Blair Butler announced yesterday on Attack of the Show that Top Cow would be revisiting their Pilot Season Competition, where fans will vote on five comics to determine which two will become a miniseries.
But instead of rookies and indie talent, this competition will be different: all five series have been developed by Image partners Robert Kirkman and Marc Silvestri.
I gotta say, with the success of Kirkman properties such as Invincible and the Walking Dead (and Astonishing Wolf-Man isn’t bad, either), I’m pretty excited. There’s no word on interior artists (as Silvestri is only doing the covers), but we’ll report more as we hear about it.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:21 pm
With Myspace Comics shutting down, I was wondering what might happen with Pilot Season. Good to know it’ll still be around.
Now if they could just figure out a way to get that Velocity series going…
July 4th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Oh wow, Silvestri and Kirkman? What a dream team, now all of these series are completely guaranteed to suck.
July 6th, 2009 at 4:06 am
I still watch that piece going “I wish Blair Bulter did some real checking on the status of the winners before she said anything.”
Even though it states the winners get an ongoing the reality is they only get a 4 issue mini with the HOPES that sales are enough to turn it into an ongoing.
Cyblade only got 4 issues (where they coudln’t afford Rick Mays). Velocity got cancelled before the first issue ever came out.
And here they are promoting Round 3 and neither of the winners of Round 2 have had their books come out yet. And its already been almost a year.
They’re somewhere stuck in the void of postponment I guess that also sucked up Black Vault since B. Clay Moore was told by Top Cow that book wasn’t coming out either.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:11 am
I was disheartened by Season 2, when The Core and Urban Myths didn’t win. I thought those would have been worth publishing. Twilight Guardian and Genius seemed like much less interesting concepts.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:24 am
It does seem pretty ridiculous to be pushing Pilot Season 3 when VELOCITY is creative limbo after two years and TWILIGHT GUARDIAN #1 hasn’t been solicited. Perhaps Top Cow should concentrate their efforts on getting these series launched before starting a Season 3.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:00 am
I can’t say I like this idea. Nothing wrong about the team, just that I prefer Pilot Season to be different books by different creators.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Hmmm…
There are a few options that I’d hazard a guess on as to why Pilot Season went off the rails previously that may have prompted using only professionals this time around:
A. Most likely, the “rookies and indie talent” couldn’t get their s**t together enough to get a few issues in the can. I would imagine Top Cow would want the first 4 issues completed before soliciting the first issue.
B. With the change in Diamond benchmarks coupled with a lack of “big name creators,” there wasn’t enough demand from “fans” to get the issues distributed. That and the hype machine just kind of stopped once the contest was over.
Outta sight = outta mind = no pre-order sales…
C. Maybe it was all just a stunt by Top Cow to drive attention to the company name and acquire some intellectual properties. Probably worked, too…
Someone in the know confirm or deny. We’re curious.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I hate to be “that guy” but it’s Astounding Wolf-Man. Not Astonishing. Yea, I make that mistake often as well.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:38 am
hey, whatever happened to the winning pilot, Genius?
July 6th, 2009 at 11:39 am
In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Joe Casey revealed what went on behind the scenes, regarding Velocity:
July 6th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
What happened to Genuis btw?
July 6th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I think it will be interesting to see what Robert Kirkman comes up with. I am a huge fan of Invincible and Walking Dead but not a fan of his Marvel work. I think since he excels at superheros, hopefully these titles are not forced. I would really also like to see a Velocity miniseries, I’d even buy the Criss Cross issue that never got published.
July 6th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Is genius just not going to come out?
July 6th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I really think this just misses the point of what was exciting about Pilot Season before. It’s as if this is SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE with Robert Kirkman & Silvestri dancing together 5 times in the show; gee, will Kirkman and Silvestri win or get voted off, eh?
The way that they appear to have abandoned previous winners doesn’t help, either. A book with Casey and Cross? I would have bought that in a second. Something new by Kirkman and Silvestri that they’ll have work-for-hire folks takeover when it wins? Yeah…no thanks.
July 7th, 2009 at 3:35 am
Pilot Season is now batting 1 for 4.
To answer the question asked previously; this was not the fault of creators but rather the fault of an asleep-at-the-wheel editorial and publishing team. They went on a blind date, promised to pay for dinner, and then climbed out the bathroom window.
Personally, I find the whole Pilot Season debacle to be disconcerting as Top Cow has finally gotten their act together on their core (Witchblade, Darkness) titles. In my opinion, these two books are currently better reading than they have EVER been. So for Pilot Season to land so poorly… well, it’s a bit of a black eye.
FInally, as a side note, doesn’t it seem, like bad form for Manifesto-spewing Robert Kirkman to take a big stinky dump all over one of the few remaining high-profile outlets for up-and-coming comic book creators?
I mean, yeah, Pilot Season had RAMPANT problems — but, at least, these people were getting promoted. And now, Robert “King of Indies as long as those Indies only involve myself and nobody else because I’m a dooshy Manifesto making jackass” Kirkman wants ALL the Pilot Season books?
Bad form.
Honestly, it would’ve been better just to cancel Pilot Season and call this event something else.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Since Pilot Season was launched off of MySpace Comics, and MySpace Comics is closing up shop due to the MySpace Lay-offs… is it safe to assume this fact is at least related to the change in the contests’ set up? Only big name talent to drive voters to a place that isn’t a media-based over-blown mess?
If that’s the idea, seriously, I would have let the contest die with MySpace Comics.
July 7th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Ian A. and IM, please don’t assume you know the hows and whys of previous Pilot Season projects, just because you’ve heard one person’s version. Sometimes the most professional thing to do is to keep such details private, rather than embarrass anyone involved.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Ron, I’m still waiting to hear how much money Matt Hawkins has given Hero Initiative during his “I’ll pay $1500 for every late book we have” speech last year.
Cause that’s when Darkness got REALLLL late and all of a sudden we didn’t hear bout him donating any money.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Just because you haven’t heard about it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I’m not Matt’s keeper, so if you have something you want to know, you should ask him.
November 16th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Good new