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IDW has hired a new editor named Denton J. Tipton to assist Chris Ryall. We also expect he will fill the void left by the departure of Ryder Windham from the editorial ranks long ago, and no, we can’t explain that joke either.

Denton J. Tipton, a journalist and former comics retailer, is the new Editor at IDW Publishing. He will be assisting IDW’s Publisher/Editor-In-Chief Chris Ryall with a variety of editing tasks, including overseeing the Transformers line of books and other projects yet to be announced.

Denton Tipton spent the past seven years in the field of journalism, most recently as an editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune. A longtime comics connoisseur, Denton has seen the industry from many sides, having been a fan, retailer, writer, and now an editor.

“It seems that my entire life has been leading up to this moment,” says Tipton. “My years in comics, as both a hobby and a business, and my career in journalism, have given me the insight and professional tools needed to be a successful comic book editor.

“I’m eternally grateful to Ted Adams and Chris Ryall for taking a chance on me, and I aim to make sure their choice was a wise one. IDW is a top-notch publisher, and the staff has been the most welcoming that I’ve seen. Excited barely begins to describe my feelings.”

Chris Ryall, IDW’s Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, added, “Denton’s editorial background and knowledge of and experience in the comics industry make him a great fit for the role here. I’m happy to have him here, and not just so he can run cover for me during pitch meetings at Comic-Con.”

Animator/cartoonist Scott Christian Sava’s all-ages Blue Dream Studios is becoming an imprint of IDW. Among the titles they’ll publish, presumably, is The Dreamland Chronicles (above) a fantasy webcomic done in a colorful CGI style:

On the heels of such recent announcements as Sava’s THE DREAMLAND CHRONICLES being awarded Best Graphic Novel of 2007 in CBR’s 25th Annual Fan Award reader and the recent Hollywood acquisition of PET ROBOTS (Disney) and Hyperactive (MTV), the IDW/Blue Dream partnership comes at a perfect time for both companies to utilize each others’ resources to expand Sava’s already burgeoning readership and to expand IDW’s place in the all-ages market.

“What a year!” said Sava. “I have to admit to being overwhelmed by the success we’ve seen in such a short time. But one year of success as an animation-company-turned-small-publisher is just a baby step. Ted was so generous with his time and insight. He knows what it takes to build a publishing company from scratch. Seeing him turn IDW into the publishing powerhouse it is today is awe-inspiring. Working with Ted and his company is a dream come true, and if THIS year has been good… I can’t WAIT to see what a year with IDW will hold.”

“I know Scott had offers from many publishers and I’m thrilled that he choose IDW as the home for Blue Dream Studios. I love the books he’s created and I look forward to helping him reach an even bigger audience,” Ted Adams, IDW Publishing’s President.

The award-winning and acclaimed online serialized story THE DREAMLAND CHRONICLES, updated weekdays at www.thedreamlandchronicles.com, has reached over 4 million unique readers and thus far released two books collecting the ongoing epic of Alex and his friends’ adventures in Dreamland and the coming war with the Nightmare Realm. The third book in the six-book epic is expected later this year.

Other well received all-ages titles include PET ROBOTS and ED’S TERRESTRIALS and the forthcoming MY GRANDPARENTS ARE SECRET AGENTS, DINO WARS, HYPERACTIVE, and GARY THE PIRATE.

The i09 blog’s Kevin Kelly wraps up the Y: The Last Man Party, which featured both Grant Morrison and a monkey.

The event was strictly limited to 140 people, and hopeful attendees were camping out overnight to get some of the “standing room only” tickets that went on sale just before it started. The VIP ticket packages sold out on the web in 6 minutes, which is great since all proceeds were going to the CBLDF. However, we’re sure the creative types in the room didn’t mind avoiding fannish questions like “Um, in episode 7 of Firefly, Jayne wears a green shirt. Does that mean he’s a spy for the Alliance?” Folks were very respectful, and the monkey got most of the attention in the room. It didn’t even fling any poo at all, as far as we noticed.

At the party, artist Pia Guerra used the occasion to announce her next project, a six-issue DR. WHO mini for IDW, written by Tony Lee.

