9th | Top artistic depictions of Beowulf |
This article is written from the Real World point of view. | ![]() |
IDW Publishing (Idea and Design Works) is an American publisher of comic books currently publishing several Doctor Who comics out of the USA. Many of IDW's titles are licensed properties based upon TV and film franchises. Besides Doctor Who, IDW is also the current publisher of comics based upon Star Trek, making this the first time since the late-70s/early-80s that one company has owned the rights to both franchises at the same time (the previous being Marvel Comics).
The company initially offered two Doctor Who titles beginning in winter 2007/08: Doctor Who Classics, which reprinted Fourth Doctor stories from Doctor Who Magazine, and Doctor Who, offering all-new adventures for the Tenth Doctor, starting with a six-issue miniseries. In summer 2008, IDW released a second miniseries, The Forgotten, which featured appearances by all 10 Doctors. In October 2008, IDW suspended Doctor Who Classics and launched a related title, Grant Morrison's Doctor Who, a two-issue miniseries which reprinted DWM storylines written by Grant Morrison. In December, the regular reprints continued as Doctor Who Classics: Series 2, continuing the DWM reprints with the Fourth Doctor; in April 2009 the series began reprinting Fifth Doctor strips.
In 2009, IDW published a series of one-shots, which began with The Whispering Gallery in February, followed by The Time Machination in May, and Autopia in June. It launched Doctor Who Ongoing in July (cover title simply Doctor Who), a new monthly series featuring the Tenth Doctor that is expected to run for at least 18 issues, and is anticipated to move onto the Eleventh Doctor around issue #18 at the end of 2010.
Concurrent with Ongoing, IDW continued publishing monthly one-shots until the fall of 2009. These stories occur during the timeframes of the third and fourth seasons and featured appearances by Martha Jones and Donna Noble. As of 2010, IDW continues to publish Doctor Who Ongoing and Doctor Who Classics with no further one-shots announced as yet.
The Ongoing title (which carries a cover title of simply, Doctor Who with the story's title appearing somewhere on the cover), takes place in the post-Journey's End continuity and as of January 2010 continued to feature the Tenth Doctor. IDW has announced that stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor will be launched in the Ongoing title near the end of 2010.
Aside from the comic magazines, IDW also publishes graphic novel-style omnibus collections of its comics. To date, it has reprinted three volumes of Doctor Who Classics (with a fourth announced), Agent Provocateur (an omnibus collecting the first six-issue miniseries), The Forgotten, and Through Time and Space, an omnibus collecting the first six one-shots.
IDW Publishing is the latest comic book publisher to have obtained the Star Trek licence. They did so in 2006 with the first comics published in January 2007. IDW's comics so far have been based either on The Original Series, The Next Generation, or Deep Space Nine. In their first year IDW tested the format with various innovative miniseries, in their second year they intend to push the line forward with the involvement of big names such as D.C. Fontana and Peter David, branding their output for the year Star Trek: Second Stage. [1]
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IDW has so far released Star Trek comics in miniseries of between two and six issues over several consecutive months. Each comic is thirty-two pages in length, twenty-two of which are actually story. The story pages flow uninterrupted with the final ten pages consisting of adverts, previews and interviews relating to other IDW projects, letters pages, and in a hand-full of issues The Trek Life comic strips.
The inside front cover of each comic typically contains a title a credit page and sometimes an opening monologue like paragraph of text related to the miniseries or in the case of some part-stories a short paragraph of text to refresh the reader on the story so far. In a hand full of issues this title page has been moved to the first page after the story at the back of the book.
Most of the comics have been available in several covers. Earlier comics tended to have more covers, while the most recent releases have had increasingly few, with many issues being released in just one cover by May of 2008. "Against Their Nature", the first issue of the Klingons: Blood Will Tell miniseries has had to most covers to date, with a total of seven being available. For IDW's first year's worth of miniseries the back inside cover of each comic was used as a cover gallery for that issue. With the launch of the Second Stage titles the cover gallery was moved to the title page, occupying a smaller area using thumbnail images.
