Tuesday, June 30, 2009

2009 Harvey Award nominees


IDW received a few Harvey Award nominations this morning. The complete list of nominees and information about what the Harvey Awards are can be found here, but in the meantime, here's the list of IDW folk who got nominated:

BEST CARTOONIST

Thom Zahler, LOVE & CAPES, Maerkle Press/IDW

BEST NEW SERIES

THE DREAMER, IDW

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION

SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES,
edited by Dean Mullaney, IDW

BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT

ASTOUNDING SPACE THRILLS, IDW
COMPLETE TERRY AND THE PIRATES, IDW
SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES, IDW

BEST NEW TALENT

Laura Innes, THE DREAMER, IDW

Monday, June 29, 2009

Dream On


The latest WIZARD magazine had a feature on web-to-print comics, and one of the books featured was Lora Innes' THE DREAMER, as seen here. Our TPB collection of the series is in stores on July 15.

Fallen Star


FALLEN ANGEL relaunches in two weeks -- FALLEN ANGEL: REBORN #1 hits stores on July 15. So this is a couple months out from there, but what you're seeing above is the incentive cover for issue 3. First one to post below what movie inspired the cover quote wins... well, blog-immortality and bragging rights. Cover art by the great and powerful J.K. Woodward.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

IDW's new releases for July 1



American McGee's Grimm #3
Angel: After the Fall #23
G.I. Joe Movie Adaptation #1
G.I. Joe Classics, Vol. 4
Doctor Who Classics: Series 2 #8
Locke & Key: Head Games" #6
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan #3
Star Trek: Omnibus, Vol. 2
Transformers Spotlight: Metroplex
Transformers Classics, Vol. 4


For 5-page previews of these comics, click here.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

When Liandra Met Illyria

I'm headed out of town for a few days with likely no 'net access, so the blog might not be updated again until Sunday, but until then, I'll leave things with a couple variant cover images from Nick Runge, for issues 2 and 3 of the upcoming FALLEN ANGEL relaunch (guest-starring Illyria, if that wasn't obvious from the images here).


Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Dru Blood

I cribbed the Title of this entry from the article below, but that's because it's a good one. Tara Bennett, the writer of the piece, always does a good job with these things, and here is no different -- she talks to Juliet Landau about her upcoming two-issue stint on ANGEL.

And Juliet continues her strong push to market this book with another interview at SlayerLit.us, too.


Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Wha-TF happens in Vegas



It's not a great photo, snapped as it was from the back of a cab, but still -- I was in Vegas recently and stayed at the Luxor. As you can see, the entire side of the Luxor's pyramid body was adorned with imagery from TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. Seemed appropriate to post it today, on the eve of the film's release.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Doctor Starkings

In addition to prepping next month's kick-off of our ongoing DOCTOR WHO series, we've been doing a series of one-shots by different creative teams. The August issue, DOCTOR WHO: COLD-BLOODED WAR, is close to being approved to print. The reason I wanted to show it here is, the original writer on the book, the BBC's Gary Russell, had to bow out from the scripting chores (he did hand-pick the issue's artist, however, Adrian Salmon). So Comicraft's Richard Starkings, who has been helping us on WHO above and beyond the call of duty just because he's a fan of the show, was nice enough to step in and write the issue (and letter it, too). Richard was able to pick up Gary's outline and quickly craft a full story behind it, turning it into something different and very fun.

So just for the fact that you don't see many "Writer/Letterer" credits on books, and because Starkings filled the void so seamlessly and capably, here's a look at the issue, which'll be in stores a couple weeks after Comic-Con:


Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Signing


Orbital Comics in the UK -- where I did a signing a couple years back alongside Simon Furman and Nick Roche -- is hosting Simon and Nick once again, as well as Jon Davis-Hunt, the artist of our new movie adaptation, artist Boo and colo(u)rist Liam Shalloo, at a Transformers event at their store this Saturday. Orbital runs a great shop, and that was before they opened the even better new location. This signing's going to include a gallery show of art from all the signees (except Simon, of course), too, so if you're in the area, it's a great time to go rub the ink-stained elbows with the Transformers braintrust. Maybe you can get Nick to hint at his upcoming TF miniseries that he'll be writing and drawing (then again, he knows he better not give too many hints, either... at least not to anyone who might post online).

