Wonder Con 07 - IDW

On The Panel:

Dan Taylor - Editor
David Tischman – Writer of Star Trek: The Next Generation Space Between

Dan started off with some highlights from the spring and summer line-up.

• A new comic series set during Star Trek: TOS will be released in April. Klingons: Blood Will Tell will re-tell 5 classic episodes such as “Trouble With Tribbles” and “Private Little War” from the perspective of the Klingons. There will be two versions of each issued released, one in English and the other in Klingon. The Klongon language has been used before in an issue of Starfleet Academy from Marvel Comics, but this series will contain a 40-page issue written entirely in Klingon. IDW went to the The Klingon Language Institute and asked Marc Okrand to verify everything for accuracy. The English script will be in the back of the book if readers want to brush up on Klingoneese.

• April will also see a new Transformers: Spotlight issue focused on Kup. Written and drawn by Nick Roche, it will be a lot darker then what we are used to from Transformers.

• A brand-new 30 Days of Nights series will start in May. The series will be written by Steve Niles & Kelly Sue DeConnick with art by Justin Randall. The story will focus on Eben and Stella, and anyone who has been reading 30 Days of Nights Dan says you will know exactly who they are. There will be a lot of 30 Days of Nights stuff coming out this year to complement the movie coming out in October. IDW is also celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the title’s first publication.
• Also in May, look for the release of Tank Girl written by Alan Marin with art by Ashley Wood. For Transformers, look for The Transformers: Megatron Origin where we will learn about Megatron’s backgound and understand why he is the way he is. There will be a Best of Don Figueria art book released in May with a similar book collecting writer Simon Furman’s best work later in the year.

• June will see a release of a new Spike book called Shadow Puppets written by Brian Lench and art by Franco Urru.
• June will be a big month for Transformers as the industry prepares the release of the movie on July 4. Alex Milne is handling the pages for an adaptation of the movie. IDW plans to release the comic on a weekly basis. Look for this and the prequel to be collected as TPB and released right before the movie hits theaters. According to Dan, the prequel is officially sanctioned and they worked directly with Hasbro, Paramount and Dreamworks to tie this in with the movie.
• Ashley Wood’s 48 Nude Girls is coming in June. Dan felt nothing more needed to be said about that.
• A new title, Scarface The Origin, will tell the story of Scarface before he came to America from Cuba.
• Star Trek: The Original Series Season 4 will be 6 single stories acting as a 4th season airing on television back in 1969-70. There may be some mention of things that happened in the Animated Series, but the series basically will be a direct continuation of the live-action television series.
• Transformers: Spotlight Galvatron will be written by Simon Furman and art by Guido Guidi.

Dan then moved on to projects coming out in September, saying there was big stuff planned for August, but they wanted to keep a lid on that for now.

• September will see another 30 Days of Nights title called Return To Borrow by Steve Niles.
• Another Star Trek series will be released called Alien Spotlight. Half the stories will take place during the time of the Original Series and half during the time of the Next Generation. The stories won’t tie-in with each other and each issue will focus on a different alien species from the Star Trek Universe. Right now they have Steve Niles on board to do an issue about the Borg, Rick Remender will do an issue about the Vulcans, Paul Storrie will do Andorians, Scott Tipton will take on the Gorn, and because Dan is the editor, he got to pick the Orion Slave Girls.
• September is when the next major story-arc for Transformers starts. Written by Simon Furman and EJ Su on art, the series is called “Devastation”.
• Also in September look for a 30 Days of Nights source book.


Once Dan announced the upcoming news, he opened the floor to questions.
• When asked about Licenses, Dan stated he did not think there would be any more CSI or Konami related books coming out from IDW.
• IDW is exploring the possibility of doing a title that takes place during the Next Generation movie era.
• For anyone ever wanting to see Star Trek vs. Zombies, be sure to pick-up issue #4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation Space Between. It’s probably the closet thing to Star Trek and Zombies you will ever see.
• When asked what license Dan would like to see IDW get, he stated he would love to do a title based on Land of the Lost.
• Dan stated that when it comes to Dreamwave Transformers stuff, right now all IDW can do is re-release stuff that was already published. They can’t touch the stuff that was in the works by them at this time. IDW is working on a More than Meets the Eye guide book for Beast Wars.