Brian Michael Bendis

Infobox Comics creator


imagesize =
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1967|08|18
location = Cleveland, Ohio
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
area = Comic book writer
alias =
notable works = Ultimate Spider-Man
Powers
New Avengers
Daredevil
Alias
Jinx
House of M
Secret Invasion
awards = Five Eisner Awards
Including:
*Best New Series ("Powers") (2001)
*Best Writer (2002, 2003)Numerous "Wizard" awards

Brian Michael Bendis (born 1967) is an American comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) for his self-published, Image Comics and Marvel Comics work, and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics, with his books selling consistently highly for nearly a decade.Bendis, Brian Michael and Oeming, Michael Avon, "Powers" TPB Vol. 9 - "Psychotic" (Icon, 2006), ISBN 0-7851-1743-1]

With Mark Millar, Bendis was the primary architect of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, launching "Ultimate Spider-man" in 2001 on which title he continues as writer to the present day. He relaunched the Avengers franchise with "New Avengers" in 2004 and has also written the Marvel "event" storylines "House Of M", "Secret War", and 2008's "Secret Invasion".

Bendis maintains a high online-profile, through both his official website [http://www.jinxworld.com/ Jinxworld] (also the company through which he produces "Powers" and his Marvel work) and the so-called " [http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/ Bendis Board] " message board. He is known for sarcastic and often profanity-filled responses to comments from fans on his internet message boards, as well as in the letters column of his comic books.

Biography

Brian Michael Bendis was born on August 18, 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio. Despite rebelling against a religious upbringing, he attended "a private, modern Orthodox religious school" for boys, all the while working towards a career in comics, having "announced when I was like 13 to all my friends that I was going to be George Pérez." [http://www.tcj.com/266/i_bendis.html Brian Michael Bendis interviewed by Michael Dean, Trimmed from "The Comics Journal" #266] . Accessed June 21, 2008]

He met his future wife Alisa in 1995 through the Cleveland chapter of the Hillel Foundation, where Alisa worked and Bendis was a "staff illustrator" regularly employed to "do their graphics and stuff like that". The two were married within a year. He says that::"..we joke about this, but it's 99% true: I was flirting with her, to get more money out of her, and she was flirting with me to get the price down, because of the budget, and we were a little too good at it."Alisa Bendis runs the business end of JINXWORLD, [http://www.rabbisam.com/about.htm Rabbi Sam's "Jewish Lifecycle Ceremonies"] . Accessed June 21, 2008] the company through which Bendis produces his creator-owned comics work. The company also acts as the middleman through which he produces his licensed comics work.

He lives in Portland, Oregon with Alisa and their daughter Olivia. His father-in-law is Rabbi Samuel Dov Berman, [ [http://www.jewishocala.org/rabbi.html#bio Rabbi Samuel Dov Berman, RJE, DM, "Biography"] . Accessed June 21, 2008] and his brother-in-law Daniel Berman "creates web-sites, does advertising". Berman has also written comics including "Thor" with frequent Bendis-collaborator Michael Avon Oeming.

Early comics work

Childhood

Bendis recalls always wanting to work in the comics field, having "announced when I was like 13 to all my friends that I was going to be George Pérez," working solo on producing graphic novels from a similarly early age. He was constantly honing his craft, saying that he still has a childhood-produced

While in High School, he submitted for a "Creative Writing assignment" a novelisation of Chris Claremont's "X-Men and the Starjammers story," which ironically gained him an A+ grade for imagination and inventiveness - he having "thought everyone knew what Starjammers was," and would recognise the work as derivative.

Between the ages of 20 and 25, he sent in a large number of submissions to comics companies, although he ultimately stopped his attempts to break into the industry this way, considering it too much of a "lottery."Bendis, Brian Michael and Oeming, Michael Avon, "Powers" TPB Vol. 3 - "Little Deaths" (Image, 2002), ISBN 1-58240-670-7]

Before writing comics professionally, Bendis used to work in a comic book store in Cleveland.

Influences

His first favorite genre was, he says, "Marvel superhero comics," before he discovered crime comics by Jim Steranko and José Munoz, which he traced back via "poppy Jim Thompson graphic novels" to the source novels of both Thompson and Dashiell Hammett, which helped cement his love for crime stories. These in turn led him to discover the documentary "Visions of Light", which taught him the explicit visual rules of film noir, an dimportant influence of him creatively.

