Brian Michael Bendis Popular Books

Brian Michael Bendis Biography & Facts

Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime and noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero work. While at Marvel Comics, Bendis worked with Bill Jemas and Mark Millar as the writer on the first book of the Ultimate Marvel imprint, Ultimate Spider-Man, which debuted in 2000. He relaunched the Avengers franchise with New Avengers in 2004, wrote the Marvel storylines "Avengers Disassembled" (2004-2005), "Secret War" (2004–2005), "House of M" (2005), "Secret Invasion" (2008), "Siege" (2010) and "Age of Ultron" (2013), and co-created the characters Riri Williams, Miles Morales, and Jessica Jones. Bendis has won five Eisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on various Marvel Comics books.Though he has cited comic book writers such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Bendis' writing influences are less rooted in comics; drawing on the work of David Mamet, Richard Price, and Aaron Sorkin, whose dialogue, Bendis said, was "the best in any medium."In addition to writing comics, Bendis has worked in television, video games and film. He has also taught courses on graphic novels at The University of Oregon and Portland State University. In 2014, Bendis wrote Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels, a book about comics published by Random House. Early life Brian Michael Bendis was born on August 18, 1967, in Cleveland, Ohio to a Jewish-American family. Bendis grew up in University Heights where, despite rebelling against a religious upbringing, he attended the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, a private, modern Orthodox religious school for boys. He decided he wanted to be a comic book industry professional when he was 13, working on his own comics, including a Punisher versus Captain America story that he revised several times. A fan of Marvel Comics in particular, he emulated idols such as George Pérez, John Romita Sr., John Romita, Jr., Jack Kirby, Klaus Janson and Frank Miller. He later discovered crime comics by Jim Steranko and José Munoz, which he traced back via Jim Thompson's work 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 visual "rules" of film noir, an important influence on him creatively.While in high school, he submitted a "Creative Writing assignment", a novelization of Chris Claremont's X-Men and the Starjammers story, which gained him an A+ grade for imagination and inventiveness. At 19, Bendis began attending the Cleveland Institute of Art, while working at a downtown comic book store where he eventually sold some of his early work. Between the ages of 20 and 25, he sent in a large number of submissions to comics companies, although he ultimately abandoned this approach to breaking into the industry, considering it too much of a "lottery." Comics career Caliber Comics Best known as a writer, Bendis started out as an artist, doing work for local magazines and newspapers, including caricature work. He worked at The Plain Dealer as an illustrator. Although he did not enjoy caricature work, it paid well and funded his interest in writing crime fiction for graphic novels. He eventually moved into both writing and illustrating his work, before 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, 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. In 1995 he illustrated Flaxen from a script by James Hudnall, with David Mack providing inks to the story featuring former Playboy Playmate Susie Owens as mascot of the Golden Apple Comics chain [of comic shops] in Los Angeles.Bendis's best-known early work, Jinx, starring the titular bounty hunter in a crime noir version of the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, began publication in 1996, and ran for seven issues from Caliber.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'. Image Comics and Oni Comics In 1996–1997, Bendis moved from Caliber to Image Comics, where Jinx and his other previous crime comics were published by Image's Shadowline arm in trade paperback. At Image, he also produced five more issues of Jinx.Impressed with A.K.A. Goldfish, Image founder Todd McFarlane sought out Bendis, which led to his writing Sam and Twitch. Although set in the Spawn universe, Bendis approached Sam and Twitch primarily as a crime comic. He wrote Sam and Twitch for twenty issues, as well as most of the first ten issues of Hellspawn, another Spawn spin-off title. This 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.In 1998, Bendis co-wrote and illustrated the Eliot Ness-starring Torso with Marc Andreyko, again for Image, and in 2000 he produced three issues of the autobiographical Fortune and Glory for Oni Comics.That same year saw the debut of the superhero police/noir detective series Powers, co-created with and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming and published by Image. Powers won major comics industry awards, including Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Awards. Marvel Comics Around the time Bendis began Sam and Twitch, his friend David Mack began working for Joe Quesada's Marvel Knights imprint, which Bendis was a fan of. Based on Bendis' work on Jinx, Quesada invited him to pitch ideas for Marvel Knights, which included a planned, but ultimately unproduced, Nick Fury story.Marvel Comics President Bill Jemas, on the recommendation of Quesada, hired Bendis to write Ultimate Spider-Man, which debuted in 2000, and was targeted at the new generation of readers. Bendis adapted the 11-page origin story of Spider-Man from 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15 into a seven issues story arc, with Peter Parker becoming the titular hero after the fifth issue, making the book a bestseller, often surpassing in sales those of the mainstream Marvel universe title, The Amazing Spider-Man. The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four. Bendis subsequently wrote other books in the Ultimate line, including Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, which Bendis pitched to Marvel as a fol.... Discover the Brian Michael Bendis popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Brian Michael Bendis books.

