Fox Trot

Nathan Fox is not only providing the line art for WE WILL BURY YOU #4's cover, but he colored it all himself, too, as seen here.


I also recommend the recent Fox-drawn (and Joe R. Lansdale-adapted) comic version of Robert E. Howard's PIGEONS FROM HELL if you want to see more, too. Fox does some amazing things in that series.

Noo Ploog

In March, Wayne Osborne is doing a sequel to his book FX, this time with Uko Smith handling the art chores. But providing variant covers for FX: THE LOST WORLD is artist Mike Ploog. His first two covers are seen here; the first colored by Tom Smith's Scorpion Studios, the second one Ploog's uncolored pencils and inks for issue 2.

WIldman and Prowl

"Wildman and Prowl" sounds like a great detective show from the '70s...

Instead, it's two books coming in April, one a SPOTLIGHT on PROWL (which fans who've been upset by his portrayal in the first few issues of the ongoing series will be very interested to see), with art from E.J. Su:


And Andrew Wildman's variant cover for TRANSFORMERS #6:

Gemmie out of control

Diamond announced their 2009 Gem Award-winners today, and PARKER: THE HUNTER won the Gemmie* award for Original Graphic Novel of the Year.

This was our first year being moved up to the Publisher of the Year (over 4%) category, which is a nice honor, even though we were technically right at 4% for 2009 and likely should've still played in the "...Under 4%" category that we've won five out of the last six years. But still, any time we're now considered competition to Marvel and DC is a sign of respect.

*The Title of this blog is a nod to Pearl Jam's "Gremmie Out of Control," in case anyone was wondering.

The Whole Hole (in the World)

Elena Casagrande's interlocking covers for all five issues of the ANGEL: A HOLE IN THE WORLD adaptation.

Real, True Damage

Not an IDW book, but in the latest issue of Ed Brubaker's excellent CRIMINAL book for Icon, our own (yes, I claim him as ours!) Joe Hill contributes a really entertaining essay about Charles Bronson's flick MR. MAJESTYK, although anyone looking for a straight review of the movie shouldn't expect to get that here. But both the comic and the back-up piece--both nicely adorned by Sean Phillips' artwork, are well worth your attention. Joe discusses the piece a bit more in his blog, right here.

Coming soon from Fiona Staples

I won't name the writer or the project yet, but here's a cover and interior page of a new book coming in the spring from artist Fiona Staples:

We Will out-Fox You

Brea and Zane Grant's coming WE WILL BURY YOU (issue 1: coming Feb. 10) zombie comic is gifted with some great covers. Templesmith did issue 1, Nate Powell tackled issue 2, Trevor Hutchison contributed issue 3's cover, and now Nathan Fox is doing issue 4. His line art for that one is here, with colors to come. Hutch's cover, if it hasn't made the rounds online yet, is below, too.


WWBY #3 by Trevor Hutchison:

The Dreamer: Award-winner

Congrats to Lora Innes and THE DREAMER, winning 1st Place in the 2009 SPACE Awards.

"Wrecked 'em? Damn near killed 'em!"

Did I already use that Title before? Ahh, who can remember. Besides, the classics always bear repeating.

Anyway, TRANSFORMERS: LAST STAND OF THE WRECKERS makes its debut this Wednesday. And to help celebrate his comic, writer/artist Nick Roche's art collective, the Eclectic Micks, is transforming their sketchblog into the Eclectic WRECKS. Meaning, every day this week, there'll be a new sketch posted by the various Irish-based comic book creators that comprise the Micks. Today's entry is from ANGEL/A-TEAM: SHOTGUN WEDDING artist Stephen Mooney, and there'll be a Wrecker-a-day by an artist not normally associated with TRANSFORMERS right up to Sunday, when it's Nick's day on the blog to show a special Wreckers sketch. Basically, according to Nick--and since Conan O'Brien's final show last week left a dearth of high-profile Irishman to amuse us over in the states--Electric Micks is the place to be.

King of the final Frontier

John Byrne's next STAR TREK series, LEONARD McCOY, FRONTIER DOCTOR, kicks off this April. It's set in the period leading up to the first TREK movie--so you get the hirsute McCoy here (as well as cameos from a couple other familiar faces throughout the series, namely a certain Captain/Admiral and a First Engineer). Below is a page from the first issue, with colors from Lovern Kindzierski and McCoy's rough introduction to his new crewmate, and below that is the primary cover for issue 2, penciled and inked by Byrne.

The Latest Waltz

Tom Waltz is a writer/editor who's been working at IDW for a few years now (editing books and writing titles like GENE SIMMONS ZIPPER and SILENT HILL: SINNER'S REWARD), but just this month joined us full-time. And right out of the gates of his new status as full-time editor here, he's got two high-profile movie-related projects coming soon.