He cites as a major artistic influence "people who produced a lot of work" like Jack Kirby and John Romita, whose voluminous output he feels often "made the work a lot better." His writing influences are less rooted in comics, drawing considerably on the work of "Richard Price, David Mamet, and Woody Allen... [t] he three best dialogue writers in the history of any medium." Mamet in particular he considers his "guru," keeping "a huge book of interviews by him... on my nightstand like the Bible," but he also thinks very highly of Greg Rucka (who he considers to be "the best technical writer I have ever met or talked to") and Alan Moore, comics' "gold standard... so good so often that he is often taken for granted." Learning from these individuals directly, and tracing "their" inspirations so to also read "the work they loved," he is "totally self-taught."

Artwork, Caliber and Crime comics

Best known as a writer, Bendis started out as an artist, "doing work for local mags and papers, even doing caricatures." He didn't enjoy caricature work (although it "did pay well and it funded all my crime graphic novels") and moved into producing the complete "storytelling" package - with writing complementing his artwork. Soon after, he began producing work for Caliber Comics, including "Spunky Todd".

Through Caliber, he met many of his longtime friends and collaborators within the comics industry, including "Mike Oeming and Dave Mack and Marc Andreyko," and began the first in a series of independent noir fiction crime comics when he "published two issues of "Fire" in 1993 and five issues of "A.K.A. Goldfish" in 1994" with Caliber. [http://www.tcj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=349&Itemid=48 "5,137 Pages of Brian Michael Bendis" by Rich Kreiner expanded from "The Comics Journal" #271, Saturday, 15 October 2005] . Accessed June 21, 2008] In 1995 he illustrated "Flaxen", from a script by James Hudnall, with David Mack providing inks to the story featuring "former Playboy Playmate Suzie Owens in her adopted role as mascot of the Golden Apple Comics chain [of comic shops] in Los Angeles."

His best-known early work - "Jinx", starring the titular bounty hunter - began publication in 1996, and "ran seven issues from Caliber and five more after a move to Image Comics." In 1998, he produced the artwork for, and co-wrote the Eliot Ness-starring "Torso" with Marc Andreyko for Image, and in 2000 he produced three issues of the autobiographical "Fortune & Glory" for Oni Comics.

Most of these early works share a common universe, with "Goldfish", "Fire", "Jinx", "Torso" and (stories from) "Total Sell Out" sharing characters and settings as well as tone.

He characterizes much of this period of his professional life in terms of working as "a graphic artist for almost twelve years" undergoing a period within that of "nine years" living as a stereotypical 'starving artist'.

Mainstream comics work

Bendis and Mack both "joke that we had to wait till everyone else left comics before we got our shot," recalling that a large number of creators exited the comics field in the early nineties, either having made a large amount of money during the speculator boom, or having given up hope of doing so. Bendis and Mack (among others) "were going to stay either way," content writing their "black and white comics" for Caliber and their own enjoyment, before they were fortunate to be hired by larger companies - Todd McFarlane's branch of Image Comics and Marvel Comics, respectively.

=

Bendis says that, upon leaving Caliber (c. 1996/1997) "I got my film back, I took my books, I published them somewhere else, it ended well." In the process of moving from Caliber to Image, Bendis " [laid down] frontline visual responsibilities," describing this shift, he notes that " [t] he day I stopped drawing I became hugely successful."

With the move of his series "Jinx" from Caliber Comics to Image's Shadowline arm, Jim Valentino, then Image's publisher, also "agreed to do the trades... the way [Bendis] wanted them put out," allowing his previous crime comics to also be collected by Image in specific (often phone book-like) formats. Common to much of the industry, Image staff were regularly given complimentary copies of the company's output, leading to Image-co-founder Todd McFarlane reading Bendis' "A.K.A. Goldfish". Liking what he read, McFarlane asked Beau Smith to put the two in contact. Bendis was subsequently offered the choice of writing for McFarlane either a "modern day Frankenstein [comic] ... about a giant monkey robot" or another title revolving around "two detectives." Jumping at the latter offer, this was to become "Sam and Twitch", which, although set in the Spawn universe, to Bendis' mind "wasn't a Spawn book," but primarily a crime one.

This proved to be a very fortuitous move, as, Bendis says::"...Todd McFarlane... couldn't be a better boss as far as creative stuff goes. He hires you to do something and lets you do it."

