TVSquad

The Doctor Who franchise is jumping to a U.S. publisher for a new regularly scheduled comic book due to arrive in stores this week.

IDW Publishing, also the home for Star Trek, G.I. Joe, The Transformers and Angel comics, isn't the first American company to publish Who . Marvel was the home of Fourth Doctor Tom Baker's two-dimenstional adventures in the 1970s.

But those Marvel titles were written by Brits (including Alan Moore) for Brits. In a testament to Who's rebirth and international popularity, IDW's titles will be printed in the U.S. for an eager American audience -- while additional Who comics run in the U.K.

It's good news all around for Doctor Who enthusiasts as our shrinking world means it's easier to get pelted with tie-in TV merchandise no matter what side of the Atlantic your TV illuminates. Now fans enjoy American and British comics, episodes airing on BBC and BBC America in close temporal proximity, and Internet-purchased Cyberman action figures sent internationally door to door.

It was only 20 years ago that the ancestors of those same fans had to smuggle illegal, hand-made PAL copies of recent BBC1 Who episodes and crude clay or wood Dalek t-shirts across the ocean through German submarine wolf packs -- only to barter them for crops and pelts via the Underground Nerd Railroad.

That's progress. Excelsior!