IDW unleashes Godzilla, Star Trek, mutant turtles and classified comic-book business (New York ComicCon 2026).

IDW Publishing is heading for the convention floor with enough comics, creators, monsters, mutant turtles and mysterious classified projects to make any sensible attendee immediately reconsider the amount of empty space left in their suitcase.

The publisher will be occupying Booth #4551 throughout the show, with creator signings, exclusives and the traditional convention pastime of standing in an apparently short queue which somehow develops its own weather system.

The guest list covers a pleasingly broad section of IDW’s current output. Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees and even Hello Kitty will all be represented. So, essentially, civilisation as it ought to be.

There is also a Friday panel called IDW Publishing: You’ll Want to Be in This Room, which is refreshingly direct marketing. None of this “Exploring Transmedia Narratives in the Modern Sequential Arts Landscape” business. Just get in the room, apparently. IDW promises that it will live up to the hype, which means somebody in marketing has now created a hostage situation for the people actually running the panel.

More intriguing is the appearance of Stan Sakai and Soo Lee on Friday and Sunday for a project currently described only as classified. Wristbands are required. There are several possible explanations for this. One is that IDW has something rather tasty waiting to be announced. Another is that Sakai and Lee have inadvertently become involved in a covert government programme. At SFcrowsnest, experience suggests never ruling out the second option.

Godzilla will also be stomping around proceedings in several forms, including Sonic x Godzilla, Starship Godzilla and a Horror of Godzilla variant. There was presumably a meeting somewhere at which somebody asked whether there might currently be too much Godzilla. That person has not been heard from since.

The full IDW signing and panel schedule is as follows:

Thursday, 8 October

• 11:00am–1:00pm: Mariko Tamaki — Hello Kitty and Friends: Hello World!
• 1:15pm–3:15pm: Kasey Iris — Ghoul
• 1:15pm–3:15pm: Ben Wickey — More Weight
• 3:30pm–4:30pm: Nick Marino — Sonic x Godzilla; Oliver Ono — Starship Godzilla; Vertebrae33 — Horror of Godzilla variant
• 3:30pm–4:30pm: Patrick Horvath — Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees
• 4:45pm–6:45pm: Christopher Cantwell — Star Trek; Andrew K. Currey — Star Trek variant
• 4:45pm–6:45pm: Hannah Rose May and Andrea Scalmazzi — Fatal Fest, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn

Friday, 9 October

• 11:00am–1:00pm: Sarah Myer — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures
• 11:00am–1:00pm: A.J. O. Mason — Kloud 9
• 11:15am–12:00pm: IDW Publishing: You’ll Want to Be in This Room — Panel Room 406.2
• 1:15pm–3:15pm: Stan Sakai and Soo Lee — classified; wristband required
• 3:30pm–4:30pm: Matthew Rosenberg — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• 3:30pm–4:30pm: Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Adrian Bonilla — Star Trek: The Last Starship, You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive
• 4:45pm–6:45pm: Patrick Horvath and Peach Momoko — Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees
• 4:45pm–6:45pm: Christopher Cantwell — Star Trek; Andrew K. Currey — Star Trek variant

Saturday, 10 October

• 11:00am–1:00pm: Kenny Porter and Tyrell Cannon — Operation: Iron Coffin
• 11:00am–1:00pm: Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Adrian Bonilla — Star Trek: The Last Starship, You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive
• 1:15pm–3:15pm: Nick Marino — Sonic x Godzilla; Oliver Ono — Starship Godzilla; Vertebrae33 — Horror of Godzilla variant
• 3:30pm–4:30pm: Dan Watters — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder
• 3:30pm–4:30pm: Hannah Rose May and Andrea Scalmazzi — Fatal Fest, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn
• 4:45pm–5:45pm: Alex Segura — Alien Books ashcan
• 4:45pm–6:45pm: Chuck U — TMNT #300 lithograph

Sunday, 11 October

• 11:00am–1:00pm: Andre Frattino — We Are Pan
• 11:00am–1:00pm: Kasey Iris — Ghoul
• 1:15pm–2:15pm: Stan Sakai and Soo Lee — classified; wristband required
• 3:30pm–4:30pm: Ben Wickey — More Weight

Quite what the classified Sakai and Lee project turns out to be remains, appropriately enough, classified. But between Godzilla, the Enterprise, the Ninja Turtles and something secret enough to require wristbands, IDW appears determined to make Booth #4551 one of those places where a quick five-minute visit becomes an afternoon and eventually requires the purchase of additional luggage.

IDW Publishing produces comics and graphic novels across a wide range of licensed and original properties, with its stories also developed for television, film, merchandise and other forms of entertainment.