Brian Bendis To Write "How To" Comics Book

[CBR News]

The writer behind "The Avengers," "Ultimate Spider-Man," "Powers" and more will give fans his personal "How To" on breaking in and scripting for the comics business as Brian Michael Bendis signs a new non-fiction deal with Random House.


Full article here.

[Awesome!]

Dear lord no. The last thing we need in comics is up and comers emulating Bendis-speak.

[CTpitch]

I always knew Bendis will bring in an era called "The Snark era"

[santino27]

Step 1: Divide page into 9 or even 12 panels.
Step 2: Fill those panels with the heads of your characters saying something.
Step 3: Profit!

[DarkBeast]

Dear lord no. The last thing we need in comics is up and comers emulating Bendis-speak.

Eh, all you have to do is douse your brain in enough generic hipster media for "smart people", and you'll come out naturally dialoguing everyone that way anyway. Bendis also probably studies a lot of vanity YouTube videos of teen- and tweenagers talking about how stupid their parents are, and then repurposes the same dialogue for Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

I'm actually looking forward to this book. I imagine the chapters will be something like:

-How to decompress your non-story from two issues to six.

-How to make it seem like your writing, not the inclusion of Spider-Man and Wolverine in every issue, is the reason sales went up.

-How to Jedi Mind Trick fans into coming up with logical reasons for your inconsistent, off-model characterizations.

-How to become known as a "witty" writer even though all of your characters sound like airheads.

-How to simultaneously ignore Marvel continuity (even your own!) and yet become known as an expert in continuity.

And last but not least:

-How to dumb down your fans so that you can go from a pretty damn good writer, circa 2000-2003, to an absolutely awful writer by the end of the decade... without your fans even noticing the steep decline.

Seriously, though, I can't imagine that Bendis actually THINKS about much of anything he writes anymore. 80% of his comics read as if he just banged them out in 10-15 minutes off the top of his head, wrote down whatever rambling dialogue he wanted, and threw in a few random flashy action shots, without ever looking backwards or editing much of anything.

[Awesome!]

All that said, I still buy Powers.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

I hope the book is going be written like his short/fast back-and-forth dialogues.
"Stop. Look. Here's a group around a table. This can last an entire issue."

[Maestro Hulk]

I hope the book is going be written like his short/fast back-and-forth dialogues.
"Stop. Look. Here's a group around a table. This can last an entire issue."

I was thinking the same thing. In Bendis' New Avengers #50, it was promoted as a double-sized issue with the New Avengers vs the Dark Avengers. Instead the first half of the book reused the same panel over and over with the New Avengers guessing the identities of the Dark Avengers. They also made "jokes" of course. Then, they end up fighting the Hood and his gang instead of the Dark Avengers.

Bendis' "How To" book should be titled: "How To deceive people into buying overhyped comic books."

[Awesome!]

I swear CBR just made this thread because they knew the sh-tstorm this topic would generate.

Comics fans are nothing if not predictable.

You could say the same thing about anything remotely related to Liefeld.

[Milkshake Dave]

"I can't believe you can't believe it."

[Johnny P. Sartre]

"I can't believe you can't believe it."

[Milkshake Dave]

I was hoping you'd recognize that line being one of Bendis' recurring quips/snaps he has his characters ALWAYS use. We would then have the thread continue with more Bendis-isms. Please edit your post.

[SJNeal]

I think CBR posted this article a day late...

[HitechLolife]

nien...


10

[spidarwin]

I sure hope BMB reads Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, before he starts writing.