IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, short for Idea and Design Works, is an American publisher of comic books which published several Doctor Who comics out of the USA between 2007 and 2013. Many of IDW's titles are licensed properties based upon TV and film franchises. IDW's stories were able to expand on areas from the TV series, including glimpses into the Time War, the fates of Martha Jones and Christina De Souza, among many more. The licence allowed IDW to reuse characters such as Draconians, Ice Warriors, Sontarans and the Cybermen.
The company initially offered two Doctor Who titles beginning in winter 2007/08: Doctor Who Classics, which reprinted Fourth Doctor stories from Doctor Who Magazine, and Doctor Who, offering all-new adventures for the Tenth Doctor, starting with a six-issue miniseries. In summer 2008, IDW released a second miniseries, The Forgotten, which featured appearances by all 10 Doctors. In October 2008, IDW suspended Doctor Who Classics and launched a related title, Grant Morrison's Doctor Who, a two-issue miniseries which reprinted DWM storylines written by Grant Morrison. In December, the regular reprints continued as Doctor Who Classics: Series 2, continuing the DWM reprints with the Fourth Doctor; in April 2009 the series began reprinting Fifth Doctor strips.
In 2009, IDW published a series of one-shots, which began with The Whispering Gallery in February, followed by The Time Machination in May, and Autopia in June. It launched Doctor Who Ongoing in July (cover title simply Doctor Who), a new monthly series featuring the Tenth Doctor that ran for 16 issues, and was relaunched in January 2011 with the Eleventh Doctor.
Concurrent with Ongoing, IDW continued publishing monthly one-shots until the fall of 2009. These stories occur during the timeframes of the third and fourth seasons and featured appearances by Martha Jones and Donna Noble.
The Ongoing title (simply titled Doctor Who on the cover), has been published in two volumes. Volume 1 ran for 16 issues and one Annual, and featured the Tenth Doctor and original companions Matthew Finnegan and Emily Winter. Volume 2 began publication in January 2011, and features the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams. (However, the Eleventh Doctor actually made his debut in IDW's first Doctor Who Annual, published in July 2010, when he appeared in a dream sequence of the Tenth Doctor story COMIC: To Sleep, Perchance to Scream.) Volume 3 was released between 2012 and 2013, with two additional annuals.
Besides Doctor Who, IDW is also the current publisher of comics based upon Star Trek, making this the first time since the late-70s/early-80s that one company has owned the rights to both franchises at the same time (the previous being Marvel Comics). Beginning in May 2012, IDW began publishing the first official crossover between Doctor Who and Star Trek, an 8-issue miniseries titled Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who — Assimilation².
Although concentrating mainly on New Series stories, the stories The Forgotten and Prisoners of Timecelebrated two anniversaries: the 45th and the 50th. Each story gave a glimpse into a past Doctor's life (3 Doctors per issue in The Forgotten; 1 Doctor per issue in Prisoners of Time, and both concluded with every Doctor teaming up.
Aside from the comic magazines, IDW also published graphic novel collections of its comics. Doctor Who Classics, Agent Provocateur (collecting the first six-issue miniseries), The Forgotten, and Through Time and Space (collecting the first six one-shots), along with the 2009, 2011 and 2012 series of the title. Two volumes of Doctor Who Classics have been released in 22.6x15xm sized Omnibus collections, as well as two Omnibuses focused on the Tenth Doctor; volume 1 collecting Agent Provocateur, The Forgotten and Through Time and Space, and volume 2 collecting the entirety of Doctor Who (2009). That series was also collected in the hardcover Winter's Dawn, Season's End, whilst Doctor Who (2011) is also available in the hardcover The Girl Who Waited, the Boy Who Lived. Additionally, Assimilation2 and Prisoners of Time are available in smaller TPB volumes and deluxe, oversized hardcovers. The only issue which is not collected in a TPB is IDW's final issue, Special 2013, released on Christmas 2013.
In July 2013, it was announced that IDW would be losing the licence to Doctor Who, but no announcement was made at the time about who would take over the licence in 2014.[1]
In January 2014, it was announced that Titan Publishing Group had been awarded the licence from January 2014.[2] As IDW lost the licence, this means all TPB collections are out of print and digital copies are unavailable. However, copies purchased before IDW lost the licence are still accessible; the only exemption is Assimilation2 , which, as it falls under the Star Trek licence, can still be puchased from the Comixology website. In the fall of 2015, Titan Comics began reprinting the IDW series under its Tenth Doctor Archives and Eleventh Doctor Archives ranges, available in paperback and digital formats. The TPBs also include the previously uncollected The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who, as well as the special comics IDW created for the San Diego Comic Con and BBC Worldwide's DVD releases. A single-volume reprint of Prisoners of Time has also been released by Titan in the same formats. As of spring 2016, however, there are no plans for Titan to reprint Assimilation2.
Footnotes
- ↑ Dave Golder, SFX Magazine: "IDW's Doctor Who Comic Swan Song Will Be 50th Anniversary One-Shot From Paul Cornell" (18 July 2013).
- ↑ Richard Edwards, SFX Magazine: "Titan Wins Doctor Who Comics Licence" (21 January 2014)
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