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I’ve communicated quite a bit with author Brian Michael Bendis over the last few years, having initially managed his “Brian Bendis Presents…” series on Wizard’s website (another victim of the Great Wizard Website Purge of ‘07, I believe), and working with him on coverage of various other projects on Wizard’s website. The thing is, we always communicated via phone or email, and I was always so busy during conventions managing various elements of the site’s coverage (and juggling eight or nine people’s jobs) that I never had the chance to meet him in person.

I was able to correct that unfortunate situation during Wizard World Chicago, and spent a few minutes chatting with him during one of his signing sessions. I’ve always been impressed by the way he’s chronicled his professional history in various projects, as well as his background in the newspaper scene. His autobiographical graphic novel Fortune and Glory was one of the titles that brought me back to comics after an extended absence.

As always, here’s an excerpt of the interview with a link at the end to the full transcript:

Among comic book fans, Brian Bendis has become a household name as the architect of Marvel Comics’ "Ultimate" universe, the writer of countless stories involving just about every character in the publisher’s stable and the author of a long list of well-regarded, creator-owned projects such as Powers, Torso and Jinx.

Credited with making a host of third-tier characters relevant and merging the many worlds of the Marvel Universe into a more manageable landscape, Bendis is currently scripting Secret Invasion, Marvel’s latest, massively marketed crossover event that has readers guessing which of their favorite characters are actually shape-changing Skrulls in disguise.

I spoke with Bendis during a signing event at the recent Wizard World Chicago convention. The long line of fans that curled around the Marvel booth, through the aisles and around several other booths was a testament to both the massive list of projects Bendis has authored, as well as his genre-spanning appeal among fans. Those in line offered up everything from issues of Bendis’ long-running, creator-owned series Powers to issues of Daredevil and Secret Invasion, and many identified themselves as members of Bendis’ popular message board community, Jinxworld.

COMICMIX: It’s been a while since we’ve talked, Brian… I’m glad I could catch you for a few minutes.

BRIAN BENDIS: Yeah, this is our inaugural ComicMix interview. I’ve never been on the site before.

CMix: Well, let’s get right to it, then, as I don’t want to take up too much of your time with everyone in line here. First off, with the recent Secret Invasion reveal of Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, as a Skrull, how does that reflect on all of the Spider-Woman stories you’ve been telling for the last few years? You’ve been building a fairly complicated history for the character, after all…

BB: It reflects perfectly, because I was writing her knowing this. It wasn’t like someone surprised me with it. I knew from the first issue of New Avengers that she was a Skrull. But the reveal and the reaction to the reveal, it was so genuine and it was a real relief. I did feel bad, though. There were a few Spider-Woman fans on my boards, one of whom had spent thousands of dollars on original art from the issues I had written. They showed me the art, and they were amazing, but the whole time I was like… Oh, no…

But the whole point is surprising people. You can’t start whispering to one person or another. Only about four people in Marvel knew that was the way things were going to play out.

CMix: The Dire Wraiths are supposed to be a cousin race to the Skrulls. Is there any chance of seeing them come back into the Marvel Universe in Secret Invasion?

BB: I thought about it. I think there’s a little bit of business with them in some of the tie-ins, but there are so many elements of the story, so many characters and so much going on, and there’s a point when it just becomes clutter to introduce something like that. So I thought, "Not this time."  A lot of thought went into it, though.

Head over to ComicMix for the full Brian Bendis interview.