He wrote "Sam and Twitch" for twenty issues, and also wrote (most of) the first ten of the "Spawn" spin-off title "Hellspawn", which non-creator-owned work allowed him to, in the words of Rich Kriener in "The Comics Journal" " [add] the responsibility of caretaker to his resume, in that he would answer to a vested owner about developing a property as a tangible asset with the future in mind," rather than only working on his own characters under his own terms. This "caretaking" role would provide welcome practice in working on company-owned characters.

Marvel

Around the time Bendis began "Sam and Twitch", his friend David Mack began working for Joe Quesada's Marvel Knights imprint, which Bendis himself "was absolutely in love with." Mack gave Quesada a copy of Bendis' "Jinx", and :Quesada "loved my writing, not my drawing, which he made very clear."

Invited to pitch ideas for Marvel Knights comics - which included a planned, but ultimately un-produced Nick Fury idea - during this time "Daredevil" became a scheduling mess and he [Quesada] asked if David [Mack] and I would do "Daredevil"." This high-profile offer led, in a serrendipitous sequence of events, to an even bigger coup for Bendis, who recalls:

Major Marvel works

Daredevil

Bendis' first major work for Marvel Comics began in 2001, when he took over writing duties on the Marvel Knights incarnation of "Daredevil". Launched in 1998 by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada, Bendis friend David Mack had written and drawn 6 issues before scheduling issues and Mack's recommendation of Bendis for scripting duties led to him working on issues #16-19, with Mack remaining on art. After a brief hiatus, Bendis returned with artist Alex Maleev to produce a critically acclaimed run on the title, writing such major plot points as the outing of Matt Murdock's secret identity and the reemergence of the Kingpin as a major Daredevil villain.

Bendis wrote most of the following 55 issues before handing over the title to writer Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark in 2006 after the two discussed current and future plot possibilities. In 2008, an Omnibus edition of most of Bendis' run on "Daredevil" will be released, one of a small handful of "modern" titles given the Omnibus treatment.

As a major Daredevil author, Bendis is name-checked in the "Daredevil" movie. The corrupt boxing manager tries to persuade Jack Murdock to throw his fight, referencing bribed boxers "Miller...Mack... [and] Bendis". The former two refer to former Daredevil writer/(artist) Frank Miller and (writer)/artist David Mack.

Alias and The Pulse

Launched under Marvel's non-Comics Code R-rated "MAX" imprint in November, 2001 (alongside "U.S. War Machine" and "Fury"), "Alias" featured former-superhero Jessica Jones operating as a private investigator. Largely illustrated by Michael Gaydos, (under covers produced by David Mack), the series ran for 28 issues before many of the characters moved to Bendis' mainstream canonical Marvel Universe series "The Pulse".

The move from "Alias" to "The Pulse", and out-of-continuity to "in"-continuity has been cited by Bendis as being precipitated by the necessary limitations on using Marvel's wider stable of characters in the "Mature reader" line.

The crticial and commercial success of the series led to it being the second (after "Fantastic Four" Vol. 1) title to be collected in the "Marvel Omnibus" oversized hardback series of longer-than-normal reprints. All 28 issues (and a one-shot "What If..?" issue) were collected in one volume in April, 2006.

Ultimate Marvel

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of "Ultimate Spider-Man" since its best-selling launch, and has also written for "Ultimate Fantastic Four" and "Ultimate X-Men", as well as writing every issue of "Ultimate Marvel Team-Up", "Ultimate Origin" and "Ultimate Six".

Ultimate Spider-man

The flagship title of the Ultimate Marvel universe repositioned Spider-Man for the 21st Century, and was produced - from the original material by, primarily, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko - by Bendis and artist Mark Bagley, who managed to regularly draw more than an issue a month for a staggering 110 issues, before passing art chores to Stuart Immonen.

Adapting the 11-page debut/origin story of Peter Parker into a 180-page epic of decompressed storytelling, spanning seven issues, (with Peter only becoming the titular hero after the "fifth" issue), Bendis' approach nonetheless became a runaway bestseller, regularly surpassing in sales those of the mainstream Marvel universe title "Amazing Spider-man" (largely until recent 2008 storylines provided a boost in sales for the main title). [ [http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/1850.html ICv2 News - ICv2's Top 300 Comics & Top 100 GN's Index] . Accessed June 27, 2008]

Bendis continues to write every issue and, despite initial attempts to keep the comic free from continuity baggage, instead transformed the title by adapting mainstream storylines and characters into their Ultimate counterparts, often with slight differences.

