Disney is starting up Kingdom Comics, a new label that will develop graphic novels for eventual film adaptations, according to Daily Variety. The studio has tapped Ahmet Zappa, former 20th Century Fox Television president Harris Katleman and Silent Devil Christian Beranek to head up the unit, which will also make comics based on existing Mouse House film properties. Disney Publishing Worldwide has first-look distribution rights to all titles.
Zappa, son of altenative rock legend Frank Zappa, is the author of the young adult novel The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless, which Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films acquired in 2006. He is also an exec producer on the Jim Henson Co.’s upcoming Fraggle Rock: The Movie, based on the 1980s’ HBO kids’ puppet show.
As head of Fox Television, Katleman shepherded the development of The Tracey Ulman Show and its more famous FOX spin-off, The Simpsons. Beranek founded publishing company Silent Devil in 1996 and put out a number of graphic novels including Dracula vs. King Arthur and Super Frat. He has also drafted as screenplay for a Dracula vs. King Arthur feature film.
