Embargoed until the Top Cow panel happening right about now, we can now share all the latest Top Cow news.
Top Cow is reviving Minotaur Press as an imprint for its more “independent-styled series”. Upcoming Minotaur projects are ECHOES by Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Rahsan Ekedal, the story of a man whose father may or may not have been a serial killer, who may or may not be a serial killer himself, and LAST MORTAL about an immortal petty criminal, written by Filip Sablik and John Mahoney with art by Thomas Nachlik. Previous Minotaur comics include Greg Rucka’s FELON and OBERGEIST from Tony Harris and Dan Jolley.
Top Cow’s Pilot Season project, in which “pilot” issues of potential new comics are published and fans vote for their favorites, is coming back this fall. Six pilot comics will come out in total, one a week for six weeks. Unlike last year they will not all be by Mark Silvestri and Robert Kirkman, and each comic will be done by a different creative team.
And now for a gratuitous PR quote! The six contestants are:
Created by Matt Hawkins and written by screenwriter Brad Ingelsby with art by Thomas Nachlik with a cover by Bagus Hutomo of IFS, Pilot Season: Forever #1 focuses on a pharmaceutical company, Longevity, and their development of a drug that extends human life and counters the debilitating effects of aging almost indefinitely.
Created and written by William Harms and debuting art from Jerry Landon with a cover by Rafael Albuquerque, Pilot Season: 39 Minutes #1 turns a heist story on its head when a bank robber’s only solution to getaway from a surrounded bank full of customers and employees is to kill everyone in town.
Created and co-written by Marc Silvestri and co-writer Jeff Katz with art by Allan Jefferson, Pilot Season: Crosshair #1 centers on former assassin for the CIA, Justin Weller, who just settled into the life of a loving husband and devoted father in the suburbs, coping with the discovery that he has been brainwashed to kill the President of the United States.
Created and written by Filip Sablk and debuting art from David Marquez with a cover by Jenny Frison, Pilot Season: The Asset #1 redefines the femme fatale for the digital age when you’re matched with the woman of your dreams; the same woman who’s trying to get you killed.
Created and co-written by the team behind Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box, Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin, with jaw dropping art from industry legend Brian Stelfreeze, Pilot Season: 7 Days from Hell #1 finds ex-pat turned mercenary John Bishop mortally wounded, but spared from Hell by a renegade demon seeking redemption.
Created and co-written by Marc Silvestri and David Wohl with art from Stjepan Sejic, Pilot Season: Midway Earth #1 sees our home planet as the strategic prize in a brutal war between two alien races.
Other Top Cow news includes …
REST, an unfinished comic miniseries that originally came out from Devil’s Due, will now be published by Top Cow. Issues 0-2 will be rereleased in digital format, and the new issues 3-5 will come out individually in exclusively digital format before the graphic novel collected edition hits print this fall in time for New York Comic Con.
Jason Rubin, the mind behind the videogames Jak and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot, will be writing a new comic for Top Cow entitled MYSTERIOUS WAYS. With art by GREEN LANTERN CORPS artist Tyler Kirkham, MYSTERIOUS WAYS will be coming out in late 2010/early 2011.
Kate Fitzsimons writes for Publishers Weekly, Publishers Weekly Comics Week, and her personal comics and geek culture blog geekiferous.com.
nothing about this release tells me that Top Cow is a publisher worth paying attention to.
it still wreaks of a bad-girl imprint who’s trying to improve their image by doing what the rest of Image did 15 years ago.