Posted in: AWA, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News | Tagged: keron grant, murdoch

Rupert Murdoch's Daughter-In-Law, Kathryn Murdoch, Now Writing Comics

Rupert Murdoch's daughter-in-law, Kathryn Murdoch, is now writing comics, with Gaya being published in October from AWA

Well, this is a new way to break into comics. Be the wife of the son of one of the most prominent media billionaires in the world, Rupert Murdoch. Whose son, pushed out of Succession over his less strigently conservative views, James Murdoch, has invested heavily in Axel Alonso's comic book publisher, AWA.

Bleeding Cool previously reported that Futurific Studios, a production company founded by James' wife Kathryn Murdoch and Ari Wallach, responsible for the PBS docuseries A Brief History of the Future, was to publish comics through AWA, to "bring together storytellers, technologists, artists, and scientists to create realistic, thriving worlds and societies that can exist across multiple platforms. We believe that if we can imagine better worlds, we can build them."

AWA is a comic book publisher set up by former Marvel executives Axel Alonso and Bill Jemas (though the latter was eventually pushed out) and are known for publishing idiosyncratic creator-owned comics by big names such as J Michael Straczynski, Mike Deodato, Garth Ennis, Ronda Rousey, Frank Cho and Mark Russell. 

As of this year, AWA has been reminded who owns them, is publishing a series of comic books as The Protopias Collection, in association with Futurific Studios that will highlight stories set in futures that are not perfect but incrementally better than today, saying, "We believe that if we can imagine better worlds, we can build them." And it begins with Polis, the first of the The Protopias Collection from AWA and Futurific, a one-shot comic by Mark Russell and Laci, published back in April. Mark is best known for his satirical political takes using classic comic book and cartoon characters such as The Flintstones, Snagglepuss, Red Sonja and Marvel's X-Factor. It wasn't half bad, Russell taking Ari Wallach's ideas about floating cities in the future and how they would work in a world torn apart by floods and hurricanes. And found an entertaining thread, that the cities were originally created to house refugees offshore, and now those refugees were the only people who could help the embattled mainland, and taking on those who wanted to escape their conflicts. Welcome to Miragua. The refugees now took on refugees from the land that they initially fled to. It was clever, social commentary, satire. Of course, that would never do.

Because now it seems that Kathryn Murdoch wants to write the comics herself. With the Gaya one-shot following on from Polic, and published by AWA as part of their October 2025 solicit and solicitations (Which also has Sir Elton John joining the line-up).

Gaya, written by Kathryn Murdoch with AWA editor Michael Coast and drawn by Keron Grant, known drawing Fantastic Four, Iron Man, New Mutants, Son Of Vulcan, and Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus, will be published in October in which a scientist gains environmental powers after experimenting with fungal networks and becomes Mother Nature, to take revenge on humanity. Basically Poison Ivy, but with a family to rescue her… Gaya will be published on the 22nd of October. No news as of yet as to whether Kathryn will be doing a signing or not. Might she make it to New York Comic Con?

GAYA (ONE SHOT)

ARTISTS WRITERS & ARTISANS INC
AUG250560
(W) Kathryn Murdoch, Michael Coast (A / CA) Keron Grant
Continuing Protopias, the new science-fiction anthology series from Futurific Studios (PBS's A Brief History of the Future) and AWA that explores the many possible futures that can come to pass as we try to make the right choices in imperfect realities. When a maverick biochemist's groundbreaking research into fungal networks inadvertently grants her extraordinary powers to tap into nature, she transforms into "Mother Nature," a force of vengeance against humanity's exploitation of the planet. As her methods escalate, it's up to her family to lead her down a path toward redemption and hope before it's too late.
In Shops: Oct 22, 2025

Other books in their Protopias line include Entanglement by Joshua Lak Kim, Ciara Ni Chuirc, and Max von Fafner, which will be released in August, and the just-published The Purpose Project by Danny Hogan and Felipe Cunha, which examines what happens when jobs become obsolete.

No, I don't know why, forty years since the last time, the world's current state is revolving around the Maxwells and the Murdochs one more. History may not repeat, but it does rhyme.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!