The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 110 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in comics' history, beating the Marvel record of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on "Fantastic Four" (102/108 issues), although falling short of Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones' 120-issue run on "Groo".

Ultimate Marvel Team-Up

Bendis cites "Ultimate Marvel Team-Up" (the "Ultimate" iteration of long-running Marvel title "Marvel Team-Up") as " [t] he first book that I actually created for Marvel that was specifically for the purpose of this addiction that was growing for me." The book was his idea, after being asked by Marvel "what do you want to do next?," and Bendis pitching

"this Marvel Fanfare idea" in an attempt to draw together "a different artist from every walk of life of comics and just try to enter their world for them, and ask them, "What do you want to draw?"

This, he says "was always a wild experience. It was exhausting. It was very hard, it was the hardest job I ever had." Artists featured in the series included Matt Wagner, Chynna Clugston-Major, Bill Sienkiewicz and John Totleben, among others.

Avengers & events

In 2004, Bendis (with artist David Finch) oversaw the closing issues of the flagship Marvel team title "The Avengers" as part of the largescale crossover "Avengers Disassembled" storyline. This led directly to the Bendis-helmed relaunch of one version of the eponymous team in the pages of "New Avengers" (2004).

A key moment in "Avengers" #502 sees the death of Avenger Hawkeye, which high-profile demise saw something of a fan backlash, but also brought to the fore, in Bendis' experience a "segment of the comic-buying community that I'm not a part of which goes, 'Kill more of them, it's awesome!'" Of the fan response to the "Disassembled" storyline, Bendis says "I can't say I'm disappointed with the reaction to it, because it has been a very impassioned reaction, so it's fun to be a part of."

In 2005, with artist Olivier Coipel, he wrote the "Disassembled" follow-up Marvel/X-Men 8-issue event series "House of M", now retroactively considered the second act of a three-act super-event, culminating in the Bendis-written 2008 event "Secret Invasion"

After the events of Marvel's "Civil War" storyline, Bendis helmed another "Avengers" revival, launching a companion title to "New Avengers" with Frank Cho entitled "Mighty Avengers" (2007). Both Avengers teams consider themselves the "true" Avengers in the wake of the confusion wrought by both the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline and - more importantly - the aftermath of the "Civil War".

Unconnected to the 1980s Marvel event title "Secret Wars", Bendis also wrote "Secret War" (illustrated by Gabriele Dell'Otto), serialized between 2004 and 2005. It has been stated that the miniseries serves as a prelude to the 2008 event (and "Avengers Disassembled"/"House of M" sequel) "Secret Invasion", which is written by Bendis and illustrated by Leinil Yu.

Bendis revealed some of his post-Secret Invasion plans at the Diamond Comics Distributors' retailer summit in September 2008. These included leaving "Mighty Avengers" with issue #20, as part of the Secret Invasion aftermath, "Dark Reign", that would see the launch of "Dark Avengers", a title he will write, with Mike Deodato providing the art. [ [http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080909-marvel-diamond-summit.html Marvel Announces 'Dark Reign' at Diamond Retailer Summit] , Newsarama, September 9, 2008] [ [http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.4836.Prepare_for_a_Dark_Reign Prepare for a Dark Reign] , Marvel.com, September 9, 2008] [ [http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090829-BendisDarkAvengers.html Getting Dark: Brian Bendis on Dark Avengers & Dark Reign] , Newsarama, September 29, 2008]

Powers

Aside from his early, black and white crime comics, Bendis' best-known creator-owned project is the superhero police/noir detective series "Powers", co-created with and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming. "Powers" has been nominated for and won major comics industry awards, including Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Awards.

Debuting from Image Comics in 2000, in 2004 "Powers" moved to Marvel's all-new - invitation-only - creator-owned imprint Icon, where it was relaunched as "Powers" Vol. 2" alongside another ex-Image series, David Mack's "Kabuki".

As well as winning praise and awards, "Powers" has been referenced in the song "Powers" by singer Brodie Foster Hubbard.

