Joshua Hale Fialkov currently doesn’t have a second to breathe. The busy creator just finished up his Top Cow series Echoes, to great critical acclaim, is launching an Image series in October called Last of the Greats, and if that wasn’t enough, is helming one of DC’s New 52 titles, a relaunch of the romance/horror comic I, Vampire. Oh, and he took some time to chat with us, too, so that’s pretty nice:

MTV Geek: Okay, Josh… Let’s talk about Echoes. That book seems to have done pretty well for you, huh?

Joshua Hale Fialkov: Well, the reaction has been amazing. We're in the triple digits as far as positive reviews go, and, our first issue sold out. That being said, getting people on board an independent comic is a Sisyphean task. Our industry is just not set up for risky books. And nobody's to blame for that, really. Well, except for, maybe, all of us.

Geek: For people who haven’t picked up the book yet, what’s the pitchline?

JHF: ECHOES is about a guy named Brian Cohn who suffers from schizophrenia who finds out from his schizophrenic father, on his deathbed, that he was a prolific serial killer. This of course completely unhinges Brian who's schizophrenia spirals out of control, and is made even worse when his father's murders start up again. It's a psychological thriller with some pretty grizzly horror thrown in for good measure. Read more...

Tags Echoes, I Vampire, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Last of the Greats, Top Cow

Who wants to see a Darkness movie?

Read more...

Tags Fleshdigger, Jeremy Haun, Josh Fialkov, Marc Silvestri, Matt Hawkins, Misdirection, Pilot Season, The Theory of Everything, Top Cow

Following the recent announcement at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 that Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley would be taking over Witchblade with issue 151, we thought it was about time that we checked in with the man behind the woman who kills slashers. Besides following Ron Marz on a lengthy, six-year run on the flagship Top Cow title, Seeley is also dropping Hack/Slash lead Cassandra Hack into a crossover with venerable swamp-based film slasher Victor Crowley from writer-director Adam Green's Hatchet series of films in Hack/Slash Annual #3.

We spoke with Seeley by e-mail recently about what's next for Cassie, the casting of a new voice actress for the HALO-8 motion comic, and his big plans for Sara over in Witchblade.

Read more...

Tags Adam Green, Diego Bernard, Hack/Slash, Hatchet, Image Comics, Masters of the Universe, Tim Seeley, Top Cow, Witchblade

Darkness-wielding anithero Jackie Estacado causes some mayhem at a carnival in these latest shots from the upcoming game.

Read more...

Tags 2K Games, Digital Extremes, Playstation 3, The Darkness II, Top Cow, video games, Xbox 360

The Darkness’ mob hitman-turned magically-empowered killer Jackie Estacados’ life will be getting a lot more complicated in writer Phil Hester’s current arc on Top Cow’s long-running series called “Outer Darkness.” Starting in March’s issue #90, Jackie has found himself unable to catch his breath after finally taking out his longtime nemesis, the Sovereign. Now, with assassins on his tail and traitors in his midst he’s got an even bigger problem: The Darkness, the lethal, morphing “suit” that he controls, has decided that perhaps Jackie isn’t the best host.

Phil Hester was kind enough to talk to MTV Geek about his current—and last—story arc for The Darkness, which will culminate in the series’ landmark 100th issue in 2012. Read more...

Tags Phil Hester, The Darkness, Top Cow

Digital Extremes Project Manager Sheldon Carter is really, really excited about The Darkness II, the upcoming video game based on the popular series of comics from Top Cow. And, according to Carter, the game's sticking to its comic book origins:

"We drew inspiration directly from the comic books. We looked at each page with its big splashes of color and high-contrast, and we wanted to bring that to the game...and I believe we have!"

While some video games may seem sort of disconnected from the comics that inspired them, Carter believes that the story of The Darkness "is actually perfect for video games, because it's really power-fantasy at its base" --

"The Darkness always had this powerful story between Jackie and Jenny that resonates with everyone...and on the flipside there's this power fantasy of being able to do anything in the dark, and the ability to punish your enemies with this power."

There's going to be plenty of mayhem and violent action in The Darkness II, cranked up a notch with the addition of a feature called "Quad Wielding" --

"You've got at your fingertips both guns and both demon arms all at the same time...It really lets you be a whirlwind of death!"

Read more...

Tags 2K, Digital Extremes, The Darkness, The Darkness II, Top Cow

Earlier this week, we brought you the new trailer for 2K Games’ sequel to The Darkness titled appropriately enough The Darkness II. The game won’t be out until October, but you can get a little taste of what’s in store for lead character Jackie Estacado in Top Cow’s Free Comic Book Day entry, The Darkness II: Confession. The issue was written by Filip Sablik and Matt Hawkins, with art by Michael Broussard and Romano Molenaar, and is being used by Top Cow and 2K to provide a bridge between the first and second games given the two year gap between the stories.

