CREW Cut

John Byrne sent along his first cover for his upcoming STAR TREK: CREW series (starting in March '09). For those of you who've written in saying you liked his ROMULANS and ASSIGNMENT EARTH books but wanted to see him handle the Federation, this series is for you. The issue one solicits read like this:

Eight years before "The Cage,” the young woman who would become the Starship Enterprise's "most experienced officer" was a lowly cadet assigned to the shakedown cruise of an uncommissioned starship. But that supposedly pedestrian mission may prove the most dangerous of her life.

SHOCK to the System

This week's SHOCK FESTIVAL book has been getting some great press from places like FANGORIA (last month's write up is viewable here; the new mag features an even more ravingly ecstatic review).

Also, these places really dig the book, too:

Film Threat's review

A GREAT cover story in The Austin Chronicle

“A stone groove and as badass a tome as you're likely to come across this year or the next. If you love grindhouse, sleaze cinema, or B-movies in general, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy.”
--FILM THREAT.COM

"Stephen Romano is the Robert Rodriguez of horror! Not only do I give SHOCK FESTIVAL my highest recommendation, I'm even calling it my favorite book of 2008.”
--COMICS 101.COM

“It’s GRINDHOUSE meets SPINAL TAP. Romano’s bizarre world of fringe movie madness is authentic, raw, hilarious and brilliant.”
--DREAD CENTRAL.COM

“One of the greatest homage to B-cinema ever undertaken . . . Shock Festival is a breathtakingly thorough overview of over 100 movies and a slew of filmmaker and actors who never existed -- but which you'll believe actually did by the time you finish reading. And your eyes don't even have to touch the words to be convinced, thanks to the down-to-the-smallest-detail perfect collection of posters, newspaper ads, still photos and other visuals Romano and his art team have created. ”
--FANGORIA

“Romano’s pseudo-journalistic endeavor (is) a genuine revelation, an event that’s hardly, if ever, been done: the merging of fact and fiction into something too outrageous to be the truth, and too disarmingly ghastly/gorgeous to be anything but.”
--THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE

Garnering praise

Alex Garner's new cover for ANGEL #15, for those who haven't seen it on his DeviantArt page yet.

Drudgery

SPIKE: AFTER THE FALL # 4 preview

Have to do this one the old-fashioned way today since the Issuu.com site is currently having issuus. In stores tomorrow, courtesy of Brian Lynch, Franco Urru and Art Lyon.

IDW's new releases for October 29

THE CRYPTICS TPB
SHOCK FESTIVAL
SPIKE: AFTER THE FALL #4
TRANSFORMERS ARMADA, VOL. 1 TPB
VIOLENT MESSIAHS: THE BOOK OF JOB, VOL. 1 TPB

Who ya gonna kill?

Why, Venkman, of course. The cover to December's GHOSTBUSTERS #3 cover, courtesy of Nick Runge.

Showing our Johnson

G.I. JOE #0 finally hit shops today, and since we're now settling in for a 3-month wait until the series kick off in monthly earnest, let's keep the JOE-ness going with this look at issue 2's cover by Dave Johnson (he of 100 BULLETS and so many other great covers):

Nothing to FEAR

Artist Andrew "Mayberry" Griffith is gonna really go places as a TRANSFORMERS artist. He's doing something else for us right now, but we've also got him doing covers for the next UK reprint series, "City of Fear." Here's his first cover, which shows some impressive chops already.

Following yesterday's ANGEL 13 preview, let me give a glimpse at a book even further in the future, ANGEL #15, featuring the triumphant return of Franco Urru to the book (now accompanied by Fabio Mantovani on colors). Is this page a glimpse of things to come in the issue? A prophetic vision? Angel after a night out on the town? I ain't saying...

ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL #13 Preview

Coming on Wednesday:

Get your own - Open publication

ALL HAIL MEGATRON #4 Preview

Out in two days:

Get your own - Open publication

New releases for October 22, yo

ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL #13
G.I. JOE #0
STEVE NILES OMNIBUS
TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED DIGETS, VOL. 5
TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON #4
WORTHWHILE BOOKS: THE TOWN OF ZACK

Wonder if he can do likenesses?

More weekend goofiness: I got a painting today from, uh, a 76-year-old chimp. Cheeta, who played the chimp in the old TARZAN movies from the '40s. What's more, it was a commission--I picked the colors and he did the rest, even adding a chimpy fingerprint at the bottom for authenticity.

So don't be surprised if you see some very different kinds of variant covers someday...

Not coming from IDW

But coming next year nonetheless:

Yo, Gabriele

This was shown one other place but I think it's time to spread around Gabriele Dell'Otto's amazing painted cover for January's G.I. JOE #1.

In other JOE news, newsarama.com has posted the complete Larry Hama/Tom Feister G.I. JOE: ORIGINS five-page story from next week's #0 issue, too. Finally only more week until we can get that issue into everyone's hands and then really start talking about our upcoming books.

ROMULANS: THE HOLLOW CROWN #2 5-page preview

Let's do a second 5-page preview today, this one for John Byrne's STAR TREK ROMULANS: THE HOLLOW CROWN #2, also in stores tomorrow. Colors by Leonard O'Grady.

Get your own - Open publication

EPILOGUE #2 5-page preview

Previews of this week's GHOSTBUSTERS #1 and GRANT MORRISON'S DOCTOR WHO #1 have already made the rounds elsewhere, so let me add to the preview of this week's books with this look at EPILOGUE #2, courtesy of Steve Niles, Kyle Hotz and Tom Smith:

Get your own - Open publication

Like Hasslehoff, we're huge in Germany

Our PRESIDENTIAL MATERIAL comics seem to be getting a fair share of press both inside the US and out (I've gotten reports of TV news stories from Chile, Australia and Spain, among others). And I just got sent this article from the Neue Westfälische newspaper in Bielefeld, Germany. For those not fluent in German, the headline reads "MEAN TRICKS AND HITS BELOW THE BELT: When cool-headed candidates become biting bulldogs." Which actually has nothing to do with the comics themselves, since those are even-handed presentations of the candidates' lives.

IDW's new releases for October 15

DOCTOR WHO: THE FORGOTTEN #2
EPILOGUE #2
GHOSTBUSTERS: THE OTHER SIDE #1
GRANT MORRISON’S DOCTOR WHO #1
WELCOME TO HOXFORD #3
SPEED RACER, VOL. 6
STAR TREK ROMULANS: THE HOLLOW CROWN #2
TIME MANAGEMENT FOR ANARCHISTS #1

CREWsing and Boozing

Yes, that is a reference to a Sammy Hagar tune from the '80s, thank you.

John Byrne has already shown this off at his message board, but I wanted to further spread it around. It's his so-far-unfinished spread for an upcoming new STAR TREK project he's launching in the Spring, subtitled CREW.

DEAD Contest, He Said

Hey, Bernie Wrightson fans -- which should be anyone who likes amazing comic book art -- Steve Niles is having a Halloween contest at his site where he's giving away a page of original art from the recent DEAD, SHE SAID book that he and Bernie completed for us (a hardcover collection of which is forthcoming). It's simple to enter, too, so I encourage anyone who wants a shot at winning the page pictured here to click here and try your luck.