Bendis the writer

When asked by his Powers collaborator Michael Avon Oeming "Why writing?"Bendis, Brian Michael and Oeming, Michael Avon, "Powers" TPB Vol. 5 - "Anarchy" (Image, 2003), ISBN 1-58240-331-7] , he replied simply that::"I took the art gigs when they came, both in comics and outside of comics. And now it's the writing gigs that are coming."

He does say however, that writing comes much more naturally than the "struggle drawing is and was," allowing him to be typically "way ahead of schedule," up to - at least before the birth of his child [http://www.popimage.com/industrial/060600bendis1int.html "An Interview with Brian Michael Bendis by Adrian Reynolds" Part 1] . Accessed June 16, 2008] - "six months ahead on all of my books." This he achieves by writing complete story arcs in a short space of time, and alternating between titles, which allows him the freedom to not worry about looming deadlines. The extra flexibility also allows him to "question... the purpose of" a story idea, which he feels "needs to say something other than just being cool." Bendis likes "breaking out of [his] comfort zone... trying to do" things he doesn't know if he does well to gain experience and "see if it works... attempt [ing] styles and genres I never though I would try, specifically to see why."

Bendis has been regularly praised for "adopt [ing] more naturalistic patterns of communication, including a focus on the various ways people struggle, in real life, to adequately express their ideas." Popular culture author and commentator Henry Jenkins describes Bendis as naturalistic as well as prolific, saying that he "loves to weave complex layers of word balloons across the page, allowing well-drawn character study to hold our interest in the absence of more visceral action sequences." [http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/09/the_beauty_of_brian_michael_be.html "Confessions of an Aca/Fan": "The Beauty of Brian Michael Bendis" by Henry Jenkins, September 12, 2006] . Accessed June 27, 2008]

Advice

His advice to writers is simple: cquote|"write honestly. Don't write what you think people want. All people want is not to be insulted. They want to be entertained... If you write something you think people want, you will always fail... [If something] is all the rage, and you sit down and write [something similar] , by the time you get [it] out there for people to see, people will have moved on... and now you're stuck with this... thing that no one wants, including you. The best thing you can offer the world as a writer is something you'd like to read, something that you would buy.""Powers: Building the Page": Bendis, for "Draw!" magazine #5 (TwoMorrows, Winter 2003) "in" Bendis, Brian Michael and Oeming, Michael Avon, "Powers" TPB Vol. 4 - "Supergroup" (Image, 2003), ISBN 1-58240-671-5]

He feels that while there are "some comic creators who act above the fans," output is more important than personality, saying::"Here's an idea: Just read the books and enjoy them."

Criticism

Actions

Although initial fan interest in, and feelings towards the "Ultimate Spider-Man" concept was luke-warm, (and Bendis himself has noted the trepidation with which he submitted his script featuring Peter Parker out of costume for long stretches of time), the Ultimate Universe idea swiftly overcame such concerns, to become one of Marvel's best-selling titles. Although a prime example of the often-derided practice of "decompression," Bendis' relaxed manner draws as much praise for it's natural rhythms and realistic dialog as it draws ire and criticism for being "tedious" and "boring". [http://www.aintitcool.com/node/18579#2 Review of "Avengers" #502 in "AICN Comics!: In the Shadow of No Towers, Daredevil, Avengers, X-Men, Six and More!" by Gregory Scott] . Accessed July 8, 2008]

Far and away Bendis's most controversial move came in 2004 when he wrote the death of longstanding fan favorite Avenger Hawkeye in "Avengers" #502, and was swiftly on the receiving end of an extreme fan backlash, not least for being - in the words of "Ain't It Cool News" reviewer Gregory Scott - "so blah, that it doesn't seem to matter.""The Definitive Powers Interview" by Ernie Estrella "in" Bendis, Brian Michael and Oeming, Michael Avon, "Powers" TPB Vol. 9 - "Psychotic" (Icon, 2006), ISBN 0-7851-1743-1] [See: [http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=7050&sid=5ce3db6f394c1de9998ebd669c6df6c7 "The New Avengers" thread at "The Atomic Think Tank: The official Mutants & Masterminds boards"] & others. Accessed June 27, 2008]

Bendis has been known to offer readers a refund if they buy and dislike comics he writes, should they wish to return the title to him.

tyle

Facing considerable criticism over the years from fans who consider his work "too wordy," Bendis acknowledges this potential failing in his own work. In interview with Michael Avon Oeming, Oeming noted::"if I had to name one weakness in your work, I'd have to say it was your inability to self-edit... sometimes I look at the amount of words on a page and it goes beyond a wordy page to an impossibly wordy page."Bendis partly explained his verboseness by saying that "I hate that comics are so expensive, so I try to cram a lot in. I feel very beholden to people to give them a good read."

