Acclaimed and bestselling comics writer Brian Michael Bendis has signed with Random House’s Watson-Guptill imprint to publish a book on the creative and business side of creating graphic novels. The book will be called Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Graphic Novels, slated to be published by Watson-Guptill in the Summer of 2014.
The book was signed by Watson-Guptill editor Patrick Barb who will also edit the manuscript. The deal was negotiated by Bendis’s representative Shep Rosenman of Katz Golden Rosenman of Santa Monica, Calif. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Bendis is a critically acclaimed comics writer who has won five Eisner Comics Industry Awards and worked on bestselling projects for Image Comics and Marvel. He is best known for the graphic novels Jinx and Torso (both by Image from 2001) and many projects for Marvel including Ultimate Spider-Man, the Avengers and Daredevil among others.
Watson-Guptill is an imprint of Random House’s Crown Publishing Group and specializes in publishing How-To books on a wide range of subjects, particularly art and comics. Barb said W-G, “offers a wide range of How-to books on comics and how to draw including books with DC Comics artists, the Stan Lee series and we’re always looking to expand the comics coverage.” Barb said he visits comics conventions looking for likely authors, but he was also aware that Bendis teaches a comics class at Portland State University, and “I’ve admired his comics writing as well as the work he does on videogames and TV. He’s got a great platform for a book like this.”
Barb said he reached out to Bendis about doing the book and he was interested, “it was good timing. I’ll be working with him to bring in the manuscript and he’s got the syllabi from his classes and he been taping his classes—he gets great guest lecturers from all over the comics industry—in preparation for working on the manuscript.” Barb said Bendis takes a “wholistic” approach to teaching comics and the book will show “how to work with artists and writers and the financial side; it will take a look at the whole business of comics.”
