{"id":3754,"date":"2008-04-24T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T06:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicbox.com\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2008-04-24T11:04:39","modified_gmt":"2008-04-24T09:04:39","slug":"top-cow-kick-off-pilot-season-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicbox.com\/index.php\/news-english\/top-cow-kick-off-pilot-season-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Cow Kick Off Pilot Season 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>[ENGLISH] LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 23, 2008 \u2013 Top Cow Productions, Inc. announced today that the first two of six Pilot Season 2008 books will kick off in May with Lady Pendragon and Twilight Guardian. <\/a>Pilot Season is an annual initiative Top Cow began in 2007 that borrows its concept from the television industry: Six \u201cpilots\u201d are submitted for consideration to be \u201cpicked up for a season,\u201d\u00a0except instead of TV executives deciding their fates, it\u2019s the fans who decide by voting online. Last year\u2019s top two vote getters, Cyblade and Velocity,\u00a0\u00a0will debut with new series later this year. Over four million votes were cast last year through a partnership with MySpace Comics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While 2007\u2019s books were based on existing Top Cow characters that didn\u2019t have their own titles at the time, this year\u2019s batch will feature four completely original properties and two that had previous lives elsewhere. These latter two are Lady Pendragon and Twilight Guardian. Created by current Top Cow President Matt Hawkins, Lady Pendragon first debuted in 1996 and had successful series runs published by Image from 1998-2000. The writer decided to bring her back because \u201cPilot Season is one of the cooler editorial things we\u2019ve ever done at Top Cow, so I\u2019m digging just being a part of it,\u201d said Hawkins. But just because the president of the company is participating doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s a fix involved, he assured. \u201cI\u2019d prefer to lose, actually,\u201d Hawkins pointed out, \u201cso don\u2019t vote for me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Pilot Season: Lady Pendragon #1 is the story of a direct descendant of King Arthur and Lady Guinevere who revives magic in the modern-day world, but is conflicted when she discovers her doing so may have done more harm than good. Filled with nods to Arthurian legend and fantastic battle scenes with dragons, the issue is drawn by Singapore-based artist Eru of Imaginary Friends Studios and features a beautifully painted cover by Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie poster artist Drew Struzan.
\nAlso launching in May is Pilot Season: Twilight Guardian #1, a property created by Eisner nominee Troy Hickman (Common Grounds). Reza, also of Imaginary Friends Studios, will handle interior art while Hendry Prasetyo provides the cover.
\n\u201cTwilight Guardian is about an average woman with a particular kind of OCD which drives her to patrol a nine-block area in her neighborhood every night, and about the other \u2018night people\u2019 and situations she encounters because of it,\u201d Hickman described of the book, which was first published as a mini-comic. \u201cIt\u2019s a premise that allows me to further muddy that line between superheroics and slice-of-life that has been the hallmark of my work.\u201d
\nUnlike Hawkins, Hickman is gunning to be one of the top two vote getters. \u201cWe often hear people saying they want to see new kinds of characters and stories in comics,\u201d said Hickman. \u201cIf that\u2019s true, I\u2019d like to think they\u2019d gravitate to Twilight Guardian, which isn\u2019t really like anything else on the \u2019stands, as far as I know.
\n\u201cY\u2019know, when I told my editor Rob Levin that I was scared about my competition in this year\u2019s Pilot Season, he said, \u2018You\u2019ve got humanity going for you,\u2019\u201d Hickman continued. \u201cIt\u2019s something I strive for in all my stories, that basic humanity that connects with the reader. It was at the core of my Common Grounds stuff, but it may be stronger in Twilight Guardian than in anything else I\u2019ve done so far. I think folks will dig it.\u201d
\nThe remaining Pilot Season books will be released in June and July, with voting to open at the beginning of August. They include:<\/p>\n

ALIBI (June) \u2013 Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov (a Pilot Season 2007 winner with Cyblade) and artist Jeremy Haun (Civil War: Iron Man\/Captain America) tell the story of a hitman who always has the perfect alibi whenever he\u2019s accused of a high-profile assassination, but now someone knows his secret.<\/p>\n

GENIUS (June) \u2013 From Entertainment Weekly senior editor Marc Bernardin and \u201cGene Simmons Family Jewels\u201d producer Adam Freeman (writing partners who\u2019ve previously worked on The Highwaymen and Monster Attack Network) comes a story about an exceptionally clever 17-year-old who unites the gangs in her neighborhood to wage war against the Los Angeles Police Department. Fresh newcomer Afua Richardson (Half Dead) provides art.<\/p>\n

THE CORE (July) \u2013 Eisner-nominated writer Jonathan Hickman (Pax Romana) and Madame Mirage artist Kenneth Rocafort create a unique sci-fi tale about the first human appointed to an interplanetary Special Forces unit, and the trials he must endure to earn the respect of his extraterrestrial teammates.<\/p>\n

URBAN MYTHS (July) \u2013 Fan-favorite writer Jay Faerber (Dynamo 5) teams with up-and-coming artist Jorge Molina (Superman\/Batman Annual) to craft a story about a world where the Greek gods still meddle in the lives of men, and the best private investigator out there happens to be the mask-wearing son of Medusa.<\/p>\n

Troy Hickman acknowledged that Pilot Season 2008 is a tough field. \u201cI\u2019m terrified,\u201d he said. \u201cHave you seen this list of creators? These are some of the hottest folks in comics today\u2026er, not that I find them attractive. My main strategy is to hope people confuse me with Jonathan Hickman so I can tap into his massive fan base\u2014and if you\u2019ve ever had someone tap into your massive fan base, you know how painful it can be.\u201d
\n\u201cOh, I\u2019m pretty resolute that I\u2019ll lose,\u201d said Hawkins. \u201cThis is some solid competition! I\u2019ve actually tweaked my story to make sure it was completely self-contained so that when these other titans trounce me, I can at least have a nice story out there.\u201d
\nCreators on each Pilot Season book are free to run whatever campaign they\u2019d like to drum up votes for their title.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have the Pilot Season voting coincide with the presidential election,\u201d observed Hickman. \u201cI plan to run a clean campaign, so I won\u2019t be attacking my opponents. People might be interested, though in Matt Hawkins\u2019 connection to certain foreign governments, or Jay Faerber\u2019s plan to tax widows and orphans.\u201d
\nAdditional details on the other four series will be released in the coming weeks, as will details on when and how the Pilot Season 2008 polls will open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ENGLISH] LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 23, 2008 \u2013 Top Cow Productions, Inc. announced today that the first two of six…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,6],"tags":[21,617,615,242,616],"class_list":["post-3754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communiques","category-news-english","tag-comics","tag-lady-pendragon","tag-season-pilot","tag-top-cow","tag-twilight-angel"],"yoast_head":"\nTop Cow Kick Off Pilot 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