Best Seller Brian Michael Bendis Books of 2024

  • Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3 synopsis, comments

    Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Ultimate Comics SpiderMan #1118. Miles Morales, the newly minted SpiderMan, teams up with the Prowler! But wait, isn't the Prowler a bad guy?! Caught in a moral crisis, M...

  • Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5 synopsis, comments

    Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Ultimate Comics SpiderMan #2328. Bombshell is back, and young heroes are debuting all across the city including Cloak & Dagger and Ultimate Power Pack! But can Miles ...

  • Avengers Assemble by Brian Michael Bendis synopsis, comments

    Avengers Assemble by Brian Michael Bendis

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Avengers Assemble #18. A perfect jumpingon point, featuring the cast of the summer blockbuster but in Marvel Universe continuity! But who is behind the villianous Zodi...

  • Fortune and Glory Volume 1 synopsis, comments

    Fortune and Glory Volume 1

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Brian Michael Bendis, the New York Times bestselling, Peabody and multiEisner awardwinning cocreator of Miles Morales, Naomi, Jessica Jones, and POWERS tells a comedic life lesson ...

  • Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2 synopsis, comments

    Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Avengers #712 & 12.1. Marvel's supersecret brain trust, the Illuminati, reunites and the Avengers team up with the incredible Red Hulk as the Hood makes a crazy pow...

  • New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4 synopsis, comments

    New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects New Avengers (2010) #2430. AVX tiein! The New Avengers have received the call from Captain America to go to war against the XMen… and Wolverine will be forced to choose a ...

  • Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2 synopsis, comments

    Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Ultimate Comics SpiderMan #610. The next chapter in the saga of Miles Morales starts here as New York feels the sting of the new Ultimate Scorpion! Meanwhile, still discov...

  • Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1 synopsis, comments

    Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Ultimate Comics SpiderMan 15 & Ultimate Comics Fallout #4. Miles Morales IS the new SpiderMan! What’s the secret behind his powers, and how will he master them? What...

  • The Man of Steel by Brian Michael Bendis synopsis, comments

    The Man of Steel by Brian Michael Bendis

    Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Ryan Sook, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, Jason Fabok, Jim Lee, Jos� L. Garc�a L�pez & Steve Rude

    Genredefining author Brian Michael Bendis makes his triumphant debut at DC Comics, as an alien being comes to Earth to kill Superman and finish the mission he first started decades...

  • New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5 synopsis, comments

    New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects New Avengers #3134. Now that the New Avengers have sacrificed all they had to fight the Phoenix, many are asking hard questions: is it time for the team to call it quits? ...

  • The DC Book synopsis, comments

    The DC Book

    Stephen Wiacek

    Travel the myriad worlds of the DC Multiverse. If you want to truly understand DC Comics, The DC Book is your onestop eguide to the DC Multiverse. It is a unique and insightful exa...

  • New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3 synopsis, comments

    New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects New Avengers #16.1 & 1723. Now free to rebuild his dark army, Osborn has assembled minions from A.I.M., Hydra and the Hand to take on got the media on his side, and pe...

  • Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3 synopsis, comments

    Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Avengers #1824 & #24.1. Tony Stark's fortune is gone. Captain America's leadership has been questioned. Thor is dead. And Norman Osborn is back and united with A.I.M.,...

  • Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4 synopsis, comments

    Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Ultimate Comics SpiderMan #16.1 & #1922. The Daily Bugle is on the hunt to find out everything they can about the new SpiderMan… but what they discover will surprise ...

  • Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5 synopsis, comments

    Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Avengers #3134, New Avengers Annual #1 & Avengers Annual #1. Wonder Man doesn't think that the Avengers are helping the world, and he's willing to do whatever is need...

  • Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4 synopsis, comments

    Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Avengers #2530. AVX tiein! The New Avengers have received the call from Captain America to go to war against the XMen … and Wolverine will be forced to choose a side. Then...

  • Moon Knight by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev Vol. 2 synopsis, comments

    Moon Knight by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev Vol. 2

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects Moon Knight (2010) #812. Not everyone is thrilled that Marc Spector is using his alter ego Moon Knight as fodder for a television show… especially Marc's ex Marlene! Then...

  • New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2 synopsis, comments

    New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2

    Brian Michael Bendis

    Collects New Avengers #713. 1959: under presidential orders, Nick Fury assembles the first AvengersVictor Creed. Namora. Kraven the Hunter. Dominick Fortune. Silver Sable. Ulysses...