Bill Jemas is coming back to comic books and with 5 million in seed money it might be happening soon.
If you were reading comics at the turn of the century then you probably know who Bill Jemas is and all the things he did at Marvel. During the dark days at Marvel when the 90’s comic bubble exploded and the company almost had to call it quits on account of bankruptcy, Jemas was one of the few who helped the comic book giant see its way through.
Flash forward to 2018 and Jemas has a new venture in Artists, Writers and Artisans, Inc. This new chapter in Jemas life which just received $5 million in funding from venture capital firm Lightspeed an early investor in Snapchat could be the beginning of the next comic giant. Lightspeed’s Alexander Taussig is on the board of AWAI, along with Jemas and Jon Miller, the former AOL chief exec who bought Fandom this year.
Jemas and Artists, Writers, and Artisans aren’t done yet raising money, the company is looking for a further $2.5 million in funding, hopefully from a TV network or movie studio. AWAI will publish its first comic books sometime in 2019 and the is company rumored to have former Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso as its editorial head.
As always we will be watching…