I told you we have big things planned upon our return. 'Nuff said.
I was lucky enough to have Bendis as my first exposure to comics. A new friend my sophomore year of college loaned me Powers just days after he moved in across the hall. And then I tore through Ultimate Spider-man and Ultimate X-Men as the leaves changed. And by December I was in Acme, signing up for a subscription, fiending for the Avengers.
Since then I've made science of the man's work. I did a paper on Torso for a modern literature class, invoking the hierarchical scale used to depict Eliot Ness. I've done charts and graphs to prove who's a Skrull and who's legitimate. And it's no secret that my own Friday blog, Stephen's So-Called Emo Life!, takes a page right out of the No Life! portion of the Powers letters page.
I trolled the threads of Bendis' Jinxworld message board for the last half decade, looking for my way into his community. Little did I know that all you needed to do was get in front of the man and he'd give you the world. Ciji slung him the best of the questions Jermaine and I boiled down from hours of discussion around the store on Sunday at Baltimore Comic Con 2008.
Ciji Singletary: What does the end of the "trade paperback" and the rise of the term 
"graphic novel" in the mainstream mean for the industry?
Brian Michael Bendis: What? Say again?
CS: Everyone calls them graphic novels now, kind of pretentiously. What does that mean for the industry?
BMB: Well, I'm a sequential artist. No, there's a growing market of people that buy the trade paperback that hear the buzz of the book, not like the DVD market for film. They might not have seen it in the theater, but they heard enough good stuff about it so they'll definitely buy it when it comes out. There's a different audience, there's a different market. It's part of the argument we were having yesterday with Robert [Kirkman], talking about the trade paperback sales. There's such a boom right now from these people that have never walked into a comic store, the Barnes and Nobles/Borders crowd, they read about it, hear about it, pick it up, no problem. So it's not so much a pretentious label as so much as that's what they know it as.
CS: You said in the recent Bendis Tapes that you feel strange about people coming to s
ee you at shops and conventions, yet you're on the Jinxworld message board every day, doing hours long Bendis Tapes, you do day-after commentary for Secret Invasion, and interviews like this one. What influenced you as a fan or creator to choose full disclosure?
BMB: It's what I appreciated when I was coming up. When I would do shows as a fan or when I was so starving for information on anything about writing or anything about the process, I was starving for it, and anybody that would share it or would get over whatever neuroses they had to be confident enough to share, it meant a lot to me. I still like it. David Mamet as a writer, he's not only a great writer, but he does books and volumes of interviews and essays that are so long they're in book form about his feelings, about writing and directing and it really meant the world to me. I needed it. And I'm a big believer in doing that.
CS: Paying it forward.
BMB: Yeah, pay it forward, but also make something you would buy. I buy script books and I listen to the podcasts. I just leach onto brains that I need information from. And the dichotomy between the neuroses I have and being here talking to you and my ability to do it is why I'm crazy. Thank god I have an outlet in which I can write and get it all out of my head.
CS: You've said that you really enjoy your routine of balancing your home life and work. How has that changed recently between Wizard World Chicago, ComiCon, the
Retailer Summit, your overseas travels, your new baby, and the increased publicity for Secret Invasion?
BMB: Most of it, I do from home. All the Secret Invasion publicity, I did in my basement, so it didn't mean much. My family is here, so I'll leave here and go be with my family. I'm very lucky. Most fathers, most parents, they're away all day. I'm home all day, so I get to spend the whole day with my kids, put them to bed, and then I go to work.
CS: Does your family keep up with your work?
BMB: My wife's all about it. She's actually the president of my company. She's very involved in it. My daughter, I don't think fully understands. Even today she knows something's going on with Daddy and she's been there when people come up to me in the supermarket to say something nice and I see her trying to download what's happening. She's seen me on TV. I try to explain it to her without being overwhelming. She has a little desk next to my desk in my house. Work is never an issue. She just does work next to me. She loves it. She's doing her legos and I'm working. It's the two things I'm most proud of, so I fill my day with both.
Brian Michael Bendis is the multiple Eisner award winning co-creator of Powers, which is soon to be a TV show, and Jinx and Torso, which are in works to be motion pictures. Over the last five years he's re-shaped the Marvel Universe on such titles as the Avengers, Secret War, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, House of M, and a little book called Secret Invasion. He also re-defined Daredevil for a generation, created the greatest character of the last ten years in Alias, and launched the Ultimate Universe with the longest consecutive run on a series with artist Mark Bagley on Ultimate Spider-man, as well as stays on Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four and the mini and maxi series Ultimate Origins, Ultimate Six, Ultimate Power, and Ultimate Marvel Team-Up. He holds court daily on his message board at Jinxworld.com.
