When the Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009, among the many obvious questions was what was to become of the Disney comics published by BOOM! Studios. Titles based on Disney properties like The Muppet Show and the films of Pixar have been popular with critics and readers alike, and form the basis of the publisher's BOOM! Kids line. The common suspicion was that Disney, now in possession of its own comic book publisher, Marvel, would bring its properties back home, and that is exactly what's happened. Announced via press release this week, Marvel will publish Disney-Pixar Presents, a line of monthly magazines that launches with Cars -- specifically, a reprint of a Cars story previously published by BOOM! Studios.Marvel's Disney-Pixar Presents will take the form of 96-page magazines that include new material and reprints as well as puzzles and games. Disney-Pixar Presents: Cars #1 goes on sale in May and includes Rally Race, a BOOM! Studios Cars story written by Alan J. Porter & Mark Cooper with artwork by Allen Gladfelter, Magic Eye Studios and Travis Hill. The book will retail for $5.99.

BOOM!'s The Incredibles series will be interrupted as a consequence of this development, and end on a cliffhanger, as onfirmed by CEO and Publisher Ross Richie in a statement.

"The team over at Marvel is some of the best in comics publishing -- Dan [Buckley], Joe [Quesada], Axel [Alonso], and Tom [Brevoort] are great at what they do, and I'm sure the characters will be in excellent hands. I certainly love the material they're collecting from our CARS: RALLY RACE graphic novel. Landy Walker and Marcio Takara were unable to finish their last arc of THE INCREDIBLES so I hope Marvel's able to complete the story, I for one would love to read it. Working with Disney and Pixar was a highlight in my 6 years of BOOM! publishing. Those are some great folks! Meanwhile, Mickey, Donald and Darkwing fans can look forward to some great stories from BOOM Kids! and all the BOOM Kids! fans need not fret -- BOOM Kids! 2.0 is right around the corner."

As Richie said, some Disney material will remain at BOOM! for now, specifically the so-called "Classic Disney" properties like Mickey Mouse, Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck. At the moment there's no news about the fate of The Muppet Show license, but there's good reason to assume those titles have left the publisher as well. Last month's Diamond Previews -- the catalogue from which retailers order new comics -- listed BOOM!'s next issues of The Muppet Show as cancelled. Like the incomplete Incredibles story, we don't yet know what will become of writer-artist Roger Langridge's work on the title, which was postponed for personal reasons back in November of last year. Hopefully those comics will find a home at Marvel.


More From ComicsAlliance