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For decades, Marvel Comics held the exclusive rights to publish new comics using Marvel characters. Occasionally, they'd be licensed out for overseas manga, newspaper strips, or the all-too-rare company crossover, but for the most part, the only place to get new Marvel comics was Marvel Comics. But now, there are more Marvel ideas than the House of Ideas itself can hold, and its bosses and Disney seem to be fine (and in some cases more than fine!) with other publishers publishing Marvel comics. 

"What I like about [Abrams Comic Arts' Marvel Arts line] is that we get to do the projects that Marvel may not have the bandwidth to do, or may not have thought of, in a format that Marvel doesn't regularly do," says Abrams Comic Arts' editorial director Charles Kochman in an interview with Publishers Weekly's Zach Rabiroff.

In the case of the recent hit OGN X-Men: Elsewhen Vol. 1 by John Byrne, former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief did attempt to get the rights to publish that alt-history book there but couldn't come to terms with the creator. But Abrams, thanks in no small part to editor/writer Chris Ryall, who has a deep relationship with Byrne, was able to make it happen with terms and conditions both sides could agree to.

"John and I worked together at DC, so we have a little bit of a complicated history," Kochman says. "But at the time, Chris Ryall was working for us, and when I mentioned the project to him, he reached out to John. I think without Chris, we probably wouldn’t have come to terms, and I was more than happy to step aside for the greater good of the project."

According to Kochman, Marvel not publishing X-Men: Elsewhen became a selling point in making it a hit.

"... the story that seemed to get the most attention was a creator who got to finish the story on his own terms, outside of a corporation sort of dictating where he could go," says Kochman.

That being said, Marvel Comics' staff do have an advisory/approvals role in the new Marvel Comics that Abrams produces. In the case of Alex Ross's Marvel Dimensions, the artist/writer said there were several meetings with Cebulski and long-time Marvel editor Tom Brevoort over the course of the project.

Although Marvel itself has published original graphic novels on and off again since the early '80s, it's never seemed to be able to find a way to do it sustainably and continuously, which is the name of the game for single-issue comic books that they specialize in. Also, the business model for graphic novels is far different than serialized comic books, even if the latter does end up as a collected graphic novel.

Meanwhile, Abrams is a company that specializes in printing things like original graphic novels — they were the first U.S. company to specialize in the printing of artbooks way back in the '40s, and artbooks from a production and distribution standpoint are much more similar to original graphic novels than single-issue comic books. Since the launch of its graphic novel division, Abrams ComicArts, in 2009, it has broken through with hits such as Mom's Cancer, My Friend Dahmer, and Nat Turner — and has worked in the orbits of Marvel and DC on numerous occasions with several art books related to Alex Ross, Jack Kirby, and more.

Abrams Comic Arts' Marvel Arts line continues this week with Alex Ross's Marvel Dimensions, followed September 8 by Doctor Strange: Endless Nightmare, and Thor: Behemoth of the Black Moon in February 2027.

Interested? Here's where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here's a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you're looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here's everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.