Fans of CBR’s STUDIO TOURS already know that Guerra is an “insane” fan of the British series. “I used to watch the old Tom Baker episodes with my aunt in Toronto, they played them on TV Ontario,” Guerra said. “And then when the new series came out, I started watching those and fell in love with them. It brought back a lot of cool memories from childhood. And I feel totally blessed to be able to work on this new series, which captures a lot of people’s imaginations.”

§ Kevin Colden talks about publishing FISHTOWN at IDW at The Daily Cross Hatch. the indie style ACT-I-VATE comics (and one time Xeric winner) is a welcome stretch for IDW:

Q: What’s the process for finally settling on a publisher? It sounds like you’d be discussing the possibility with IDW for a while.

A: Yeah. We’d been talking on and off for months. It just ended up that they were so enthusiastic about it that I just couldn’t say no. They were prepared to put a lot behind it, and that was important to me. I could have gone with a larger publisher, and maybe made a little more money, in terms of sales, but in the end, the way that they’re set up and the size company they are, I think they’re going to sell it well.

Two men who founded some of the most popular and influential comic art sites on the Internet, places like ComicSpace.com and WebComicsNation.com, are teaming up and setting up shop in Portland.

Joey Manley and Josh Roberts were in the city last week, scouting office space downtown and reviewing resumes for a programmer to add to their staff.

Their effort, funded by an infusion of venture capital from investors in Web development, is set to launch in the spring under the ComicSpace.com name. When it debuts, the site will strengthen Maine’s connection to the world of Web comic art, in which artists and writers publish and sell original work on the Internet.

§ Some very very important mainstream news from the past few weeks that we missed:
• Mark Millar and Steve McNiven are doing WOLVERINE.
• Dan Didio is now the line editor for Teen Titans, because Eddie Berganza is too busy.
• THE ORDER, a team book by Matt Fraction has been cancelled by Marvel after only 10 issues and internet fans were sad.
• You know this is kind of interesting; highly regarded newish writer Jason Aaron signed an exclusive at Marvel but gets to keep writing SCALPED, his creator owned Vertigo book. As many have pointed out, “exclusive” is an increasingly flexible term these days. Of course, given the lifespan of the average creator owned book these days, maybe it wasn’t too much of a worry.

§ Joe Quesada steps in the breach one more time and answers FAN questions about you-know-what. We are thoroughly tired of you-know-what by now, and the article is loooong. For instance, on why making a deal with the devil is better than getting a divorce:

Now, there are those that say, “but he made a deal with the Mephisto, how is that better?” I would at least see something in that statement if it was Peter who conjured up Mephisto. If Peter had no options and then proceeded to perform some ritual in order to invoke Mephisto, or in essence reached out to him as a last ditch effort, then yes, I would agree because now you’re validating and saying it’s okay to seek out the Mephisto guy to fix a problem. But, that’s not what happened. It was Mephisto in this case, as he is prone to do, who comes to Peter at his weakest moment and uses this to his advantage. Why? Because he’s a villain.

§ Another groundbreaking pact by Platinum Studios.

§ Kenneth Johnson, the producer of the HULK tv show, posts a list of the 117 ways David Banner hulked out on the classic show :

106. Being fed poisoned sushi

§ Paul Dini explains the “animation feature template”:

Your primary objective as a modern animation feature storyteller is to get the audience members emotionally charged (i.e., distracted from logic gaps and not thinking too much) so they will be ready for your big finale. This usually consists of the hero defeating the villain (almost always by some initial violent action of the villain that the hero has “cleverly” used to boomerang back on the bad guy; real heroes never being allowed to slay dragons on their own these days) and the villain falling to their death from a great height, the only acceptable way for a baddie to meet their end in a cartoon (Gaston, Frollo, the bear in “The Fox & The Hound,” Scar, the poacher in “Rescuers II”, anyone notice a trend here?). If the villain can trip over the edge while trying to get in one last cowardly stab at the hero, so much the better. The demise of the bad guy puts everyone in a good mood, so the sidekicks fire up the juke box, or strike up the band, or simply break into song, and while the hero and heroine share a modest kiss, everyone rocks out over the end credits.

