At the San Diego Comic-Con IDW Publishing announced that Eisner Award-winning creator Bill Willingham will be writing two comic book series for IDW.  In December IDW will publish the first comic in a six-issue Willingham arc for IDW’s Angel, which is based on the TV series created by Joss Whedon.  Angel #28 will mark the beginning of “The Crown Prince Syndrome” arc in which the eponymous hero struggles with his new found celebrity and the myriad moral challenges it presents.

In Back Roads, which is due out in 2010, Willingham will collaborate with artist Gene Ha in the kind of  complex, thoroughly thought-out fantasy saga that Willingham has patented with his hugely popular Fables comics and graphic novels for Vertigo.  In Back Roads, a young man unexpectedly finds the secret to unlocking and accessing the hidden byways that let travelers explore the magical roadways that connect all the worlds in creation.

Willingham is also writing a new fantasy series for Dynamite Comics (see “Dynamite Gets Willingham”).