Brian Michael Bendis

Brian Michael Bendis grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. His interest in comic book writing began in childhood and blossomed in earnest in his early 20s, when Bendis began submitting original creations to various publishers. His first glimmer of success in breaching the industry came when Bendis accepted work as an illustrator and caricaturist for Cleveland-based periodicals. This launched him to a position at Caliber Comics in the early to mid 1990s, where he'd begin to add writing to his professional résumé in addition to artwork. While at Caliber, Bendis worked on titles including Spunky Todd, Fire, A.K.A. Goldfish, and Jinx. The latter titles, belonging to the same universe, told stories of con artists and bounty hunters operating in a noir-style Cleveland, Ohio. For a short while after his reign at Caliber, Bendis worked with publishers Image Comics and Oni Comics, turning in titles like Sam and Twitch, Hellspawn, and the true crime story Torso about Chicago-based Prohibition agent Eliot Ness. In the year 2000, Bendis co-created with Michael Avon Oeming the noir detective/superhero series Powers, earning a slew of critical acclaim, public attention, and industry awards. Bendis began his collaboration with Marvel Comics that same year, beginning with work under the Ultimate Spider-Man title. In 2001, he developed the original character Jessica Jones for Marvel's "R-rated" imprint MAX Comics; Bendis' Jessica Jones character was a former superhero-turned secret agent and private investigator marked by a caustic, plucky sensibility, as well as a tenuous connection to the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Soon after, Bendis began exploring a career writing and producing superhero content for the small screen. He wrote the pilot for a "Spider-Man" (2003) TV series that never took off, but would have better luck working on "Ultimate Spider-Man" (Disney 2012-17). Following his fortune with this project, Bendis saw television interest in his own original creations. New original programming venues approached Bendis to create a live action "Powers" (PSN 2015-) series and a Jessica Jones program titled "A.K.A. Jessica Jones" (Netflix 2015-). The latter, gaining an especial wealth of fan attention, cast the well-known actress Krysten Ritter to play the title character.