§Josh Neufeld talks about working with Harvey Pekar:

Way back, when I did my very first Splendor story, I got Harvey to send me reference photos of one of the other characters in the piece. But as the years went by, I just began winging it, or swiping characters and interiors from previous issues of American Splendor. The only “reference” I use now are some shots of Harvey I cobbled together from the Internet, the work of other artists, or — horrors! — popping in the DVD of the film and using that. And even though I’ve drawn many stories set in his house, I tend to be dissatisfied with what I’ve done before and usually do something different each time. In essence, every time I draw a new A.S. story, Harvey’s pad undergoes an extreme makeover (sans Ty Pennington)! The only consistencies are the books, magazines, and newspapers piled everywhere, and the general air of post-bohemian shabbiness.

AND: § Walt and Weezie Simonson profiled
§ Watchmen extra spills guts
§ There are many interviews with Marjane Satrapi floating around. Here is one of them.

IDW is establishing a children’s book arm, Jonas Publishing, and imprint, Worthwhile Books. These will be regular books — not graphic novels, form the looks of things.

In a precedent-setting move, IDW Publishing, a division of IDT Internet Mobile Group and an established leader in the comic book and graphic novel arena, is launching a children’s division called Jonas Publishing and a new imprint, Worthwhile Books. The move will allow IDW Publishing to expand its library of successful print titles, which to date has been particularly focused in the horror, action, and sci-fi genres, such as 30 Days of Night and The Transformers. To launch the imprint, IDW Publishing has inked a significant agreement with a renowned UK children’s publisher and is striking deals with top Hollywood writers to create children’s books.

Worthwhile Books has finalized a first-look arrangement with UK children’s publisher Meadowside Books (www.meadowsidebooks.com), known for its unique character-driven picture books for young readers. Worthwhile will be the exclusive U.S. publisher of selected Meadowside titles and will retain domestic film and television rights on those properties. The first Meadowside Books title in the deal, Michael Recycle, by Ellie Bethel, follows the escapades of a “green-caped” environmental hero and will be released in March by Worthwhile Books. Worthwhile expects to issue approximately 10 Meadowside titles over the course of the first year, including William’s Dinosaurs, by Alan Baker, which tells the tale of a little boy who finds more than trees in the dark woods near his home.

Worthwhile’s Hollywood outreach is tapping into the top ranks of movie and television writing talent to bring original literary stories to the young reading audience. The collective credits of the entertainment writers include some of the industry’s most successful television series and movies. These writers include:

· David N. Weiss, whose writing credits include Shrek 2, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and both Rugrats movies
· David Sacks, a writer/producer on The Simpsons, producer on Malcolm in the Middle, and writer on 3rd Rock from the Sun
· Dava Savel, an Emmy Award- winning comedy writer with credits on shows such as Grace Under Fire and Will & Grace, in addition to being an executive producer on the children’s program That’s So Raven
· David Steinberg, whose producing credits include Meet the Robinsons, Home on the Range and Cats Don’t Dance
· Robert Kurtz, who wrote for the movie Everyone’s Hero and has written for such shows as Boy Meets World and Grace Under Fire

“Our growth strategy calls for continued expansion into other areas of the entertainment sector,” said Ted Adams, IDW co-founder and president. “Creating and controlling successful children’s properties helps us in those endeavors. Meadowside’s books are playful, empowering, smart and exciting and the artwork is simply breathtaking. These are children’s picture stories in the classic tradition with a central character that is relatable to today’s kids.”

In speaking of the outreach to Hollywood writers, Robert Kurtz, vice-president and creative director at Worthwhile Books, said “Every writer I know who works in television or movies has a children’s story inside him or her that they’ve wanted to tell for years but for a variety of reasons never were able to get out into the marketplace. We want writers to think of Worthwhile Books as the one-stop destination for that kind of project. It is designed to be a writer-driven company and we think that will be very attractive to these talented artists.”

Speaking of Speed, IDW has announced a new Speed Racer comic, written by Arie Kaplan and drawn by Robby Musso.

