Book Review: IDW: The First Decade

This book actually comes in a fabric covered box with a magnetic latch. On the box cover is a very cool key with the words "IDW" as the teeth. Inside, there are three books, two resting on the soft cushion padding of the box.

The main book is IDW: The First Decade. The second is IDW: The Covers, which has 148 pages of cover art from 2001 to 2008. The final book is a comic book with sampling of some titles. The book cover is different from the one shown on Amazon. Here, it's navy blue with a print sticker on it.

It's a pleasant surprise that the book includes a tip-in plate signed by the founders and some artists! They are Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, Robbie Robbins, Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez, Steve Niles, Chris Ryall, Ben Templesmith, JK Woodward and Ashley Wood. You can still see the marker residue off the page.

The whole book is presented interview-style. We follow the four founders of Idea and Design Works (IDW) as they recall from starting the company, moving to different offices, designing for game companies to becoming a comic publisher and working with great artists and many more. It's a nice look behind the scenes at how creative work is done, how they manage to push out popular comic titles, work for TV series and even take part in making movies, such as the case for 30 Days of Night.

The chapters of the book are roughly group by the type of work IDW does and the major comic titles published. There are interviews with the artists of the various titles. Ashley Wood talks about his inspiration for the line of Sparrow art books. Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith talk about their experience pitching 30 Days of Night to movie studios. Chris Ryall on the hesitation of taking on Transformers. There are lots to read, plenty of pictures to look at and a few (un-detachable) multi-fold posters.

IDW: The Covers features every single cover published by IDW through December 2008. Over 2000 covers by some of the biggest names in comics including Clive Barker, Tim Bradstreet, John Byrne, J. Scott Campbell, John Cassaday, Richard Corben, Kieron Dwyer, Tommy Lee Edwards, Don Figueroa, Alex Garner, Mike Grell, Tony Harris, Dave Johnson, Sam Kieth, Igor Kordey, Ted McKeever, David Messina, Alex Milne, Scott Morse, Paul Pope, Gabriel Rodriguez, Richard Sala, Eric Shanower, Bill Sienkiewicz, Ken Steacy, Ben Templesmith, Billy Tucci, Ashley Wood, JK Woodward, Bernie Wrightson, and many more. - IDW

The small comic book includes four 5-page stories, namely Fallen Angel by Peter David and JK Woodward, Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriquez, Popbot by Ashley Wood and Wormwood by Ben Templesmith.

To preview the whole book (except the covers and comic book), just check out https://idwpublishing.com/idwx/. IDW has actually made the every page available for preview.

This is a great book for anyone who likes the artists, IDW and their work.

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