Top Cow
Top Cow extends voting for Pilot Season due to website crash
Last weekend I posted about Top Cow’s website crashing in the final days of voting for this year’s Pilot Season prospects, and today we have the good news that the publisher is back online and extending voting through the end of the year. In a press release, Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik explained that the site was simply overwhelmed with more votes than the publisher anticipated.
“The number and velocity of votes completely exceeded our expectations, and this is the sort of high class problem you don’t mind solving,” Sablik explained. “All of us at Top Cow are eager to see which Pilot Season competitor emerges victorious.”
According to the press release, TopCow.com has been restored and moved over to a more substantial server with increased capacity for traffic. The first round of voting has been extended through Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific, with the top four vote-getters going on to a second round, and the top two from that to go to a final round. Stay tuned for more news on the contest as it develops.
Top Cow launches Pilot Season voting — and site crashes! (UPDATED)
Voting for Top Cow’s annual Pilot Season line of books is coming down the finish line, and from what happened earlier today we could be in for a photo finish. Checking TopCow.com this morning reveals that the site is down due to exceeding their bandwidth. The virtual voting booth is set to close on Sunday, Dec. 18, but with this delay in voting we might be seeing an extension of polling hours.
Assuming the window for voting re-opens, people will have a chance to vote for one of seven books released this year in Top Cow’s unique event.This year’s line-up was its most diverse yet in terms of story and creators, spanning sci-fi to dramatic with even some comedic moments. The seven titles are The Test, The Beauty, City of Refuge, Fleshdigger, Theory of Everything, Misdirection, Anonymous and Seraph.
Robot 6 reached out to Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik for comment, but have not heard back at the time of publication.
UPDATE: On Monday, Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik contacted Robot 6 to explain TopCow.com’s website crashing.
“Topcow.com did go down to due to our bandwidth being exceeded several times in the last week,” Sablik explains. “We’ve increased our bandwidth several times with our current host, but the intensity of voting activity exceeded even our increased bandwidth capabilities. We are currently in the process of migrating topcow.com to a new server which should provide a more stable solution to the problem. We should have an update on when the site will be back up shortly and once the site is live, we will be extending the first round of voting to compensate for the time the lost.”
Although Top Cow hasn’t revealed just how many votes it’s received yet, during the inaugural 2007 Pilot Season, they received 4.1 million votes.
“It’s just another example of how Pilot Season really engages comic fans and we’re thrilled at the passion fans are demonstrating trying to get their favorite Pilot Season title into the top 4 spots for the second round of voting. Even if it has caused some technical difficulties!”
Robot 6 will update you when TopCow.com comes back online and voting resumes.
By Blackest (Friday) Night, no bargain shall escape my sight …
If you’re like me, instead of heading out to the mall to face the hectic Black Friday crowds (some of whom are apparently armed with pepper spray), you’re sitting at home nursing a turkey hangover and looking for good deals on the internet. Here are a few places you may want to check out for your gift-giving or personal shopping needs, and if you’re up for adventuring outdoors, Bleeding Cool has a great roundup of shops holding sales today.
Blackest Friday
ComiXology has a bunch of digital comics for 99 cents today. DC Comics is holding a Blackest Friday sale, allowing you to buy each issue of the Blackest Night crossover for 99 cents each. Marvel has Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four issues on sale for 99 cents, while IDW has their Star Trek comics on sale.
Comics A.M. | The Power Within creators land on Out’s ‘Out 100′ list
Charles Christensen and Mark Brill
Creators | Out magazine has included writer Charles “Zan” Christensen and artist Mark Brill in its 17th annual “Out 100″ list highlighting the 100 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of the year. Christensen and Brill are the creators of The Power Within, an anti-bullying comic book published by Northwest Press. “Inspired, or rather upset, by Tyler Clementi’s tragic death last year, the pair set out to create an empowering story of an eighth-grader picked on for being gay,” the magazine writes. Northwest Press has distributed over 700 free copies of the book to more than 50 gay-straight alliances, schools, churches, community centers and other youth organizations. [Out]
Creators | Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen considers the accessibility of the relaunched comic in light of reviews he’s read around the web, particularly the fact that some people were thrown by the X-Men living in San Francisco: “Of course, I can see the reason why it’s thrown the people … they know the X-Men live in a mansion in Westchester. That they’re not living in Westchester is the problem. It’s not about giving the information to read the story that’s there. It’s about correcting pre-existing assumptions. In other words, it’s not a problem about being accessible to new readers – because a genuinely new reader would accept the fact the X-Men live on Utopia in the same way that they except that Bilbo lives in the Shire – but rather a problem with the readers being old readers. They feel lost not because of the story on the page, but the gap between the old story in their heads and the story on the page, and wanting to know what connects the two.” [Kieron Gillen]
Looking back at Top Cow’s previous Pilot Season contenders
One of the most innovative concepts coming out of American comic companies in recent memory has been Top Cow’s Pilot Season. Every year for five years, Top Cow has released a slate of one-shots that are voted on by fans for the possibility of getting a longer limited series down the road. Originally centered around company-owned concepts, after the first year the company expanded to include creator-owned concepts from names like Robert Kirkman, Marc Silvestri, Jonathan Hickman, Joshua Hale Fialkov and others. And with the full announcement of 2011′s titles, I thought we should look back on the previous herds of titles and where they’re at today.
