After graduating Harvard, Jemas took a job as a tax attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York. Disappointed by this work, he left after two years to work for the
National Basketball Association, which he found to be more entrepreneurial, and allowed him to focus on managing a business and working on deals, which Jemas sees as two of the things he does best. It also gave him entry into the entertainment field, which he felt would open up lucrative opportunities. While at NBA, according to Jemas, he helped build an almost non-existent basketball card business into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Jemas and Quesada's partnership would eventually suffer amid controversy generated by Jemas, which Marvel executives frowned upon, and which resulted in Quesada distancing himself from Jemas in the eyes of Marvel staff and freelancers. During this time, Jemas spearheaded the revival of the company's
Epic line, which would publish creator-owned books, but his interference in editorial generated much ill will among creators who felt his ideas did not help the quality of the books. Producer and
Marvel Studios CEO
Avi Arad in particular was angered over certain comics overseen by Jemas that Arad had difficulty selling to Hollywood producers and stars. As the company's film properties grew in importance, Jemas lost the loyalty of Arad's business partner,
Isaac Perlmutter, Upon his departure from the company, Jemas continued to work with Marvel in a non-executive capacity through mid-2004, writing or co-writing Marvel
comic books including
Namor and
Origin. Comic book writer
Gail Simone said on her
blog that she
ghost wrote for Jemas during his tenure at Marvel. She later clarified that she was referring to a comedic article about Marvel giving away free cookies rather than an actual comic. Upon his departure from
Marvel Entertainment, Jemas started 360ep, an entertainment property management firm. He developed the Freeware Bible, which translates ancient Aramaic-Hebrew words into English synonyms, for the purpose of providing an English translation of Genesis that is truer to the original Hebrew text than commonly used translations like the
King James Bible, and to "show readers that widely accepted Bible translations are inherently imperfect". By February 2009, he had completed the first chapter. In 2012, Jemas announced the creation of an online comics venture, the Transverse Universe. A new print comic,
Wake the F#CK Up, was released December 4, 2012 via
Zenescope Comics. The promotion of the comic was spearheaded with a
YouTube video by
hip-hop artist Kilgorian Tralfamadore. In December 2013, Jemas joined
Take-Two Interactive to start a graphic fiction imprint,
Double Take Comics. Double Take Comics closed in November 2016. In 2019, Jemas joined the new comic book publisher Artists, Writers and Artisans, or
AWA Studios an initiative created by former Marvel editor-in-chief
Axel Alonso, on which Jemas would serve as chief creative officer. The publisher announced that its first slate of titles would include books by creators such as
Peter Milligan,
Frank Cho, and
Christa Faust. The series garnered positive reviews, achieved a rating of 8.9 out of 10 at the review aggregator website Comic Book Roundup, based on 24 reviews. == Personal life ==