Now Bill Jemas Quits AWA To Set Up Be Good Studios

Man, you wait ages for an nineties-era Marvel executive to make career changing news and then two come along at once. Yesterday, we reported on Joe Quesada leaving Marvel Comics after twenty-five years to make movies, and today Bill Jemas is making a similar move. Stepping down from AWA where he was CEO and Publisher to set up a new company, Be Good Studios.

It was Bill Jemas who first hired Joe Quesada in 1998 alongside Jimmy Palmiotti, turning their Event Comics into Marvel Knights. as a Marvel  editor and then promoting him to Editor-In-Chief. With Bill Jemas as Marvel CCO, for a few years they made a mighty double act on the PR stage, talking Marvel up and making wild decisions. Jemas was ousted in 2004 nd went on to found a number of comic book and comic book related companies and projects including 360 Entertainment and Double Take, before the new comic book publisher AWA finally took, with Jemas as CEO and publisher and with Joe Quesada’s EIC successor Axel Alonso as CCO and EIC, backed by Murdoch money.

And now Jemas is off again, resigning from AWA and setting up Be Good Studios, saying “we are an entertainment business owned and operated by the artists, writers and artisans who show and tell the stories and work for the business. We publish webtoons, comic books and graphic novels, produce and distribute animation and live action, mint & market NFTs, and license our properties for media & merchandise.” Recently AWA came a cropper announcing NFT work before that decision was swiftly reversed after negative feedback. AWA has always had Alonso and Jemas pushing in different directions, and this may have been a symptom of that. Now Jemas has left and is free to pursue all the NFTs he wants… could this have been what inspired the move? Joe Quesada’s departure at Marvel was full of Marvel execs saying nice things about him. Will Bill get the same from AWA?