What an excellent morning for acronyms, as the blazing morning sun peaks cheerfully through the partially-broken front window of Stately Beat Manor. Not only is today simultaneously San Diego Comic-Con and Heidi MacDonald Day, but J. Michael Straczynski has announced the creation of Studio JMS, a new venture which will handle and create various projects through all forms of media.

Comics being one of them, although it looks as though JMS’ plan is to take different forms of media and intersect them as seems apporpriate, with the studio also handling TV, film, video games and digital content. No sign yet on a J. Michael Straczynski bluegrass album, although we can but hope. The most interesting aspect of the announcement is that he’ll be reviving his “Joe’s Comics” imprint over at Image, with 4 comics slated for an appearance next year, being Falling Angel, Ten Grand, Guardians, and Sidekick.

Of the overall ambition of the studio, JMS says

It’s all about creating IP. For twenty years, I’ve had the remarkable good fortune to work successfully as a writer and producer in a wide variety of fields, from television to comics and movies. I’ve always dreamed of creating a mini-studio where I can put all of that work under one roof, telling stories that I want to tell and which can be spun up between various platforms: comics that can become TV shows, TV shows that can become movies, and movies that can become comics. With the tremendous recent success of films such as The Avengers, Thor, and the Batman series of films, this feels like the best time to tackle that dream. Best of all, unlike many other startup ventures, I’m not looking to get into these areas, I’m already working in them; now it’s just a matter of taking the next logical step: consolidation.

Running the studio with JMS will be Patricia Tallman, and the pair have a full slate of projects currently in the works – including a TV show with Sam Raimi for Starz, two web-series for MTV, and a film marking JMS’ first work as director on a feature-length project. They also hope to generate one film every 18 months. Doesn’t he sleep?