Rating: 
Summary: Laugh outloud funny
Review: Bendis isn't doing anything really new with "Fortune and Glory". Poking fun at Hollywood is like shooting fish in a barrell. But, Bendis is so exceedingly funny that you don't notice just how cliched this story really is. Of course, it helps that Bendis is telling a true story, and from his perspective as a would-be screenwriterFrom meeting producers who don't know that Eliot Ness was real to publicists who don't like comics, Bendis tours Hollywood bureaucracy and in the end, finds himself back where he started. This is too funny to miss.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh outloud funny
Review: Bendis isn't doing anything really new with "Fortune and Glory". Poking fun at Hollywood is like shooting fish in a barrell. But, Bendis is so exceedingly funny that you don't notice just how cliched this story really is. Of course, it helps that Bendis is telling a true story, and from his perspective as a would-be screenwriter From meeting producers who don't know that Eliot Ness was real to publicists who don't like comics, Bendis tours Hollywood bureaucracy and in the end, finds himself back where he started. This is too funny to miss.
Rating:
Summary: The Horror of Hollywood
Review: Buying anything written by Brian Michael Bendis is well worth your time and money, whether it's for the incredible wit, realistic dialogue, or 180 degree plot twists. But "Fortune and Glory" not only entertains, it informs. It's the pull-no-punches true story of Bendis' attempt to turn his acclaimed books "Goldfish" and "Torso" into major motion pictures. Bendis' dealings with the God-and-creativity-forsaken drones of Hollywood read as equal parts comedy and tragedy (or course, the tragedy comes about so ridiculously that it, too, is comedy). Whether it's the suggestion that Pauly Shore plays the grifter Goldfish or that the "Untouchables" police captain Elliot Ness be 19-years old, you'll be laughing at Bendis' pain (laughing at other people's pain is always fun). In an industry where executives scan magazine articles and buy property rights for no other reason than so somebody else can't have them, it's a wonder any good movies ever get made. "How many studio executives does it take to change a lightbulb? One...but does it HAVE to be a lightbulb?" - Bendis
Rating:
Summary: Uncommonly funny
Review: Comics generally don't do humour very well. Visual humour is often spoiled unless the pay off is over the page as the eye has a habit of seeing the punchline even as the brain deciphers the text involved in the build up. Written humour is subject to the vaguaries of the writer and the relative peculiarities of the reader. Fortune and Glory is the most consistently funny comic I have ever read, especially under re-reading. Bendis is usually noted for his dialogue heavy pieces, his crime comics and his ability to depict the urban and the realistic. Here it is his observations on the absurd and the ridiculous that make the comic. Most of the jokes are underplayed: allowing the sheer stupidity of what is being said tell the joke rather than belabouring the point. While his art is suitably cartoony and energetic, it doesn't over exagerrate anything or distract from what is essentially verbal humour. I have no idea how accurate this actually is, I don't particularly care. It's just damn funny.
Rating: 
Summary: Fortune and Glory
Review: Cool autobiographical story by writer Bendis who also doubles as illustrator, on his experience in that crazy jungle called Hollywood
Whacky Hollywood characters but from other people's review, his experience is so true that it's not funny, well it is funny but makes you think
The art sucks hahah
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, no holds barred examination of Hollywood
Review: Ever interview for a job when you already have one you're content with? That was Brian Michael Bendis' situation when he sold his first script to Hollywood. He was making a name for himself as a comic book artist/writer when he got noticed by Hollywood. And that's where the journey begins... Bendis delves into the Twilight Zone that is Hollywood when he goes about meeting the studio heads, agents, producers and other bizarre individuals who become the characters of this hilarious graphic novel. Since he already has his dream job, Bendis has the luxury of being able to "look outside in" at the weirdness of Tinsel Town. From the producer who insists Elliot Ness is a fictional (and not historical) character to the "HBO incident," Bendis delivers a great story that comments on our youth-fixated culture, capricious attention spans and the miracle of how a broken-down system like the one in Hollywood still manages to crank out dozens of movies per year. I've been lending this series out to many friends who are non-comic-readers. If you have a bias against comics, get past it and pick this book up! You won't be sorry!
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS GEM
Review: Found this by accident in the bookstore...Great dialogue, great pacing...this Brian dude is one heckuva talent. So much so that I'm going to look at his other stuff. It's candid, well-written and honest. Doesn't get much better than this. Art wise, it reminded me just a little bit of Fred Hembeck from the 80s... For aspiring Hollywood scriptwriters - this has to be on your reading list!
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS GEM
Review: Found this by accident in the bookstore...Great dialogue, great pacing...this Brian dude is one heckuva talent. So much so that I'm going to look at his other stuff. It's candid, well-written and honest. Doesn't get much better than this. Art wise, it reminded me just a little bit of Fred Hembeck from the 80s... For aspiring Hollywood scriptwriters - this has to be on your reading list!
Rating: 
Summary: I THINK I MUSTA MADE A WRONG TURN BACK IN ALBURQUERQUE...
Review: Good, fun read, but hardly the indispenisble tome that many people and critcs claim it to be. It goes on a little too long and drags in places and there are other examples of Hollywood exposed that are as good. The story: Brian Michael Bendis writes a graphic novel (Goldfish - well worth reading!)(and before this, unless you don't mind elements of that story being revealed), it receives the attention of Hollywood, and then thw whole misadventure of hurry up and wait commences. Movies like the Kevin Bacon vehicle The Big Picture cover similar ground - but actually between the two, the latter works better for me - maybe because it is a movie about the movie biz (rather than a comic about a comic in the movie biz), and maybe because, as Bendis repeatedly points out - if the foray into Hollywood doesn't work out, he's still got comics (whereas Kevin Bacon and all the other wannabes in Hollywood only have their dreams and hopes of making it)(thus, the desperation meter is running that much higher). Still, an excellent change of pace from Bendis' usual blood and guts style... it starts off with an excellent Bugs Bunny/Hollywood analogy, and as far as the artwork, as another reviewer commented, it's reminiscient of Fred Hembeck. Overall though, I'd try to borrow a copy - it's a very fast read (Bendis is among the best when it comes to dialogue), and as the author himself points out, the cover price IS criminally high.
Rating:
Summary: I THINK I MUSTA MADE A WRONG TURN BACK IN ALBURQUERQUE...
Review: Good, fun read, but hardly the indispenisble tome that many people and critcs claim it to be. It goes on a little too long and drags in places and there are other examples of Hollywood exposed that are as good. The story: Brian Michael Bendis writes a graphic novel (Goldfish - well worth reading!)(and before this, unless you don't mind elements of that story being revealed), it receives the attention of Hollywood, and then thw whole misadventure of hurry up and wait commences. Movies like the Kevin Bacon vehicle The Big Picture cover similar ground - but actually between the two, the latter works better for me - maybe because it is a movie about the movie biz (rather than a comic about a comic in the movie biz), and maybe because, as Bendis repeatedly points out - if the foray into Hollywood doesn't work out, he's still got comics (whereas Kevin Bacon and all the other wannabes in Hollywood only have their dreams and hopes of making it)(thus, the desperation meter is running that much higher). Still, an excellent change of pace from Bendis' usual blood and guts style... it starts off with an excellent Bugs Bunny/Hollywood analogy, and as far as the artwork, as another reviewer commented, it's reminiscient of Fred Hembeck. Overall though, I'd try to borrow a copy - it's a very fast read (Bendis is among the best when it comes to dialogue), and as the author himself points out, the cover price IS criminally high.
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