Fans of the iconic Speed Racer know that the title character can drive-and fast (his car, after all, is named the Mach-5), but fast enough to travel through time?

Perhaps Speed can’t, but his legend is certainly one for the ages. And in January, IDW Publishing will take that concept into overdrive, debuting Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer, a monthly miniseries that will expand the decades-old mythos into exciting new directions as it tells the stories of Racers throughout the generations.

“There hasn’t been a Speed Racer in comics at least five years, and we’re taking it in a direction that it has never gone before,” says Chris Ryall, IDW publisher and editor-in-chief. “These stories expand the entire Speed Racer legend. We look at the Speed Racers of the past-incarnations throughout history, from the Roman times to the medieval era, and even the swashbuckling high seas.”

At the same time, fans will get their fix of the Speed Racer cast from the present, including favorites like Pops, Chim-Chim and Trixie. The series, Ryall says, will keep the best of the past by holding onto its spirit of adventure and remaining true to the feel of the old show, but with a more modern buff on its classic chassis.

“The series will be firmly rooted in the present, rather than in the 1960s,” Ryall says. “For instance, Speed’s mom will probably have a job outside of the kitchen.”

Handling creative duties will be animation and screenwriter Arie Kaplan, as well as artist Robby Musso, a fan-favorite from his work on one of IDW’s recent adapted-from-animation projects, The Transformers. Artist and IDW founder Alex Garner provides a special painted cover for the first issue, with Musso’s fellow Transformers artist E.J. Su handling a limited-edition retailer incentive cover.

Originally created by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida in the 1960s, Speed Racer became one of the first successful anime franchises to cross over into the United States. Now, following IDW’s Speed Racer debut, a live-action movie of the classic cartoon will hit big screens in May 2008 from Warner Bros. Lionsgate has also announced plans for a new animated Speed Racer series, also for 2008, to air on Nickelodeon’s 24-hour cartoon channel Nicktoons.

We totally missed the announcement, but luckily Johanna caught it! In an historic example of détente, Fantagraphics, D&Q, Checker and IDW are teaming up! For Classic Comic Strips month, and an oversized promotional sampler:

This full-color 11″ x 17″ tabloid is a spectacular showcase of some of the finest comics art of the last century and a collector’s item in the making! Designed like an old-time classic newspaper comic strip supplement, Comic Strip Masterpieces will feature superb reproductions of some of the very finest Gasoline Alley, Dick Tracy, Krazy Kat, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Steve Canyon, Terry and the Pirates, Dennis the Menace, Flash Gordon, Yellow Kid, and Popeye strips, including many stunning full-color Sunday pages! There will also be a “sequel” of sorts to the hugely popular Unseen Peanuts (an annotated spread of Peanuts strips from the upcoming ninth volume of Complete Peanuts that have never been reprinted since their original newspaper release almost 40 years ago), as well as biographical notes on the cartoonists, a checklist of classic comic strip reprints, and more. Reading Comic Strip Masterpieces will be like traveling back in time to an era when comic strips were actually good!

IDW is going back to the vaults for some early work by Dave Gibbons, in the form of old DR Who comics. The imageon the left is an earlier reprint of tis work, not the IDW version.

When Doctor Who’s TARDIS lands in U.S. comic book stores in December, the stories will be classic, and the scarf will be color: rescuing a catalogue of beloved tales from the timestream, IDW Publishing will release Doctor Who Classics, printing in all-new color the black-and-white adventures that originally appeared only in Great Britain as part of Doctor Who Magazine in 1979 and 1980.

The stories feature the incarnation of the character very familiar to American audiences, Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, with new state-of-the-art colors over art by Dave Gibbons, who drew the British magazine’s main comic strip for most of the issues, from #1 until #69, before going on to co-create the industry-shaping graphic novel Watchmen.

Writing the stories are celebrated authors Pat Mills, nicknamed “the godfather of British comics,” and Scotland-based John Wagner, both of whom are given credit for revitalizing British boys’ comics in the 1970s. The new, modern colors will be handled by Charlie Kirchoff, with new covers recreating old scenes provided by Joe Corroney, the fan-favorite artist from IDW’s Star Trek books.

