Many were surprised last week by the announcement of the departure of Axel Alonso from Marvel Comics, to be replaced as editor-in-chief by company veteran C.B. Cebulski. Before Alonso's promotion in 2011, that position was held by Joe Quesada, who for the past seven years has served as chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, focusing primarily on televisions and other Disney divisions. But Quesada now plans to make a shift back toward comics.

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He told Newsarama the change in focus began last month, with him telling Marvel "I want to shift some more of my focus so I can do a little bit more in publishing, as I want to be there to help C.B. land with both feet running and be there for him in any way he needs me to be."

"We have a young editorial crew and these kids are super-bright and eager to learn as much about Marvel and the industry as possible," he explained, "so I started doing a few seminars on covers, design, pacing, etc. It’s been a blast getting back in the trenches."

Quesada acknowledged that his increased involvement in publishing is also way to help repay Cebulski. "C.B. was there for me to help build our publishing division to what it became," he said, "so I want to be there for him in any capacity he needs me to be."