Frank Cho Says Kathleen Kennedy Got Him Banned From Marvel and Killed the Star Wars Sketch Cover Program

Comics artist Frank Cho says he has been banned from working at Marvel Comics for three years because former Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy demanded it, and that Marvel’s Star Wars blank sketch cover program ended because of cartoons he drew on those covers. Cho made the claim on The Marvelists podcast during New York Comic-Con 2026, in an interview with host Peter Melnick.

What Cho Said

Cho opened with a hesitation and then said it plainly:

“I’m not sure if I should say it. I’m banned at Marvel. I’ve been banned at Marvel for three years. And it’s not because of Marvel. Everyone at Marvel loves me. It’s Kathleen Kennedy. I p-ssed off Kathleen Kennedy, and she demanded Marvel ban me.”

He said the trigger was a run of cartoons he drew on Star Wars blank sketch cover comics, made as commissions and to sell, that poke fun at Star Wars. He described himself as a fan of the franchise, and continued:

“Apparently Kathleen Kennedy lost her sh-t and then, she just went ballistic. She demanded, commanded Marvel that they never hire me ever again. And plus, because of the sketch cover, she killed the entire sketch cover program for the Star Wars line. So that’s me.”

Cho tied the timing to pressure on Kennedy over underperforming Star Wars films and criticism of The Acolyte:

“She was looking for a puppy to kick, a puppy that can’t fight back, and I was apparently I was a puppy. So she kicked the crap out of me and took out all of her anger out on me and banned me at Marvel.”

The Artist at the Center

Cho created the syndicated comic strip Liberty Meadows in 1997 and went on to draw Shanna the She-Devil, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Savage Wolverine and a long run of Spider-Man and X-Men projects for Marvel. His creator-owned work includes Fight Girls and Skyborne, and he has won National Cartoonists Society awards and the Charles M. Schulz Award for Excellence in Cartooning.

Blank sketch covers are variant covers left empty so that artists can draw on them directly. Cho says his Star Wars sketches on those covers were done as commissions and for sale, and that the jokes in them are what set off the ban.

Dates That Do Not Line Up Yet

The last new Marvel work credited to Cho appears to be Fortnite X Marvel and Moon Knight, both in 2022, which fits a ban of about three years. The last Marvel Star Wars blank variants appear to date to 2020, with Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #1 and Star Wars Vol. 3 #1, which does not match the timeline Cho describes. The Acolyte did not premiere until 2024.

Kennedy left Lucasfilm earlier this year. No public response from Marvel or Lucasfilm to Cho’s claim had surfaced as of Sunday evening.

Marvel still publishes blank sketch variants on other titles, including DNX #1, Marvel Knights: The World to Come #1 and the upcoming Avengers #1. Collectors should expect prices on the existing Star Wars blanks to climb now that the program is described as finished.

Not the First Creator Cut Off Over Star Wars

Writer Chuck Wendig, who wrote Darth Vader for Marvel, has also been described as banned at the publisher in connection with Star Wars. Cho’s claim goes a step further than an individual ban, because he says an entire cover program was shut down to keep one artist from drawing on it.

If Cho’s account holds, Lucasfilm leadership reached across to a publisher to close a cover program over an artist’s jokes about the franchise.

Who Decides?

If a studio executive can end a whole line of covers over one artist’s cartoons, who really controls the comics that carry the brand, and are fans of the franchise being asked to pay for work that cannot laugh at itself?

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