He does acknowledge that "clearly, I have trouble with the format of a comic. I have trouble keeping to my page count and have for years... either go [ing] over my page count or tak [ing] a scene that could be a nice four pager and.. cram [ming] it into two pages because I have no wiggle room."

Non-comics work

In addition to his primary work for comics, Bendis has produced written work in several other mediums. These include:
*Activision's "Ultimate Spider-man" videogame, which Bendis wrote due to his role as writer of the comics series.
*A screenplay adaptation of "A.K.A. Goldfish" for Miramax. [http://www.popimage.com/industrial/061300bendis2.html "An Interview with Brian Michael Bendis by Adrian Reynolds" Part 2] . Accessed June 16, 2008]
*A screenplay adaptation for the film version of "Jinx" for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to both star and produce.
*A pilot script for the 2003 animated "Spider-Man" TV series. (below)

pider-man animation

Bendis was the co-executive producer and series-pilot writer for Mainframe Entertainment's 2003 CGI animated Spider-man show, "" that aired on MTV and YTV.

Bendis was approached to write the pilot while "unaware the pilot [initially] had no home," (he thought it had already been greenlit), chosen for the role due to his position as "Ultimate Spider-man" writer, even though the series featured an older - college-age - Peter Parker than in the "Ultimate" universe. Visually similar to MainFrame's "ReBoot", this cartoon iteration of "Spider-Man is a more mature version of the Web-Slinger's exploits than most. The characters drink (except Spidey - spiders react… oddly to drugs), get laid, and - shock horror! - use the occasional (mild) naughty word. In a departure from most American animated series, Spider-Man takes a straight soap opera approach to storytelling." [http://www.thematthewcraig.com/frame_spideyMTV.htm "Spider-Man: The New Animated Series" review by Matthew Craig "(from "Robot Fist" magazine)"] . Accessed June 27, 2008]

This approach not only reflects the soap opera roots of the original Stan Lee and Steve Ditko series, but owes a lot to Bendis' "Ultimate" incarnation. Bendis describes the initial approach from the company, saying "they wanted to do a TV show that had the language of "Ultimate Spider-Man" but in college." Hired merely to write the pilot, Bendis found himself almost obliged to accept the role of executive producer, saying "they were stuck with me contractually -- and I didn't understand any of it." Written to tie-into the then-unreleased 2002 film "Spider-Man", Bendis describes the situation after the Tobey Maguire-starring film was released as a Catch-22 situation for the cartoon:

Bendis himself also tired of the animation process, feeling that there were "way too many corporations involved" ("MTV, MTV legal, Marvel, Marvel legal, Marvel East Coast, Marvel West Coast, Sony, Sony Animation... I didn't enjoy it at all.") and stopped attending meetings, stressing that "I never actually quit; I just stopped coming." His "pilot" episode "ended up being the third show they aired. So the first show aired was a show I had not written, looked at or even seen... [b] ut my name is on it like three times... and I had nothing to do with it at all," leading him to feel sorry "for some guy who wrote this episode" whose positive reviews were credited to Bendis.

Awards

Bendis has won a number of prestigious Eisner Awards, including:
*Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition (1999)
*Best New Series (for "Powers" with Michael Avon Oeming) (2001)
*Best Writer (2002, 2003)
*Best Continuing Series (for "Daredevil" with Alex Maleev) (2003)

He is a recipient of the Cleveland Press "Excellence in Journalism" Award (2000) and has been named "Best Writer of the Year" by "Wizard Magazine" (2000-2003) and "Comics Buyer's Guide" (2001-2003) on numerous occasions since the year 2000.

Activision's "Ultimate Spider-Man" (which he scripted) won the E3's people's choice award.

