EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW – Fortune And Glory: Deluxe Anniversary Edition by Bendis

We're super excited to share with you, thanks to Marvel Comics and Brian Michael Bendis, an exclusive look at some pages from the upcoming re-release of Fortune & Glory: Deluxe Anniversary Edition by Brian Michael Bendis. 

Celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Fortune & Glory being published back in 2000 (originally published by Oni Press), Bendis and Marvel have put together an impressive hardcover edition of the book, with the most notable feature being that the book, originally black and white, has now been colored by the talented Matt Wilson, who's work we know from Phonogram: The Singles Club.

For those who may not know why this book is important, let me turn the clock back 10 years.  Before Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil and the New Avengers, Brian Michael Bendis was a comic book veteran of the indie scene.  After publishing several books like Fire, Goldfish, Torso and Jinx through a variety of publishers like Caliber and Image Comics, Brian Michael Bendis was starting to gain momentum in his career.  He had just launched a new series called Powers at Image Comics, which is when I first took notice of his work. 

Shortly thereafter in 2000, Fortune & Glory was published and quickly became one of my favorite works by Bendis.  The story was an autobiographical tale, depicting Bendis' adventure with Hollywood, as his creator-owned work with Mark Andreyko began to get interest in being adapted to a movie.  Bendis masteruflly not only wrote the story, but he also drew the entire book.  Now many of you who are Bendis fans probably know him from his writing in Powers, Ultimate Spider-Man and New Avengers, but he started out as a writer/artist, with Fortune & Glory being the best example of his cartooning work.  Now a punchline in a joke about how Marvel will never let him draw because Joe Quesada doesn't like his art, Bendis' ability as an artist is vastly underrated.  His ability tell a story is not limited to writing, with his layout and art setting the pace to the story and telling a very funny and honest tale of one creator trying to navigate Hollywood.

This book is also notable, for me, in that it was really the first glimpse into Brian Michael Bendis as a person.  This was before the Bendis Tapes on Word Balloon and before I got to see Bendis as conventions.  The autobiographical nature of the story was as close as we could come at the time to hearing Bendis' personal voice, his sense of humor and rapid wit.  After reading Fortune & Glory, I really felt as if I knew Bendis as a person a bit more, which just led to further enjoying his work and setting the stage for his rise to success to Marvel. 

If you're a fan of Bendis' work, and I know you are, you owe it to yourself to pick this book up.  If you haven't read it yet, it's a must read.  And if you previously read or own the original black and white edition, picking this up for the colors and the hardcover treatment is totally worth it. And with the hope/promise of a new volume of Fortune & Glory eventually from Bendis telling stories of his experiences with Hollywood in the past 10 years, this book will become a must-read. 

Fortune & Glory: Deluxe Anniversary Edition goes on sale on May 26th and is $19.99. 
Go order it from your local comic shop today! Or you can pre-order it on Amazon.

And now check out these exclusive preview pages from Fortune & Glory: Deluxe Anniversary Edition: