The Wrightson stuff

I was going to post a piece or two of art from Bernie Wrightson, a true comic book legend (see: SWAMP THING, FRANKENSTEIN, or just about any other page he worked on. Even BATMAN: THE CULT looked amazing back when, even if the story was... well, it looked amazing!). See, Bernie's doing his first work for IDW, penciling and inking a little horror-noir miniseries penned by Steve Niles and called DEAD, SHE SAID. But somehow posting a page doesn't quite seem enough, so instead, enjoy this little trailer produced by Hazmat Studios. The comic starts in May.

Working in the lab, late one night

We've been doing more and more all-ages comics and books of late, things like SPEED RACER, TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED, our children's picture book line, and now, coming in MAY, a prequel to this Fall's CGI-animated movie, IGOR. We'll be doing the adaptation, too, but for now, we're doing a 4-part prequel that leads into the movie. Dara Naraghi, who's also writing a ZOMBIES comic for us, is writing, with Grant Bond doing full art and colors. And his stuff looks like finished storyboards from the movie, as you can see here. The issues will feature multiple stories, some longer and some shorter, to make this as appealing to kids, and adults, as possible, and to shake up the usual (well, unless you're ARCHIE) format.

Made it so

With all the recent talk we've been doing about new STAR TREK series, stuff like John Byrne's series of Peter David's NEW FRONTIER book or D.C. Fontana writing her first-ever ST series, that's given short shrift to the great work being done on the new NEXT GENERATION series we've got going, ST: TNG: INTELLIGENCE GATHERING. Scott & David Tipton are delivering
a great multi-part tale that's giving the spotlight to numerous TNG faves, and artist David Messina is truly getting better and better with every issue he works on. Add to their work the great covers that Joe Corroney has been delivering here (shown here in B&W and then color) and you've got a series every bit as interesting, if not better, than this same teams previous KLINGONS series. So it's past time that I show off their fare in this space. These images are all from issue 3, coming soon...

The Locke news monster

I know I've talked a lot about LOCKE & KEY already in this space, but it's just so good. So in this space, I'll show you a finished page (from issue 3) by Gabriel Rodriguez, and then the colors by Jay Fotos, since Jay's work adds so much to this comic, too.

But more than that, if you click the title above, you'll be taken to a Variety article that announces an exciting bit of news that we can't even announce on our end yet... the headline, at least, is below.

Dimension locks up Joe Hill's 'Key'

Studio to develop graphic novel as franchise

Coming this week from IDW...

IDW's new releases for this week:

Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales #6

Doctor Who #1

Doctor Who Classics #1 - 2nd Printing (Dave Gibbons art)

Fallen Angel #24

Rogue Angel: Teller of Tales #1

Silent Hill: Sinners Reward #1

Speed Racer, Vol. 1 TPB (reprints of the Now Comics from the '80s)

Star Trek: Alien Spotlight Romulans (from John Byrne)

The Transformers: Devastation #6

Wormwood: Calamari Rising #2

And in honor of this week's books, how about a couple pages from Byrne's ROMULANS book (colors by Len O'Grady) and two from SILENT HILL #1, courtesy of artist Steph Stamb.

TV Guide-lines

This week's TV GUIDE features our GHOST WHISPERER comic in it (along with a quote I don't exactly recall saying... but either way, it's nice to have the comic covered in a mass-market publication like this. (In the subscriber edition, anyway--the newsstand edition that comes out a day or two later will bump all this extra content in lieu of Oscars coverage). The TV GUIDE Web site features a preview of the comic, too. Just click the header above and it'll take you there.

The mirror, and that car on the 405, crack'd

You know what I don't recommend? Driving to and from Los Angeles from San Diego on a day of heavy rains. Still, while I sit at a wired coffee house and wait for some freeway accidents to clear, I see no better time than to check e-mail and post an image that just arrived there. Namely, this one, the first cover for our upcoming-in-June STAR TREK: MIRROR IMAGES series. This one's written by Scott & David Tipton (and, in the case of the Mirror-Pike story, Scott, David & I) and has the great David Messina on art. Some advance art from Scott, David and David's current ST: TNG series will be posted here next week, but for now, enjoy the Mirror-Spock stylings of cover artist Joe Corroney.

