2009 Tweeter of the Year: Brian Michael Bendis

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Baltimore Comic Con 2008: Kirkman vs. Bendis

I've never read a comic by Robert Kirkman or Brian Bendis and probably never will. None of them look interesting to me on any level, but like every asshole with an opinion, too much of my time in the past two months or so has been consumed with discussing and analyzing Kirkman's "manifesto". Kirkman came off like a lout in his video, a guy who wouldn't really commit to saying something fairly aggressive and always apologizing or qualifying his statements and ultimately saying something obvious and far worse, unrealistically utopian. He had idealism on his side from the moment he hit whatever button you hit on a Webcam.

Enter Brian Bendis, a guy I mainly knew before Baltimore Comic Con as a Marvel stooge who uses thought bubbles way too much and writers all his characters in the same voice unless it's a black guy (then he takes the "g" off of verbs and throws in a "Yo" or two...). So yeah, I didn't go into "Kirkman v. Bendis" with any interest in either guy, although I had a feeling I'd side with Bendis, even then, the assumption was his corporate interests would dominate his opinion and not the cold, hard grip of logic and economics.

Bendis, even though he joyfully played the role of evil, corporate whore, came off quite nicely as both an approachable and personable guy and someone who has the same deep-rooted obsession to write and make comics as every mini-comics making nerd in their apartment. One of the most affecting parts of the discussion was his sobering talk of the comics industry and how, well into his comics writing career, despite winning an Eisner, he still had a day job as a caricature artist. Oddly, during the question-and-answer towards the end, Kirkman sort of just didn't answer the question as to what day jobs he had.

There's plenty to break down and analyze, especially Kirkman's sales charts which totally omitted Trade Paperback sales, but there was one quick exchange that made clear the biggest and most under-discussed flaw in Kirkman's "manifesto": Your personal, one-of-a-kind "creator-owned" comic also better be a lot like the comics Marvel and DC push. Kirkman invoked the now legendary tale of IMAGE Comics and the "IMAGE seven" and all that, and mentioned how each brought with them a creator-owned comic. Bendis was quick to add that the comics the IMAGE guys brought with them were quite marketable noting that Spawn is basically Spiderman meets Batman. It's hard to see how these creator-owned examples are any more or less creative than you know, doing a story arc in a "Batman" comic or something and really, if you've got a moderately marketable idea for a superhero comic, there's enough heroes at Marvel or DC that the story could easily be transferred onto one of them.

Kirkman's exact language of course is that he wants to show comics artists and writers that a creator-owned comic can be done viably and so, he would say this point is moot--this is the problem with his manifesto, it's so non-commital that any rebuttal is dismissed or somehow's already been covered--but it's important to note that Kirkman's really referring to creator-owned comics that could sell really well. When Kirkman repeats "creator-owned" throughout, he may not mean to, but everyone gets some pretty exciting images of the hyper-viability of like out-there European shit and stuff in the vein of Adrian Tomine and not, uh a George Romero rip-off comic like Walking Dead and another, fairly derivative superhero comic like Invincible.

Baltimore Comic Con 2008: Jesse's Impressions and Haul

Day 1: I was completely overwhelmed. I don't know what it is but just something about being surrounded by thousands of comics and people but I can never get my bearings. Having people dressed up like the Joker, Metaknight, and Jedi certainly didn't help. I got lost constantly and ended up just sort of wandering. But it was great and I still got tons of good stuff. Here was my haul:

Mythos "Spiderman" by Paul Jenkins and Paolo Rivera - I read Mythos "Fantastic Four" and "Captain America" before buying this. I was excited to see they had a Spiderman one. I like how the tone of these are a little sad.

Twisted Taled #1 -Great Richard Corben cover on this one. That's all I needed to see.

Beanworld Book One by Larry Marder - I have read this before but it felt good to get a copy into my hands. Beanworld is some of the best stuff around.

