By Filip Sablik
Publisher, Top Cow Productions, Inc.
It’s Autumn again. Where did 2010 go, friends? Seriously it seems like only yesterday I was playing video poker at the Hard Rock Café Casino to finish out 2009. I swear it was only minutes ago I was finalizing plans for San Diego Comic-Con and feeling the cold sweat inducing panic of hard printing deadlines rushing headlong at my deer-in-the-headlights expression.
Autumn 2010 means cooler weather (for you poor suckers who live in four seasons), mid-term elections, the return of pumpkin as the flavor-du-jour on everything from your latte to your ice cream, and a new crop of TV pilots hoping for at least one good season in the sun. For us at Top Cow it also means its time for a new crop of Pilot Season comics.
This year we have five different new concepts by five unique creative teams. A mix of season pros and wet-behind-the-ears newcomers fighting for your attention and trying to create something you haven’t seen before. So much of the comics released in recent years have been about nostalgia. I get it. Nostalgia is a warm blanket, a comforting hot cup of cocoa. It reminds us of better, bygone days in troubled times. We know what we’re going to get and what to expect. But I’m here to challenge you take a chance on the new. Stretch past your comfort zone and reach to discover a different genre or an undiscovered creator.
On Wednesday, Pilot Season: 39 Minutes #1 hit stands. It’s by Impaler writer and creator William Harms, who is a seriously under-exposed talent. Harms hits you hard with a twist on a classic genre – the bank heist. A group of bank robbers is hitting small towns in the Midwest and pulling off daring bank heists by treating each job like a military mission. Meanwhile, John Clayton is rotting in Leavenworth for killing a group of military contractors in a friendly fire incident in Iraq. Clayton’s approached by a government agent who tells him they believe the bank robbers are men previously under Clayton’s command. Bank robberies, rocket launchers, and a story about what our brave men and women go through overseas. That’s an original combo. The art team of newcomer Jerry Lando and veterans Jay Leisten and Brian Buccellato is pretty darn compelling too. Check it out; you won’t be able to miss the striking Rafael Albuquerque cover.
Next week, we deliver a book that I’m biased about Pilot Season: Asset #1. Why? Because I created it and wrote it, that’s why. It’s my first solo full issue writing gig, so I’m incredibly proud of it. I’m even happier that I snagged David Marquez and Bill Farmer to provide the interior art and Harvey-nominated cover art Jenny Frison. Here’s the way I sold it to David, it’s “You’ve Got Mail” mashed together with “Spy Game.” Romance and espionage! Our main character is a beautiful, mysterious woman named Madeline, who our main guy, Doug, meets on an online dating site. The catch is she isn’t who she seems and she might be trying to get Doug killed. A femme fatale for the digital age, whose philosophy is, “love isn’t a battlefield, it’s a weapon.”
The first week of October, will see the release of Pilot Season: Crosshair #1 from creator Marc Silvestri and writer Jeff Katz. Imagine that Captain Marko and Raymond Shaw from the “Manchurian Candidate” (the Frankenheimer classic not the crappy remake) are one and the same guy. Justin Weller is an ex-CIA assassin that is so fractured from years of programming that he is both an evil assassin reactivated and the only man who can stop… himself. With stellar, realistic art from Allan Jefferson, Jordi Terragona, and Michael Atiyeh this book is going to feel like a summer action blockbuster on speed. If the brilliant “Manchurian Candidate” hook doesn’t grab you, I have two words for you… suburban parkour. Bam! You’re in, right?
The second week of October, Pilot Season: Forever #1 will make you even more afraid of big pharmaceutical companies. In the near future, a company creates a drug called Longevity™, which allows human beings to extend their lives indefinitely… for a price. Not only is the drug incredibly expensive, widening our already huge social-economic gap, but it has a hidden cost that young tech Ryan Chambers is about to discover – the hard way. Created by Matt Hawkins and written by screenwriter Brad Ingelsby with art by Thomas Nachlik and Nathan Fairbairn (and a haunting cover by Bagus Hutomo) this book gives you medical conspiracies, action, and sci-fi all in one convenient bundle.
And finally, in the third week of October, we bring in the heavy hitter. Pilot Season: 7 Days From Hell #1 is another genre-bending concept from the dynamic writing team of Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin. Contract killer John Bishop is awesome at his job, but even the best assassins eventually wind up on the wrong side of the barrel. Bishop dies and goes to Hell, where he meets a sexy demon named Mandy (that’s right, a demon named Mandy). Mandy offers up a deal – help her get back into God’s good graces by killing a bad person every 7 days or suffer eternally in Hell. It’s like Jason Bourne got sucked into “Angelheart.” Oh, and the heavy hitting part I mentioned before? How about a Brian Stelfreeze cover and Phil Noto on interiors? Now, that’s hard to compete with!
So, it’s up to you now. Sure it’s easier to just go with what you know, but ask yourself do you want another dose of the “same old, same old” that’s kind of okay? Or do you want a big spoonful of new and awesome?
After all five books come out; we’ll start online voting at the end of October. You get to pick the series you enjoyed the best and tell us what to publish. Your vote counts! How often does that happen these days?
