IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing (Idea and Design Works) is an American publisher of comic books currently publishing several Doctor Who comics out of the USA. Many of IDW's titles are licensed properties based upon TV and film franchises. 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).

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 is expected to run for 16 issues, and will be 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. As of 2012, IDW continues to publish Doctor Who Ongoing and Doctor Who Classics with no further one-shots confirmed as yet (although rumours have developed of a crossover with another property to which IDW has the rights, Star Trek: The Next Generation).

The Ongoing title (which carries a cover title of simply, Doctor Who with the story's title appearing somewhere on the cover), takes place in the post-Journey's End continuity and as of January 2010 continued to feature the Tenth Doctor. IDW has announced that stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor will be launched in the Ongoing title near the end of 2010. 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 IDW: To Sleep, Perchance to Scream.

Aside from the comic magazines, IDW also publishes graphic novel-style omnibus collections of its comics. To date, it has reprinted five volumes of Doctor Who Classics, Agent Provocateur (an omnibus collecting the first six-issue miniseries), The Forgotten, and Through Time and Space, an omnibus collecting the first six one-shots.

External link

 * The IDW publishing site with news, information and previews of all its titles.