The Thing: Freak Show by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins - I've picked this up a couple of times and every time thought it looked interesting. For half price it was finally time to take the plunge.
The Incredible Hulk "Ground Zero" by Peter David, Todd McFarlene, et al. - The art in this just looks nuts. The Hulk has such a tiny head and the heavy line work reminds me of a Darrow or Quietly.

Dreadstar Vol. 2 by Jim Starlin - Jim Starlin is a personal favorite of mine. Infinity Gauntlet and Death of Captain Marvel specifically. I've read Dreadstar Vol. 1 and loved it. Starlin does great panel transitions and knows how to set up a page.

Winsor McCay Early Works V - Little Nemo is great but this has some of McCay's even better political cartoons. They were posted a while ago at Golden Age of Comic Book Stories.

ABC Warriors: The Black Hole by Pat Mills, Simon Bisley, and S.M.S. - I bought this just by flipping through it and reading the first lines, "During the classical period of Terra's history, Emperor Zalinn ordered the construction of an artificial Black and White Hole on the planet itself...to provide a highway to the heavens!

Abraxis and the Earthman by Rick Veitch - I've Veitch's stunning Maximortal and have wanted to read this one for a while. Moby Dick in space???

Wolverine "Blood Hungry" by Peter David and Sam Keith - Sam Keith is pretty good right? His art here fits pretty well with Wolverine and I've been getting more interested in Wolverine since Old Man Logan and Wolverine: Saudade.

Mouse Gaurd: Belly of the Beast - Medieval mice fight a snake. Awesome.

Day 1 I attended the Kirkman vs. Bendis panel. I had only really seen Kirkman's video manifesto so it was pretty interesting to hear Bendis' argument against it. It seemed to me that they were both arguing different things. They ended up arguing about the economics of the industry. Kirkman at the heart of his argument thinks that more comics should be original and not re-hashing old characters. I think that this is a better argument to make than to say that creator owned works are sustainable.
Day 2: A fresh new day. Focused and ready to go. A lot less people on a Sunday made browsing a lot easier. Highlights from day two were hearing a couple of hilarious exchanges. One guy trying hard to get his friend to buy some Witchblade while his friend blatantly told him it sucked. Another guy professed his love for Spiderwoman at an artists table "Aw. You've got my girl Spiderwoman. She is seriously hot. Seriously" Day 2's haul I got more into the white boxes:

Mythos "Hulk" by Paul Jenkins and Paolo Rivera - Decided to go with the trend of buying Mythos Spiderman and pick up this one as well. I read it the other day and it's the best one yet.

Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure by Walter Simonson and Mike Mignola - I bought this on the strength of Mignola and my growing love for the hairy one.

Akira Vol. 1 No. 5 - I've got No. 1-4 and I love them. Can't wait to read this.

Doom Patrol #14 by John Arcudi and Seth Fisher - A Seth Fisher classic. He even makes the trees seem important.

B.P.R.D. The Dead #1 and #2 by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and Guy Davis - I've been wanting to read some B.P.R.D. after reading some Hellboy recently.

The Life of Captain Marvel #4 by Jim Starlin - <3 Starlin <3 Marvel

Batman: Snow by Dan Curtis Johnson, J.Williams III, and Seth Fisher - ANOTHER Seth Fisher Classic. He draws Batman to look human making him look akward, pathetic, but still heroic. Fisher is one of the best.
The Silver Surfer "Parable" #1 by Stan Lee and Moebius - One of my favorite characters by one of my favorite artists. So glad I finally found this.

Batman: Dark Allegeinces by Howard Chaykin - Batman fights the KKK. What else can I say?

Daredevil: Yellow by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale - Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and Spiderman: Blue all were great, so Daredevil: Yellow was the logical next step.

