IDW Publishing
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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 or The Next Generation. 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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[edit] Format
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.
[edit] Publications
- For a detailed breakdown of all IDW's miniseries (past, present, forthcoming and potential future series) see IDW Publishing publications. For a list of all IDW comics by publication order see IDW Publishing release order.
[edit] Miniseries
- Completed series
| Title | Series | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | No. of issues | Published | Omnibus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 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 | 2 | September-October 2008 | TBR | ||
| 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 |
- In production
| Title | Series | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | No. of issues | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew | TOS | 5 | March-July 2009 | ||
| Alien Spotlight II | TOS/TNG | Stuart Moore, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Ian Edginton, Scott & David Tipton & TBA | Mike Hawthorne, J.K. Woodward, Wagner Reis, Elena Casagrande & TBA | 6 | March-TBA 2009 |
| Mission's End | TOS | Ty Templeton | Steve Molnar | 5 | March-July 2009 |
| The Wrath of Khan | TOS | Andy Schmidt | Chee Yang Ong | 3 | June-July 2009 |
- Forthcoming series
| Title | Series | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | No. of issues | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spock: Reflections | TOS | Scott & David Tipton | David Messina | 4 | July-October 2009 |
| Nero | TOS | Tim Jones & Mike Johnson | David Messina | TBA | August-November 2009 |
| Romulans: Schism | TOS | 3 | September-November 2009 | ||
| Assignment: Earth II | TOS | 5 | TBA | ||
[edit] Omnibuses
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.
[edit] Creators
| IDW Publishing writers and editors | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
[edit] Appendices
| Star Trek comics | ||
|---|---|---|
| By series | EV • TOS • TNG • DS9 • Voyager • SA | |
| By publisher | Gold Key • Marvel • DC • Malibu • Wildstorm • TokyoPop • IDW | |
[edit] External links
- IDW Publishing's website.
- IDW Publishing article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- IDW Publishing article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
