We've got Wood

Some new Ashley Woodness for you. First, a page from his FUCK IT! magazine:


And the cover for the concluding ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS AVENTURE #4:

Almost Famous

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND ISSUE #251 HISTORIC COVER PREVIEW

Limited Poster Giveaway and Full Cover Art to Be Unveiled at WonderCon

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. and SAN DIEGO, CALIF., March 29, 2010 - Famous Monsters of Filmland and IDW join forces to bring fans a second exclusive sneak peek at the cover for Famous Monsters of Filmland Issue #251, a landmark issue, featuring new, dynamic artwork by legendary comics artist Richard Corben.

The final cover will premiere at WonderCon, one of the country’s leading comics and pop culture conventions, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, April 2-4. IDW will host Famous Monsters at their booth #519 and during their panel discussion on Friday, April 2 at 5:30pm in room 220/224. We will have 1000 limited exclusive posters on hand for giveaway to WonderCon attendees.

The magazine will be available for pre-sale at the Famous Monsters Convention in Indianapolis, July 9-11, and will be officially released at Comic-Con International, in San Diego, July 22-25.

Royal decrees

The first issue of our new TANK GIRL series, THE ROYAL ESCAPE, got a couple nice early reviews, here at Comics Bulletin (4-1/2 stars!) and here at Blair Butler's Fresh Ink video podcast, too.

Diamond head

Diamond's Bill Schanes talked to Comic Book Resources about what it means for IDW to now be classified as a Premier Publisher. You can read the piece here.

GETAWAY Driver

Darwyn Cooke’s Second Parker Novel Previewed at WonderCon
Friday, Mar 26th, 2010
Prelude to The Outfit offers bargain-price, oversized first look
Available in comic stores in July

San Diego, CA (March 26, 2010) - IDW Publishing and award-winning creator Darwyn Cooke are pleased to announce an exclusive prelude to The Outfit, the second of Richard Stark's Parker novels that Cooke is adapting. Cooke's initial Parker release, The Hunter, has been a critical and popular success, appearing on over 50 "best of the year" lists as well as the New York Times best-seller list.

Titled The Man With the Getaway Face: A Prelude to the Outfit, a limited number of copies will debut next week in San Francisco at WonderCon, one of the country's leading comics and pop culture conventions. This 8"x12" preview book offers one entire chapter of The Outfit and will be included in the finished graphic novel, coming in October. Available for the bargain price of $2.00, the prelude will offer fans a beautiful introduction to The Outfit. Cooke, a special guest of WonderCon, will be on hand to sign copies at the IDW booth #519. WonderCon will be held April 2nd through the 4th at the Moscone Center.


"The Man with the Getaway Face special is a fun and inexpensive way for new readers to check out Richard Stark's famous master criminal," commented Cooke. "It's our hope that this oversized, underpriced kidney punch will pull them in to the violent world of Parker."

In addition to debuting at WonderCon, the preview will be available in comic stores everywhere in July at the same low price and large size. Retailers should check the IDW section of the Diamond May Previews catalogue for details.

"We wanted to do something to make this preview special, something to make Darwyn's incredible work really pop off the shelves," said IDW Special Projects Editor, Scott Dunbier. "And at this size and price point, I think we've succeeded!"

Beat on, the Brat-Halla

Back when I was running MoviePoopShoot for Kevin Smith, one of the best Web comics I ran at the site was the ever-reliable and entertaining BRAT-HALLA by Jeffrey Stevenson and Seth Damoose. Now the strip about the young Norse godlings is finally getting collected into a TPB, and Jeff asked me to do the intro for it. Seth then took all the words I tossed their way and dressed it up nicely while at the same time serving my seemingly insatiable need (well, want) to see myself illustrated as often as possible... although I should mention that many of these cameos, like this one, are just nice surprises for me and certainly not anything I request...

The TPB'll be available for order soon. Keep an eye on the BRAT-HALLA site for more information. Meanwhile, I'm off to Memphis for the ComicsPro meeting for the rest of the week.

June-I. Joe

Covers for a couple of G.I. JOE books being released in June -- available for viewing in various places online today and in the Previews catalog that'll be in stores next Wednesday. First up, Max Brooks' G.I. JOE: HEARTS AND MINDS #2, by Howard Chaykin:



And an all-new image on a reprint TPB, the cover to G.I. JOE: SPECIAL MISSIONS, VOL. 1 by Robert Atkins:

World Premier

IDW co-founder/CEO Ted Adams -- also the keynote speaker at this year's retailer summit around the C2E2 convention in Chicago next month -- talked with Comic Book Resources about our new move to Diamond's Premier status. You can read the whole piece here.

The original lizard kings

Earlier today, the press release mentioning our upcoming JURASSIC PARK comics made the rounds and included the Frank Miller/Dave Stewart cover that'll adorn issue 1. The text of the release is reprinted below if you haven't seen it (among other details, it talks up Bob Schreck, our Senior Editor who's making his comic-writing debut here, as well as other upcoming variant covers by guys like Arthur Adams (issue 2), Paul Pope (issue 3), Bernie Wrightson, Bill Stout, and Mark Schultz) but I also wanted to show the other cover for issue 1, from artist Tom Yeates and colorist Jamie Grant. Tom's doing covers for issues 1-5, and Jamie's the series colorist.

Welcome Back to Jurassic Park
IDW partners with Universal Partnerships & Licensing to develop
all-new comics based on blockbuster property

San Diego, CA (March 23, 2010) – IDW Publishing is pleased to announce a publishing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing to create an entirely new series of comics based on the always-popular Jurassic Park franchise. Launching in June, IDW’s Jurassic Park comics will bring all of the oversized action and prehistoric adventure that fans love in a brand-new story. Plus, IDW will also reprint all the original Topps Jurassic Park comics in a trade paperback collection, most of which have never before been reprinted. Fans attending WonderCon 2010, one of the country’s leading comics and pop culture conventions, held April 2nd through the 4th in San Francisco, can get a sneak peak of the new series at the IDW booth #519 and at the Jurassic Park panel on Friday.

“I’ve been a fan of Jurassic Park since we first published it at Topps back in the 90’s, and it’s exciting revisit and reinvigorate the property after all these years,” said IDW chief operating officer, Greg Goldstein. “There’s so much potential for interesting stories, and we have a great team in place to bring them to life.”

Available in both print and digital, IDW’s Jurassic Park comics kick off with a five-issue story arc, written by IDW Senior Editor and comics veteran Bob Schreck. Nate Van Dyke provides interior art, while comics’ legends Tom Yeates and Frank Miller offer their awesome and gory covers to the first issue, with Arthur Adams, Paul Pope, and Bernie Wrightson also providing variant covers for the first storyline. IDW will be giving away a Jurassic Park poster at WonderCon, featuring Frank Miller’s cover art for issue #1. Schreck, Van Dyke and Yeates will also all be on hand throughout the weekend to sign autographs.

“Having been born in the Jurassic Era myself, I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity,” Schreck commented. “I was raised on a strict diet of Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen movies and adore the Jurassic Park films. I can’t begin to convey the thrill of bringing this tale to life with so many old (and new) super-talented friends and fellow dinosaur lovers.”

The first five-issue story arc in IDW’s new Jurassic Park series, Jurassic Park: Redemtion, takes up thirteen years after the very first Jurassic Park motion picture and finds John Hammond’s grandchildren, Tim and Lex Murphy, as well-to-do young adults. While Lex is working with the UN to continue keeping people off of both Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna -- her brother Tim has other ideas about how to get their grandfather’s name back in good standing.

Each issue in the arc will feature a cover by Yeates and a variant by another major artist. For issue #2, fans can expect great things from Arthur Adams, followed by Paul Pope on issue #3, Bernie Wrightson on issue #4 and the hugely popular dinosaur connoisseur Bill Stout on issue #5.

Wrecked 'em? Damn near killed 'em!

I think I've used this particular blog title before, but come tomorrow and the release of TRANSFORMERS: LAST STAND OF THE WRECKERS #3, you'll see that it's especially appropriate. Issues 1 and 2 are now up on iTunes as downloadable comic apps if you want to do any digital cramming before that issue's released on Wednesday, too.

*Poster design by New York Times bestselling author/designer Chris Mowry.