I also picked up some awesome free posters of Dark Sied, Kull, and Usagi Yojimbo. The Con overall was very fulfilling. The biggest disappointment was the lack of quality toys. The comics, for the most part, were discounted by all the toys were at premium prices. There's nothing better than having a giant stack of unread comics waiting for you at home. It gets you through the day.

Baltimore Comic-Con 2008: Samuel James Rules Spent All His Money

Despite the terrible rain and consequent fear of ruining newly purchased books, Baltimore Comic-Con was awesome. After meeting up at my place and figuring out who's riding with who we drove the fifteen minutes to our secret free parking and Karen and I realized that we left our tickets at home. Walking back through the rain and speeding home in a record NINE MINUTES we grabbed our tickets and made it back to the Con, and were instantly happy again, soaking wet but smiles on our faces. Right off the bat I turned around and saw Don Rosa, writer and artist of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, which is one of my all time favorites. I bought a great print from him which he happily signed, and my day was already looking up.

I made a point to go to the Bendis and Kirkman panel since the Kirkman "manifesto" is such a hot topic and something I have had many conversations about. It's unfortunate that they didn't really address a lot of issues, and the beginning joke was so lame even sad-ass fan boy dudes couldn't keep up laughing at "fuck you" being shot back and forth for a minute. Kirkman (being the "little guy" in the conversation) had the crowd of yes-dudes and Bendis (being one of my least favorite writers and big bad industry villian) was basically ignored even when he was correct. Kirkman busted out some graphs in a power point presentation showing Walking Dead sales compared to Marvel Zombies sales, two books which he wrote. He wanted to show that Walking Dead's sales did not rise or fall with the release of Marvel Zombies but stayed the same. He went through this argument with a few of his books compared to Bendis's books, but they didn't talk about trades, which are a major factor. I work at a major retail bookstore that isn't Barnes and Noble and I can tell you that people come in for Marvel Zombies and have no idea what Walking Dead is. They see Captain America all fucked up and want to buy it, and I talk to them about Kirkman's "other" zombie book and that is when they buy it. Trades are a HUGE part of the market now, it's similar to DVD sales, where people don't want to spend money on the issues when they can get a final product. It's also much more acceptable to read a "graphic novel" and not a "comic book" for most people, so they do get purchased more, and make up a good portion of the market. Plus dude just does the only zombie comic that isn't absolutely awful that you can get anywhere and a Superman parody book that's pretty ok when you read it for free at your shitty bookstore job, but not worth buying. Just sayin.



I also went to the Marvel Comics panel which was more like a self admitted market research session where Bendis, C.B. Cebulski, and Dan Slott just sat around and they asked us straight up what we wanted in comics and what we hated. Not just Marvel Comics, over all. It was a press conference without the bullshit and was some what refreshing to talk to these creators about continuity, Secret Invasion and the aftermath, and why thought balloons are for queerby bad writers. Talking trash about Bendis' writing and him being real about it was great and showed me he's not just full of shit. It was interesting to see a room full of people who are all different, and how many people don't understand that comics change. Some people's responses to "what could we be doing different?" was to yell out for their favorite character to be used more. Other people's reactions to an overall positive discussion was to be just plain rude about characters dying off or being put on hold. I finally decided to raise my hand and bring up that Marvel comics, particularly X-Men and Avengers, are extremely hard for new readers to get into. I said the words "continuity is the killer" and surprisingly that's when Bendis interrupted the next person in the audience to talk about how he also believes this, even though he's one of the biggest problems. Slott talked at great length about having to do what "the team" wants you to do and what you as a writer want to do, and the conflicts that lead to people's departure from the company when they aren't team players. At times the conversation would turn to two fans talking and the focus would be off of the creators and that's what made the panel special to me, that we actually mattered. They didn't bad mouth any other companies like Image had been all day, and Bendis even talked about how much he liked Batman. I know I'm this Marvel nerd guy but it really was refreshing to hear the voices of these comics I read talking about the comics like fans without really dropping any bombs or it being an exhibition of what their comics are, it was about who we were as fans and what we wanted. They are the "bad guys" or whatever but they still are dudes who read comics and want the best comics in the world to be made, so they're good in my book.

