IDW launched their mega panel with the introductions of Dirk Wood, Chris Ryall, Greg Goldstein, John Barber, Mike Johnson, Scott Dunbier, and Mark Waid.
The panel kicked off in a huge way, as IDW announced an upcoming crossover between Rocketeer and The Spirit, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Paul Smith, set for July 2013. It will run four issues and be subtitled “Pulp Friction.”
Waid said Commissioner Dolan, Denny, and Ellen will be making a trip out to California to investigate a crime, where they will meet Cliff, Betty, and the rest of the Rocketeer gang. Waid said it’ll be fun to watch what happens when Cliff meets Ellen, Dolan meets Betty, etc. He also noted that at this point in the Spirit’s career, it’s still very early, which actually makes Cliff the more experienced crime fighter.
Goldstein added that this is indeed a crossover with DC Comics, which they’ve done before, and that DC still has the Spirit character despite not having used him in a while. Waid teased additional things in the works at IDW, saying, “We shook hands on something that I’ve been wanting to tackle for six or seven years.”
They also talked a bit about the Superman: Silver Age Dailies collection, which Goldstein revealed predominately come from Waid’s personal collection of Superman strips. “I’m the only person in the world with the entire collection of them from start to finish. It’s a dream come true on a lot of levels. What people are going to find out as they read these stories is that there are tons and tons and tons of Superman stories that you’ve never seen before,” said Waid. He said that many of the later strips repurposed stories from the comics, but that early on they were all originals that have been largely forgotten.
The Silver Age collection should be available at San Diego Comic-Con, with the Bronze Age and Atomic Age collections to follow. Wood mentioned that Batman and Wonder Woman collections would be next. “It’s amazing to me not only that we’re doing these books but that Marvel, DC, and Archie have been so cooperative working with us to publish their characters,” added Ryall about doing collections like these.
Ryall moved the conversation to X-Files and IDW’s first meeting with creator Chris Carter. “We spent a day plotting and planning and tweaking ideas; it’s just become this thing where this is what he would’ve done with the TV show had he continued the series.” Ryall said they would be moving the series back toward what it was when the X-Files fan base was the most rabid. He also reiterated that Season 10 is full of stories “that extend the stories forward, and are canon.”
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was next up, where the panel confirmed that Phil Hester would be writing and announced that Andrea Di Vito would be the artist for the series and that issue #1 would feature a cover by Jerry Ordway. Ryall said that IDW doesn’t typically do superhero comics, but they are bucking that trend with this series. “This is very much a pure superhero comic. It’s set in the 60s and it just feels like a classic superhero book, probably even more so than the last revival of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.”
Ryall described how the heroes are government employees, not just heroes to be heroes. “It’s not with great power comes great responsibility, it’s with great power comes paychecks.” They also showed off a cover by Dave Sim, and teased that IDW would be working with him on a new project that he’ll be writing and drawing.
Wood led the conversation into IDW’s focus on all-ages comics, starting with Kiss Kids. “It’s aimed at an all-ages audience, but if you’re a Kiss fan, there will be plenty of nods and in-jokes for you,” said Ryall. He said that this is the kind of book that retailers should be marketing to the Tiny Titans and My Little Pony audience.
The partnership with Cartoon Network was next, where they announced that the new Powerpuff Girls series will launch in September alongside the new animated movie. Samurai Jack will follow in October, and Ben 10 after that. Ryall also said that they’ve reached out to Genndy Tartakovsky about his properties and that cool things would be coming in that regard. The last all-ages project they mentioned was the upcoming comic based on the latest TMNT animated show.
Mike Johnson announced that the Star Trek comic would be doing a sequel story to Star Trek Into Darkness, called After Darkness. “We hope it will be a big epic story from the prequel mini-series that we’re doing, to the movie, and then into After Darkness. And then after that we’re going to continue on into new adventures overseen by Bob Orci.”
Ryall said that they’ve worked tightly with the Star Trek movie gang so that many things they’ve seeded in the comics will be referenced in the new movie. Most of the conversation had to be danced around, due to the intense secrecy surrounding Star Trek Into Darkness, but that After Darkness would be canon just like the rest of that series has been. After Darkness will begin in issue #21 of the ongoing series.
The panel made a few more rapid fire announcements, starting with Dinosaurs Attack! It was a semi-sequel to Mars Attacks trading cards that Topps put out back in the day, and this series would be completing the old Eclipse Comics that ended prematurely when Eclipse went under. They’ll also reprint the old Eclipse material.
A new Mech Warrior series was another announcement, written by Transformers scribe John Barber. “If you like the political action and the personal stories, plus giant robots fighting, you’ll like this.” Mech Warrior is set to release in October.
Black Dynamite will also be coming back to IDW in September 2013. “The comic is an iteration of the character, but this isn’t an adaptation of the cartoon. These are new stories, building on the intentionally un-cohesive universe.”
And finally, Jim Mahfood will be releasing a coffee-table sized art book of his work in August 2013.
Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. If he could, he'd run away to live amongst wild cats for the rest of his days.
Source : ign[dot]com
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