Cause that’s when Darkness got REALLLL late and all of a sudden we didn’t hear bout him donating any money.

If that’s the idea, seriously, I would have let the contest die with MySpace Comics.

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.

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.

Cross and I have been trying to – and dying to – work together for years. Y’know, we were primed to do a “Velocity” series for Top Cow and although I wrote and got paid for three issues and Cross penciled a first issue that was so visually stunning and the best-looking thing Top Cow would’ve published this year, somewhere along the line that famous Top Cow brand of common sense disappeared into an unexpectedly bizarre rift in time and space, they started firing staff left and right – including our beloved editor – and our book was suddenly no more, resulting in an obviously broken promise to four million Pilot Season voters. Ouch.

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.

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.

Now if they could just figure out a way to get that Velocity series going…