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.