After the first few issue of the first series IDW released two comics a month throughout their first year. With the launch of their Second Stage titles they upped production to four issues a month, intending to deliver a new comic almost every week. Output has since fluctuated, with as few as one comic being release in a month, and up to as many as five.
Title | Series | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | No. of issues | Published | Omnibus |
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The Space Between | TNG | David Tischman | Casey Maloney | 6 | January-June 2007 | Septermber 2007 |
Klingons: Blood Will Tell | TOS | Scott & David Tipton | David Messina | 5 | April-August 2007 | November 2007 |
Year Four | TOS | David Tischman | Steve Conley, Gordon Purcell & Rob & Joe Sharp | 6 | July-December 2007 | March 2008 |
Alien Spotlight | TOS/TNG | Scott & David Tipton, James Patrick, Paul D. Storrie, Andrew Steven Harris & John Byrne | David Messina, Josep Maria Beroy, Leonard O'Grady, Elena Casagrande, Sean Murphy & John Byrne | 6 | September 2007 - February 2008 | May 2008 |
Intelligence Gathering | TNG | Scott & David Tipton | David Messina | 5 | January-May 2008 | August 2008 |
Turnaround | NF | Peter David | Stephen Thompson | 5 | March-July 2008 | October 2008 |
Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment | TOS | D.C. Fontana & Derek Chester | Gordon Purcell | 5 | April-August 2008 | November 2008 |
Assignment: Earth | TOS |
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5 | May-September 2008 | December 2008 | |
Mirror Images | TOS | Scott & David Tipton | David Messina | 5 | June-November 2008 | February 2009 |
Romulans: The Hollow Crown | TOS |
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2 | September-October 2008 | February 2010 (in Romulans: Pawns of War) | |
The Last Generation | TNG/Myriad Universes | Andrew Steven Harris | Gordon Purcell | 5 | November 2008 - March 2009 | July 2009 |
Countdown | TOS/TNG | Tim Jones & Mike Johnson, story by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman | David Messina | 4 | January-March 2009 | April 2009 (paperback); October 2009 (hardcover) |
Alien Spotlight II | TOS/TNG/DS9 | Stuart Moore, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Ian Edginton, Scott & David Tipton, & Arne Schmidt & Andy Schmidt | Mike Hawthorne, J.K. Woodward, Wagner Reis, Elena Casagrande & Augustin Padilla | 5 | March-December 2009 | March 2010 |
Crew | TOS |
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5 | March-July 2009 | October 2009 | |
Mission's End | TOS | Ty Templeton | Steve Molnar | 5 | March-July 2009 | October 2009 |
The Wrath of Khan | TOS | Andy Schmidt | Chee Yang Ong | 3 | June-July 2009 | November 2009 (in Movie Omnibus) |
Spock: Reflections | TOS | Scott & David Tipton | David Messina & Federica Manfredi | 4 | July-October 2009 | January 2010 |
Nero | TOS | Tim Jones & Mike Johnson | David Messina | 4 | August-November 2009 | February 2010 |
Romulans: Schism | TOS |
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3 | September-November 2009 | February 2010 (in Romulans: Pawns of War) |
Title | Series | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | No. of issues | Published |
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Ghosts | TNG | Zander Cannon | Javier Aranda | 5 | Novmeber 2009 - March 2010 |
Fool's Gold | DS9 | Scott & David Tipton | Fabio Mantovani | 4 | December 2009 - March 2010 |
Title | Series | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | No. of issues | Published |
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Captain's Log | TOS | Scott & David Tipton | Federica Manfredi | TBA | January-TBA 2010 |
Star Trek Movie Adaptation | TOS | Tim Jones & Mike Johnson, story by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman | David Messina | 6 | February-July 2010 |
Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor | TOS |
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4 | April-July 2010 |
Typically, three months following the publication of the final issue of a miniseries an omnibus book of the series is released. There have been a few exceptions to this; Romulans: The Hollow Crown has yet to be released in an omnibus, awaiting the publication of the Schism with the intention of releasing a single omnibus of the entire John Byrne Romulan Saga. Similarly the new adaptation of The Wrath of Khan will be printed in an omnibus alongside previous movie comic adaptations.
