robbritton wrote:If you can find the Infestation 2-parter, I'd start with that and then follow the chart above. There are a few call backs to infestation sprinkled throughout that may confuse without having read it!
Infestation is by Erik Burnham, the writer of the ongoing series, so yeah, it's not a bad thing to have. "Optimally", read it before Total Containment or Man From the Mirror.
There's one TPB not mentioned that you might consider picking up, which collects some of the one shots IDW did before the ongoing series: Haunted Holidays. It really isn't necessary for the ongoing, but two of the stories are illustrated by Dan Schoening (the artist on the ongoing) and one of the other stories introduces a character,Tiyah Clarke, who appears throughout the stories up through Mass Hysteria as a love interest for Winston. Haunted Holidays would be before Infestation in "proper" reading order.