Then again, since Nick evidently spent most of his time during his DINOBOTS series like this:
instead of at the drawing table, there's a good chance James Raiz will be tapped to finish this one, too...

Full information about the signing and less jokes at Nick's expense can be found here.

They come to praise Groom Lake #3, not bury it



GROOM LAKE #3 got some nice praise at Newsarama.com's Best Shots this week. I almost used the name "Ochmonek" for a character in the book as a nod to ALF, too. Had I done that, I think Archibald might've taken the top spot in reviewer Brendan's heart...

Groom Lake #3 (IDW; review by Brendan): I can't believe how much I'm enjoying Groom Lake. Ben Templesmith is in rare form here, and I think Archibald, the classically grey but unconventionally chain-smoking extraterrestrial, is my favorite alien since Alf. This book is just fun, no two ways about it. I though Templesmith had found his perfect project with Fell, but this book is, um, even more... perfecter. A romp about foreign invaders and our feeble attempts to regulate them, this is a high water mark for Chris Ryall and IDW.

Grimm Bone

The final issue of our 5-issue AMERICAN McGEE'S GRIMM miniseries finds Grimm far from home, but on familiar turf to comics fans, inhabiting the world of various anthropomorphized animals. But as the two covers (the first one from series artist Grant Bond and the second from Ben Templesmith) show, this ain't your father's, er, BONE...


Sunday, June 21, 2009

IDW's new releases for June 24

Click the link for a 5-page preview:

G.I. Joe #6
Pebbles Conquers Camp
Pebbles Daddy's Girl
Sir Apropos of Nothing HC
Transformers: All Hail Megatron #12
Star Trek: Missions End #4

Friday, June 19, 2009

Number One with an iBullet

The current scene at the iTunes App store:


Auto Assembly 2009

Artist Nick Roche did the artwork for an exclusive cover of TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON #13 for the Auto Assembly Convention in August. This image's already been seen online here and there but since we just got advance printed copies of the issue, it reminded me how fun the art is and made me want to show it off again.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

STAR-gazing

In August, we're releasing the first issue of Michael Kaluta and Elaine Lee's masterful STARSTRUCK series, completely remastered and re-colored by Lee Moyer. The series will run 13 issues, and beyond just the new colors from renowned fantasy artist Moyer, Lee and Kaluta have reworked the original material, including reformatting pages, expanding images, and producing all-new “Galactic Girl Guide” material inked by Charles Vess. Newsarama.com is currently running a 3-part series about the book's return, and below is a look at issue 1's two covers and pages 1-3.

Starstruck at Newsarama, Part 1
Starstruck at Newsarama, Part 2





Midtown high on IDW

The racks at Midtown Comics in NYC, one of the best shops in the nation:

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

iAlliance

Our TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN comics are going up at iTunes now. And ALLIANCE, one of the two movie prequel comics (both of which are current New York Times Bestsellers) is getting some nice attention and placement at the iTunes site itself.

So while I'm trying to figure out tethering on my phone with the new 3.0 update, here're some screengrabs of those downloadable apps to show you what you can get for your dollar:

(also, click here for the first review of the ALLIANCE digital comics that I've seen)


Swipe File

Borrowing from Rich Johnston, thie "Swipe File" entry is focusing on Franco Urru's SPIKE cover from 2007 and this PROTOTYPE image from Darick Robertson...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Groom Lake #3 reviewed


GROOM LAKE #3 is in stores tomorrow, June 17, and ComicBookResources.com has run the first review (that I've seen).

