IDW Publishing and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products have teamed up to produce comics based on the storied paranormal investigations franchise.
X-Files is the show that, for a time, defined the paranormal investigations genre.
It also introduced audiences to underground fantasy on television, now the most popular genre for sci-fi/fantasy shows.
One could even argue that it introduced the big-mystery format, eventually perfected by LOST. Indeed, without X-Files, there would be no 4400, Fringe, Warehouse 13, Supernatural, or a dozen other shows centered around a pair of investigators who check out paranormal and supernatural events.
Of course, at it’s core X-Files itself, like most detective stories, is basically modeled on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
X-Files was the story of Fox Mulder, and FBI agent assigned to the paranormal division – the titular X-Files – to get him out of the hair of the other divisions, and Dana Scully, the scientifically minded agent sent to the department to keep tabs on Mulder. Over the show’s 200 episodes and two feature films, however, the primary mystery of The X-Files is never quite solved. Fans have been waiting a long time for answers to some of the show’s more persistent questions.
Perhaps their wait will finally soon be over, as IDW will be continuing The X-Files story in comics form. First, the diverse comics publisher will be rereleasing the past limited runs of X-Files comics, which did a poor job of expanding the story or universe, but in June of this year, a new ongoing book will begin.
“The X-Files is a classic property that helped redefine fans’ expectations for the science-fiction and horror genres,” said IDW’s President/Chief Operating Officer Greg Goldstein. “The possibilities for new comic stories are virtually unlimited!”
Of course, not everyone will be happy to find a resolution in the pages of these comics, when it hits physical and virtual stands. Complaining about the lack of resolution, and especially about the second film’s failure to address the mysteries revealed in the first film, have become an important part of the X-Files fandom, and many won’t want to give that up.
The X-Files #1 will be available in June 2013 wherever you get your comics, monthly issues will follow indefinitely, if all goes well.
