Minding the store

Up now at the iTunes App store are four different IDW "Storefront" apps. All of these apps are free downloads for your iPhone/iPod touch, too. They all offer you the ability have your IDW comic apps organized inside the storefront. The IDW app helps you organize and find everything we have available, and keep them all inside that one application (as opposed to having every single title and issue as a separate app unto itself). And there are also free Transformers, G.I. Joe and Star trek storefronts that do the same.

The nice thing about these is that, with them, we're the first publisher to launch our own "in-app purchase" storefronts. Each one's got anywhere from 30-60 titles (the IDW storefront has everything IDW has up at iTunes, over 200 books), and some full collections (like ALL HAIL MEGATRON 1-12) in each app, with more coming every week.

In addition to being free downloads, the apps come pre-loaded with some free comics for you, too. Check 'em out here:
IDW storefront
Transformers storefront
G.I. Joe storefront
Star Trek storefront

Advancement

It's been a good week or two for advance copies around the office, with new hardcover copies of THE ROCKEETEER, NEXT MEN PREMIERE EDITION, VOL. 2 and THE ART OF DITKO, our first book under our new Yoe Books imprint, all arriving. They'll all be in stores early December:

IDW's new releases for November 18

Alright, TRANSFORMERS fans, the big week is finally here...
24 Omnibus
Angel: Only Human #4
Legion: Prophets #1
Rip Kirby, Vol. 1
Robert Block's Lori
Star Trek: TNG: Ghosts #1
Transformers #1

Snake Eyes eyes Snake Eyes

Even Snake Eyes needs some downtime between slicin' and dicin', and here you can see how he spends his time. This pic comes to us from the real man under the mask, Daniel Thompson, at The Zone, a Louisville, KY-based comics shop. I'm pretty sure this was just how he dressed on Halloween, but then again, he might also suit every Wednesday to intimidate any potential shoplifters. So tread lightly, that's all I'm saying. You'll never hear him coming as you try to stash a copy of, say, G.I. JOE: SNAKE EYES #1 (his book of choice in the photo) and then the next thing you know, your hands are separated from your body with one slice of his blade.

Family Affair

FAMILY CIRCUS creator Bil Keane's son Jeff, who has been doing the strip with his father for some time, talked to iCV2.com about our new FAMILY CIRCUS collection, and other thoughts about the strip's 50-year history. Read the interview here. Above, the very first FAMILY CIRCUS strip, from February 29, 1960.

The palindrome is back

Franco Urru's making his return to ANGEL... but not in the main series. Where, then? That'll be revealed soon enough. But after a look at this image, a better question might be "when"...?

Ghost-fight!

LOCKE & KEY: CROWN OF SHADOWS #1 is in stores today. And the start of this third L&K series features, among other things, a ghost-fight (the beginning of which can be seen in the above image from the issue). Which is really the way all first issue should--but rarely do--begin.

A few early reviews of the issue are in, too:
IGN.com
Gregor's Review
Broken Frontier
But only read once you've read the issue itself so you don't spoil anything...

Full Nelson

Artist Nelson's variant cover for issue 1 of Alan Robert's WIRE HANGERS, coming in early 2010.

Special SFX

SFX magazine's 2010 SFX Sci-Fi Awards nominations are now up, and LOCKE & KEY is among the Best Comic Book/Graphic Novel nominations. It's got some stiff competition so head here to cast your vote now.

Vitriolic

Next year, we're launching Good Charlotte guitarist Billy Martin's first comic book series, VITRIOL THE HUNTER. Billy's co-writing the book with with Brent Allen and penciling it. I wanted to show here the progression of a page from the first issue.

So we begin with Billy's pencils from page 2:


From there, the page is sent on to the inker, Jon "Waki" Wycough:


And finally the colors, added here by Jeremy Treece, giving us our first full-color look at Vitriol in the issue: