(Image Source: IDW Publishing / Gavin Smith)
Founded in 1999, IDW has grown into one of the largest independent comic publishers in the United States. The company is most famous for various licensed books based on existing properties. However, they have also won acclaim for their original works and reprinted collections of classic comic series.
Short for Idea and Design Works, IDW was the brainchild of Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins. The four met while working at Wildstorm Productions under Jim Lee. When Lee sold his company to DC Comics, he gave his company’s creative service department to IDW. This gave them a firm foundation during their first year, leading in time to big success.
Best IDW Comics as of November 2025
IDW Publishing has a long history of adapting other properties into comic books. Star Trek, Godzilla, The Twilight Zone, and Monster High are just some of their most popular series as of late 2025. However, the company continues to publish critically-acclaimed original works like Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. This makes choosing the best comics published by IDW difficult.
30 Days of Night
Barrow, Alaska is an odd little town. Numbering just under 5000 people, it is the northernmost city in the United States. It is also, thanks to its location north of the Arctic Circle, shrouded in total darkness for one month out of the year. This makes it a natural target for vampires, despite the extreme cold blunting their heightened senses and powers.
Vicente is a vampire elder, who fears the actions of his brethren might reveal their existence to the world. Unfortunately for Barrow, his solution to stopping this is to kill everyone and burn the oil fields that are the town’s livelihood. This sets up a violent conflict with Sheriff Eben Olemaun and his wife and deputy, Stella, for the fate of Barrow.
30 Days of Night was the first IDW’s first traditional comic series and their first major success. While vampires are a horror staple, the series’ novel concept and unique vampire mythology stood out. It made the name of both writer Steve Niles and artist Ben Templesmith. The original three issue miniseries inspired a franchise with several comic book sequels, two films, and two television miniseries.
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Kill Shakespeare
Banished to England, Hamlet, former Prince of Denmark, is a troubled young man. Apart from the obvious torment at being sent away from home, he is plagued by visions telling him to kill his uncle. Things do not improve after his ship is attacked by pirates and Hamlet is cast into the sea.
He awakes on the shores of Illyria, in the care of Richard III. The would-be king is sympathetic to the young prince, who has felt quite odd since the death of his father. Aided by the Lady Macbeth and her witches, Richard III claims he can bring Hamlet’s father back to life. All Hamlet has to do is track down an evil wizard and claim his magic quill pen. An evil wizard with the unlikely name of William Shakespeare.
Hamlet’s confusion is not helped when he falls into the company of The Prodigals. Led by a young woman named Juliet, these rebels are trying to find and save Shakespeare. They believe he holds the key to saving their world and Hamlet holds the key to finding him. Alas, the fate of their world and many others may depend upon whether or not Hamlet will… Kill Shakespeare.
Described as “Game of Thrones with Shakespeare’s characters,” Kill Shakespeare presented a shared literary universe before such crossovers were commonplace. However, IDW developed the original comic series into a franchise, with stage show, audio drama, and board game adaptations. A television series is also in the works.
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Locke & Key
In 1775, in the town of Lovecraft, a group of Revolutionaries discovered a portal into another dimension. An invasion of demons was stopped only because they must possess a mortal body to enter our reality. Those who failed to do this turned to “whispering iron.” A young blacksmith named Benjamin Locke used this metal to forge magical keys, including an Omega Key to close the portal. He also established the Keyhouse, with his family standing as stewards to the secrets trapped within.
Generations later, the secrets of the Keyhouse have been largely forgotten. This is thanks to an enchantment which erases all memory of the keys from the occupants’ memory upon their 18th birthday. Unfortunately, Nina Locke has just moved into the Keyhouse with her three children, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bod…
The creation of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key is one of IDW’s most critically acclaimed series. It won Hill the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Writer and the first volume won the British Fantasy Award for Best Graphic Novel. It is also notable as the only franchise outside of DC Comics to have an official crossover with The Sandman.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin
Once, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the defenders of New York City, but those days are long past. Of the four brothers, only one has survived to fight through a war-ravaged Manhattan. Now, he strives to fulfill a hopeless quest, and avenge his lost family though it may mean his death.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is a notable miniseries for several reasons. It represents a fusion of two eras, as TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird co-wrote the story with writer Tom Waltz. Waltz is notable for having written the first 100 issues of the monthly TMNT comic after IDW took over the license. Throw in some dark artwork by Heavy Metal artists Esau & Issac Escorza and Ben Bishop and this was clearly no kids’ comic. Indeed, Eastman and Laird intended for this to be the final story of their original Mirage Comics TMNT team.
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Wynonna Earp
Legends are still told of Wyatt Earp, which paint him as both a bold lawman and a violent outlaw. His descendant, Wynonna Earp, is cut from the same cloth. Nominally she’s a force for law and order, being part of a special division of the US Marshalls charged with fighting supernatural evils. In practice, however, Wynonna’s missions tend to involve a lot of collateral damage. Still, when there’s redneck vampires, mummy assassins, or hillbilly gremlins that need killing, she’s your woman. There are few others who can navigate the modern day Weird West like Wynonna Earp.
Wynonna Earp’s earliest adventures were published by Image Comics in 1996. However, writer/artist Beau Smith found a more permanent home for her at IDW in 2003. She’s gone on to start in several comic book miniseries since then. She also inspired a 2016 SyFy series that ran for four seasons.
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How we chose the best IDW Comics
With one notable exception, every IDW series on this list was based on an original property. While many of their licensed comics are fantastic, it was felt those series might be better profiled in another piece aimed at adaptations. In the case of The Last Ronin, it was felt that it was so far and away from the popular image of the TMNT that it was effectively an original work. Beyond that, focus was also given to comics that inspired adaptations of their own.
