Marvel Comics is leaving New York, and the industry will never be the same.
Marvel is moving its publishing division to Burbank by July 2027, replacing its editor-in-chief, and shipping the old one to Japan for manga. It’s happening while DC posts its widest sales lead in twenty years. Rob Liefeld saw the Webtoon rumor and said two words: “Believe it.”
Marvel Comics is moving to Burbank. Just over 100 staffers have until July 2027 to relocate or find other work. C.B. Cebulski is out as editor-in-chief and moving to Japan. A Korean company is building Marvel’s next digital platform.
And all of it is landing while DC hands Marvel the worst beating it’s taken in twenty years.
Marvel had double DC’s market share two years ago
The numbers are genuinely grim, and two separate point-of-sale datasets agree.
Per ICv2, which tracks dollar share through ComicHub, DC took 34.7% of the direct market in Q1 2026. Marvel took 29.4%. That’s a 5.3-point gap, and Comics Bulletin calls it the widest margin either publisher has held in over two decades, bigger than DC’s New 52 peak in 2011.
Now rewind. In Q2 2024, Marvel sat at 39.2% and DC at 17.8%. Marvel’s share was more than double DC’s.
Two years. From double to trailing.
Bleeding Cool‘s Prana data, which tracks units across 600-plus stores, tells the same story monthly: June 2026 came in at DC 40.07% to Marvel 33.22%. The first week of July widened it to 43.75% against 33.80%.
DC held 16 of the Top 20 superhero best-sellers in Q1. The Absolute line did that, starting with Absolute Batman #1 in December 2024. DC found one good idea and Marvel hasn’t answered it.
The memo is a synergy memo
Staff found out Thursday at a town hall in Midtown. The memo came from Brad Winderbaum and David Abdo, and it’s worth reading closely.
“As we look toward the future, we’ve made the decision to relocate the Comics and Franchise division to Marvel’s central headquarters in Burbank, California. This move will position the team beside our broader creative organization and create opportunities for collaboration across both Marvel and Disney.”
Then: “Our goal is simple: to continue to make the best comic books in the business. Bringing our comics, film, television, and other creative teams together will help us learn from one another, collaborate, and build on the strengths that make Marvel the true House of Ideas.”
And the part for the people whose lives just got upended: “We sincerely hope they choose to continue that journey with us in California. We are committed to supporting every affected employee throughout this transition, which will take place over the next 12 months.”
There’s a nod to the past, too. “New York has played a huge part in who Marvel is as a company, and in the pages of our comics. While our network of writers and artists is now an international operation, New York is still woven into our DNA and that will never change.”
The lease on the Manhattan office expires next year. That’s the trigger nobody put in the memo.
Cebulski is going to Tokyo to make manga
Stephen Wacker is the new editor-in-chief, and on paper he’s a strong pick. He edited the “Brand New Day” run on Amazing Spider-Man and Superior Spider-Man, and he was the editor on Daredevil and Hawkeye when both won Eisners.
Then he left comics for Marvel’s animation, television, and digital divisions, where he picked up an Emmy nomination.
So the new EIC is a comics guy fluent in Hollywood, taking over comics as comics moves to Hollywood. Nobody picked that by accident.
Cebulski, who’s run the line since 2017, isn’t being fired. He’s relocating to Japan as editor of Asia originals to lead Marvel’s manga push.
Marvel took the man who ran its comics for nine years and sent him to Tokyo. Read that as a resource allocation decision, because that’s what it is.
The Webtoon deal already closed, and Webtoon is the one building it
Here’s the verified part everyone keeps skipping past.
On January 8, Disney and Webtoon completed their strategic agreements. Disney bought roughly a 2% equity stake in Webtoon Entertainment, the Naver-owned vertical-scroll giant with about 155 million monthly active users.
In exchange, Webtoon will “build and operate an all-new digital comics platform” carrying roughly 35,000 comics from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, Pixar, and 20th Century Studios.
Webtoon builds it. Webtoon operates it. Disney owns 2% of Webtoon, not the reverse.
Disney’s own announcement called the platform “an expansion upon Marvel Unlimited,” which is Marvel’s own digital subscription service. Expansion is a generous word for what happens to Marvel Unlimited in that sentence.
Josh D’Amaro framed it this way: “By uniting our unparalleled collection of comics across Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, Pixar and 20th Century Studios into a single digital platform, we’re giving fans unprecedented access to the adventures they love, all in one place.”
The rumor: Marvel publishing phased out to Webtoon by 2030
On July 6, Fandom Pulse published a claim from a single unnamed industry insider: “Marvel will be phasing out their publishing to Webtoon by 2030 give or take. That’s the word I heard.” The same source added that DC had been headed the same direction before going all-in on Absolute Batman.
Cosmic Book News said it was separately hearing from its own insider that Disney is “less interested in publishing” and looking to license Marvel Comics out rather than produce it in-house.
Handle that carefully. It’s one anonymous source, amplified by a second outlet citing another anonymous source. Marvel, Disney, and Webtoon have announced nothing of the kind.
MajorSpoilers put the standard exactly right: “The rumor may eventually prove true. That does not make it true today.”
