Outside the Box: Focus on IDW comics

Writing about IDW Comics and their Godzilla comics for several months now, it made me realize how interesting this comic book company is.

For those not in the know IDW comics is an independent comic book publisher that (in recent years) has solely focused on licensed properties.

In the beginning (founded in 1999) they started on original properties of their own, with their first series "30 Days of Night" landing them in Hollywood's eyes.

This series was of course made into a feature film and later had TV/DVD releases, but the mark was there for IDW to work on properties specifically derived from, or built for, other mediums.

As such it wasn't long before they partnered with well known movie/TV studios in order to offer comic books based off of successful franchises.

Their thought process seems to be that the franchise is already there to exploit off of...the only thing left is to offer a new avenue (comics) for this preexisting fan base.

It's a model that I agree with and has worked very well for IDW, with multiple series' focused on fan favorite franchises such as Godzilla, Transformers, True Blood, 24, GI: Joe, Dick Tracy, etc., and that's just to name a few.

Such a model Dark Horse comics utilizes to some extent, but nowhere near to what IDW does.  Why Marvel and DC don't get into this act is beyond me, as they've worked with licensed properties before.

In any case IDW has now focused on creating Omnibus' catered towards reprinting series' issued years ago, sometimes even from other publishers like Marvel.

I'm now seeing dozens of never-before-seen titles on Amazon.com, which denotes how successful this sub-model has become.

I personally love Omnibus' because they contain anywhere from 300 to 500 pages of comics within one specially priced booklet. You literally get dozens of issues within one package.

Not even TPBs come close to such an offer, and the only trade off is that the Onmibus' are reprinted in a "Reader Digest" size, i.e. about 1/4 smaller than your standard comic.

In any case I'm happy for IDW's success and look forward to them continuing for another 10, 20, 30+ years in this business.

Coming out of nowhere to compete with giants like Marvel and DC (and sub-giants like Image and Dark Horse) and still succeed is not an easy thing to do, so kudos to them for their great work here.

As a bonus I've included links to some of my favorite IDW Omnibus' on the right-side column. If you haven't picked up an Omnibus before, now's a great chance to get started.