Posted in: Comics | Tagged: idw, NYCC 2014

Live! From The Big Panel With IDW At NYCC 2014 With Kate Leth, Jim Zub, Gabriel Rodriguez, Jonathan Mayberry, Joe Harris And More(UPDATE)

Dirk Wood hosted a massive line-up of creative talent on Friday afternoon at New York Comic Con including Kate Leth, Gabriel Rodriguez, Jim Zub, Joe Harris, and many others.

Things kicked off talking about the Star Trek/Planet of the Apes crossover: The Primate Directive and showing George Perez' cover and some interior art. The team were happy to get permission from the Heston estate to use Charlton Heston's likeness as well as William Shatner's.

Moving along, Joe Harris explained that they are currently in the middle of a "monster of the month" story called Immaculate on X-Files.  It will feature a "special guest star" that will gear up the X-Files and a special new project, announcing today at NYCC 2014.

New series Millennium will be spinning out of X-Files, a TV show that spun off of X-Files back in the day. This one spins out of the X-Files comic book but yet to be announced which issue of X-Files it will spin off of.

They are "really excited" to bring Chris Carter's other show to comics. The show got 3 seasons of awesome ideas, they said, but it never really got the attention it deserved or a "good enough ending" for Frank. The series will take place within the X-Files universe but be something of its own. Agent Mulder will be guest starring. 15 years later we are going to find out what some of the impact has been for the previous "ending". Scenes between Mulder and Frank Black are going to be particularly interesting and were fun to write, Harris said.

Kate Leth spoke about her work on Edward Scissorhands and her personal fandom for Tim Burton, and how "dark" this story will be as a "Nancy Drew teen" approach to what is such a "complete" story in the film. The comic will contain back-up material in the form of prose stories from creators and fans about their love for the film. Gabriel Rodriguez was delighted to do a cover for the comic, he said, and dropped other projects briefly in order to do it, studying the scissors in the original film. An ashcan for the comic is available at IDW's booth at NYCC.

Rodriguez also spoke about Little Nemo: Return To Slumberland and the fun he's having developing the series as a return to childhood and celebration of the imagination. A preview of issue #2 is available at IDW at NYCC.

Rot & Ruin is a series set after the zombie apocalypse, in "one big dysfunctional world" based on a series of novels, and the comic takes place between the 2nd and 3rd novels but reading them isn't necessary to follow the comic. The first issue is already sold out, Jonathan Mayberry explained.

Zombies Vs. Robots with Chris Ryall as writer will have several creators and contributors, including Steve Niles, Ashley Wood, and it was originally created by Ryall and Wood some years ago. There are human characters who exist in different "pockets" of the world and will give the series a reason for "being" beyond zombies punching robots. It's coming back "in a big way" in January.

Ryall announced a couple of months ago that IDW will be doing Dirk Gently, based on the Douglas Adams novels. They are also developing it for television and the series will launch in comics in June of next year. Rob Guillory covers and some original sketches were shown. We find out that Dirk's "non-traditional" approach to solving crimes leads to multi-genre. Ryall said he told Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool about it since he's a "proper British gent" and he was "pissed' than an American company was doing it, amusingly.

Since Jim Zub was present, the panel turned to the Dungeons and Dragons comic at IDW, having just had a big signing. Zub said the reason he's a writer is because of playing D and D with family members, which gave him the confidence to write. It's "fun for new readers" but plays into the legacy of the Baldur's Gate video game, using characters and bringing the comic into continuity. The first issue is available at the IDW booth at NYCC.

Announced in the panel, IDW has entered into a relationship with Disney regarding Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and related properties which will enable them to reprint classic work. We also understand that IDW have entered into a deal with Don Rosa regarding the reprints of his work that Rosa is quite happy with, a marked difference to previous licensing deals.

As announced this weekend, the deal with Disney would result in many projects, but now we have more details. For classic work, no one has ever seen the full size of the art, and some will come from Don Rosa's collection. The Carl Barks collections will come from Disney Archives and personal collections.

Having announced that Jem is coming earlier in the con, it's not that strange that they are expanding their relationship with Marvel, IDW said.

Silver Surfer is coming to Artist's Edition in a month, full of fabulous pages.

Some teaser artwork was shown for upcoming Orphan Black covers.

During the Q and A, IDW confirmed that Mickey and Donald stories never before seen in this format will be published in this new partnership with Disney.

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