Take care,
Filip Sablik
Publisher Guy
Filip Sablik is the Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc. He’s been in the business for ten years and is in 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.
September 24th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
These actually seem like some interesting concepts. I would like to see Top Cow go back and tackle some of their older concepts that have been in print for awhile, namely Arcanum and Weapon Zero (and Filip, can we PLEASE get Weapon Zero back in print in trade format. Fantastic Joe Benitez art with great Walt Simonson storytelling? Come on already!), perhaps in Pilot Season format.
September 26th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Seconded. I really miss those. As well as 21 and Medieval (Spawn/) Witchblade. Then again that’s just nostalgia.
With Pilot Season, there are so many new chapters of the Top Cow universe opened, but just a few brought to an end. It’s kind of like reading something that’s cancelled and never get to know how it ends. Maybe a oneshot which ends all the books which didn’t win would be great.
September 26th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I have to ask, these new concepts are they part of Top Cow’s universe or are these separate creator-driven titles? If it’s the former than I have to applaud Top Cow for doing this. Still though they look just as interesting if they are independent titles.
September 26th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I recently began reading a lot of topcow and I am thinking about fully switching over the big two just seem so dated. And I believe pilot season happens to be one of the best things that topcow does it really gives the reader a chance to have imput on what type of comics are produced. The only thing that’s a downside is the tpb that are published I still find a lot of them to be poorly produced I hope that the cow starts to up the production quality of there tpbs.
September 26th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
So when are the winners of the Season Pilots after 2007 going to be published? I can’t wait to vote for some more comics that aren’t going to see the light of day.
September 26th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Don’t all of these comics sound like TV show pitches? There’s really nothing here (and I don’t mean this as an insult to the actual creative talent involved) that makes me think of this as a comic property created to be a comic, vs. a comic property created to get picked up by some Hollywood producer somewhere. Is this TV Pilot Season? Yes, other genres should get equal field time in comics, but this really smacks more of creating a comic as a tool to get a show/movie made, rather than a comic you would create because it sounds like a good comic…which, in my opinion, is about as cynical as you can get in the comics industry.
September 26th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Camping in England is only sufferable with really good weather… and it’s stock still much a bit nipping at nighttime yet when it’s hot in the Clarence Day . So it can be like doing a self mortification .
September 27th, 2010 at 6:09 am
Jaded Devil: Is there actually something specific about these pilots that makes you feel like they’re more suited to TV than comics or is it just that they don’t feature superheroes?
Virginia: that’s about as true and accurate as it is on-topic. I’ve camped in England in -10 celsius and still had a good time, and I’ve camped in excellent weather that left me too warm at night to stay in my sleeping bag. Sounds like either you’re camping while poorly equipped, or you’re making a huge generalisation. And all generalisations are complete nonsense. (Pun intended)
September 27th, 2010 at 7:13 am
Would be nice to know, if these are going to be $3.99-books again. Can’t they do them in the Fell/Casanova-format?!
September 27th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Does anyone remember filip saying that they fixed the publishing error on there trades I got another trade yesterday and same damn bad binder.
September 27th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Something new? These all seem to involve assassins and/or secret agents. Not exactly a new concept. FOREVER looks interesting, but the rest seem like something I’ve seen before. COBB: OFF THE LEASH, SPAWN, “24″, “Reaper”, etc. The fact that most of the descriptions are “it’s like this and that” doesn’t exactly spell “new” to me.
And I agree that a lot of these read like episodic TV shows. “Kill someone every 7 days.” Like once a week during prime time?
Perhaps, next “Pilot Season” the candidates can be something “new” to the Top Cow Universe. Something outside The Artifacts-verse or Cyberforce. That way, when most of the concepts aren’t picked up for an ongoing, they can still “live” within the Top Cow Universe. Then it won’t be as disappointing when a favorite (i.e. URBAN MYTHS) doesn’t get selected.
September 27th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Hi Robin,
It’s hard to exactly qualify why these feel more like TV pilot-centric books vs. crime/spy/action books created only to be books. Maybe because they’re all hinged on a high-concept, maybe because the way these blurbs are written make them sound like a Hollywood pitch, maybe because they all feel custom-made for a TV show…they’re meant to be big and flashy, in one way or another, but there’s nothing indicating this couldn’t fit within a TV show budget if done in live action. I mean, you read something like Stumptown or Criminal and those feel like they were written to be comics. On the other end of the spectrum, same with Danger Girl. But these, at least for me, just feel artificial in their intent.
September 28th, 2010 at 2:46 am
I’m sad that Midway Earth was taken out of this line up. That was the one I was looking forward to most from the solicits. Anyone know why it was canned?
Also, has the last issue of Robert Kirkman’s Pilot Season run even come out yet? I’m in Japan so I get my comics way late, but I know I haven’t read it (Hardcore or something…) and I do believe it was supposed to be out in April. I’ll be impressed if all these books come out on time, but maybe having them all by different people will help.
September 28th, 2010 at 7:05 am
They all sound interesting to me. What happened to Genius, though, from 2008? Did that just fall through for some reason?
And what say you, Virginia spambot? Do you read comics while camping?
October 5th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
A+, loads of fantastic things to digest.
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