawn comics “Comic books influenced me so much, the way these stories are told and the mythic quality of them—to be able to use these genres to tell really emotional, personal stories within these genres is really fun for me.”
Acclaimed actor Oscar Isaac is LIVE at the #USBookShow. Watch his keynote discussing his new #graphicnovel Head Wounds: Sparrow now. @LegendaryComics @Legendary @BrianBooch @cjwardart #NOIR #thrillershttps://t.co/fPfZntm7nj
— Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) May 24, 2022
After its debut release, readers can expect to see more of Head Wounds in the near future, as plans for forthcoming novels have already been made. “I hope people love it as much as we loved making it,” Isaac said.
You can check out Oscar Isaac’s Kickstarter for Head Wounds: Sparrow below or head to Legendary for the photo gallery.
