Comic Con Redux! Well, Comic Con is over for this year and here at IDW we would like to say thank you to everyone who came by our booth and helped make this our best Con yet! If you couldn’t make it this year, we hope to see you next year, when we’ll have another round of great exclusives and fabulous signings!

Thanks also to all the creators who signed with us this year – it was a pleasure hosting you all!

Only 353 days until Comic Con 2010. . .

August is G.I. JOE Month!

The summer movie season is going out with a bang this year, as G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra releases on Friday! Get an advanced look at all the action with IDW’s G.I. JOE movie adaptation comics available in stores now, plus our new G.I. JOE: Special Helix mini series, launching next week on August 12th!

New This Month
Here’s a quick list of some of the great comics and books to look for in August. A complete list of August releases is below. 

Angel: Only Human #1
Scott Lobdell (w) • David Messina, Mirco Pierfederici (a) • Dave Dorman, Messina (c)
Spinning out of the events of Angel #23, Gunn and Illyria embark on their very own four-part miniseries. Fully restored in body if not in mind, Illyria—infected with humanity—and Gunn—infected with darkness—hit the road in an attempt to find redemption, or die trying. By Scott Lobdell (Galaxy Quest) and David Messina (Star Trek: Countdown)!

Doctor Who: Cold-Blooded War
Gary Russell (w) • Adrian Salmon (a) • Salmon, photo (c)
In this standalone tale, the Doctor and Donna attempt to broker a peace plan between two very hierarchical and pompous alien races, the Draconians and Ice Warriors. But their best efforts are derailed by someone who stands to gain from the continued conflict. Written by TV show story editor Gary Russell with art by Adrian Salmon.

GrimJack: The Manx Cat #1
John Ostrander (w) • Timothy Truman (a & c)
The great IDW/ComicMix.com team-up begins right here! GrimJack is back, and caught in a quest for the deadly Manx Cat! Return with John Ostrander and Timothy Truman to the gritty land of Cynosure. This is the first time the story’s ever been in comic book form, and to celebrate, we’re giving you a full 26 pages of art and story!

Hero Comics: A Heroes Initiative Benefit Book
Howard Chaykin, Kyle Baker, Bill Willingham, David Lloyd, Lowell Francis, and more(w) • Howard Chaykin, Kyle Baker, Gene Ha, David Lloyd, Arthur Adams, Bill Willingham, Mark Schultz, and more (a) • J. Scott Campbell, Matt Wagner (c)
32 pages of great comics—no ads—by an all-star roster of creators, and all to benefit a very worthy cause! Howard Chaykin provides a stellar American Flagg story, Art Adams displays his take on a selection of classic Marvel Comics covers, Matt Wagner gives us a Hunter Rose Grendel cover… and we have what is quite possibly the sexiest J. Scott Campbell cover of all time!

Star Trek: Nero #1
Mike Johnson & Tim Jones (w) • David Messina (a & c)
From STAR TREK writer/producers Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman and the creative team behind the best-selling prequel comic STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN comes an all-new story set within the events of the hit film! Not an adaptation, this exclusive story follows the villainous Nero as he seeks to destroy the Federation. Don’t miss this essential chapter in the rebirth of STAR TREK!

Starstruck #1
Elaine Lee (w) • Michael Wm. Kaluta (a) • Kaluta, Charles Vess (i) • Kaluta (c)
First serialized in Heavy Metal Magazine, then a Marvel graphic novel and comic series… and now finally back in print after nearly 20 years, Michael Kaluta’s amazing Starstruck—completely remastered and with incredible new color by Lee Moyer—is back and looking better than ever! Each issue also contains an episode of Galactic Girl Guides, by the same creative team. 

Transformers: Tales of the Fallen #1
Chris Mowry (w) • Carlos Magno (a) • Magno, Alex Milne (c)
An all-new miniseries set in the Movie universe launches here! Nearly two years after saving the planet, Sam Witwicky has grown up. It’s too bad his friend BUMBLEBEE hasn’t. With their friendship strained, Sam sets out for an evening devoid of alien interference. Little does he know that he’s being watched. Without his robotic protector, can he beat the DECEPTICONS?

Monthly Give Away
Each month, one lucky newsletter subscriber will be our raffle winner and will receive free IDW releases from that month. Our August winner will receive a complete set of Comic Con exclusive G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra movie adaption comics, each with a photo cover.

Congratulations to our July winner: Casey, who won a copy of Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter, now a New York Times best seller!

“We’ve been talking a bit about how IDW celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. And as of July, I’ve officially been here for half that time—last month was my five-year anniversary with the company. Of course, this has caused me to look back at where things were in 2004 compared to where they are now. At the time I started (the week before Comic-Con – trial by fire!), we were publishing around 12 books a month, with a full-time staff of seven. And now, five years later, we’re publishing four times that many books every month and now grown to a staff of over 20 full-timers. This is exactly the kind of growth we’d all hoped for and talked about back then, even though it might have seemed like a long shot.

So now, coming off of our best Comic Con yet and sitting pretty as the third largest publisher, I can’t help but reflect on how we did it. The answer to that kind of question is always “a combination of good luck, good decisions and good creators,” but what it really all comes down to is that we all just keep our heads down and produce books month in and month out. A lot of books. Which, granted, isn’t so different than what publishers who rank above and below us also do, but it’s something that I’m constantly aware of, that there are no corners to cut in the end.

So every day I come in here, whether I’m working on a handful of comics in 2004 or 40 books now, I approach the job the same way, which is not taking the support for granted and realizing that only the same hard work that got us here is going to keep us here. Now the next decade will be spent figuring out how to make the leap to Number Two…”

Angel: After the Fall #24

Angel: After the Fall Vol. 1 TPB

Astro Boy: Movie Prequel #4

Doctor Who: Classics Series II #9

Fallen Angel: Reborn #2

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft TPB

Star Trek: Alien Spotlight Q

Veil #2

August 12th
Angel: Only Human #1

From the Ashes #3

G.I. JOE #8

G.I. JOE: Special Helix #1

GrimJack: The Manx Cat #1

Hero Comics

Star Trek: Nero #1

Starstruck #1

Transformers: Tales of the Fallen #1

Transformers: Best of UK: Prey #1

August 19th
Angel: Smile Time HC

Astro Boy: Movie Adaptation #1

Doctor Who: Silver Scream #2

G.I. JOE: Origins #6

Star Trek: Spock Reflections #2

Transformers: All Hail Megatron #14

Transformers: Animated All Spark Almanac

August 26th
Astro Boy: Movie Adaptation #2

Doctor Who: Cold-Blooded War

Sparrow #12: Sergio Toppi

Transformers: Best of UK Omnibus

Transformers: The Complete Ark