- Two former Marvel executives, Axel Alonso and Bill Jemas, along with Fandom cochairman Jon Miller, founded the new comics company Artists, Writers and Artisans (AWA) last year.
- The company launched its first comic series, "The Resistance," in March, shortly before comics distribution was halted due to the pandemic.
- Business Insider talked with Alonso and Jemas about navigating a new comic publisher through the pandemic, how it's performing, and what to expect from its future.
Two former Marvel execs, Axel Alonso and Bill Jemas, entered 2020 expecting to go full steam ahead with a new comics universe. Not only did they have decades of combined experience in the industry, but also financial backing from big-time investors like James Murdoch, the son of
But it didn't take long before they hit a complication. Their new company, Artists, Writers and Artisans (AWA), debuted its first series in March. Five days after it was released, comics distribution was halted and shops across the country closed due to the pandemic.
That first series, AWA's "The Resistance," by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Mike Deodato Jr., was coincidentally about a virus that kills millions around the world, but gives thousands of others superpowers. It is meant to set up AWA's "shared universe," similar to Marvel and DC's in which characters live in the same universe and can interact with one another.
The distribution shutdown was painful for AWA.
"Knowing that 'The Resistance' was sitting on the racks in the comic shops and people couldn't get it was a nightmare," Alonso said.
But he wouldn't call the pandemic a setback for the company.
While comics distribution was shut down, AWA released "The Resistance" as a free digital comic, boosting awareness for the series for when the comics shutdown ended in May and readers returned to stores.
"You have to look where there's an opportunity to be discovered in a crisis," Alonso said. "People liked it, so when shops opened back up, they flew off the shelves. Comic readers are completionists. Just because they read it online doesn't deter them to buy the comic or graphic novel."
Alonso has experience seeing opportunity in crisis, having started AWA after exiting his position as Marvel's editor-in-chief during a 2017 sales slump.
He also has faith that AWA's vision of a new business model for comics, where risk and upside are split between the creator and publisher, will be able to entice creators to build a comics universe to compete with heavyweights Marvel and DC.
Alonso's Marvel exit was the catalyst for AWA
Alonso is well aware of the irony in that AWA's first series was about a pandemic, but that aligns with one of his missions for the company: reflecting the real world, which was born out of his experience at Marvel.
Alonso was editor-in-chief starting in 2011, during a time when Marvel introduced bold and diverse new characters like Miles Morales, a biracial Spider-Man. But when sales had decreased in 2017, Alonso was ousted.
"One of my goals was to introduce more diversity," Alonso said of Marvel. "It deeply offended some long-term fans. But to see Miles Morales on the big screen [in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"] was validating. It showed that being topical was a good thing. It's a foolish path to make the fans love you. Now I start the day looking at a blank canvas. You have to take chances, go with your gut, and write about the world as it is.
He was contemplating his next move in late 2018 when he got a call from Jemas, another comics veteran.
Jemas, the former president of Marvel Comics who is often credited for helping dig the company out of bankruptcy in the early 2000s, was exploring a new venture, and he wanted Alonso at his side. Jemas had previously poached Alonso for Marvel from DC in 2000.
Jemas called Alonso's departure from Marvel the spark for AWA.
"Axel is the best there is at what he does," Jemas told Business Insider.
These two former Marvel execs, along with Jon Miller, the cochairman of
"In comics, you can either go to Marvel or DC and get a page rate but own nothing, or option B is creator-owned," Alonso said. "You can do something original that you own and put out in the market and hope it finds an audience. If you're lucky and your book becomes the next 'Walking Dead,' you have a stable income. If not, you may not make much money."
AWA aims to mitigate the risks for creators when launching a creator-owned comic by guaranteeing them a financial stake in the books. At Marvel or DC, creators take on little risk but own none of the IP. At a publisher like Image, they own their IP, but take on most of the financial risk. AWA aims to split the risk between the creator and the publisher.
"We do budget each series to be cash-flow positive, but our publishing business doesn't cover our overhead costs," Jemas said. "We don't expect it to until we build up a solid backlist of graphic novels and hardcover books."
Jemas said that sales have been above projections. "The Resistance" issue one landed at No. 65 on industry website Comichron's best-selling comics of March, a list dominated by much larger publishers Marvel and DC, with more than 26,000 copies sold.
Alonso said AWA's model allows creators to "bet on themselves without putting it all on the line."
That's what attracted AWA's "Year Zero" and "Devil's Highway" writer Benjamin Percy to AWA. Known for DC comics like "Green Arrow" and currently Marvel's "Wolverine," Percy got to experiment with AWA.
"Writing for DC and Marvel is a privilege and a joy of course, but it also comes with restrictions, because you're often the custodian of a character that's been around for decades," Percy told Business Insider.
Hollywood is in AWA's sights
At a time when Hollywood is increasingly looking for new IP to mine, AWA's mission attracted major investors.
They include production company Sister, which was founded by Elisabeth Murdoch (the daughter of Rupert), and Stacey Snider, the former chair and CEO of Fox's film studio; James Murdoch, the son of Rupert, who has distanced himself from his father's media empire that includes Fox News and News Corp; and the venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners.
"There's an arms race for great content right now between Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Disney itself, with Disney Plus," Alex Taussig, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, told The Wall Street Journal last year.
Both Sister and James Murdoch invested at least $5 million into the company, according to WSJ. Miller, the third AWA founder who is also a former digital chief at News Corp, facilitated Murdoch's investment, WSJ said.
"[James] Murdoch knows
The goal is to eventually make the move to Hollywood and discussions have taken place, Jemas and Percy said, but they didn't disclose further details.
"Hollywood is hungry for IP," Percy said. "One of the questions you always face with studios is the question, 'What does it look like?' You show them a comic and the whole project is already storyboarded."
The comics will always come first, Alonso said.
"Our goal is to create a respected publisher first," he said. "We have to make comic books first. I'm not a director or screenwriter or showrunner. I make comic books. But I want to make comic books that people would want to see on the screen."
But Alonso also noted, "No one does comics saying 'I hope we just end here.'" Once the comics universe has strong enough legs, it's inevitable that AWA will try to make the leap to movies and TV.
The future plans for those comics?
Alonso said that the second volume of "The Resistance" has already been written and is being drawn. He compared the books to TV seasons, meaning they'll be told in different volumes but will be an ongoing story. Readers can expect work from popular creators like Reginald Hudlin, Garth Ennis, and Frank Cho, who are all on the company's creative council.
"The number one rule when we spoke to investors and amongst ourselves is to be patient," Alonso said.