WONDER WOMAN #1 (Feb 1987)

Behind the Page - Brian Michael Bendis, pt. 1
By Vaneta Rogers  posted: 23 June 2009 03:45 pm ET

Ten years ago, an independent comics writer named Brian Michael Bendis got a phone call from Marvel Comics. Would he be interested in writing for the publisher?

(excerpt)

NRAMA: Now, everyone sees you as a Marvel guy. But before you got the call from Joe, was Marvel a goal? Were you a Marvel guy even then?

BMB: I definitely was a Marvel kid, and as I grew older and more fascinated by the art form, I became much more aware of the voices of comics -- the storytelling art form. And I became much more obsessed in following creators, whoever they were. And a lot of them were at Marvel when I found them, went to DC, and started bouncing back and forth. Guys like John Byrne or George Perez. You know what I mean? I only bought Wonder Woman when George Perez did Wonder Woman. And when John Byrne left Fantastic Four to Superman, I left Fantastic Four to go read Superman.

But I was a Marvel kid, and digging through the archives, as one does when one moves, I found graphic novels that I had written and drawn in my youth. My young, young youth. And there was this Captain America vs. Thunderstrike graphic novel -- four or five times I'd done it. When I went to high school, I just kept doing that over and over again. The joke in high school was you knew what books were mine because I was drawing Namor in every single textbook I had on every single page. All I did was draw Namor all day. I don't know why that is, but most people thought it was Mr. Spock that I was drawing, which has either something to do with my artistic ability or no one knows who Namor is outside us nerds on Nerdarama.