Learning from the comic book masters

Portland is known for being a hotbed of comic book creators. With a thriving community of local artists, the presence of a major publishing company (Milwaukee’s Dark Horse, founded by Portland State alumnus Mike Richardson) and an ever-increasing number of comic artists choosing to make Portland their home, it’s no surprise that Portland State offers courses focusing on the medium.

Portland is known for being a hotbed of comic book creators. With a thriving community of local artists, the presence of a major publishing company (Milwaukee’s Dark Horse, founded by Portland State alumnus Mike Richardson) and an ever-increasing number of comic artists choosing to make Portland their home, it’s no surprise that Portland State offers courses focusing on the medium.

Dark Horse editor Diana Schutz has taught a graphic novels course at Portland State, and she invited Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis to guest lecture in her classes—a turn of events that led to Bendis being offered a class of his own.

“I realized that the best thing I could do in my life is probably create the class that I didn’t get to take when I was in college in Cleveland,” Bendis said.

Bendis inked his first comic publishing deal before graduation and designed an independent study so that he could focus on his work. Now, he is teaching his first class at Portland State, a writer’s workshop focusing on the craft of writing and its relevance to the graphic novel. His course covers the philosophy of comic books in comparison to other mediums and includes documentaries and guest speakers. 

Bendis is perhaps best known for his tenure as the lead writer for the Marvel series Ultimate Spiderman. He’s also written for Daredevil, The Avengers and X-Men, and collaborates on a creator-owned series, Powers.

Bendis’ writing is known for its dialogue and he has crafted a number of years-long storylines that stand out for their length. The author said that he’s been able to develop these stories over a long period of time because of his somewhat unique circumstances—citing an exclusive contract with Marvel as a source of tremendous artistic freedom.

“I’m not going to get fired, unless I really, really screw up,” Bendis said. “So I think, let’s make some long form, really interesting, hopefully really fun, storylines with books…other people don’t have the opportunity to even try that, just because of the nature of freelance…but I’m really given the chance to roll up my sleeves and do something special…and I find that really rewarding. There’s nothing like setting something up and watching it pay off gigantically, years down the line.”

For his Portland State class, Bendis handpicked students from a pool of applicants. At the university’s behest, he selected students based on an e-mailed statement of intent. The class is a true writing workshop, designed to make its participants write every day. The final project is an original comic, which Bendis emphasized is an exercise in creative visual storytelling.

“There’s a million ways to produce a comic book that don’t include drawing,” Bendis said. “No one’s being judged on their artistic skill, they’re being judged on their ability to tell a visual story…comics are a bastard medium, like rock and roll is a bastard medium…it always thrives if someone is able to find something from outside the medium to put into it.

“The medium almost by itself allows that—like rock and roll, if someone just imitates another rock and roll star, it just becomes a flabbier version.  But if someone takes opera, or jazz, or classical, or something, to rock and roll, it elevates the form, it makes something exciting. What comics excel at is that someone can find something that truly inspires them from outside that medium—painting, screenwriting, photography, poetry, anything that makes words and pictures that can be put together to tell a story—and can make a good graphic novel.”

He noted that he spends a great deal of time studying playwrights and cinematographers in order to hone his skill at writing conversational dialogue.

“I want to believe that [characters] are listening to each other, and they’re not just laying stuff out for the audience,” Bendis said. “In comics particularly, I think the weakness of the medium has always allowed for very clunky, fanny exposition that no one would actually say in real life…on my personal journey, I’ve tried to apply the craft of the playwright to the superhero genre that I work in, so that when Spiderman and the Human Torch are having a conversation, as silly as that is, it sounds like an actual conversation.”

Using his varied studies to hone his skills, Bendis’ work has come out rich, varied and full of a special kind of life that has made him a unique player in the world of graphic novels.

“[Studying film and theater] has done me very well,” Bendis said. “I’m able to produce something, even in superheroes, that’s different, that even smells different from the decades that came before me. Part of the class is learning to look outside the medium to find things that inspire [students] to their core, to produce things that no one’s ever thought of before.”