NYCC 2023: Jeff the Shark Has Been Read 1 Million Times

NYCC 2023: Jeff the Shark and the Marvel Unlimited pets line

The Next Big Thing panel at NYCC 2023 was built like a tease. Marvel's creative VP Ryan Penagos hosted, Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski sat beside him, and the room was told to expect a big new event series. The reveal was a joke with a straight face: the event belonged to the animals of the Marvel Infinity Comics line, and it was called Infinity Paws.

The panel presented the pets line as a Thanos-sized story for the smallest characters in the catalog. That is funny on its face, and it also describes the project fairly. Infinity Paws pulls the stars of several separate digital series into one crossover, which is the same move Marvel makes with its biggest heroes, scaled down to a cat, a pizza-loving dog and a shark with legs.

The number that got attention was the one attached to Jeff. According to what Marvel told the NYCC audience, the Jeff the Shark series alone has been read 1,000,000 times. Trade coverage afterward repeated it: The Comics Beat described Jeff as one of the biggest hits on Marvel Unlimited, with more than a million views. For a digital-first comic about a land shark, that is a strong result by the standards of any modern comics format, and it gave the panel an easy argument for giving the pets their own crossover.

Anyone who has read the pets books on Marvel Unlimited will recognize the appeal. They read like Sunday-morning newspaper strips: short, visual, warm, and built on a running gag instead of a continuity chart. That tone is the whole product, and Jeff is its most dependable ambassador.

Who Jeff the Land Shark is

Jeff the Land Shark was created by writer Kelly Thompson and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo. He made a cameo in West Coast Avengers vol. 3, issue 6, dated December 2018, and was named and properly introduced in issue 7 the following month. Gwen Poole, better known as Gwenpool, adopted him, and the cuteness of the design did the rest.

His early life in the comics was a hand-over. Gwen entrusted him to Deadpool at the start of Thompson's 2019 Deadpool series, and Kate Bishop, the Hawkeye who led that West Coast Avengers team, ended up sharing his care. A pet that moves between households is a good engine for a series, because each new caretaker brings a different kind of trouble.

The Infinity Comics format turned out to suit him. Those books are vertical-scroll digital comics designed for phones, and the It's Jeff! series ran in seasons: the first from September to November 2021, the second from September 2022 to January 2023, and a third from October 2023 to March 2024, according to the character's publication history. Print collections followed, starting with It's Jeff! #1 in March 2023.

What Infinity Paws is

Infinity Paws was announced for spring 2024, and Marvel's own announcement put its launch on Marvel Unlimited on April 5, 2024. Jason Loo, who has written Lucky the Pizza Dog and X-Men Unlimited among other Infinity Comics, writes it. Nao Fuji, the artist and colorist behind Marvel Meow, draws it.

The cast pulls from the pets line: Jeff the Land Shark, Chewie, the feline companion of Carol Danvers, Alligator Loki, and Lucky the Pizza Dog, each of whom already had a series of their own. Loo told Marvel that Marvel Meow readers should expect a treat, or several, since almost all of the favorite Marvel pets are in the crossover, furry and scaly alike.

Both creators come from the line they are now crossing over. Loo's previous work already included a pet book and a team book in the Infinity format, and Fuji handled a cat series. That matters for a project whose selling point is tone: the crossover is written by someone who has spent years learning how much story a few vertical panels can carry, and drawn by an artist who has made an animal the center of a series before.

Why a pet comic can hit a million

The comics have a lot going for them beyond the shark. Jeff's series has carried homages to Peanuts and Snoopy, and one issue takes on a Nirvana album cover, jokes that adult readers get immediately and young readers enjoy without knowing the source.

The format also lowers the cost of trying one. A reader on a phone can open an issue between other things and finish it in minutes, and the app counts every one of those opens. A million reads says as much about that low barrier as it does about the character.

Infinity Paws at a glance

• Announced at the Next Big Thing panel, New York Comic Con 2023, hosted by Ryan Penagos with C.B. Cebulski.
• Writer: Jason Loo (Lucky the Pizza Dog, X-Men Unlimited). Artist and colorist: Nao Fuji (Marvel Meow).
• Stars: Jeff the Land Shark, Chewie, Alligator Loki and Lucky the Pizza Dog.
• Launch: Marvel Unlimited, April 5, 2024.
• Jeff's creators: Kelly Thompson and Daniele Di Nicuolo; first seen in West Coast Avengers vol. 3 #6 (December 2018).

What the 1 million reads mean for Marvel Unlimited

Read as a business signal, the announcement is simple. Marvel Unlimited is a subscription app, and a character that readers open again and again makes the case for itself in a way that a continuity-heavy event cannot. Jeff had already moved beyond the app by the time of the panel, with a print collection of the first season in shops since March 2023.

The later record bears that out. Jeff got a five-issue solo print miniseries in 2025 from Thompson and the artist Tokitokoro, and he became a playable character in the video game Marvel Rivals in December 2024. A pet that began as a running gag in a West Coast Avengers issue now has a catalog of its own.

As for Infinity Paws, the pitch holds up. A crossover of four pet series asks the reader for no homework, and each lead brings a ready-made comic premise: a shark with legs, Carol Danvers' cat Chewie, a version of Loki who is an alligator, and a dog named for his favorite food. The writer who knows the corner of the line best is the one writing it, and that is usually the safer bet.

For a reader coming to the pets line cold, the starting point is the first season of It's Jeff!, which ran as issues 1 to 12 from September 2, 2021. Each installment is short, so the whole season goes quickly, and it sets up the rules the later books keep: Jeff is a menace, an affectionate one, and the people around him pay for it. From there, Marvel Meow and Lucky the Pizza Dog fill in the other corners of the line before the crossover.

The panel itself ran at New York Comic Con in October 2023, and the pets segment was the most playful part of a Marvel presentation. Marvel could have announced a standard event. It chose to lean into the part of its digital catalog that readers actually open, and the million-read figure is the evidence it brought into the room.

The pivot from a mock-serious tease to a plush-toy punchline is what makes the announcement stick. The number is fair, the joke landed, and the crossover is an easy recommendation for anyone who already reads the line, with a million reads behind it as proof that they are not alone.

Sources

• Jeff the Land Shark, Wikipedia — character background and publication history