Brian Bendis Spills His Guts To The 24 Hr Podcast

This weekend several comic book podcasters got together to do a non-stop 24 hour comics podcast. They included DC artist Mike Norton and Chris Crank of Devil's Due (The Crankcast) Marvel artist Skottie Young, Chris Neesman Brian Salazar & Tom Katers (Around Comics) Stevie D and Eric (The Comic Book Queers) and John Siuntres (Word Balloon). Along with the round table discussions, there were informal interviews with other comic pros like J Torres, Tim Seeley, Chris Moreno Jeremy Haun Chris Burnham, Sean McKeever and Brian Michael Bendis. Most of the pros just talked casually about work in general, but Bendis dropped a few comic news items regarding his books. On this special edition of Word Balloon, we present the Bendis interview, moderated by John Siuntres and the Around Comics hosts. Some highlights from the interview... On Ultimate Origin being re-scheduled... Bendis and artist Butch Guice have three issues completed, but some tie-in stories written by Jeph Loeb won't be ready till next year. Plus they didn't want the Ultimate Universe storyline to conflict with Bendis' Secret Invasion miniseries, so Ultimate Origin is getting pushed back until the end of summer 2008. On the Avengers/Secret Invasion/Illuminati books… When artist Frank Cho finishes his Mighty Avengers arc he will move to the Mighty Avengers Annual featuring an all female Avengers team facing a group of female villains. Mark Bagley then replaces Cho on the series, and he's already finished drawing his arc. After issues #6 and #7 of Mighty Avengers comes out, Illuminati #5 will be released. New Avengers #38 will be a very special issue focusing on Jessica Jones and Luke Cage drawn by Alias co-creator Michael Gaydos. "I don't want to spoil the story but it's called ‘The Break-Up.’" On Secret Invasion... There are clues to who is a Skrull in some of the thought balloons in Mighty Avengers, so it will be fun to see who can figure out who the Skrulls are, by re-reading those issues." On Ultimate Spider-Man "I got permission to Ultimatize a few villains from the 1967 Ralph Bashki Spidey animated series that have never appeared in any Marvel Comics. "I was surprised that there didn't have to be any legal wrangling to recreate these villains." In fear of the pending 2008 Hollywood writers/directors strikes, the studios are rushing to production with any potential films in the development pipeline. Apparently, this has resulted in some upcoming good news for Bendis. "Uh yes... in about three weeks, I should have some announcements."