IDW

Friday at San Diego Comic-Con has brought a boatload of indie comics news. Here's a quick run down of the highlights: At the Image panel, it was revealed that Ted McKeever will be doing a new comic called Mondo for Image Comics. Landry Walker and Eric Jones, creators of Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade, will create Danger Club, a new non-family friendly comic, for Image.

Crack open the spinach cans, because he's back! Popeye the Sailor is getting his own comic coming out from IDW Publishing. The Popeye ongoing series will be an all-ages book suitable for children, featuring all the classic Popeye characters and go on sale in 2012.

It's Preview Night and the ICv2 Conference at San Diego Comic-Con, and while the big announcements are still being held back for the convention proper, news has begun to come out of San Diego in a trickle that will soon become a torrent.

Given the huge crowds at Comic-Con International, it's not surprising that an artist or publisher will promote The Latest and Greatest at the show. With all the buzz, the media, the fans... it's an excellent opportunity for a publisher to debut something amazing, something they hope will generate a lot of interest and lead to sales through the holiday season. So regular con-goers shouldn't be surprised that Craig Yoe, Eisner-Award winning author and designer, will have a new book to showcase. Not only are his history books beautifully designed and researched, but they are also fun to read. He even finds little gems, like Elvis reading a copy of "Betty and Veronica", to spice up his books.

Former Marvel editor John Barber has been named to the Senior Editor position at IDW, taking over their Hasbro licenses. Barber worked at Marvel as an editor for six years, and has a background in webcomics, which should fit in well with IDW's strong digital presence. In addition, IDW named Tom Waltz as senior staff writer and Alonso Simon was named assistant editor.

Artiest Renae De Liz (THE LAST UNICORN) is putting her energy where her mouth is and compiling WOMANTHOLOGY, an anthology of female creators, with a lineup that includes:

This October Steve Niles and Sam Kieth will be teaming on an ongoing 30 DAYS OF NIGHT comic. The story adds new characters to the vampire saga that spawned the popular film. Now you may be asking yourself, wasn't there already an ongoing? N0 -- there were lots of mini series but not an actual ongoing comic book. More via PR:

So much good stuff! Bestselling author Christopher Moore writes a graphic novel! Ray Bradbury, Grandmaster, has two classics adapted! Grant Morrison writes about superheroes and religion! Disney and Hitler, together again! Girlie comics from Marvel! "Good Girl" comics from Jim Silke, Doug Sneyd, and Dean Yeagle! Great Women comics from Gail Simone, Colleen Coover, Megan Kelso, Jill Thompson, and Corinne Mucha! (Can't find female creators on the newsstands? Check the bookshelves!) And lots of masterful work from Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Jim Starlin, and Floyd Gottfredson!

Ah... Memorial Day approaches, and with it, summer vacation. Day after day of nothing which must be done, but full of possibilities! Maybe an escape to the air-conditioned refuge of your local library. Perhaps a day spent on the porch, sipping something cold and sinful (I prefer Brown Cows, served in a large ice tea glass). Or maybe hiding away up in a hayloft, or deep in a cool root cellar, where no one can find you. Whatever your preference, there's nothing like a good book to make you forget the world around you. Below are some suggestions for your summer reading pleasures. (And if you need a nap to avoid the afternoon heat, give your kids something to read. It'll keep them quiet long enough for you to recharge your batteries.)

No one has really decided what the metrics for digital comics are -- real numbers are scarce, and most players keep it close to the vest. Back in December comiXology announced they had 1 million downloads of their comics apps, and now iVerse/IDW has hit the same milestone, with over 3 million digital IDW comics distributed.

Wow! Lots of great books coming out this month!

IDW announced a trio of impressive projects at WonderCon yesterday -- but none more surprising than than the news that they'll be collecting Walt Simonson's famed run on THOR -- published by Marvel Comics, as you may recall -- in a deluxe WALTER SIMONSON’S THOR: ARTIST’S EDITION -- the book will be black and white but the original artwork will be scanned in color for a unique presentation. It's the first in a SERIES of Marvel reprints by IDW.