Brian Michael Bendis has kicked off the long-awaited sequel to Fortune and Glory this week on his Substack.
Bendis wrote and drew the original Fortune and Glory, which was published as a three-issue miniseries by Oni Press in 1999-2000. Dark Horse plans to release a new printing of the collected series in April.
“Fortune and Glory was a graphic novel I did years ago, pre-Marvel, about my first adventures in Hollywood as a young independent comic book creator,” he wrote. “It was one of the books that got me where I am. I always wanted to do a sequel. Many of you have asked for one over the years. I loved doing an autobiographical comic book. I always thought I would do another one, or a bunch of them, but Spider-Man kept getting in the way.”
Interestingly, you thank Spider-Man for the return of Fortune and Glory — more specifically, you thank Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the ill-fated Broadway musical that Bendis was asked to write.
“But really, I never thought I would have stories crazier than the ones I told in the original Fortune and Glory. Everything happening to me in comics was fun and fun to talk about, but was it autobiography-worthy? Then I got called to be the writer of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a now notorious infamous Broadway musical that you can Google about right now,” he said on Substack. “The story I’m about to tell you happened years before the show’s debut. Only my closest pals knew any of this happened at the time. I’ve only hinted at parts of this in past interviews. Now, it gives me a GREAT excuse to go down memory lane and share my favorite moments of coming up in comics with you.”
While Bendis is not drawing this new chapter in his life, he has recruited the talented team of cartoonist Bill Walko, colorist Wes Dzioba and letterer Josh Reed to bring it to life. Fortune and Glory: The Musical is only available to paid subscribers of the Jinxworld Substack.