Also, I'm taller than Bendis and that's pretty weird to me. He also seemed like someone to get a picture with because that's what people do at Comic-Con? I guess it's like autographs or something, but with your face. Also there's this weirdo dude behind us wearing a "SON OF FANBOY" shirt. That's cool, right?



The best booths were the Zapp Comics, our hometown boys Cosmic Comix, and Laughing Ogre Comics. Dollar comics that were new and not just throw aways, 50% off brand new trades, and tons of other great crap to waste your money on.

Haul Highlights:


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Soul's Winter By: Michael Zulli - I've been trying to get into the Ninja Turtles stuff but can't find a good starting point, and I thought this was awesome and weird so I got it. Shredder is gnarly and Splinter is straight up scary. 50% off ten bucks, not bad.


Eastman and Laird's Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Original Vol. 1 Series Treasury Edition By: Eastman and Laird



Tor: Volume 1 By: Joe Kubert - After reading the newer DC series I wanted to get some of the older issues, but after seeing some of their prices I went over to Cosmic Comix's booth and grabbed the first volume that has the original stories for half price, so it only cost me $25, which after looking through It's obviously well worth it with all the extras and sketches of the original Tor stoires.




Bombshell Boobies By: Yukio Yukimino and La Blue Girl Book 1: Destiny By: Toshio Maeda - I lump these together because on our slow walk towards the exit on the second and last day of the Con, we stopped at a small booth and I flipped through the manga hoping for some gold, and found these two books. The dude running the money box said "Are you actually going to read those? heheheh" and smiled with this twenty five year old braces shining. I asked how much they were and threw down four bucks for the two and bought my first two weirdo japanese comics, Boobie Bombshell being a collection of fetishes that are more creepy than disturbing, like watching your brother have sex or being attracted to a girl's bent leg. La Blue Girl is just straight tentacle monster rape weird stuff. I think this is going to open the doors for me to get into lots of great horror stuff and sex comics.

Baltimore Comic-Con 2008: David's Take

The 2008 Baltimore Comic-Con was my introduction to the world of comics conventions. Despite having purchased tickets for the whole of the two-day event, I managed to blow through my entire purchasing budget by 3:00 PM Saturday. Some highlights of the event included running into an inexplicably low-profile Richard Starkings, who graciously signed the copies of the Elephantmen: Wounded Animals and War Toys trade paperbacks I purchased and to whom it was my great honor to introduce our humble blog and especially its maiden post; getting an opportunity to buttonhole Kyle Baker and share my opinion that Special Forces is the greatest response to the Iraq War that the comics world has yet to offer; tracking down an issue of Paul Pope's elusive THB, as well as a whole slew of books by Alexandro Jodorowski that I picked up at rock-bottom prices. A particular low-light was the lackluster "debate" between Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis, in which they simply rehashed their by now familiar positions vis a vis Kirkman's manifesto concerning the issue of established creators moving to producing exclusively creator-owned comics, superfluously enhanced by Kirkman's more or less meaningless sales graphs.


David's Haul:

THB: Comics From Mars #1 by Paul Pope

Silver Surfer #2 by Stan Lee and Moebius

Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure by Walter Simonson, Michael Mignola and Bob Wiacek

The Thing: Freak Show #1-4 by Geoff Johns, Scott Kollins and Andy Lanning

Metal Hurlant #11, featuring stories by Alexandro Jodorowski and others

Doom Patrol #13 and 14 by John Arcudi and Seth Fisher

Kid Eternity #1 and 2 by Grant Morrison and Duncan Fegredo

The Incal: The Epic Conspiracy TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski and Moebius

The Incal: The Epic Journey TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski and Moebius

The Metabarons #2: Aghnar & Oda TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski and Juan Gimenez