“This series is appealing to fans because it’s rare for these stories to have been available to readers in the United States,” says Chris Ryall, IDW editor-in-chief and publisher. “A lot of people have never seen these comics at all, let alone in the full, vibrant colors that Gibbons’ art deserves.”

IDW will follow the launch of its classics reprints a month later with all-new monthly adventures of the latest Doctor, the Tenth version of the character portrayed by David Tennant in the BBC revamp of the show that drew raves from British critics and fans when it debuted in 2005.

“We’re giving fans the best of the old and the best of the new,” says Ryall. “The first series looks back at most popular Doctor of the past, and the upcoming series focuses on the best of the present.”

Doctor Who Classics #1 will be released in December. Diamond order code OCT07 3579.

Tom unearths the wonderful news that a Scorchy Smith collection is underway as announced by Dean Mullaney on a mailing list:

On the subject of future projects, since we’ve already sent the solicitation info to our book distributor, I can announce that in June 2008, I will release an oversized, 11″ x 11″ hardcover: SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES through IDW. It will contain the complete Sickles Scorchy for the first time ever, plus about 60 pages of Sickles’s magazine and other illustrations.

As wildfires continue to ravage southern California, uprooting half a million people, concerns over comics folks living and working near the fires keep coming up. IDW’s Andrew Steven Harris wrote give the happy news that everyone at IDW is accounted for:

We’re getting a lot of inquiries from our readers, creators and other industry folk about how we’re doing down here in San Diego with all the wildfires nearby, so I thought I’d drop you a quick note to let you know how things are going. A few of our staffers are already under mandatory evacuation from their homes, and the edge of the evacuation zone is actually just a few miles from the IDW offices, but given how these fires have ravaged huge sections of the county, we’re thus far extremely lucky that nobody here has suffered any catastrophic losses yet. The evacuation zone is actually much closer to the offices of our friends over at Wildstorm in La Jolla, and a number of staffers there have also had to evacuate their homes, so we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for them.

Comic Book Resources has a long article detailing the situation at various stores throughout the area, as well as residents, and gives a fuller picture of the situation at Wildstorm:

CBR News spoke with three more members of the San Diego comics community Tuesday evening. Wildstorm founder and Editorial Director Jim Lee wrote to say that their offices aren’t at risk and while about 15% of the company’s employees have been forced to evacuate, everyone is safe and accounted for. “There was a big, but smaller fire, back in 2003 and the city and county learned from their mistakes and the evacs have gone pretty smoothly as the 911 reverse calling system calls people at their homes with notifications to move out as the fires change direction and threatens new neighborhoods,” Lee told CBR News.

30 DAYS OF NIGHT won the weekend box office race with $16 mil although it was a slow weekend.

Sony’s vampire horror pic “30 Days of Night” won the weekend at the domestic box office with an estimated gross of $16 million from 2,855 locations, while Ben Affleck’s feature directorial debut “Gone Baby Gone” opened the strongest among the crowded pack of new adult dramas.

Overall, however, films had trouble sucking much blood out of the box office, where business remained down.

30 Days of Night had its big Hollywood premiere on Tuesday night. IESB has lots of red carpet interviews, including Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith and Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson. (To be honest, we didn’t know that Dark Horse was involved until we saw the credits at a screening the other night.) Some nice celeb pics:

Niles and the lovely Sara Wilkinson.

Templesmith and his lovely wife Lorelei.

And of course, it’s not official unless Bai Ling is there!

The movie based on Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s graphic novel 30 DAYS OF NIGHT opens this weekend, in case you hadn’t heard. Mucho media coverage.
The LA Times talks with director David Slade

“It’s a happy place,” Hartnett says of the combination watering hole and bowling alley. “And as we were leaving, David took a couple of pictures of the place.” The director later e-mailed them to Hartnett after altering the images. “I didn’t even recognize the place,” Hartnett says. “It looked haunted.” Slade’s photo trickery convinced Hartnett to return to gore, and the director’s visual manipulations would also prove central to his adaptation of Niles and Templesmith’s work. “David’s whole pitch was he wanted to go back to the core graphic novel,” says “30 Days of Night” producer Rob Tapert. “He felt very strongly that there was a real clean story within the graphic novel.”

