For the most part, combining an independent publisher and two barely-known creators on an unknown property usually equates to low sales and obscurity. This is the nature of an industry as small as comics; the pond’s too small for the little fish to compete. For every rule there is an exception, however, and this series slams that point home. Welcome to Lovecraft, indeed.

The premise is fairly straightforward: following the grisly murder of the family patriarch, the remaining Lockes relocate to their family estate in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. You can stop using “straightforward” after that, because nothing is as it seems. It isn’t until the last few pages of the first issue that you realize the mansion they now call home has a few secrets of its own.

Through wonderful pacing and a few helpful flashbacks, you’re fully invested at the end of that first issue. No wonder it completely sold out on the day of its release; as far as #1’s go, this was incredibly close to perfection.

Friends, Shakespeareans, gamers, lend me your ears! IDW Games has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Kill Shakespeare board game, based on the graphic novel series.

With a goal of $25,000, Kill Shakespeare is the first joint venture between IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games. The campaign includes perks such as lithographs, posters, custom dice and of course the game itself, at a deeply discounted rate. Stretch goals are also in place to expand game content to include additional characters and quests.

The game itself is a semi-cooperative board game where players are one of Shakespeare’s heroes battling against his villains while completing quests from the Bard himself.

With Sam Keith recently tapped to relaunch a remastered version of his cult hit The Maxx through IDW, it only makes sense that the publisher would try to bring the famed creator in on another one of their franchises. While licensed titles with most companies fall flat, IDW is one of the few to take them and run to success by staying true to the original content but working well within the confines of comics. It ends up seeming like a natural pairing to put the man who created a purple clad giant with perpetual middle fingers that roamed the outback to take on one of the most comically messed up invasion forces ever.

Mars Attacks: First Born takes place in the aftermath of the failed Martian invasion. With the world devastated, people must begin to rebuild but the Martians have left something behind in a secluded neighborhood. Found by a group of kids, there is a Martian infant left amongst the rubble and the aftermath that follows it. The miniseries was written by Chris Ryall and coplotted by Sam Keith and Ryall with Keith taking sole duties on the covers and artwork.

Whovians around the world were treated to a team-up adventure of the highest order this past November when “Day of the Doctor” aired, marking the 50^th anniversary of the long-running British sci-fi television show Doctor Who. What many Whovians are unaware of, however, is that IDW Publishing (the current holders of the Doctor Who license for comics in North America) had their own plans to ring in the celebration with a 12-issue mini-series entitled Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time.

Writers Scott and David Tipton (no strangers to sci-fi in comics with their numerous Star Trek series for IDW) take great care in including as much of the Doctor’s past and various incarnations as they can fit; while a different artist draws each issue. This may turn some of you away as there are some people who prefer to have the same creative team throughout a series, but let me assure you that the different art styles do nothing to take away from the story.

Without the constraints of television budgets to hold them back, where/when will the creators take the Doctor? Everywhere, of course! But what begins as paying a visit to an old friend quickly evolves into a mystery that the Doctor will struggle with; not only to figure out and stop, but to also remember that anything’s happening at all! Someone has been travelling throughout time, plucking the Doctor’s companions out of thin air, and worse yet, the mysterious manipulator has seemingly travelled with the Doctor before…

It should be noted that not all Whovians will enjoy this story. The die-hards that are familiar with the classic series and Doctors One through Seven will undoubtedly gobble this series up, whereas fans of only the current series will likely scratch their heads during the first batch of issues. If you fall in the latter category, I’d still recommend this series for you as a nice introduction to the Doctor’s colorful history.

One last thing for you back-issue hunters out there: yes, this story has been collected in two trade paperbacks with a hardcover coming along soon; but getting your mitts on the individual issues will net you another treat, which I’ve collected for you to see below. As far as comic covers go, you can do a lot worse than the talented Francesco Francavilla. In any case, once you’ve experienced this centuries-spanning tale, I’d love to hear what you think of it. Happy reading!

Later this year, Nickelodeon will be reinventing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon much in the way that IDW Publishing reinvented the TMNT comic line. While the core characteristics of the Turtles will remain intact, the creative teams behind these versions have gone in two very different directions. While IDW has gone for a more gritty and realistic (well as realistic as mutant turtles can be) version of the shelled foursome, Nickelodeon is going the other direction with a more kid friendly version much in the way the comics and cartoon series diverged over twenty years ago.

At Toy Fair, the Flickcast got to see some of these latest Turtles designs up close and personal. The first thing people will notice actually isn’t the turtles at all but the redesigns on Shredder, Splinter and April. Shredder’s redesign looks like it has some drastic anime inspired influences behind him. He has been beefed up in terms of muscles and has more exaggerated spikes on his armor than ever before. The same goes for the Foot Soldier’s who now have incredibly creepy white with red polka dotted eyes.

To boldly be published in comic book format!

Star Trek #1 is an ongoing series by IDW Publishing. The new comic book series is based on J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek while telling stories that are “re-imaginings” of the adventures of the 1960’s classic Star Trek TV show. Basically, take the fun, hip crew you liked from the 2009 film, mix them with the classic, brilliant drama of the 1960’s TV show, and you have an intriguing concept that appeals to new and old Star Trek fans alike.