One of which is THE A-TEAM, two series he's presiding over that tie in with the June movie. He's writing one of the two miniseries that start in March, THE A-TEAM: SHOTGUN WEDDING (illustrated by Stephen Mooney and colored by Alfredo Rodriguez, brother of LOCKE & KEY artist Gabriel and making his IDW debut on this book. A page of their work can be seen directly above.), and is working with co-writers Chuck Dixon and Erik Burnham on WAR STORIES, which features four solo tales set in the days before Hannibal, B.A., Face, and Murdock came together as a team.

Comic Book Resources recently put up a couple pieces with the A-TEAM creators. They talked to Tom here, and talked to Chuck Dixon about his contributions here. Knowing Tom, he didn't chase the easy headline and mention the fact that Sarah Palin makes a tiny but very clever cameo in issue 1 of his series, but she's in there, too, as a smitten Face notices at one point.


And over at MTV Splash Page, LEGION film director Scott Stewart talks all about the comics that lead into the movie, and various Easter eggs planted within the comics. Tom and Scott collaborated on that comic series, LEGION: PROPHETS. All four issues and the TPB of that one are available now. The interview can be found here.

Second to Last Unicorn

An early look at the coming adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's LAST UNICORN, starting with a cover for the second issue from artist Frank Stockton:

And a two-page spread of interior artist Renae De Liz's pencils:

Rocketeering at Entertainment Weekly

Tomorrow's ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY magazine has a nice review of our new ROCKETEER collection. Ken Tucker at EW gave the book an "A." The review can also be found online here.

Wired Hangers

When our April solicits were released last week, among a few other new titles was Alan Robert's WIRE HANGERS series. Alan, a founding member of Life of Agony and the lead singer/guitarist of Spoiler NYC, has gotten all kinds of good advance press for this comic in music magazines, Web sites, and elsewhere. And now, add AMC to that list, too. AMCtv.com recently ran a piece about WIRE HANGERS and other horror comics developed by musicians:
Horror Comics Get the Rock Star Treatment

To show a bit more of the art for the coming series, here're two covers for issue 2, one from cover artist Nelson, the other from Robert himself (Alan's writing, drawing and coloring every issue himself).



And here's a teaser/behind-the-scenes look at Alan and the comic, set to his own music, too:



And stay tuned for a contest that could see your face land on the variant cover for issue 1...

Angel-ic birthday wishes

Happy birthday to both Jenny Frison, regular cover artist on ANGEL (her cover to issue 33 is pictured directly below this sentence) and Scott Tipton, writer of ANGEL: A HOLE IN THE WORLD (the fifth issue cover to that series, from Elena Casagrande, is below Jenny's ANGEL cover), both of whom share a birthday today.

Double dose

Without saying what these pages are for just yet, I can tell you at least this much--it's for a project called KILLING THE COBRA from a novelist who made one of Barnes and Noble's "Best of the Decade" lists, and they're drawn by Alberto Dose (former FLASH artist who draw SCARFACE and DESPERADOES for me before). It's coming in May so they won't stay secret for long, but for now, I'm just happy to be back working with Alberto again and wanted to show a bit of his stuff here.

The brains behind the operation

Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter put up a new extended interview with Ted Adams, IDW's founder/President/CEO, where they talk about IDW's new place as fourth-largest publisher, how we got where we are, and much more. Read the piece here.

Reviews of the World

Major Spoilers.com put up a joint review of WEEKLY WORLD NEWS #1, and as a little excerpt, nothing sums it up better than a sentence where they use "brilliant" and "Ryall" in the same line:

What I find really brilliant about his first issue is that Ryall is able to take all the characters and turn the issue into a story that makes sense from the delusional mind of Ed Anger.

Read the entire review here.

"I love it when the covers come together"

John K. Snyder III's covers for our coming A-TEAM: SHOTGUN WEDDING miniseries.

The dark night returns

Just got advance copies of WEEKLY WORLD NEWS #2. All blame for the second cover should be focused squarely on Thom Zahler's shoulders. Also, all praise.

Heroes 4 Haiti

Read the entire blog post and get links to other ways to help here.

Help The Victims of the Haitian Earthquake!

Heroes 4 Haiti is a grassroots movement of artists seeking to raise money for organizations helping victims of the recent Haitian earthquake. Heroes 4 Haiti is not an organization, it's a collective response to human tragedy. We're asking everyone to donate a little bit of their talent, money or time towards helping those in need.

Please join us in helping our fellow human beings by creating art and auctioning it off for charity by listing it yourself using eBay's Giving Works program, by bidding in these auctions, by donating to relief organizations, or by volunteering your time to helping rebuild Haiti in the wake of this catastrophe.

How You Can Help

Heroes 4 Haiti seeks to raise money for victims of the Haitian earthquake. You can help in one of the following ways:

Donate Art -- Using your own eBay account, please donate or create art to be listed on eBay with 100% of each auction's proceeds being donated to the Haitian relief organization of your choice via eBay Giving Works. Right now when you log in at eBay, there's a link to support Haitian relief that takes you to eBay Giving Works and that gives you the option to sell your art. Please choose the charity you prefer and let us know that you're doing it so we can list you here as part of the cause. Posting an auction? Please let us know by posting a link to it in the comments section of this post!

