Jean Michel

Jean David Michel is a Black Haitian American comic book writer, independent publisher, former comic shop owner, and the co-founder and Executive Director of ComicBooked! — a worker-owned digital infrastructure platform (that you are currently on) built to support, protect, and empower independent Black comic book creators, publishers, retailers, and convention organizers. Born in Suffern, New York, Michel has spent nearly two decades inside every major layer of the comic book industry ecosystem — as a creator, a publisher, and a retailer — giving him a firsthand understanding of what the industry provides and what it has historically failed to provide for Black professionals.

In 2009, Michel co-founded Megabrain Comics as an independent publishing imprint, writing and self-publishing American Dark Age — a post-apocalyptic sword-and-punk comic series centered on a female Marine protagonist navigating a world stripped of modern technology. Edited by Michaela Josie Vuolo Nieves and illustrated by Jacqueline Taylor, the series earned strong reviews and was featured by American Express as a model of independent comics entrepreneurship. In 2016, Michel revived the Megabrain Comics name as a brick-and-mortar comic shop in Rhinebeck, New York, which he ran until October 2025. During its run, Megabrain Comics was named Best Comic Book Store in the Hudson Valley multiple times by both Hudson Valley Magazine and The Chronogram Readers' Choice Awards.

In 2023, Michel co-founded ComicBooked! with his sister and lead developer Manon Michel, building the platform from the ground up through two years of entirely self-funded development. ComicBooked! is a worker-owned cooperative centered on Black creatives, publishers, retailers, and event organizers — built deliberately as a reaction to the mainstream comic industry's systemic failure to support and invest in the independent Black comics community. The platform launched into open beta at comicbooked.org.