Cameo appearances

* "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.
* Screenwriter (and later comic book writer) Allan Heinberg named a supporting character on the television show "The O.C." after Bendis, and Seth Cohen, a fictional protagonist of the show, is a comic book fan whose favorite writer is Bendis.
* In the pilot episode of the television show "Firefly", screenwriter (and later comic book writer) Joss Whedon tuckerized a short-lived soldier character after Bendis.
* In "Ultimate Spider-Man" #66 Bendis appeared in a cameo before the issue where he talked to the reader about his feelings for the current story arc (the one where Spider-Man and Wolverine switch bodies). In issue #67 he appears before the issue again, and is seen strangling (a la Homer Simpson) the assistant editor for suggesting the preposterous story arc in the first place, and then sending him off to check Bendis' spelling.
* In the MMORPG Video Game "City of Heroes" there is an in game zone "Perez Park" (itself a reference to veteran comic book artist George Pérez) in which the user can find an Exploration Badge reward named "Around the Bendis" as well as many other comic book writer/artist related references.
* When Marvel's "What If" was revived in 2004, Bendis cameoed as the narrator of two issues that he also wrote: "What if...Karen Page Had Lived?" and "What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers?"
* Bendis appeared many times in Marvel's delayed 2005 book "Wha...Huh?!", written by various luminaries of the comics industry, with art by Jim Mahfood.
* Bendis is a secondary character in "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" by Barry Lyga, appearing as the main character's idol.

elect Bibliography

Created and owned by Bendis

*"Fire" (published originally by Caliber and later by Image)
*"Fortune and Glory"
*"A.K.A. Goldfish" (published originally by Caliber and later by Image)
*"Jinx" (published originally by Caliber and later by Image)
*"Powers" (published originally by Image and later by Icon/Marvel)
*"Parts of a Whole
*"Torso" (published by Image)

Image Comics

*"Hellspawn"
*"Sam and Twitch"

Marvel Comics

*"Alias" #1-28
*"Avengers" vol. 3 #500-503, Finale
*"Daredevil" vol. 2 #16-19, 26-50, 56-81
*"" (with David Mack)
*"" #1-3
*"Elektra" vol. 2 #1-6
*"" #1-4
*"House of M" #1-8
*"Mighty Avengers" #1-present
*"New Avengers" #1-present
*"" #1-5 (with Brian Reed)
*"The Pulse" #1-14
*"Secret Invasion" #1-8
*"Secret War" #1-5
*"" #1-6 (with Brian Reed)
*"Spider-Woman
*"Ultimate Fantastic Four" #1-6 (with Mark Millar)
*"Ultimate Marvel Team-Up" #1-16
*"Ultimate Power" #1-3
*"Ultimate Six" #1-7
*"Ultimate Spider-Man" #1-present
*"Ultimate Spider-Man Annual" #1, 2
*"Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special" one-shot
*"Ultimate X-Men" #34-45
*"Ultimate Origins"

DC Comics

*"Citizen Wayne" in "Batman Chronicles" #21 (Elseworlds story)

Notes

References

* [http://www.howtomakecomics.net/people/Brian+Michael+Bendis Brian Michael Bendis' Resources at Howtomakecomics.net]
* [http://www.popimage.com/industrial/060600bendis1int.html Bendis PopImage Interview pt.1, June 2000]
* [http://www.popimage.com/industrial/061300bendis2.html Bendis PopImage Interview pt.2, June 2000]
* [http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/features/103680788477794.htm Interview at Silver Bullet Comic Books]
* [http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/ The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators]
* [http://silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=602 Brian Michael Bendis Interview]
* [http://wrightopinion.com/2008/05/11/interview-brian-michael-bendis/ An interview with Brian Michael Bendis] at The Wright Opinion from 5/11/08]
* [http://www.cassiuscomics.com/index.php/Brian_Michael_Bendis BMB at "Cassius Comics" - Biographical and bibligraphical details]
*gcdb|type=credit|search=Brian+Michael+Bendis|title=Brian Michael Bendis
*comicbookdb|type=creator|id=5|title=Brian Michael Bendis
* [http://www.comics-db.com/comics/search.cgi?query=Brian%20Michael%20Bendis&bool=and&substring=1 Brian Michael Bendis] at the Big Comic Book DataBase
* [http://marvel.com/catalog/?artist=Brian%20Michael%20Bendis BMB at Marvel.com]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1144314/ BMB at IMDb.com]

External links

* [http://www.jinxworld.com/ Jinxworld: Brian Michael Bendis' official homepage]
* [http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/ The Official Brian Michael "Bendis (message) Board"]
* [http://www.myspace.com/brianmichaelbendis Brian Michael Bendis' MySpace page]
* [http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox6/default.php The Scourge of Bendis] Critical article from I-Mockery.