San Diego-based IDW Publishing has acquired the rights to create Transformers comic books from the Hasbro Properties Group.  IDW already publishes a number of licensed comics including books based on TV series such as CSI, 24, and Angel. 

A new Transformers cartoon series is slated to start on the Cartoon Network later this year (see 'New Transformers Series on the Cartoon Network'), and a live action Transformers film from Dreamworks (with Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer) is slated for release in 2006 (see 'Transformers Film Set for Summer 2006'). 

IDW plans to publish a special introductory Transformers Issue #0 in October 2005 and debut the premier issue of its classic Generation One (G1) Transformers comic in January 2006.

IDW will be the third publisher of Transformers comics in the U.S.  Marvel published Transformers comics in a variety of formats (standard, digest, magazine) from 1984 to 1994.  Eight years later Pat Lee's Dreamwave Productions resurrected the property in spectacular fashion, taking the top spot on Diamond's sales chart in April of 2002 (see 'Retro Rules in April') -- the first time a publisher from the back of the book (Previews) had ever scored a number one success in the face of competition from Diamond's 'Premier Publishers.'  The success of Dreamwave's Transformers comic series set off a boom in retro titles (primarily from the 1980s) that had a profound, but not necessarily lasting, impact on comic book sales.  One by one the 80s retro/animated hero comics such as Thundercats, Voltron, and He-Man have bitten the dust. Earlier this year Dreamwave, which once had over a 6% share of Diamond's comic book sales, ceased operations (see 'Dreamwave Shuts Down').