The Middle Ground #50 | The results are in!
The surprise about reading all of the comics Top Cow sent over as a result of my admission of blind prejudice wasn’t that they weren’t as bad as I’d lazily expected — I was actually expecting that, to be honest — but that I ended with realizing that I was going to have to go out and catch up on the collections of one series in particular… and it was the one I’d been expecting to like the least.
Graphicly expands to the Nook, but apps are hard to find
Nice book... but where is it?
Barnes & Noble’s unveiled its app store for the Nook Color e-reader, yesterday, edging the $249 device even closer to being an alternative to the iPad. And Graphicly was right there at the launch with three graphic novel apps Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, Wanted, and Irredeemable.
This is not Graphicly’s fault, but the Nook Color app store is not very well organized; they have cute headings like “Explore” and “Organize” but not “Comics” or even “Read.” Plugging the titles in to the search engine gave mixed results: The Mouse Guard app turned up alongside listings for the physical books. Clicking on the title brought me straight back to the generic Nook Apps page. I couldn’t find Wanted or Irredeemable at all. Maybe if I had a Nook it would be easier, but the website should be as well organized as the built-in app store.
The bottom line is this: It’s great that Nook is getting into apps, and it’s great that Graphicly was there on Day One. But if no one can find your books, no one can buy them, and unless Barnes & Noble comes up with a better way to feature content than this—vague categories and no complete listing of all the apps—they aren’t going to move many comics.
Wowio relaunches Spacedog as digital graphic novel imprint
Wowio was a pioneer in digital comics back in the olden days, when they offered free, ad-supported digital comics. The company has been through a lot of changes since then, and the comics aren’t free any more, although they do offer a free download every month (usually a pretty good one) to readers who “like” them on Facebook. And unlike other digital distributors, they offer books in PDF and ePub format, so they are portable and can be moved from one device to another. (In other words, you can actually own these digital comics.)
Spacedog Entertainment developed comics and graphic novels that were then published by other publishers and shopped around for film development. Their properties include The Covenant and Proximity Effect (published by Top Cow), The Gift (Image), and Helen Killer (Arcana).
Now Wowio has acquired Spacedog and is relaunching it as a graphic novel imprint, starting with four previously published titles: Helen Killer, Fiction Clemens, Death Comes to Dillinger, and M.I.T.H. The comics are priced at 99 cents each, and the plan is to publish an issue a week, starting in April, and to expand the line to include other Spacedog properties, including those mentioned above.
The Middle Ground #45 | Wherein common sense goes out the window
So, I’m a complete snob when it comes to comics. I shouldn’t be, I know this; comics are comics, and there’s no such thing as a bad idea, only ideas badly executed (Case in point: DC’s Animal Man shouldn’t have been the wonder it was under Grant Morrison’s pen, if judged purely on the “man with the animal powers discovers animal rights” high concept behind it). And yet, there are comics that I just can’t quite bring myself to read.
It’s the front page of CBR that brought this to mind, I should admit: I was looking this afternoon at what stories were on the site today, saw the link to Ron Marz talking about his plans for Top Cow’s books and had a response that was pretty much the definition of turning my metaphorical nose up in something approaching disgust. It’s an entirely unfair response, of course. For one thing, I’ve liked some of Marz’ work in the past, and for the much more important and pertinent other thing, I can’t think of a Top Cow book that I’ve even read since the first issue of Paul Dini’s Madame Mirage back in… what, 2007? So that’s four years of uninformed prejudice guiding my nose turning, instead of just reading the article.