Doing Bill Gaines proud

Our tribute to a classic cover (look it up to see how classic--if you don't know the history of this particular EC Comic, it's definitely worth reading up on. You can Google it now or wait until this comes out next Spring and read more then), courtesy of Gabriel Rodriguez. Cover idea and inspiration came from Joe Hill, the series' creator. I normally wouldn't show anything this far in advance, since the second LOCKE & KEY series (HEAD GAMES) doesn't launch until January, and this cover is for issue 3, but I can't keep something this good under wraps.
(note: the logo and issue number/UPC are just for placement only and will change a bit)

GALAXY QUEST #3 five-page preview

Let's keep the previews of this week's comics going with a look at GALAXY QUEST #3 by Scott Lobdell and Ilias Kyriazis:

MIRROR IMAGES #4 five-page preview

I neglected to picture the cover to this week's STAR TREK: MIRROR IMAGES #4 when I showed all of the new releases for October 8, so let me rectify that with a 5-page preview, courtesy of Scott & David Tipton and David Messina (and cover artist Joe Corroney):

IDW's new releases for October 8

CHIAROSCURO TPB
FALLEN ANGEL #30
GALAXY QUEST #3
RICHARD MATHESON’S HELL HOUSE TPB
SPEED RACER: THE NEXT GENERATION, VOL. 1 DIGEST
SPEED RACER: RACER X, VOL. 2
STAR TREK: MIRROR IMAGES #4
ART OF TRANSFORMERS TPB
TRANSFORMERS BEST OF THE UK: SPACE PIRATES TPB
TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED: THE ARRIVAL #3
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: SIDESWIPE


Also this week: bring on the Phillies! Let's do 1977-78 all over again (although maybe with a different result in the Fall Classic itself...):



First clinching game I've ever been at last night (not the Dodgers have had many--any--of those in the past 20 years).

Who made WHO?

The last thing I'd want to do on a book that's been well-received both critically and by fans is shake things up... but in the case of DOCTOR WHO: THE FORGOTTEN, life intruded and necessitated exactly that. Filling in for an Eisner-winning artist is never the ideal goal, but with issues 3 and 4, Pia Guerra had to step aside for some help. She'll be back with issues 5 and 6 (indeed, she actually did pages 21-22 of issue 4, too, one page of which is shown here) but needed to bow out of these two issues. For issue 3, Stefano Martino once again pitched in, and anyone who saw his work on issues 3 and 6 of our last WHO miniseries knows how good he can be. And then for issue 4, we have someone new to IDW and WHO, Kelly Yates, pitching in. As you can see by his pages shown here (first two are his, the last one is Pia's and should come with a slight spoiler alert), he fits in alongside her very nicely.

Meanwhile, the whole thing is presided over by writer Tony Lee, who never takes a day off... from drinking.

Cybertron Coll-ing

It's been a while since I've shown any new TRANSFORMERS art here, so how about two for today? Artist Casey Coller and colorist Joana LaFuente's variant covers for ALL HAIL MEGATRON #5 and 6. Just who is that on the cover of issue 6, anyway...? That issue could well become our "HULK 180," if that reference makes sense to anyone.

SHOCK to the System

This month, we're doing an interesting project with screenwriter Stephen Romano (his previous IDW connection is he wrote the teleplay for the MASTERS OF HORROR story, "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" that I adapted into comics a couple years back). He's put together a behemoth of a book called SHOCK FESTIVAL. It's a 350+ page collection of hundreds of horror movies you've never heard of. No, really. The official solicits are this:

Shock Festival –SPOTLIGHT
Stephen Romano (w) • Stephen Romano, Tim Bradstreet, Michael Broom, David Hartman (a)
An illustrated history of the strangest, most outrageous movies you’ve never seen! An elaborate work of illustrated fiction, Shock Festival is a raunchy, hilarious tall tale of imaginary sleazebag exploitation films, lavishly brought to life with hundreds of never-before-seen original movie posters and memorabilia items. It’s the retro-dazzle of Grindhouse meets the authentic “mockumentary” appeal of Spinal Tap!
Recommended for mature readers only.
HC • FC • 352 pages • 9” x 12” • $39.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60010-322-3

We got advance copies in this week, and the book is a pretty awesome and stunning hardcover book, with perfect content just in time for Halloween. The book features contributions from artist Tim Bradstreet, actor/comic writer Tom Jane, and artist David Hartman, too. Here're some initial pics of the thing as it sits on my desk: