Brian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with hardboiled crime series 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo.
Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee). Prior to rise to prominence as a writer, he was best known as the line editor for Andrew Rev's incarnation of Comico.
In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin. Also at Vertigo, his Filthy Rich original graphic novel was one of the two titles that launched the Vertigo Crime line.
He also designed First Wave, a new fictional universe for DC Comics, separate from the main DC Universe/DC Multiverse. It starts with a Batman/Doc Savage one-shot, followed by the First Wave limited series.
Azzarello and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15—18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".
