By Filip Sablik

When I agreed to do this regular blog column for Blog@Newsarama I told myself that I would avoid using it as a platform to shill books I was publishing. That is after all, what press releases are for. And that’s still my intent, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I indulge and occasionally tell you about something we’re doing at Top Cow that I think is worth a second look. Today, I wanted to let you know about a new title we’re launching in June called Berserker.

We all get mad sometimes, right? Heck if you live in LA like I do, all it takes is a commute through rush hour traffic to ignite some rage. It’s the price we pay for the year-round sunshine. What if you couldn’t control that anger? What if when you boiled over you lost control and people got hurt. And not in the black eye, bloody nose sort of way. Not even in the “Hulk Smash!” way where buildings got knocked over and cars go demolished but the innocent bystanders walk away shaken but not stirred? I’m talking about the holes punched through the chest, limbs ripped off, eyeballs popped out, and jaws removed from your head kind of way. That’s the world of Berserker.

Two normal guys discover (both in horrible ways) that they are descendant from mythic Viking warriors called “Berserkers”, who legend has it would whip themselves into a frenzy before going into battle and once in this frenzy were unstoppable. One guy is an Afghanistan war vet who just thinks he has PTSD and another is a high school athlete. Like all of our characters here at Top Cow these guys have tremendous power, power that you might like to have, but it comes at a bitter price. As the two guys go deeper down the proverbial rabbit hole they’ll find out that they are not alone and in fact two clandestine organizations utilize these modern day “Berserkers” for their own purposes.

The series was created and is written by Rick Loverd, an up-and-coming screenwriter who’s worked on Friday Night Lights and is drawn by one of my personal favorite guys in comics Jeremy Haun, who most recently worked on DC’s Battle for the Cowl: Arkham. Rounding out the team is Joe Shuster award winning colorist Dave McCaig. A decent colorist won’t drag the artwork down and an extraordinary colorist can actually elevate a story. Dave is the latter.

Berserker is the kind of book that will grab you in the same part of you that can’t help but look at awful car wrecks on the highway and hopefully (if we do our jobs right) will keep you because of the characters’ stories. Oh, and it’s co-produced by a guy you may have heard of – Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes and his company DiVide Pictures.

As Milo’s partner Russ would say, “It’s gonna be the feel good kill of the summer.” Find out why in June.

If you want a taste of things to come, email fanmail@topcowent.com and we’ll send you a link to check out Berserker #0 online for free.

Take care,

Filip Sablik

Publisher Guy

Filip Sablik is the Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc. He’s been in the business for eight years and just officially entered his thirties. Occasionally, he does a bit of writing and drawing. He loves comics. Top Cow Productions, Inc. was founded by Marc Silvestri, co-founder of Image Comics. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Comic Books, Creators, Image, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.