IDW Publishing executives pulled off a storytelling coup earlier this year when they involved a variety of unrelated, licensed books with a common threat (vampires). That worked so well that they're going to do it again in January -- and they're upping the ante.

"Infestation," which began last January and ran for four months, told stories of vampires battling Transformers, infecting the "Star Trek" universe, getting shot by G.I. Joe and baffling Ghostbusters. The amazing thing about this crossover is that all of these characters are licensed to IDW by different companies, constituting a logistical and legal nightmare. It's like the characters from "Glee" showing up in "CSI" wearing "Tron" T-Shirts and dating people from "Jersey Shore."

It worked so well that IDW is doing it again. The sequel, "Infestation 2," springs from the first, in that the way IDW's homegrown CVO (Covert Vampiric Operations) dealt with the bloodsucking menace opened the door to something worse. And since IDW now has the license for H.P. Lovecraft concepts, stories and characters, that means Cthulhu and the other Old Ones are coming for a visit.

That spells trouble for other characters published by IDW, especially new players who didn't make the cut in the first "Infestation." They include "Dungeons & Dragons," "30 Days of Night" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." The Transformers are back, too, but instead of the modern robots most readers know, "Infestation 2: Transformers" No. 1-2 will feature the "Hearts of Steel" versions from the 2006 miniseries of the same name, in which humanity first encountered the Transformers in the 19th century.

"You'll see a lot of fun historical characters, people you never expected to see interacting with Transformers," editor Bobby Curnow said. "If you've ever wanted to see a steampunk version of Optimus Prime fight a giant monster, this is the place."

Other surprises include a one-shot starring Batboy from "Weekly World News" and a planned appearance by J. Scott Campbell's Danger Girl.

If you want to read "Infestation" first, IDW has made that easier with a hardback collecting the entire first event, also coming out in January ($35). While not necessary to understand the sequel, Curnow said, "if you have been following both events, you'll get a nice through-line."

After all this, could there be an even bigger "Infestation" down the road? Hard to believe, but IDW publisher Chris Ryall noted that "these things tend to happen in threes."