IDW PUBLISHING [WonderCon ’14]: More Than Meets the ‘I’.

Invading the land of the Mouse like DX trolling WCW back in the day, WonderCon 2014 saw every major and minor publisher hit Anaheim like a collective storm of Geek. While the collective consciousness of Marvel Comics was busy defending the House of Mouse’s turf and sharing exclusive news on their new event “We Can’t Talk About That Yet,” your good Guy Padre rolled past the sea of endless Deadpool cosplay clones to check out his beloved indie comics panels, most notably IDW’s Greatest Panel In The Known Universe.

While the company had several panels at WonderCon this past weekend, none were filled with as much GodHatesGeeks-approved coolness as IDW’s GPITKU. Padre, flanked by two judges, with a third behind him (Dredd, is that you?), keeping the lawbreakers away, sat down to be wowed by the IDW crew. Like much of #WC2014, a lot of this news was not very new at all. No real surprises here, folks, other than the Gabriel Rodriguez exclusive announcement. What made this panel cool though, was the fact that they did go into detail about many of the books. The format was loose, fun, engaging, with a spirited Q&A, and — GASP! — interactive. They also offered actual insights into what the books might be about. I know, crazy!

While they did touch on several of their licensed properties, the big focus of this panel was on what they are doing with creator driven titles.

The panel, moderated by Dirk Wood, featured writers Brian Lynch (Angel), Mike Johnson (Star Trek), Eric Shanower (Age of Bronze), and Tom Waltz (TMNT); artist Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key); Editor-In-Chief Chris Ryall; editors Scott Dunbier and Sarah Gaydos; and IDW President Greg Goldstein.

Things kicked off with the rollout of their “Summer Blockbusters”!

Walt Simonson’s Ragnarok — the most anticipated book of the year for your Padre — was shown via an amazing spread. The greatest creator to ever work on and define Thor, busting out work on a creator owned version of the Norse Gods equals one hell of an amazing July in my book. It was described as “the end times”, “not your typical Thor book,” and “grim and beautifully told.” The series will be colored by Laura Martin and drooled over monthly by yours truly.

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