The Metabarons #3: Steelhead & Doña Vicenta TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski and Juan Gimenez

The Metabarons: Alpha / Omega TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski, Moebius, Juan Gimenez and Travis Charest

Son Of The Gun #1: Sinner TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski and Georges Bess

Son Of The Gun #2: Saint TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski and Georges Bess

Megalex Book #1: The Anomaly TPB by Alexandro Jodorowski and Fred Beltran

Omega The Unknown Classic TPB by Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes and Jim Mooney

Elephantmen: War Toys Volume 1: No Surrender TPB by Richard Starkings and Moritat

Elephantmen: Wounded Animals TPB by Richard Starkings and Moritat

Secret Invasion #6 By Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu

With two issues from its end, the series finally starts to come together. With lines drawn in the sand, and Skrull sleeper agents revealed, the entire Marvel cast gets ready to take on the Skrull Empire.

S.I. number six begins by wrapping up most of the S.I. tie-in titles, giving you a sense of time, and how far the invasion has spread. The Mighty Avengers and rebel New Avengers rush to New York City, ignoring the Registration Act (and their differences) in order to push back the Skrull Armada. When they arrive, we are given a two page spread showing the destruction of the city, Skrull ships floating above, the Baxter Building in a Negative Zone hole, and the city covered in rubble.

On those streets stands Nick Fury and his new Howling Commandos, the Secret Warriors, a band of young mutants and super humans who were unknown before now, assuring us that they are not Skrulls. For fans of Nick Fury, this has been a GREAT book, not just because he's finally back in the game, but because he's where he belongs, in the front lines, shooting aliens and shouting orders. The level of disbelief from his return and respect for Nick Fury is shared even by the crime syndicate created by the Hood, as they watch from the sidelines and try to decide if they should enter the fray.



With lightning striking and thunder roaring, all of Earth's Mightiest Heroes turn their heads to Central Park where Thor's hammer strikes the ground, heroes rejoicing as the God of Thunder makes his return. The fear and excitement sets in for all as the final battle begins, Thor summoning all to the battle field. The super human community of Earth walks what may be their final mile as they enter into what could be their last adventure. Even Thunderbolts leader Norman Osborn keeps his squad of registered psychos in check, understanding what is at stake in the fight to come.



The Skrull Queen (posing as Spider Woman) gives them a chance to be saved and surrender to the change. She announces the phrase haunting those who have been attacked, "He loves you." Spider-Man Pushes his way through former enemies Bullseye and Wrecker and asks the question we've all been waiting for "He who?" With the answer and a Skrull holy war upon us, Nick Fury answers, giving us possibly the best panel ever, the Mount Rushmore of Marvel comics.




With that, Iron Man assembles the newly re-cast Avengers including characters ranging from Venom to Luke Cage and even Howard the Duck! The Super-Skrulls begin arriving in all their stolen forms, with even a Galactus Skrull standing above all others!



Yu plays with the idea that ANY character could be a Skrull, and that not all Skrulls have to be just one hero or villain. Seeing a Super-Skrull that has the power of the X-men is incredible, and forces you to go back and try to name every character combination you can. The texture on every character and piece of the background makes the story actually feel gritty, the dirt on their faces and rips on costumes actually earned in a fight.

With two issues to go, Secret Invasion is turning out to be what event comics should be. Bendis-Haters (a club which I certainly am a member of) are ignoring the strengths of this series to shit on it's weaknesses. The price point is high but S.I. is worth it, this issue in particular. Seeing the Avengers working together again and not being a government tool has given me hope for future books, and with Tony Stark looking outside of himself for the first time in a few years makes me hope for another all star Avengers team. Seeing characters like Kazaar fighting alongside Hulkling and Reed Richards is exciting in a way that The Infinity Gauntlet was, the whole Marvel gang together to fight for the good of the universe, and that's what comics should be.