The Countdown miniseries also brakes the normal rule, with the intention to release the omnibus almost immediately after publication of the final issue so that it will be out ahead of the release of the movie it is a prequel to.
IDW also publish collections of Star Trek comics originally published by previous holders of the Star Trek comics license. These have so far taken two forms: The Star Trek Archives series collects between four and six issues per volume, based on a theme while the Star Trek Omnibus format will see larger collections of entire series of comics.
IDW Publishing omnibuses | ||
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IDW miniseries | The Space Between • Klingons: Blood Will Tell • Year Four • Alien Spotlight, Volume I • Intelligence Gathering • Turnaround • Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment • Assignment: Earth • Mirror Images • Countdown • The Last Generation • Mission's End • Crew • Spock: Reflections • Nero • Romulans: Pawns of War • Alien Spotlight, Volume II | ![]() |
Star Trek Archives | Best of Peter David • Best of the Borg • Best of Gary Seven • Best of DS9 • Best of Captain Kirk • Best of Alternate Universes • Best of Klingons | |
Star Trek Omnibus | First Marvel Series • Early Voyages • Movie adaptations |
IDW Publishing writers and editors | ||
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Writers | Mike W. Barr • John Byrne • Derek Chester • Peter David • Keith R.A. DeCandido • Ian Edginton • D.C. Fontana • Andrew Steven Harris • Tim Jones • Mike Johnson • Stuart Moore • James Patrick • Chris Ryall • Andy Schmidt • Paul D. Storrie • David Tipton • Scott Tipton • David Tischman • Ty Templeton | ![]() |
Story credits | Harve Bennett • Alex Kurtzman • Roberto Orci • Rick Remender • Jack B. Sowards | |
Editors | Scott Dunbier • Andrew Steven Harris • Chris Ryall • Andy Schmidt • Dan Taylor • Denton J. Tipton |
Star Trek comics | ||
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By series | EV • TOS • TNG • DS9 • Voyager • SA | |
By publisher | Gold Key • Marvel • DC • Malibu • Wildstorm • TokyoPop • IDW |
Idea and Design Works, LLC, founded in 1989, currently owns the Transformers comic book license as of May 2005, following the financial collapse of the previous license holder, Dreamwave Productions, at the tail-end of 2004.
IDW's flagship storyline is a rebooted Generation One continuity, written by longtime Transformers scribe Simon Furman and told through a succession of mini-series and one-shot Spotlights. IDW has also been authorized to re-release trade paperbacks published by Dreamwave, such as the War and Peace mini-series and The War Within and The War Within: The Dark Ages. In May 2008, IDW's relationship with Hasbro proved to be quite healthy indeed as they snapped up the G.I. Joe comic book license as well.
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The main IDW continuity is mostly overseen by Simon Furman, who has taken a fresh approach to the Generation One story. All the familiar faces are present, but a more sophisticated universe is unfolding around them. (Initial ideas for IDW's Transformer line included a Crisis on Infinite Earths-style story and a G1/Cybertron crossover that would start off two ongoings in the respective continuities [1])
Instead of an ongoing civil war on Cybertron which spills over to Earth by accident, Furman presents us with an interstellar cold war between the Autobots and Decepticons, a war of Codes of Interplanetary Conflict and alt-form-and-dagger covert operations, with energon the prize and whole planets at stake. A surprising development on Earth heats up the war and turns our planet from just another proxy battleground into the ultimate prize.
The general order of publications to date is as follows:
Taking place within the Beast Wars cartoon universe, this line eschews the previous 3H fan club comics that previously continued the show's story to strike out in a new direction, focusing mainly on the non-show toy characters.
A series of Elseworlds-like stories that exist in their own separate continuities, each taking different takes on Transformers. Only one has so-far been produced. (Reportedly, Hasbro has asked IDW to hold back on Evolutions as to not confuse customers looking for merchandise based on the 2007 film.)
Due to copyright issues with regards to Death's Head, several Transformers UK stories can not be republished in the United States, most notably "Galvatron: Wanted Dead or Alive" and "The Legacy of Unicron".
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