Kartoon Studios, the controlling partner of Stan Lee Universe, LLC, announced plans for the launch of Stan Lee Comics, a line of digital and print comic books based on never-before-released stories and characters created by Lee.
The company is partnering with an online book streaming platform and multimedia publisher Legible to develop and distribute approximately 12 original comic book series, based on Lee’s creations, across Legible’s publishing and reading platform, making them accessible to a global market.
The news follows a recent announcement that the publishing company secured print and digital print rights to bring a selection of Kartoon Studios’ IP to life through multimedia-enriched ebooks, featuring audio, video, animations and print comic books.
Kartoon Studios business development executive VP Jon Ollwerther said, “We are celebrating Stan Lee’s 100th birthday this year and what better way to honour this true legend than to launch Stan Lee Comics, with a logo envisioned by Lee himself, and bring his never-before-seen creations to life through this series of new digital and print comic books. We are also excited to expand our relationship with Legible, who we believe is the ideal partner to help us bring these exciting Stan Lee creations to his legions of True Believer fans throughout the universe. With the never-before-seen comics, Lee also left us his unique editorial page as well, Yakkin’ with Stan, which will highlight each comic. Not unlike Stan’s Soapbox, which graced every Marvel Comic. Yakkin’ with Stan will speak to all the True Believers, leaving Lee’s unique take on everything from superheroes to world affairs, and of course ending in his signature, Excelsior!”
Legible founder and CEO Kaleeg Hainsworth said, “Legible is honoured to be selected by Kartoon Studios as the partner to bring Stan Lee Comics and Stan Lee’s heretofore unseen incredible stories and characters to the public for the first time. We know that this is only the beginning for these properties and the brands they will give rise to, and we’re thrilled to bring these new worlds, fantastic characters, powerful stories, and visionary themes to Stan Lee’s fans and to a global audience as never before in digital and print. Legible is bringing publishing and reading into the twenty-first century, and there is just no better way to do so than with Stan Lee, who was always ahead of his time.”