Pilot Season (comics)
Pilot Season is an annual initiative begun in 2007 by comics publisher Top Cow Productions. Readers are able to vote on the future of six one-shot pilot comics released throughout the year. Voting takes place on the Pilot Season MySpace page[1] and the highest vote-getters later become ongoing series.[2] [3]
2008
The entrants for the 2008 season are:
- Twilight Guardian #1[4] (winner)[5] (W) Troy Hickman[6] [7] (A) Reza (Cov) Hendry Prasetyo
- Lady Pendragon #1[8] (W) Matt Hawkins[9] (A) Eru (Cov) Drew Struzan
- Alibi #1[10] (W) Joshua Hale Fialkov[11] (A) Jeremy Haun (Cov) Jeremy Haun[12]
- Genius #1[13] (winner)[5] (W) Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman (A) Afua Richardson (Cov) Afua Richardson[14]
- The Core #1[15] (W) Jonathan Hickman (A) Kenneth Rocafort (Cov) Kenneth Rocafort
- Urban Myths #1[16] (W) Jay Faerber[17] (A) Jorge Molina (Cov) Jorge Molina
The 2008 season included 4 new original properties. Only 2 of the comic books, Twilight Guardian and Lady Pendragon, had a history of publication with Top Cow prior to participation in Pilot Season. This was a markedly different situation from the 2007 event, in which all five of the Pilot Season issues (along with the cancelled Aphrodite IX pilot issue) had been based upon pre-existing Top Cow characters.
The voting period ran from August 4th through to September 8th 2008. In a departure from the previous year's competition (which allowed people to vote as often as they liked), individual computers were only able to vote once per day.
The distribution of votes has been detailed as follows:[18]
Twilight Guardian 29%
Genius 24%
Urban Myths 22%
The Core 15%
Lady Pendragon 7%
Alibi 3%
According to Mel Caylo, Top Cow Vice President of Marketing & Sales, some entrants that did not win the 2008 competition may still have a future at the company. "While we have two, very clear winners in TWILIGHT GUARDIAN and GENIUS, voting for the other books was so fierce that it doesn't preclude us from ever doing something else with those properties down the road."[5]
2007
The entrants for the 2007 season are:
- Ripclaw #1,(W) Jason Aaron[3] (A) Jorge Lucas (Cov) Tony Moore
- Cyblade #1 (winner)[19] (W) Joshua Hale Fialkov[20] [21] (A) Rick Mays (Cov) Rick Mays
- Velocity #1[22] (winner)[19] (W) Joe Casey[23] [24] (A) Kevin Maguire (Cov) Kevin Maguire
- Necromancer #1 (W) Joshua Ortega[25] [26] (A) Jonboy Meyers[27] (Cov) Francis Manapul
- The Angelus #1 (W) Ian Edginton[28] (A) Stjepan Sejic (Cov) Stjepan Sejic
- Aphrodite IX #1, (W) Dan Jevons (A) Eric Basaldua (pulled from schedule, never published as part of Pilot Season)[29]
Over 4.1 million votes were received over the space of one month, beginning from December 17th 2007 and lasting until the closing date of January 21st 2008. Voters were allowed to vote as many times as they wanted. Although anyone was able to participate in online voting, those who had purchased the books themselves were able to increase their voting power by inputting special codes that appeared on their copies. These practices were not continued in Pilot Season 2008.
The protagonists in both of 2007's winning comics, Cyblade and Velocity, were characters spun off from Marc Silvestri's popular Cyberforce comic series.
Both Cyblade and Velocity are slated for release as series in fall 2008. Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rick Mays will continue writing duties and art for Cyblade. Joe Casey will also resume writing for Velocity, but ChrisCross will be taking over from Kevin MacGuire on art.
Collected editions
The first season is being collected into a trade paperback:
- Pilot Season 2007 (144 pages, June 2008, ISBN 1582409005)
Notes
- ^ WW Chicago: Top Cow Teams With MySpace For Pilot Season Voting, Newsarama, August 12, 2007
- ^ Top Cows Pilot Program - Talking About Pilot Season, Newsarama, June 27, 2007
- ^ a b Top Cow's Pilot Season with Rob Levin and Jason Aaron, Comic Book Resources, August 9, 2007
- ^ Pilot Season: Twilight Guardian #1 - The FULL Issue, Newsarama, August 29, 2008
- ^ a b c Pilot Season 2008 Winners: Genius, Twilight Guardian, Newsarama, September 18, 2008
- ^ Hickman talks "Pilot Season: Twilight Guardian", Comic Book Resources, May 28, 2008
- ^ Shedding Light on the Twilight Guardian with Troy Hickman, Newsarama, May 15, 2008
- ^ Pilot Season: Lady Pendragon #1 - The FULL Issue, Newsarama, September 1, 2008
- ^ Knights of the Red Planet: Hawkins talks "Lady Pendragon”, Comic Book Resources, June 2, 2008
- ^ Pilot Season: Alibi #1 - The FULL Issue, Newsarama, August 28, 2008
- ^ Alibi Checks Out: Fialkov talks “Pilot Season: Alibi”, Comic Book Resources, June 25, 2008
- ^ Exclusive Preview: Pilot Season: Alibi, June 21, 2008
- ^ Pilot Season: Genius #1 - The FULL Issue, Newsarama, August 27, 2008
- ^ Bernardin & Freeman - Creating Top Cow's "Genius", Newsarama, June 23, 2008
- ^ Pilot Season: Core #1 - The FULL Issue, Newsarama, August 25, 2008
- ^ Pilot Season: Urban Myths #1 - The FULL Issue, Newsarama, August 26, 2008
- ^ Greek to Me: Faerber on “Pilot Season: Urban Myths”, Comic Book Resources, July 9, 2008
- ^ http://topcow.com/boards/index.php?s=&showtopic=42256&view=findpost&p=675740
- ^ a b Velocity & Cyblade Wins Top Cow's Pilot season, Newsarama, February 19, 2008
- ^ Life Before Cyberforce: Fialkov talks "Cyblade", Comic Book Resources, September 12, 2007
- ^ Joshua Hale Fialkov on Pilot Season: Cyblade, Newsarama, September 12, 2007
- ^ FIRST LOOK: "Velocity: Pilot Season" #1, Comic Book Resources, October 2, 2007
- ^ Joe Casey Hits Terminal "Velocity", Comic Book Resources, August 31, 2007
- ^ Joe Casey on Pilot Season: Velocity, Newsarama, October 15, 2007
- ^ Believe in Magic: Ortega Returns to "Necromancer", Comic Book Resources, October 24, 2007
- ^ Necromancing: Joshua Ortega on Pilot Season: Necromancer, Newsarama, October 5, 2007
- ^ Drawing The Necromancer: Talking to Jonboy Meyers, Newsarama, October 19, 2007
- ^ Divine Retribution: Edginton talks Angelus: Pilot Season #1, Comic Book Resources, November 26, 2007
- ^ Top Cow Pulls Pilot Season: Aphrodite IX From Schedule (press release), Newsarama, September 25, 2007
References
- Pilot Season at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
External links
Reviews
- Ripclaw, Comics Bulletin
- Velocity, Comics Bulletin
- Twilight Guardian, Broken Frontier
- Twilight Guardian, Comics Bulletin
- Twilight Guardian, IGN
- Lady Pendragon, Comics Bulletin
- Lady Pendragon, Broken Frontier
- Genius, Comic Book Resources
- Genius, Broken Frontier
- Genius, Comics Bulletin