Donate Collectibles or Services -- Using your own eBay account, please donate collectibles or services to be listed on eBay with 100% of each auction's proceeds being donated to the Haitian relief organization of your choice via eBay Giving Works. Right now when you log in at eBay, there's a link to support Haitian relief that takes you to eBay Giving Works and that gives you the option to sell your art. Please choose the charity you prefer and let us know that you're doing it so we can list you here as part of the cause. Posting an auction? Please let us know by posting a link to it in the comments section of this post!

Bid On These Auctions -- Check the thank you section below for links to auctions for art, collectibles, and services connected to Heroes 4 Haiti. See something you like here? Please bid on these items! Check frequently in the days to come as we update with links to art offered for Haitian relief!

Spread The Word! -- Feel free to copy this post and email it to your friends or contacts, or please link to this blog! Heroes 4 Haiti isn't an organization, it's people helping people. Everyone can help in their own way! Please help us spread the word about these easy ways to support the Haitian people!

Please tweet us too! Here are some sample tweets to spread the word:

Comics creators auctioning art for Haiti relief http://heroes4haiti.com/ http://heroes4haiti-fb.com/ Please RT!

Calling all artists! Donate work to auction for Haiti relief http://heroes4haiti.com/ http://heroes4haiti-fb.com/ Please RT

Donate art & collectibles to help Haiti relief http://heroes4haiti.com/ http://heroes4haiti-fb.com/ Please RT!

Comics community comes together to help Haiti http://heroes4haiti.com/ http://heroes4haiti-fb.com/ Please RT!

Check out http://heroes4haiti.com/ - where artists (and non-artists with $$) can unite to help the the people of Haiti. (RT if you please)

Elementary, my dear Jones

The cover for our second SHERLOCK HOLMES prose collection, again with cover and chapter illos by Kelley Jones and Jay Fotos. Coming next spring.

Zombies vs Robots: the Aventure continues

Hot off the canvas, Ashley Wood's latest cover for ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS AVENTURE, this one the incentive cover for issue 2. Issue 1 is in stores in early February. Been far too long, y'ask me.

Play-ground

Our presence at the PlayStation Comics site grows larger each week, and we have another new crop of comics live and downloadable for the PSP right now. This week's new releases include:

G.I. Joe: Cobra #3

G.I. Joe Origins #4

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft #3

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse #0: The Taster

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse #6: It Only Hurts When I Pee #2

EA Games' Army of Two #1

"Led by Bat Boy, Weekly World News deranges comics"

To coincide with the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS comic launch today, Wired.com ran a piece about the comic that includes an interview with me and an exclusive look at a handful of pages, too. All that and even me tossing out a few ludicrous casting suggestions for a WWN movie, too.

Positive press

Various events on the Internet this week have conspired to keep me from my daily updating of the blog, so I'm catching up here with various IDW mentions and reviews.


At Shock Till You Drop, Brea Grant, co-writer of the upcoming 1920s zombie tale WE WILL BURY YOU, talks about the series.


At Comic Attack, artist J.K. Woodward talks all about the FALLEN ANGEL: REBORN TPB (in stores today).


WEEKLY WORLD NEWS #1, also in stores today, gets a nice little write-up by Graham Cracker Comics and also at Pendragon's Post, where the review says, among other things:

All in all I highly recommend this book. It’s a fun read, and let’s face it, we could all use a fun read in our stacks after reading Blackest Night. If you’re a fan of the old magazine, it’s a creative way to revisit it, and if you’re not, you may find yourself reading this and thinking, “Wow, they actually printed this stuff as news?” Either way, you’ll have a good time.

And then a couple ANGEL-related pieces: one a Q&A with me at Whedonesque, and
Buffyfest talks about Why IDW's Angel Comics Matter.

The new Big Four

Weekly World series

The first issue of the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS comic book series comes out this Wednesday. To start the week (month-? year-?)-long celebration, here's a look at artist Alan Robinson's progression for a cover. Below are the pencils, inks, the greyscaling he added to the inks, and then his colors and the final logo'd version, too. Because I never get tired of Kevin Maguire homages.

Anyway, I feel like I've been waiting forever for this one to come out, although it's only been about six months since we announced the comic at Comic-Con. "The Irredemption of Ed Anger, Part 1 of 4" is finally upon us, though.

I'm putting together the lettercol for issue 3 this week, too, and need letters (you know, since the comic's not out yet, there really aren't any yet). So if you'd like to be published in there, there's a good chance you will be if you follow a few simple steps. Here's what you should do:

Buy the issue

Read the issue

Enjoy the issue*

Send a letter to letters@idwpublishing.com by week's end.
*Optional, but preferred

Issue 1 features the full-length story, plus a first lettercol/explanation for the whole thing (worth it for the couple of old Bat Boy strips by Peter Bagge that Bagge let me run) and a couple classic articles from the WWN newspaper, too. Plenty o' bang for your (four) buck(s).