Clue, GLOW, and Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo coming to IDW

A classic board game and TV show are getting new tie-in comic book series and a classic creator and character are all coming to IDW Publishing this year. IDW announced several new books this week to expand their line of monthly series. The Hasbro board game Clue/Cluedo is getting a new comic book mini-series. The Netflix award-winning TV series GLOW is getting a limited series. And Stan Sakai is bringing his world of the swordsrabbit Usagi Yojimbo to IDW with stories old and new, including a full-color, three-part series.

The Sakai announcement is bigger than a single series, as IDW says it plans to bring all 35 years of his Usagi Yojimbo stories into new collected editions–the black and white comic will be in full color for the first time–and new stories are being prepared. Beginning in June, a three-part story set again in the Edo period in 17th century Japan finds Usagi “embroiled in a puppet drama where the players are not quite what they seem.” According to Sakai, “Bunraku (Japanese puppetry) captures many elements that make the world of Usagi Yojimbo unique: an adventure filled with Japanese culture, folklore, and history. It also features the return of a long-awaited fan favorite character and Yokai (Japanese supernatural creatures).” Usagi Yojimbo #1 will be released in a main cover by Sakai, plus variants by Daniel Warren Johnson (Murder Falcon), Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and comics legend Walt Simonson.

IDW returns to Clue tie-in mysteries with CLUE: Candlestick, a three-issue comic book miniseries launching in May. “Rife with puzzles, secrets, and lies, and everyone’s a suspect,” the series will be created by animator Dash Shaw writing, illustrative, coloring, and lettering a new Clue mystery. Check out a preview of the new Clue series below, courtesy of IDW Publishing.
In addition to Shaw’s main cover art, variant editions of each issue will form a triptych of the classic Clue suspects and their murderous tools. Illustrator Jed McGowan (Time in Nature) will also provide an incentive cover. Each issue features additional story content and will feature brand new Clue game cards based on the comic.

And finally, this March, IDW is entering the world of hairspray and headlocks with the announcement of a four-issue comic book miniseries based on GLOW, the Netflix comedy series. Written by Tini Howard (WWE, Rick & Morty) with artwork by Hannah Templer (Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions), GLOW the comic will also have input from Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, co-creators of the show.

The Netflix series stars Community’s Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, and Marc Maron, and explores a group of misfits in mid-1980s Los Angeles who reinvent themselves as the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling, or GLOW. IDW’s mini-series will provide stories that go between the scenes of the series.

Here is the preview of Clue: Candlestick: