A Guide to IDW's MLP Comics Part 1

Hey, first blog post on here. So as I write my first story on here, I'm going to be integrating bits of comic canon into it. Now I know that lots of people read the IDW MLP comics, but I know there are probably those that don't. Reading the comics won't be required for reading my fanfic, not at all. But the fact is that I love the IDW comics and I want to be able to share that with others who might not have taken a look at them.

So I decided to create a guide to help those who haven't checked them out, to understand what to look for or how to start, so on and so on. I'll be writing this not just for those unfamiliar with IDW's work, but those that might not be comic readers in general. And actually, I'm not really a big comic reader. The actual ones I have are limited as far as titles.

So if you are thinking about starting the IDW comics, read on.

First: There are multiple books
This is something someone who doesn't read comics (even to a limited extent like me) might not get. This is something that happens across all comic companies, whether the big two like DC and Marvel or IDW. The same character or group can have multiple "books", as in book titles.

For example, Spider-Man as a character started in The Amazing Spider-Man. In the early 2000s, Marvel created a CD containing all the Spider-Man comics on PDF up to that point. It was great, got it as a birthday present.

However, it wasn't as complete as I thought because it was only the contents of Amazing. There came a point where I was missing parts of the plot of the books I was reading. Those parts were in another book called Spectacular Spider-Man. Normally I think the different books have clear lines as to what goes in what. Like Green Lantern is for the Green Lantern(s) of Earth, while Green Lantern Corps is for the rest of the Green Lanterns.

With IDW's MLP comics, there are quite a few books. Some are just comic adaptations of episodes. But as far as original content, there are seven things to look at, three large, and four small.

Large
1. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: This is the main book for IDW's MLP content. It just published it's 51st issue and releases one issue per month.

2. My Little Pony: Friends Forever: A long running series that's basically the equivalent of a team-up book. Two characters are put together in a situation, like Applejack and Pinkie Pie or Twilight and Rainbow, or Spike and Luna. This also releases once per month, but I'll get more into this one later.

3. My Little Pony: Legends of Magic: This is a new series that isn't out yet, but it seems like it might be ongoing or last a good while. It's subject is supposed to be the background of the show, the origins of cutie marks, magic, so on so on according to the adds.

Small
1. My Little Pony: Micro Series: This was a ten issue mini-series that ran pretty early, I think before Friends Forever came out. Each issue had a story focused on one character. First came each of the Mane Six, then the CMC, Princess Celestia, Spike, and Princess Luna.

2. Fiendship is Magic: A five part mini-series detailing the origins of various villains, Sombra, Tirek, the Sirens, Nightmare Moon, and Chrysalis, not necessarily in that order. Most of these tie into previous continuity, but I'll get to that.

3. IDW Deviations: My Little Pony: This is a simple one shot, an issue of IDW Deviations. Never heard of it but the name and issue summary indicate it's a what if type thing. This one is about if Blueblood was Celestia's student. It hasn't come out yet.

4. My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel: (ADDED 08/21/17): You read that right. With the movie coming out, IDW is making a prequel comic for it. It's actually a four part mini-series.

Second: The continuity connects
Maybe it doesn't really need saying, but I want to get this down anyway. The continuity of all the original IDW books connect with each other. So characters first shown in Friends Forever have shown up in a main story, Fiendship canon connects to the main series, so on so on.

Third: IDW's main series in arcs, and all of them are done by pairs
The main MLP line is done in story arcs, not just issues. Each story is told in multiple parts. So the first story, The Return of Queen Chrysalis, was issues 1-4. It's similar to the way Doctor Who Classic was done in serials. Normally I think the average is three or four issues, but occasionally there are one or two issue ones.

Friends Forever is different by being individualized. Each character pair only lasts one issue.

Now IDW also typically assigns comics to writer artist pairs. For example, writer Katie Cook and artist Andy Price started off the main series. IDW has a whole range of artists and writers that they use for their various series. Sometimes pairs are even changed a little. Normally Katie Cook works with Andy Price, but for issue 50 Andy Price was actually paired with writer Ted Anderson.

However, this doesn't cause art clash because IDW makes sure that in the main series, the pair is assigned for the whole arc, so the second issue isn't going to have a radically different art style than the one before it. With individualized ones like FF, the micro series, or Fiendship, it's issue by issue naturally.

None of the art styles are bad, though you may have a different opinion. But I think it's a good system to help distribute the work, and the compartmentalized nature of the comics helps too. Of course, annual issues and holiday specials are an exception because they have multiple stories, and so certain stories may have different teams on them. But this too doesn't cause serious art style clash.

Four: Alternate covers
A little thing worth mentioning, but IDW as a company loves alternate covers. A lot. So they make MLP issues with alternate cover art too. Keep that in mind when looking.

And since this is really, really long, I'm actually going to have to split this in two. The next part will be my advice on getting started with the comics.