An interview with Brian Michael Bendis, by Scott J Grunewald
PopImage: I'd like to start by asking you your stance on sales gimmicks like multiple covers?
Brian Michael Bendis: Uuuummm, I've never really done one. The only one that I did was for a charity situation because we were really torn between which charity to put the money towards, so David Mack said: "You should do two. I'll do one for you, and you can split it up." I dunno, everyone always goes "We hate 'em" but they always buy them. It always works. Everyone went crazy over FATHOM 'Oh, it's outrageous!' Then what did they do? They ended up buying them anyways.
PI: So do you think they are here to stay?
BMB: They're gimmicks; they just work. Every time you do a gimmick, it works. I don't do them, I don't believe in them, I don't think it's fair to my readers, and I don't think my readers are even interested in that kind of thing. I pretty much know my readers, and I know that they ain't into any of that crap. Even when I did SAM & TWITCH, it was a big leap for some.
PI: That actually leads into my next question. I've been to a few newsgroups where it's been suggested that you doing a mainstream book like SAM & TWITCH is a form of you selling out.
BMB: It's a nice big generality that if someone does a mainstream book that they're selling out. Imagine if you do a specific thing, and someone hires you to do that specific thing. He doesn't edit you, he makes you the lead guy in it, lets you pick the artist, you're in charge of coloring and making sure everyone does their jobs and pretty much leaves you alone. That's not selling out. That's them coming to you, its not you saying "Okay, now I'm going to temper my art so I can write SPAWN."
PI: Do you have total control over SAM & TWITCH?
BMB: Well, you know, it's Todd [McFarlane]'s book, and Todd gets final say, but Todd hired me to do my job. I think the only editorial note he gave me was that he doesn't want Twitch to swear because he doesn't see Twitch as that kind of person.
PI: So he did put some restrictions on you.
BMB: No, it's not a restriction. Its Todd's book, I was hired to do a specific thing, and it just so happens to be the specific thing that I do. It's not selling out; it's just not. I am in this world to make a living. To write and draw. Thank God I don't have to do a book like X-MEN where they re-write every word you write. Working for Todd... This guy is a freelance artist. This guy made his living as a freelance writer and artist, and he totally knows what it was like. He's pretty good about it all, everyone who's working for him is pretty happy. I called around before I took the gig, and everyone was all "It's a great gig!"
PI: Are you considering taking more work for hire projects?
BMB: Yeah. I have an offer on the table that I'm probably going to take that's equally mainstream [as SAM & TWITCH]. You know what, there is a difference though. A lot of these guys that are in the mainstream; their whole gig is mainstream. So their job is to make as many people happy as possible. And if I was trying to get work in the mainstream, I'm sure that my art would, even if I didn't do it on purpose, eventually it would just change because I would be trying to make everybody happy. But if you're doing an independent book ...David [Mack] and I are in the same situation you know. I'm not going to wait around and wait around for everybody to hire me. I want to do my thing, and if someone comes around and really gets it ... "Oh cool!" That's great, that's the best, but you want to make a living at the same time. So Todd read GOLDFISH, gave me a job and it worked out. Someone else just saw it, and pretty much offered me a dream project to do with David [Mack] and we're thinking about it.
PI: Can you give me any details?
BMB: Eh ... it's so early, you know ...
PI: Damn.
BMB: So anyway, the argument is that if I did anything but the books that I draw for Image then I'm selling out. Even when I moved to Image and still owned the book, people still said that I was selling out. You do your book, and your thing, and you want it to be as successful as possible. I knew my book wasn't changing when I went to Image, it was the same exact book. But people were screaming, "You bastard! You're going to ruin it! You're just like Terry Moore! And blah blah blah" and I'm like, "Hey, I don't know Terry Moore, and I don't know what you're talking about, but the book is exactly the same." Then it came out, and all it did was sell better. All it did was get a very nice boost in sales, which is all I wanted, was for a book that I'm doing to get seen by as many people as possible. And once the book came out, it was even more violent and subversive, and you know, no one said, "You know, I'm sorry, I was one of those guys that screamed and yelled at you."
PI: So what's more rewarding for you, putting out your own stuff, or the mainstream books that you work on?
BMB: Oh, it's always putting out your own stuff. There's not even an anecdote to go with that, there's no question. It's very rewarding to get paid to do what you want to do.
PI: Do you have any plans to do anything else with Jinx?
BMB: Jinx is gonna be in SAM & TWITCH, in either number 10 or 11. We're doing a bounty hunter war, and there are a bunch of new bounty hunter characters that I created for it. Todd would always go on and on about Jinx, so I said, "Can I put Jinx in SAM & TWITCH and still own it without you getting all weirded out or something?" and he said, "Yeah, that'd be cool, actually, that would be great."
PI: But no more Jinx series are planned?
BMB: Well, you know, the story is done, and I did have a sequel in mind, but I have other ideas to do. There's a lot of comic series that go on way too long, and I don't want to be one of those guys. It was a good run, but I want to keep moving.
PI: On to TORSO. What was it about a 50 year old unsolved murder case that made you want to make it into a comic?
BMB: Well, me and Marc [Andreyko] were sitting around when he came over to my house for Passover dinner. We were talking about the old Cleveland folklore horror stories, and he brought up the Torso Killer thing, and I was like, "Goddamnit, that should be a movie, why isn't that a movie?" We actually developed it as a movie first, and while we were doing it, I started drawing it. I wasn't even gonna draw last year at all, I was gonna do one thing, but I got all crazy, I was all, "This is great to draw, this is visually goddamn exciting!" and we just did the book. It's hard to commit to a 300-page book, but it was a story worth telling. 'Cause it's about the story, but its also about other things. It's got subtext. It's a serial killer thriller, but it's also about media and celebrity and all that stuff that we think about today, but it was happening 50 years ago.
PI: What about the creative licenses that you took with the characters?
BMB: Well, you're allowed to do that. Look at THE UNTOUCHABLES. Elliot Ness didn't throw Frank Niti off the roof of the courthouse during the Al Capone trial and kill him, the guy lived on to rule the mob! Elliot Ness didn't have kids, there were nine Untouchables, not three. You have to take licenses for dramatic effect. You want to capture the over all ambiance of the piece. It's not my job to be a historian; I just want to tell a good story. If Mamet can fuck around with the Untouchables, then I can certainly fuck around with TORSO. What's funny though, is that the most interesting stuff in the book is actually true.
PI: Like the burning of the slums?
BMB: Yeah. Sometimes I try and find ways to work the real news articles into the book because some of the most outlandish stuff people wouldn't believe. People think that Elliot Ness working on this case is bullshit. People think he crawled up and died after the Untouchables.
PI: So, was it daunting to approach this story that never had a set ending? I mean, they never caught the guy.
BMB: We have an ending in our story. We've chosen an ending.
PI: You said you went crazy for TORSO, so how satisfying has it been compared to your other works?
BMB: I'm still jazzed about it. I have about thirteen pages to go. Your fear is that you're not gonna be excited about it half way through, but when you own something, it keeps you excited. And once you get towards the end when you think you're gonna crap out, well suddenly Miramax wants it and you get all excited again. Todd's gonna make a trade of it "ooooooo!"
PI: So you already made plans for the trade?
BMB: Yeah.
PI: Anything special going in to it that you can tell me about?
BMB: Uh, we still haven't had that meeting yet, but Todd's doing it, and it should be pretty nice.
PI: What about an introduction?
BMB: Well, hopefully Todd.
PI: Do you consider yourself an artist or a writer first, or do you not differentiate between the two?
BMB: They're the same to me. That's why I do layouts for SAM & TWITCH, I can't figure out how to tell the story without laying out the pages.
Brian Michael Bendis' SAM AND TWITCH and TORSO are currently available from Image Comics. His collected works include GOLDFISH, JINX and FIRE, all of which are reviewed in this month's PRO FILE. His forthcoming works include POWERS and FORTUNE & GLORY.
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