Locke'd out

I posted some artwork and a trailer for Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's new series, LOCKE & KEY, earlier. The advance reviews for the book have been great, too, and the first issue finally hit stores yesterday (I say "finally" because I've been loving this book for a long time and anxious for everyone else to get to see it)... and it promptly sold out through Diamond. That was a bit unexpected, as we considerably overprinted the first issue. So that's a great sign, and we're back to press now on a 2nd printing. The 2nd printing will be in stores on April 2 (the same day I officially turn a year older, too. Big day!) But if your shop still has any copies of the 1st printing, I recommend you grab it and give it a look because, well, because it's dammed good. And in honor of the sell-out, how about a very advance look at the covers to issues 4 and 5 here. Both by Gabriel, although for issue 4, he's channeling one of the kids in the comic and drawing as him. Sort of like the opposite of when Bil Keane used to draw FAMILY CIRCUS as "Billy," his kid. Then again, I've just very quickly gotten off-topic, although the FAMILY CIRCUS does scare me almost as much as Sam in LOCKE & KEY...

It's Clobberin' Time!

Get it? "Clobberin' Time"? Ben GRIMM's favorite expression? And here I'm showing a cover for the upcoming GRIMlock Spotlight, where the title character in question is busting through on the cover? Uhhh, yeah, moving past the bad pun. I think we've shown remarkable restraint, waiting over two full years to do a Simon Furman-penned GRIMLOCK issue. But its time has finally come, so in April, courtesy of SimFur and cover and interior artist Marcelo Matere, it'll finally be Clobber-- well, you know.

Going Rogue

Issue 1 of our ROGUE ANGEL comic, spinning out of the Gold Eagle book series, launches next Wednesday, 2/27. Here're some art pages (from issue 2) courtesy of series artists Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon. These nicely show what they can do, both in the brighter flashback scenes and the darker bits, too. Add in the scripts by the talented Barbara Randall-Kesel and you've got a solid adventure comic, y'ask me. Cover art is by Rebecca A. Wrigley.

All Hail

Work de Ash!

Some Ashley Wood pieces for you today. One is the rough for a new TANK GIRL series--Ash will be doing full wraparound covers for the entire series (with interior art by Rufus Dayglo), starting in May. The other cover is for the oversize hardcover collection of our ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS VS AMAZONS series. It's coming at the end of March, and will be another 8-1/2" x 13" hardcover, like the first one, with some bonus art and paintings from Ash, too.

The original God of Thunder

No offense to Thor, or Gene Simmons, for that title above...

We're doing new comics based on THE MUMMY, and it's past time we showed off some of it. The Title above will take you right to the blog of MUMMY comic writer Josh Jabcuga, and if you go here you can check out some of the art from Stephen Mooney, the book's artist. The story we're doing starts in April, and is set years after the last MUMMY movie, and about a year before the big new movie coming this summer. The solicits for the issue describe it better than I could, but really, just click on the three cover images to the left and you get a good idea of what you're in for. It's full on pulp adventure madness courtesy of Josh & Stephen.

The Mummy Movie Prequel: The Rise & Fall of Xango’s Ax

In the prelude to next summer’s blockbuster Mummy movie, adventurer Rick O’Connell and his son Alex embark on their most dangerous adventure yet. In Burma, Rick procures a stolen jewel that has unearthed the vengeful god of thunder, Xango. Now they have to stay one step ahead of corrupt treasure-hunters and angry spirit-demons if they want to prevent Xango from remaking the world in his image!

Who said the music industry is dead?

Keep an eye out for this one on New Music Tuesdays in June (well, actually, New Comic Wednesdays).

You Wheelie-haters will change your mind after all these years, we promise.

As a little bonus, I'm posting Matt Moylan's latest "LI'L FORMERS" strip, too, since it was a nice little bonus for me to see that I made it into the strip this week. Check his site for more--they're a lot of fun.

More proof the Doctor Who comic is coming soon...

Here's a pic of DOCTOR WHO writer Gary Russell (he's the bloke holding the comic, lest there be any confusion), holding an advance copy of issue 2 in his hands. Gary's in American from Wales for a Who convention this weekend, and was good enough to make the trek down from LA to stop by our offices and grab a bite to eat and plot out some future WHO comics, too.

And so you have more to look at than Gary's mug, here's a little more advance WHO for you, this time from issue 3, courtesy of Stefano Martino and color-specialist Charlie Kirchoff.

The first issue's finally almost here--two weeks from today, with issue 2 to follow two weeks later.

