Artists Edition

IDW's Artist Editions are the kind of books I covet with a fervor that threatens to bankrupt me. It's such a simple idea --- reprinting the original penciled and inked pages of a comic in high quality at their original size, letting readers see not just the art and story, but the way a comic comes together, full of lettering paste-ups and details that were erased or shrunk down in the printed version. It's no wonder, then, that IDW has decided to celebrate it with a line-wide set of variant covers paying tribute to the idea. So when Optimus Prime hits shelves in January, it's not just bringing Wreck-Gar and the rest of the trash robots from the planet Junkion, it's also sporting a spiffy new Artist's Edition cover from Casey Coller, which we're pleased to reveal along with Joana Lafuente's regular cover and the solicitation for the issue!

IDW seems dead set on taking as much of my money as it possibly can. Not only has the publisher produced high-end 'Artist's Editions' of some of my favorite comics, including Jack Kirby's Fourth World, Frank Miller's Daredevil and Walt Simonson's Thor, but as part of this year's New York Comic-Con, it's announced upcoming Artifact and Artist's Editions respectively for Carl Barks' and Don Rosa's Uncle Scrooge stories. The announcement comes as part of a resurgence of interest in the creators' work on the World's Richest Duck, which also includes new hardcover collections of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge from Fantagraphics. The IDW collections, however, will print the original art at its original size.

You would think that by October, the end of Convention Season as we know it, publishers like IDW would be running out of exclusive covers and new titles to debut at cons. But you would be wrong. The dogged determination of the people who make comics should never be underestimated, and when they set up at Booth #1844 next weekend at New York Comic Con, IDW is going to have plenty to offer.

You may want to sit down for IDW's New York Comic Con 2013 Artist's Editions... today the publisher announced that it will be releasing Jack Kirby's New Gods Artist's Edition, two Jim Steranko Marvel Artist's Editions and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen Artifact Edition.

Add Mike Mignola to the growing list of legendary artists -- Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, David Mazzucchelli, Wally Wood and Walt Simonson, to name a few -- whose work has gotten the Artist's Edition treatment from IDW. The first five issues of Hellboy in Hell, the most recent series in Mignola's Hellboy saga, will be collected in the book, according to an IDW press release.

Jeff Smith fans got two big presents at this weekend's WonderCon: The first is news that IDW is set to release a new Artist's Edition collection of Bone this fall. The second? Smith's working on a brand new webcomic set in prehistoric times, titled Tüki Save the Humans. Th...