Joe Kelly
Man of Action Entertainment, the bi-coastal creative studio started in 2000, created the megahit Ben 10 and Generator Rex for Cartoon Network. Man of Action, a writers collective, served as co-executive producer and writer for Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man and is currently an executive producer/writer for Marvel's Avengers Assemble on Disney XD. Man of Action Entertainment consists of creators Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steven T. Seagle. Disney/Marvel's Academy Award®-winning feature Big Hero 6 utilized the characters and team created by Man of Action as credited in the main titles. The film marked the first time Disney turned Marvel comic book characters into an animated film and is also the first film based on a comic book I.P. to win an Academy Award®.
The quartet collectively worked on the largest franchise characters in comics from Superman to X-Men before refocusing on creating their own original worlds/characters for their original comic books and graphic novels published through their Man of Action imprint at Image Comics. In comics, Kelly's Eisner-nominated I Kill Giants (illustrated by Ken Niimura) received numerous awards and accolades domestically and internationally including the "International Manga Award" in 2012 and was named the one of the "Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens" by the Young Adult Library Services Association upon its release. Now I Kill Giants is in pre-production as a feature film with a script by Kelly and producers including Man of Action Entertainment, Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures, XYZ Films and Treehouse Pictures. Kelly's legendary Superman story, Action Comics #775: "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" was turned into a hit DC Universe 2012 animated film, Superman vs. The Elite, scripted by Kelly. He's long been credited with revising and revitalizing Deadpool. Whenever life allows, Kelly is proud to teach Writing for Animation at his alma mater, NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing, where he earned his MFA. Kelly's current comic book projects include the dark irreverent comedy, Bad Dog, Four Eyes, the genre-splicing revenge tale about dragon-fighting in depression-era Manhattan, and BANG!TANGO, a crime noir thriller that is violent, sexy, and perverse — while simultaneously an examination of violence, sex, and perversion. Man of Action Entertainment is also producing the feature film Officer Downe based on Man of Action original graphic novels. Man of Action Entertainment will also be creating/writing/producing a new Mega Man animated series with 26 episodes in 2017 for Dentsu and Capcom and they are also returning to their original creation as Executive Producers of a new Ben 10 series for Cartoon Network. If you want to know more about Man of Action, you can follow them at their not-so-secret headquarters Online: www.ManOfAction.TV