Brian Michael Bendis has signed an agreement with Random House to write his first non-comic book, a non-fiction treatise on comic book writing entitled, Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Graphic Novels.  Random House plans on publishing the book filled with advice for aspiring comic book writers in 2013.

 

Bendis, who began his career writing black-and-white comics for the likes of Caliber Press, has become one of the key members of Marvel editorial brain trust.  He has also taught a graphic novel writing course at Portland State University and the material he prepared for that course forms the basis for the new book.

 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bendis does not want to produce a book that would encourage young writers to follow his methods.  Instead he points out that there is no single format for comic/graphic novel writing and takes a look at several different models ranging from the highly collaborative Marvel method to the hugely detailed and highly idiosyncratic scripts employed by Alan Moore.  Bendis wants to present lots of different models, pointing out the strength and weaknesses of each and allowing the reader to determine which method would suit him or her.  Bendis' guide for aspiring writers also addresses the ways in which creators need to protect themselves from exploitation in dealing both with comic publishers and with representatives from other media entities eager to exploit graphic novel properties.

 

Now that he has signed with a mainstream publisher, need we fear that Bendis will forego comics for the lure of writing novels?  Not in the near future anyway--Bendis told The Reporter that he doesn’t plan on giving up writing comics in order to pen novels anytime soon.