Film School Rejects has lots and lots of stills.

The business section of the San Diego Union-Tribune profiles publisher IDW and throws around a lot more numbers than such pieces usually do, citing $5 million in revenue last year, with expectations for as much as $7 mil this year, in the wake of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT:

Since May, the company has shipped more than 4 million issues of its comics and expects its revenue for the year to be as high as $7 million. IDW has about 13 full-time employees, and it works with about 150 freelance writers and artists. Adams said the company has gross margins of about 45 percent.

Things could get better for IDW with the release of a “30 Days of Night” movie Oct. 19.

“If it’s anything like the big success we’ve seen with ‘300′ (another movie based on a comic book), it has the potential to propel IDW to the next level,” said Jim Kuhoric, purchasing director for Diamond Comic Distributors, one of the largest distributors in the business.

Manga for the rest of us: IDW previews Umezu’s REPTILIA. Much more in link.

Freaky manga-ka legend Kazuo Umezu is getting another shot in America via REPTILIA, due this October from IDW, which is making its first foray into manga publishing:

Just in time for Halloween, IDW Publishing brings Japanese horror legend Kazuo Umezu’s seminal manga work Reptilia to America next month, translating the 40-year-old terror classic into English for the very first time as IDW continues to expand its publishing line.

“This is our first manga project,” says Chris Ryall, publisher and editor-in-chief of IDW, which reinvented American horror comics several years ago with the blockbuster miniseries 30 Days of Night, to be released as a major motion picture from Sony in the same month that IDW unveils Reptilia. “We wanted to do something unique for our first effort to bring Japanese manga to the States, and considering our past success in creating horror hits, it made sense to publish something from the man who is considered the father of horror manga in Japan.”

Reptilia, which first frightened Japanese audiences in serial form but now appears as a full-length collection from IDW, tells the story of a hunter who sets out into an infamous swamp, only to perish three days later. As decades pass, his granddaughter Yoko knows little of what happened to him-until terror strikes her village on the anniversary of his death, and she must face the same threat that took his life years before.
The graphic novel features an all-new cover from acclaimed illustrator and concept designer Ashley Wood, artist on IDW’s hit B&W horror series Doomed.

REPTILIA, 320 B&W pages in manga-sized softcover, hits stores in October, retailing for $14.99. Diamond order code AUG07 3758.

On the Road by Lucy Nolan is a fun story about a dog and her owner which is told from the perspective of the dog, Down Girl. She describes her life with her owner, Rruff, and her dog friend, Sit. Down Girl especially loves to ride in the car to go on different adventures. This is a beginning chapter book that would be perfect for second grade students and even some third graders. I love the humor and just getting to see the world from a dog's point of view. Any dog lover will certainly understand and enjoy it. It could also be a great teaching tool in the classroom. On the Road is filled with opportunities to teach inferencing skills and point of view. Kids will love it. I would highly recommend it. This book is on the 2007-2008 Texas Bluebonnet List.

Following an editorial talent search at San Diego, IDW has hired Andrew Steven Harris as their newest editor:

IDW Publishing is pleased to announce the newest member of the IDW team. Andrew Steven Harris, a former Los Angeles Times editor and one of the founding writers for Wizard Magazine, will oversee IDW’s Transformers and Star Trek comic book titles, two of the company’s most prominent licenses, along with several other books in the IDW publishing line. He will report directly to IDW Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall.

“Strange as it may sound, I originally became a journalist because of Peter Parker and Clark Kent,” Harris says. “They were comic book characters working in journalism, and now I get to work full-time in comics. It’s really a dream job, especially for a company like IDW, which has become the very model of a top-notch, successful publisher.”

“We received an extraordinary amount of interest in the editor’s position at IDW, and Andrew was our top candidate,” says Ryall. “He brings with him an exceptional knowledge of comic books and comic book storytelling, and his editing and publishing background is exactly what IDW needs as it continues to expand. He’s got the experience to handle two of our most important licenses, and at the same time bring fresh and exciting new ideas to the table.“