Comics A.M. | Joanne Siegel’s passing, Archie’s ‘quiet revolution’
An early drawing of Lois Lane by Joe Shuster, who used Joanne Siegel as a model
Passings | As Comic Book Resources reported, Joanne Siegel, wife of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and the model for Lois Lane, passed away Monday in California. She was 93. Although news of her death first circulated online via Brad Meltzer’s Twitter account, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michael Sangiacomo had the first official report, only hours after he wrote about the installation of signs bearing the honorary street names “Joe Shuster Lane” and “Lois Lane” in the Cleveland neighborhood where Siegel and Shuster created the Man of Steel. CBR’s Kiel Phegley spoke with Meltzer, who met Joanne Siegel while researching his novel The Book of Lies. Heidi MacDonald, meanwhile, has reaction from Bradley Ricca, who’s working on a documentary about the Siegel family. The Hollywood Reporter and The Superman Super Site also have obituaries. More will certainly appear throughout the day. [Comic Book Resources]
Publishing | Acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel (Fun Home, Dykes to Watch Out For) has been named the guest editor of the 2011 edition of The Best American Comics, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [Shelf Life]
Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson spotlights the “quiet revolution” at Archie Comics that finds the publisher expanding into graphic novels and digital delivery, further diversifying its characters and tackling more topical issues. [Publishers Weekly]
More on the Image/Top Cow consolidation and Image’s marketing role
In January, Image Comics announced that it had reached an agreement with the largest studio under its umbrella, Top Cow, to assume the duties of marketing, production and sales. In this consolidation the central Image office took over the responsibilities of production, marketing and sales; editor Phil Smith, Sales/Marketing Director Atom! Freeman, and Publicity Manager Christine Dinh were all let go.
At the same time, the central Image office –- called aptly enough “Image Central” –- announced a change in its own marketing department, with 10-month hire Betsy Gomez heading out and Image Administrative Assistant Sarah deLaine taking the role of public relations and marketing coordinator. Although the initial reaction to this story has been minimal, further talk around the virtual water cooler among journalists, professionals and industry watchers see two things revealed in this – the downsizing of Top Cow’s office in order to maximize profits, but secondarily – and maybe more importantly – is the state of publicity and marketing for the third-largest comics publisher in America. As a journalist covering comics for Robot 6 and other outlets, I’m without a doubt more acutely aware of any changes in the publicity desk; they’re the point-of-contact for journalists big and small, from Comic Book Resources to USA Today. But I’m also aware from my own background working as a publicist and marketing professional outside the comics industry.
Talking Comics with Tim | Joshua Hale Fialkov
Echoes
Echoes co-creators Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rahsan Ekedal‘s first printing of the opening issue for the five-issue Minotaur Press/Top Cow miniseries sold out. So when I found out that Robot 6 was fortunate enough to get to re-run the first issue in one-page installments starting today, I wasted no time in contacting Fialkov for an email interview. Here’s the basic premise of the miniseries: “Brian Cohn was learning to deal with the Schizophrenia inherited from his father. Supportive wife, new baby on the way, drugs to control the voices. But when on his father’s deathbed, he learns that he also inherited the trophies of his father’s career as a serial killer. Will his madness send him further down into the crawlspace of his father’s mind?” My thanks to Fialkov for the interview–and be sure to read Echoes right here at Robot 6.
Tim O’Shea: Minotaur Press was revived partially to publish this series, how flattering is it to be part of the imprint’s return?
Joshua Hale Fialkov: It’s pretty cool. I’ve been looking for places to do what I do for a long time, and I’ve always gotten the impression that there weren’t a lot of options. For Top Cow to more or less reopen a place that’s focused very specifically on the type of books that I do, that virtually no other publisher does, is just an amazing opportunity.
Get a daily dose of Top Cow’s Echoes right here on Robot 6
Echoes #1
If you’re a fan of horror comics or just good comics in general, then you’ll like this. Courtesy of our friends at Top Cow, starting today we will serialize the first issue of Echoes by writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Rahsan Ekedal. In addition, each page will include creator commentary from Fialkov.
You can check it out at http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/echoescomic. The cover and first page with commentary on both are up now, with new pages arriving every day.
And of course, if you decide you’d prefer to read it in print, a second printing of Echoes #1, as well as Echoes #2, can be found in stores now. The third issue arrives Feb. 23. For more information, visit http://www.echoesthecomic.com or follow on Twitter @echoescomic. We’ll have an interview with Fialkov a little later this afternoon, and you can check out the official press release after the jump.
‘We Are All Lost’
We Are All Lost
The folks at Top Cow sent over a teaser, above, for a new series debuting in April. Beyond that, they didn’t offer any additional details, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see what they have in store.
What Are You Reading?
Deadpool Team-Up #886
Hello and welcome to a special “birthday bash” edition of our weekly “What Are You Reading” feature, where the Robot 6 crew talks about what books we’ve read recently. Usually we invite a special guest to share what they’ve been reading, but since today isn’t just an ordinary day for us, we thought we’d invite a whole bunch of special guests to help us out — our friends and colleagues from Comic Book Resources, Spinoff and Comics Should Be Good!
To see what everyone has been reading, click below …