He said other nice things, but I like this particular bit since it always makes me happy when things in the comic get received in the way they were intended:

"The book’s general tone is aloof and sarcastic with Ryall using captions judiciously to describe the alien enthusiasts at the beginning of the issue with mocking phrases, or using repetition for humor. When we first see the aircraft sent to bring back the flying saucer, captions describe the three types, the first two described as “don’t officially exist” with the third type described, “Definitely don’t exist. But cost a shit-ton to build.” It’s little winks to the reader like that that make the book fun."


Read the full review here.

Spock: living long, prospering

In last month's issue of Previews, we offered the first issue of a new SPOCK miniseries, written by Scott & David Tipton and illustrated by COUNTDOWN artist David Messina, Federica Manfredi and Elena Casagrande. The miniseries follows Spock as he looks back on his life and is set in the time period right before COUNTDOWN. Here are Messina's covers for the entire series, as well as the eventual collected edition.

With this series and the August-starting NERO miniseries, anyone who's been asking for more material to expand the storyline told in COUNTDOWN and the new movie is going to get their wish.





Monday, June 15, 2009

Astro Boy takes flight

LOCKE & KEY artist Gabriel Rodriguez contributed two ASTRO BOY covers for the upcoming movie adaptation, a cover for issue 4 and this variant cover for issue 1, too.

The penciled cover:


And the finished, colored version:

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Aventure is about to begin

Some ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS AVENTURE imagery from Ash Wood. First issue is coming soonish:


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Who says we're not erudite?

THE NEW YORKER had some nice things to say about our miniseries THE VEIL, the first issue of which hit stores today. That's right, I said THE NEW YORKER. Show that to all your snobby friends who think comics aren't actual literature.
I’m infatuated with this new horror-comic series from IDW Publishing called “The Veil.” It’s about a fierce-looking private eye named Chris Luna, whose clients are all dead people.

Full article here.

The final Groom

Just delivered this morning, the variant cover to GROOM LAKE 4. Which means that, unfortunately for me, the series is now done. Until the TPB with its intro from COMMUNION author Whitley Strieber, that is.

For you, that means issue 3 is coming next week and issue 4 will be out in time for Comic-Con.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Dru's world

For ANGEL 24 and 25, Juliet Landau is introducing Drusilla to Angel's world--that much, we've already discussed a bit. But beyond just crafting the story and co-writing the script, Juliet also had a very specific look and color palette for the art, too. Here's one of the finished pages, courtesy of Franco Urru and Fabio Mantovani.


Issue 24 will arrive just before Comic-Con, and Juliet and Brian Lynch will be signing a con-exclusive version at Comic-Con.
And issues 24 and 25 will both feature bonus pictorials of Juliet, some new photos she took exclusively for this two-part storyline.

Oh, and we'll also be announcing the new ongoing ANGEL writer at the Angel panel (Saturday from 10-11 AM, featuring Brian, Juliet, and... the new person) at the show, too. More on that to come.

Monday, June 8, 2009

British Fantasy Award nominations

A quick note of congratulations to Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez for the British Fantasy Award nomination they received for their already-Eisner-nominated LOCKE & KEY. The awards are largely given to prose stories (Joe got a nom there as well, for his novella GUNPOWDER.

Steve Niles and Bill Sienkiewicz's 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: BEYOND BARROW was also nominated in the Best Comic Book/Graphic Novel category, so hearty congratulations to those cats as well.

Full list of 2009 BFA nominations here.

And while he hasn't officially done work for IDW proper, congrats to artist Vincent Chong, who's been Joe's cover artist on books like the original UK pressing of 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS. Vince also provided the cover art for an exclusive hardcover edition of L&K that's being published by Subterranean Press:

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Who y'all gonna call?

Our upcoming GHOSTBUSTERS: DISPLACED AGGRESSION miniseries (August, 4 issues, from Scott Lobdell and Ilias Kyriazis) is set all across time and space, with issue one opening with Peter Venkman trapped in the Old West. And here's a taste of that setting, courtesy of Ilias, who's handling both art and colors on this series.