First and second Nights

ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL is doing something special with issues 6-8. We're taking a break from the ongoing story--and oh, how this might upset some of you after you see the end of issue 5--to do the now three-part "First Night." This is an array of short stories, all handled by different artists and each one finally revealing what these characters the night of the big, apocalyptic fight in the alley at the conclusion of Angel Season 5. I posted a page from the "Wesley" story below, and now here is a page each from "Lorne" (art by John Byrne, colors by Len O'Grady) and Spike (art by David Messina, our original Angel and Spike artist, colors by Ilaria Traversi). No more details than that, but then again, no more is really needed when you can instead just enjoy these pages...

Steve Gerber's passing

Comics writer Steve Gerber passed away yesterday at age 60. Beyond just the more well-known things Steve did (HOWARD THE DUCK, THE DEFENDERS, MAN-THING), Steve's been on my mind lately due to the Jonathan Lethem-written OMEGA THE UNKNOWN series that Marvel's releasing. It's a great series that basically retells Gerber's old tale from the '70s. And as bizarre and interesting as the new series is, it's also a reminder that Gerber was doing bizarre and interesting things with superhero comics decades before it was in vogue to turn familiar concepts on their heads. Gerber was someone who really made me notice that not all comics were the same when I was a kid--I remember thinking that his stuff was really cool and odd before I even knew that different people wrote all these comics. It's really sad that he's gone so soon, but hopefully this will get more people to know him through his work, which is all any comics creator really wants in the first place.

7 of Nice

Let's start the week off with the color versions of John Byrne's first three STAR TREK: ASSIGNMENT EARTH covers. The series, featuring Gary 7, begins in May, and the cover colors are courtesy of the great Tom Smith.

The Great and Secret Team

Gabriel Rodriguez, my artistic partner on, first, GEORGE A. ROMERO'S LAND OF THE DEAD, and then the 12-part CLIVE BARKER'S THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW, and BEOWULF, visited America from Chile for the first time ever this past week. He spent the week at my house, and we spent a day in LA with Clive Barker (and another top-secret meeting I'll talk about in a couple months from now). Here we are with our biggest fan, my daughter Lucy.

Gabriel's time with IDW actually predates mine--he was the artist on multiple CSI series , and has likely drawn more pages for IDW than anyone else in our history. And in less than two weeks, you can catch his latest project, LOCKE & KEY, with author Joe Hill. Issue 1 is in stores on February 20. It's 32 full pages of story and art, and rather than repeat my raving about it again here, I'll direct your attention below to the little "movie trailer" we have for the book.

Gabe also got to visit the great Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, although our timing was a bit off--we missed their "Y the Last Party" by one day, but Gabe got to show off his work a bit with the advance copies of L&K 1 and 2, and talk Chile with the Chilean owner of the shop. And soon enough, I'll spread word on a coming "frat launch party" planned at the store to coincide with the launch of Brian Lynch and Dave Crosland's EVERYBODY'S DEAD comic.

Rogue Angels

The office move will be complete on Monday, but until then, I don't have that much artwork here at home. But I do have a couple nice pieces to share--one is the cover for ROGUE ANGEL #4, by Rebecca Wrigley. Rebecca's covers for this series (and for ANGEL and MACK BOLAN) are just stunning--I'm really happy she's one of us now. The other piece is also ANGEL-related, but in this case, it's a page from Wesley's "First Night" tale in an upcoming issue of ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL. Art is by Nick Runge and colors by John Rauch.

Ghost in the machine

Before we shut things down today for the big office move (pics of the nice new digs coming soon!), I thought I'd post a few covers for our GHOST WHISPERER series, since this one seems to have slipped a bit below the radar, marketing-wise. The interiors will be by Elena Casagrande, who did such a nice job on our ORIONS comic. And the series is written by Carrie Smith & Beka Smith, both of whom work on the show itself. The comic has a nice, dark mood to it, similar to the current (well, it'll be current when the strike is finally over and episodes are running again) season of the show. This comic's a great thing to point out to people who might normally avoid comics that are too spandex-y and testosterone-filled. The first three images here are from Joselle Ho, the final one from Brian Miller.

The Doctor is in

As the delayed DOCTOR WHO #1 is ready to debut--we have printed copies in hand here, and the book finally hits in two weeks, I thought it'd be nice to show some of issue 2. Nick Roche had to bow out on interiors but Jose Maria Beroy, the artist who did VULCANS for us, pitched in, and his work on the issue just fit the mood of the story and the time period so nicely (especially when aided by Charlie Kirchoff's vibrant colors).

In other news, did anyone at all get a room for Comic-Con today? That system of releasing all the rooms at one time never works for me--the phone is constantly busy, the Web site is locked up... it's nice to at least have a back-up plan of an actual residence not far from the con, since the hotel reservation situation gets more challenging every year.