Based on the original series episode titled Where No Man Has Gone Before, Star Trek #1 begins with the Enterprise finding the distress beacon from the Valiant, a vessel thought to be lost. After crossing the galactic barrier, Enterprise crewman and one of Kirk’s best friends, Gary Mitchell gets sick and begins to display psychic and telekinetic powers. Gary is now temparmental and angry. Captain Kirk has decide what to do about his good friend before he harms himself or worse, the Enterprise.

The issue follows the same basic first act of the episode it is based on with minor changes. Spock and Uhura are still dating like in the movie, and Kirk is still very new to command. Gary Mitchell even makes a joke about how he was ahead of Kirk in the Academy, and now Kirk is his superior officer. Robert Orci, one of the screenwriters for the 2009 Star Trek, is listed as creative consultant on the issue which I believe is the reason why the story feels fresh and modern even though it’s based on an episode over 40 years old.

Sure, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Picard, Riker and the rest of the “good guys” have always been the primary focus of Star Trek movies, TV shows and even comic based on the series. But what about the cool bad guys?

Well, at least one of them is finally getting his due in IDW’s just announced comic series based on the hugely popular Star Trek villain Khan. First made popular by the late Ricardo Montalban in the priginal Star Trek series, Khan will now live on and continue his story in comic book form.

According IDW:

“What happened to Khan and his followers on Ceti Alpha V? Star Trek: Khan: Ruling in Hell answers just that, explaining how this once proud warrior-king turns into the grizzled maniac seen in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.”

In addition to the comic, IDW will also be offering a plush doll in conjunction with the release, available exclusively at comic dealers or via comicshoplocator.com.

Star Trek: Khan: Ruling in Hell will be written by Scott and David Tipton, with Fabio Mantovani bringing the story to life by doing the art. The first comic will be 32 pages and will be released in October.

At the San Diego Comic-Con, IDW Publishing revealed several major digital comic book expansions for the iPhone and iPod Touch. IDW’s newest offerings include the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra prequel comics, Transformers and CSI. An expanded electronic catalog of the G.I. Joe and Transformers tales, as well as Danger Girl, Astro Boy, Groom Lake, John Sable Freelance and GrimJack will also be available in the weeks ahead.

“The digital medium represents a huge opportunity for the comics industry, and we’re proud to be leading the way,” states IDW CEO, Ted Adams. “Through e-publishing, we can introduce an entire new audience to comics and the joys of comic books.”

IDW launched the first digital Transformers comics in May, and rapidly became a popular paid iTunes application. The Transformer catalogue also includes the prequel and adaptation graphic novels for the original movie. IDW’s entire G.I.Joe: The Rise of the Cobra prequel comics are now available, with the movie adaptations coming soon. The fan-favorite series G.I. Joe: Origins and the CSI comic series are now available for download on iTunes.

In addition to new material and story lines, IDW will also bring the classic 1980s Transformers and G.I. Joe series to the iPhone, iPod Touch and the Internet, beginning with Classic Transformers, which can be found online at classic-transformers.com.

IDW’s classic comic expansion will begin J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell’s sexy spy comic, Danger Girl. Danger Girl #0 is currently available as a free application on iTunes, and features an eight-page preview of the comic.

For yesterday’s Pull List Comic Reviews, go here. Otherwise, read on for today’s.

Wolverine #74 – Marvel – $2.99

Score: 7.0

Wolverine #74, the final issue before the series becomes Dark Wolverine and focuses on Wolverine’s son Daken, concludes the two stories started in the previous issue. The first is a story about an old biker friend of Wolverine’s by the name of Horrorshow who has asked a favor of Wolverine, to find and help his son who is believed to have killed members of Horrorshow’s biker club and set the wheels in motion for a war between two gangs. While other leaders of the gang pressure Horrorshow in to declaring war, Wolverine appears back at the bar to let his friend know that his son is dead.

Obviously not happy about this news, Horrorshow takes his anger out on Wolverine. As Wolverine is knocked unconscious from the attack which he doesn’t defend himself, a flashback ensues showing what happened between Wolverine and Horrorshow’s son. Though not a critical tale to Wolverine’s mythos, this story has some very interesting aspects as it lets the reader in on so much of his emotional state. While he has fought tooth and nail with his son Daken in Wolverine: Origins, this is the first time that Wolverine has ever really be able to voice his feelings about the situation.

Specifically, his thoughts on the redemption of others are covered rather bluntly in the issue. Daniel Way does a good job in this aside story for Wolverine. It’s nice to see him somewhat out of his “normal” element as he now appears in so many books where he is always surrounded by cataclysmic confrontations with megalomaniac super villains. Here, Wolverine gets to act human and have real emotions and reactions.

He doesn’t need to act on his animalistic instincts. He gets to actually be Logan. Tommy Lee Edwards’ art is something that can go either way for the reader. The same style as the Marvel: 1985 miniseries, it comes across in a very sketch-like style, very similar to what you’d see in courtroom sketches. It’s not something that does it for me but it is also not something that detracts from the story either. The dark theme of the story is actually helped by the shadowy lack of detail at times.