Much has been made of Marvel’s decision to distance itself from Disney’s adaptation of its Big Hero 6 comic book. Somewhere along the way, it was decided by both Marvel and Disney that what Disney wants to do with the property should stand on its own, thus the absence of what would typically be a new announcement regarding any new Big Hero 6 titles in development from Marvel.
So far, the closest thing we’ve gotten to that is US manga publisher Yen Press gaining the rights to publish a Manga created to serve as the prequel to the film. Until now.
Thanks to developing reports by comic-book news site Bleeding Cool, the job of putting out new Big Hero 6 material now rests in the hands of a new and (until recently) virtually unknown publishing company called Joe Books, who will be in charge of publishing new comic books and novels set in the world of the upcoming Disney film!
As this is brand new information, no known creative teams or authors have been set for the books.
Based in Toronto, Ontario in Canada, almost little to nothing is known about this new start-up company; however, we do have information about its founder, Adam Fortier. He’s certainly no stranger to the comic book industry, having worked for Dreamwave where he negotiated for the Transformers license before starting Speakeasy, a comics-publisher that failed to take off. He also spent time as Vice President of Boom! Studios, where he worked with Disney on repackaging some of its comics.
Now after years of being off the radar, he’s suddenly emerged as the founder of Joe Books. Again, very little is known about the publisher. Even its bare-bones website doesn’t tell us much. But apparently Disney has enough faith in Fortier and his new start-up that they have not only entrusted the creation of material set in the universe created for Big Hero 6, but they have also been entrusted with repackaging and creating material for a vast majority of other Disney properties.
More on this story as it develops and more information to come on other titles coming from Joe Books.
What do you think? Are you excited for new material being created for Disney’s Big Hero 6?