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Joe Kelly is the creator of the lauded graphic novel I Kill Giants, which was awarded the 5th annual International Manga Award from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a rare feat for an American. His original graphic novel Four Eyes was a YALSA “Great Graphic Novel for Teens” selection. Joe is credited with writing “The best Superman story of all time” in Action Comics #775, which Kelly adapted to a feature animation home video, What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way? for Warner Brothers, released to great reviews in 2012. His run on Deadpool remains the industry standard. Kelly also teaches Writing for Animation at his alma mater, NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing. He is also one of the four partners of Man of Action Entertainment.
Man of Action Entertainment is the bi-coastal creative collective responsible for such mega-hits as the Ben 10, and Generator Rex on Cartoon Network, and writing and producing Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel's Avengers Assemble for Disney XD. They are the creators of the characters and team that populate Disney/Marvel's hit feature film, Big Hero 6 (the first-ever Disney animated feature based on a Marvel property), as well as wildly successful video games, toy lines, comic books, graphic novels, stage productions, international animated franchises and a slate of upcoming feature films and prime time TV series. Man of Action serve as front line creators, producers, writers and artists on many of their projects and are constantly creating more. Much like their super-powered protagonists existing across all platforms, Man of Action generates and adapts ideas into high-rated television shows and best-selling merchandise lines in the US and around the world.
Man of Action Entertainment began in 2000 as a group of four friends from diverse back-grounds: Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle, all graphic novelists with a strong appreciation for structure and storytelling, who wanted to do something bigger. "We created MOA on the concept of strength in numbers, our philosophy is that if one of use wins, all four of us win," says Casey. "We started Man of Action Entertainment as writers/artist working on X-Men and Superman, two of the biggest franchises in comics," according to Seagle, "and we decided to shift our focus to creating our own worlds and characters together and make that our full-time gig." Kelly states, "Man of Action Entertainment allows us all to do what we love, work with really smart people, enhance our own work and provide a support system." Rouleau concludes, "We bring our individual viewpoints to each project but everything we work on passes through each Man of Action and our friendship allows for our different aesthetics to still reach a quick consensus." They are The Beatles of boys' action projects, minus the internal strife.
Ben 10 is already the most commercially successful original superhero franchise of the past two decades and the original series has spun off three sequel series, two live-action made-for-TV movies, a multi-national foreign game show, a live stage show, a monster truck show, a roller coaster and that true indicator of pop culture acceptance and saturation -- McDonald's Happy Meal prizes. Thanks to Man of Action Entertainment, Ben 10 is also an upcoming feature film from producer Joel Silver. According to Cartoon Network, which airs Ben 10, the projects' merchandising has already topped $3,000,000,000 in sales. Think about it, that's higher than the GNP for some countries.
When Marvel/Disney wanted to launch Ultimate Spider-Man, they sought out MOA to entrust with their crown jewel character. "In addition to our own IP, we're always active production partners in development and execution of all our projects," states Casey. Seagle explains, "It's pretty common for artists to form a production company, not so much so for writers -- we draw, we design, we translate what works in the visual arts and apply it to IP creation." Man of Action has their own imprint at Image Comics for all of their creator-owned comics and graphic novels and all continue to write, and in Rouleau's case, draw, for DC, Marvel and other publishers as well.
Joe is currently writing Spider-Man/Deadpool for Marvel, reuniting with his Deadpool artist, Ed McGuinness.
Visit him on the web at www.manofaction.tv
Man of Action Entertainment is the bi-coastal creative collective responsible for such mega-hits as the Ben 10, and Generator Rex on Cartoon Network, and writing and producing Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel's Avengers Assemble for Disney XD. They are the creators of the characters and team that populate Disney/Marvel's hit feature film, Big Hero 6 (the first-ever Disney animated feature based on a Marvel property), as well as wildly successful video games, toy lines, comic books, graphic novels, stage productions, international animated franchises and a slate of upcoming feature films and prime time TV series. Man of Action serve as front line creators, producers, writers and artists on many of their projects and are constantly creating more. Much like their super-powered protagonists existing across all platforms, Man of Action generates and adapts ideas into high-rated television shows and best-selling merchandise lines in the US and around the world.
Man of Action Entertainment began in 2000 as a group of four friends from diverse back-grounds: Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle, all graphic novelists with a strong appreciation for structure and storytelling, who wanted to do something bigger. "We created MOA on the concept of strength in numbers, our philosophy is that if one of use wins, all four of us win," says Casey. "We started Man of Action Entertainment as writers/artist working on X-Men and Superman, two of the biggest franchises in comics," according to Seagle, "and we decided to shift our focus to creating our own worlds and characters together and make that our full-time gig." Kelly states, "Man of Action Entertainment allows us all to do what we love, work with really smart people, enhance our own work and provide a support system." Rouleau concludes, "We bring our individual viewpoints to each project but everything we work on passes through each Man of Action and our friendship allows for our different aesthetics to still reach a quick consensus." They are The Beatles of boys' action projects, minus the internal strife.
Ben 10 is already the most commercially successful original superhero franchise of the past two decades and the original series has spun off three sequel series, two live-action made-for-TV movies, a multi-national foreign game show, a live stage show, a monster truck show, a roller coaster and that true indicator of pop culture acceptance and saturation -- McDonald's Happy Meal prizes. Thanks to Man of Action Entertainment, Ben 10 is also an upcoming feature film from producer Joel Silver. According to Cartoon Network, which airs Ben 10, the projects' merchandising has already topped $3,000,000,000 in sales. Think about it, that's higher than the GNP for some countries.
When Marvel/Disney wanted to launch Ultimate Spider-Man, they sought out MOA to entrust with their crown jewel character. "In addition to our own IP, we're always active production partners in development and execution of all our projects," states Casey. Seagle explains, "It's pretty common for artists to form a production company, not so much so for writers -- we draw, we design, we translate what works in the visual arts and apply it to IP creation." Man of Action has their own imprint at Image Comics for all of their creator-owned comics and graphic novels and all continue to write, and in Rouleau's case, draw, for DC, Marvel and other publishers as well.
Joe is currently writing Spider-Man/Deadpool for Marvel, reuniting with his Deadpool artist, Ed McGuinness.
Visit him on the web at www.manofaction.tv