Then Rob Liefeld said “Believe it”
Rob Liefeld saw the report and replied with two words.
“Believe it.”
Then he explained why, and this is the part worth sitting up for. “Tech is where all the big corporations are moving towards. Especially entertainment. I am taking meeting after meeting and it’s all about tech and the savings it will provide. These corporations are bottom line, period. Don’t kid yourself. Meanwhile, those of us who can control our comics will choose physical media first & foremost.”
Hours later he added: “Since I tweeted this, I had two more meetings about tech.”
He isn’t confirming the Webtoon specifics. He’s saying the direction is real and he’s watching it happen from inside the meetings.
Why Liefeld’s take lands, and why to keep a hand on your wallet
Two things are true about Liefeld here and you need both.
He co-created Deadpool with Fabian Nicieza and Cable with Louise Simonson. In 1992 he walked out of Marvel with a group of star artists and founded Image Comics, which kicked off the modern creator-ownership movement. Its first book was his own Youngblood #1.
So when he says “those of us who can control our comics will choose physical media,” that’s not a hot take. That’s a man who bet his career on that exact proposition thirty-four years ago, watching the argument play out again.
The other thing that’s true: Liefeld has spent three decades as one of the most divisive figures in the business, and he’s an Image founder with a permanent ideological stake in corporate publishers looking bad. Per CBR, other well-known creators publicly dismissed the report as engagement bait.
He’s credible and interested. Both.
What Clownfish TV can and can’t corroborate
We covered this rumor on the podcast last week, and our position hasn’t moved.
We can’t sign off on the Webtoon angle. Nobody outside Disney can right now.
What we can corroborate is that Disney has been thinking about outsourcing Marvel publishing since at least 2016 or 2017. That’s not new, and it’s not a rumor, and it’s the part that makes this week’s news look less like a real estate decision.
What actually happened this week
Nothing here confirms the rumor. Everything here rhymes with it.
Marvel’s publishing division moves onto the movie lot. The editor-in-chief is replaced by a man who spent years in animation and digital. The outgoing editor-in-chief is dispatched to Japan for manga. The digital platform is handed to a Korean company Disney owns 2% of. And the sales floor has fallen out at the same time.
Any one of those is a business decision. Five in twelve months is a direction.
Marvel says the goal is “to continue to make the best comic books in the business.” The lease runs out next year, and everyone in that Midtown office has until July to decide whether they’re going.
Ask Liefeld how the meetings are going.
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Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
Hat Tips:
The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap (July 2026), which broke and confirmed the move, verified the relocation of Marvel’s Comics and Franchise division to Burbank, the Thursday town hall, just over 100 employees asked to relocate by July 2027 across a 12-month transition, the expiring Manhattan lease, this marking the first time all Marvel businesses sit in one city, the full Winderbaum and Abdo staff memo quoted here, Stephen Wacker’s appointment as editor-in-chief and his record on Amazing Spider-Man, Superior Spider-Man, Daredevil and Hawkeye plus his animation and digital work and Emmy nomination, and C.B. Cebulski’s move to Japan as editor of Asia originals to lead the manga push
ICv2, Bleeding Cool, Comics Bulletin, and Comics Beat (2024-2026), verified the sales picture — ICv2’s ComicHub dollar-share figures of DC 34.7% to Marvel 29.4% in Q1 2026 versus Marvel 39.2% to DC 17.8% in Q2 2024, the 5.3-point gap described as the widest in over two decades and exceeding the New 52 era, DC holding 16 of the Top 20 superhero best-sellers, the Absolute line launching with Absolute Batman #1 in December 2024, Bleeding Cool’s Prana unit-share figures of DC 40.07% to Marvel 33.22% in June 2026 and DC 43.75% to Marvel 33.80% in the first week of July, and Comics Beat’s note that ICv2 tracks dollars while Prana tracks units
WEBTOON Entertainment investor relations, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter (2025-2026), verified the completed January 8, 2026 Disney-Webtoon agreements including Disney’s approximately 2% equity stake, Webtoon building and operating the new platform carrying roughly 35,000 titles, Disney’s description of it as “an expansion upon Marvel Unlimited,” Webtoon’s roughly 155 million monthly active users, and Josh D’Amaro’s statement
Fandom Pulse (rumor origin, credited only as such), Cosmic Book News, MajorSpoilers, CBR, and Rob Liefeld’s public posts on X (July 2026), noted for the unverified claim from a single unnamed insider that Marvel would phase publishing out to Webtoon by 2030 and Cosmic Book News’s separate anonymous claim that Disney is “less interested in publishing,” Rob Liefeld’s “Believe it” reply and his subsequent quoted remarks about tech, cost savings and physical media, MajorSpoilers’ assessment that “the rumor may eventually prove true, that does not make it true today,” CBR’s reporting that other well-known creators publicly dismissed the report, and Liefeld’s biography including co-creating Deadpool and Cable and founding Image Comics in 1992; plus Clownfish TV’s own prior reporting that Disney has been considering outsourcing Marvel publishing since at least 2016 or 2017.