Brian Michael Bendis
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Brian Michael Bendis (he is also known as BMB and often signs his work with "BENDIS!") (1967-) is an American comic book writer and erstwhile artist who has won five Eisner Awards as of 2005. In the mid-2000s, he became one of the highest-selling comic book writers in the industry. Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series such as Goldfish, Jinx, Powers, and Torso, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics superhero books such as Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, and New Avengers. He was also instrumental in the creation of several Marvel Comics imprints, among them Ultimate Marvel, MAX, and Icon Comics.
Bendis is an extremely prolific writer, often simultaneously writing five or more titles a month. He has been praised for his ability to write dialogue, which is known for his characteristic rapid back-and-forth banter between characters. He has been criticized for plotting slow-moving story arcs and writing issues which mostly contain conversation, with little action.
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Biography
Early life, education, and personal info
Brian Michael Bendis was born to a Jewish family on August 18, 1967, in either University Heights or Lyndhurst, near Cleveland, Ohio.
Brian Michael Bendis is married to Alisa Bendis.
1990s: Noir fiction and creator-owned works
In the 1990s, following art school, Bendis entered the comic book industry. His early works were in the genre of noir fiction, and he both wrote and drew the artwork for his early works.
Joining Caliber Comics in the early 1990s, Bendis created the titles Goldfish and Jinx, both creator-owned. While working for Caliber Comics, Bendis met and became best friends with fellow comic book creator David Mack before either was famous; Mack would later help Bendis to land a position at Marvel. A sketch of Bendis by Mack can be found here (http://davidmackguide.com/portfolio/images/afquarterly-artwork.jpg).
Later, Bendis moved his work to Image Comics, where in addition to continuing to write Goldfish and Jinx, he created Torso. He also worked on two properties owned by Todd McFarlane: Sam and Twitch and Hellspawn.
In 1999, he won his first Eisner Award, "Talent Deserving of Higher Recognition".
2000s: Superhero work and Marvel Comics
In 2000, Bendis began writing Powers, published by Image Comics with art by Michael Avon Oeming. Powers would serve as sort of a bridge between two periods of work: it was noir fiction, but noir fiction in a world of superheroes.
In 2000, David Mack recommended Bendis to Joe Quesada, who was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. Both Bendis and Quesada have recounted an anecdote that when Quesada called Bendis with an offer, Bendis thought it was an offer to do artwork, at which point Quesada told him, "Your art sucks!" and asked him to be a writer instead. Since he began working for Marvel Comics, Bendis has only very rarely drawn comic books.
Bendis, Quesada, Marvel's then-publisher Bill Jemas, and Scottish writer Mark Millar then worked together to create the Ultimate Marvel imprint, which featured new, updated versions of Marvel's characters. Bendis himself wrote Ultimate Spider-Man; the title launched in 2000 and turned out to be a huge hit, exposing Bendis to a much larger audience. Bendis was now famous not just among comic book critics, but in the wider world of comic book fandom.
Bendis next took over as writer of Daredevil in 2001; his run, characterized by a gritty, noir-fiction style, has been widely called the most definitive treatment of the character since Frank Miller's run in the 1980s. Bendis would win two Eisner Awards for Daredevil in 2003: "Best Continuing Series" and "Best Writer".
Bendis continued to work in the Ultimate Marvel universe, not only writing Ultimate Spider-Man but also doing runs on Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four as well as writing the entirety of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up and Ultimate Six.
Bendis wanted to write a series focusing on Jessica Jones, a Marvel-owned character, but addressing adult themes. However Marvel Comics did not have a mature line comparable to the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. To address this issue, Marvel launched the MAX imprint in 2001, with Bendis's Alias being the first title of the new imprint (later, in 2004, Alias would be renamed to The Pulse and moved out of the imprint into the main Marvel Comics imprint).
In 2004, Bendis took over Avengers. His first story arc was Avengers Disassembled, a major crossover which was very popular but also very controversial. Avengers then relaunched to become New Avengers and saw the addition of Marvel Comics' two most popular characters, Spider-Man and Wolverine, to the team. Bendis also wrote Secret War in 2004, featuring a cast of superheroes very similar to the cast of New Avengers.
In 2004, Bendis moved his Powers from Image Comics over to Marvel Comics. Because Powers was creator-owned, it could not be published as part of the regular Marvel Comics imprint. To address this need for an imprint for creator-owned comics, necessitated primarily by Powers and Kabuki (owned by Bendis's friend, David Mack), Marvel created the Icon Comics imprint.
In 2005, Bendis developed the concept and became lead writer of the major company-wide Marvel Comics crossover House of M.
He is writing a screenplay for a Jinx movie which is set to star Charlize Theron. [1] (http://www.killermovies.com/j/jinx/articles/3928.html) [2] (http://www.sketchyorigins.com/comics/showthread.php?t=6512)
Trivia
- Bendis is known for extremely sarcastic and profanity-filled responses, which many readers consider funny, to comments from fans in the letters column of his comic books and on his Internet message boards.
- Bendis has been responsible for revitalizing several old obscure characters and bringing them to prominence; examples include Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Spider-Woman.
- Bendis frequently collaborates with Michael Gaydos, David Mack, Alex Maleev, and Michael Avon Oeming.
- Powerless #5 (December 2004), written by Matt Cherniss and Peter Johnson and drawn by Michael Gaydos, features a cameo appearance by Bendis in which he is seeing a psychiatrist for mental therapy.
Bibliography
Created and owned by Bendis
- Fire (creator-owned, published by Image)
- Fortune and Glory
- Goldfish (creator-owned; published originally by Caliber and later by Image)
- Jinx (creator-owned; published originally by Caliber and later by Image)
- Powers (creator-owned; published originally by Image and later by Marvel)
- Quivers
- Torso (creator-owned; published by Image)
Image Comics
Marvel Comics
- Alias, which would become The Pulse
- Avengers, which would become New Avengers
- Daredevil v2
- Ultimate Fantastic Four
- Ultimate Marvel Team-Up
- Ultimate Six
- Ultimate Spider-Man
- Ultimate X-Men
External link
- Jinxworld — official homepage of Brian Michael Bendis (http://www.jinxworld.com/)
- Official Brian Michael Bendis message board (http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/)pt:Brian Michael Bendis