IDW Publishing has announced D.C. Fontana, Derek Chester, artist Gordon Purcell, and inker Terry Pallot will join forces for IDW Publishings Star Trek Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment.

For The Enterprise Experiment, Fontana and Chester have crafted a sequel to Fontana’s celebrated Star Trek episode “The Enterprise Incident”, in which Kirk famously posed as a Romulan to capture a new state-of-the-art cloaking device. In this all-new story, Federation efforts to fully adapt the cloaking device to Starfleet ships leads to an experiment gone awry, trapping Kirk and Spock on an Enterprise out of phase with space itself. At the same time, Romulan forces close in on the starship, intent on claiming revenge for their stolen technology. Later chapters in the series will provide a sequel to the first two issues, as the Klingonâ„¢ Empire-with its own agenda-suddenly enters the fray.

Even though this is D.C. Fontana’s first attempt at comic writing, she’s written enough Star Trek episodes (original, TNG, the animated series, and Deep Space Nine) that I think this could be a huge hit for Star Trek fans.

The first issue of The Enterprise Experiment goes on sale in April for $3.99.

via IDW Publishing

According to The Comix Mix, IDW has acquired Blue Dream Studios - best known for Scott Christian Sava’s The Dreamland Chronicles (one of my favorite webcomics).

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

IDW says it is looking to expand into the all ages audience.

via The Comix Mix

With the success of Buffy: Season 8, fans have been wondering if Angel would get a similar treatment. Word out of San Diego is, indeed Angel will have a series that follows the end of the hit television show that ran on the WB.

Angel: After the Fall will be a canoncial series written by Brian Lynch and released by IDW Publishing. You may be familiar with Brian’s work on Spike: Asylum, and if you aren’t, you should be, as this is the title the Joss Whedon read and suggested IDW hire Brian on as Angel’s writer.

Art for the series will be done by Franco Urru who also worked on the Spike series.

The first script is done, and five or six issues have been planned. The series is described by IDW as a 12 issue-plus series.

Take the jump for the full cover.

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Gene Simmons isn’t content with just one comic book, he wants them all. So this August he will introduce Dominatrix to the world. Simmons describes the series at T&A meets CIA.

The series will be written by Sean Taylor and illustrated by Flavio Hoffe and Esteve Polls.

Take the jump for more info and the full cover.

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IDT Internet Mobile Group, had acquired controlling interest in IDW Publishing, publishers of such tiles as 30 Days of Night, CSI, Star Trek, 24, Transformers, and so on. IDT has also formed Zedge Studios to develop and license digital content for distribution through the web and mobile platforms, which pretty much means IDT is gearing up for a serious campaign to get IDW’s pantheon of content online.

Moshe Berger, formerly CEO of IDT Entertainment, which was sold to Liberty Media in 2006, is now working towards making IDT’s Internet Mobile Group an industry leader. “We have seen the explosion of digital content, especially user-generated content, over a variety of platforms,” said Mr. Berger, IMG CEO and head of Zedge Studios. “This is what the new generation of consumers craves. Our intention is for Zedge Studios to become the worldwide destination for content on the web and on mobile devices. IDW Publishing’s stellar reputation in the comics and graphic novel arenas and its emphasis on original intellectual properties in the action and horror genres are a perfect fit for Zedge Studios. Working closely with IDW’s brilliant management and creative team will bring us one step closer to achieving our global goal.”

In other words, the big companies are finally starting to realize the web and mobile devices are viable mediums for delivery and now want a piece of the pie web comic creators have been feasting on these last several years. It is even more interesting that the push for online/mobile content from big companies like DC and IDW comes on the heals of Apple’s recently released iPhone, which has the capability to surf the web very easily.

IDW Publishing has announced the company will release a six-book series collecting every single Milton Caniff Terry and the Pirates newspaper strips.

The Sunday pages will be reproduced in color, along side the daily black-and-white strips.Volume One, to be published in July, contains more than 800 consecutive strips, from the series’ beginning in 1934 through the end of 1936. An informed essay provides biographical material and places Caniff’s seminal work in the context of both comic strip history and of the real-world events reflected in the stories.

“This is the definitive edition of the definitive adventure series,” says series editor and designer Dean Mullaney. “All Sunday pages have been lovingly restored from the original color pages culled from my private collection and supplemented by the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University.” The books will be an oversized 11″ x 8.5″, in order to showcase the richness of Caniff’s art and storytelling. Future editions will be released on a quarterly schedule.

The first volume will be released in July for $49.99.

I remember reading Terry and the Pirates as a wee little lad at my grandparents house in a series of reprints that had been collected at the time. I remember thinking how awesome some of the stories were, even if I didn’t understand all the meaning in some of the encounters.

If IDW does for Terry what Fantagraphics did for Popeye, I’m in!

For more on Terry from the IDW press release, take the jump.

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60’s flava returns in IDW series

It was supposed to be a five year mission, but thanks to low ratings, NBC cancelled the series after three. After some 11 movies, five spin-off series, and more individual episodes than you can shake a stick at, there was still the question of what happened to the five year mission to seek out new life and new civilization. IDW has answered with a six issue series aptly called Star Trek: Year Four.

IDW sent an advanced peek at the series. Better set your phasers to stunned as Major Spoilers brings you the advanced review. You better believe there are spoilers ahead!

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Actress Melissa George posted on her website information about her involvement in the upcoming 30 Days of Night movie. George will play Stella Olemaun, the wife of town’s sheriff Eben Olemaun (played by Josh Hartnett). 30 Days of Night tells the tale of vampires who flock to small town in Alaska, where they can enjoy 30 days of uninterrupted night so they may enjoy their feeding non-stop.

The movie is being adapted from the Steve Niles comic, and is being produced by Sam Raimi. Brian Nelson and Stuart Beattie have penned the screenplay, and David Slade will direct. Shooting is scheduled to begin in New Zealand in early August, with the movie hitting the silver screen October 19, 2007

Via Melissa George homepage (link)

Looks like IDW has scrapped plans for a mini-series based on Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series. The news comes from artist Ted McKeever’s website:

Hey readers,

I’ll get right to the point.

The Princess of Mars project is now officially dead in the water. Two covers done, and the first half of the first issue completed, and word comes that IDW has decided it best not to continue with the project.

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