Sablik, a writer and artist who has worked on Top Cow’s Pilot Season: Asset and Last Mortal was happy to provide MTV Geek with a little insight into the issue—which, if you haven’t heard by now, is free—while trying to avoid any sort of spoilers for the upcoming game.

MTV Geek: Could you tell us a little about the story you’ve chosen to tell for The Darkness II: Confession? What does “the confession” refer to?

Filip Sablik: We wanted this comic to act as both a prologue to The Darkness II, but also act as a bridge from the first game to the second. If you are a fan of the comic, but haven’t played the game, the comic is intended to be an entry point. If you’re a gamer, but not familiar with The Darkness, this comic is meant to serve as an introduction to Jackie and his world. So that was the challenge we gave ourselves, but we also wanted to make the story interesting as a stand-alone comic. Otherwise you end up with something that’s just purely expositional and we’ve got Wikipedia for that!

The story opens with Jackie Estacado, bearer of the Darkness, visiting the grave of his one true love, Jenny Romano and basically pouring his heart out to her. Jackie and Jenny were raised in a Catholic orphanage, and while Jackie has grown up to be a hitman working for the mob, like many people brought up in that tradition he has the idea of confession and penance engrained in him on a deeper level. He’s been struggling lately with his conscience and since Jenny was the one pure soul in his life, he goes to give a confession of sorts to her in hopes of finding some absolution and peace.

Geek: It’s been two years between the first and second game. How has that interval—and becoming a Don—affected Jackie?

FS: Jackie has been through a number of changes, many of which will be revealed in the game, but the two biggest changes, which I can talk about, are that he’s become the Don of the Estacado family and that he’s kept the Darkness chained within himself for two years. In the first game, Jackie took out his Uncle Paulie, the head of the Franchetti crime family, who was responsible for Jenny’s death. Changing the name of the family to the Estacado family is kind of Jackie’s final middle finger to Paulie. And since the Darkness held Jackie back and prevented him from saving Jenny from Paulie, Jackie sees keeping it locked in himself as the only way he can punish the Darkness. As you can imagine, after two years, the Darkness is NOT happy about this.

Geek: Are there any characters from Confession who might make their way into the game?

FS: Not that I can comment on.

Geek: Why is this book a good introduction to The Darkness game and comic?

FS: It’s a great introduction for the game. Most importantly, it really gives you a sense of Jackie as a character and what his mindset is before the beginning of The Darkness II. It also gives you a sense of what came before in the first game – how Jackie inherited the power of the Darkness, his relationship with Jenny and Paulie, and how he came to control the Darkness. The developers at Digital Extremes and producers at 2K Games did a phenomenal job of making The Darkness II very accessible for new players, but any time you do a sequel there are some folks who want to know what came before. The comic provides a great way to jump in without necessarily having to replay the hours it would take to get through the first game.
For us, it also gives a great opportunity for Top Cow to spotlight what makes the Darkness and Jackie Estacado such a compelling comic franchise. One of the goals of Free Comic Book Day is to bring in NEW comic customers and we think that by partnering with 2K we have the opportunity to do just that with the gaming community. Read more...

Tags 2K Games, FCBD, Filip Sablik, The Darkness II, The Darkness: The Confession, Top Cow

This July, artist Tyler Kirkham (Green Lantern Corps, Amazing Spider-Man) and writer Jason Rubin’s (The Iron Saint) supernatural thriller Mysterious Ways will be hitting shelves through Top Cow. Featuring Top Cow’s signature brand of supernatural action mixed with gritty, street-level drama, the story involves a down and out cop named Sam who becomes convinced that he should do the Lord’s work—which just happens to be committing brutal murders.

From the official solicitation:

Mysterious Ways is a story that follows a brutal yet reluctant serial killer convinced that he is doing God's work by wantonly slaughtering innocent women. We follow our executioner as he comes to grips with what he believes is his gruesome responsibility, searches for clues to his obsession, performs his ghastly crimes, and evades capture and death while the authorities doggedly pursue him in an attempt to end the butchery. It might be a classic crime story, a standard tale of cop vs. criminal, of right vs. wrong. It might be, but it isn’t. Because this time the serial killer really is doing God's bidding.

Kirkham was kind enough to answer a few questions for MTV Geek about the book as well as some of his upcoming work.

MTV Geek: Could you tell us a little about Mysterious Ways and how you got involved with the book?

Tyler Kirkham: Mysterious Ways is a crime thriller with a dark religious twist. That’s about all I want to reveal.

The editors at Top Cow asked me if it was a book I'd be interested in doing. It was a new challenge for me. I had never drawn this dark of a book before and I really wanted to take a stab at it—no pun intended. I wanted to draw a more gritty dark style book. I had been doing mostly superhero stuff and thought this would be a fun change of pace. Also when they told me Jason Rubin created and wrote it I got really excited. I knew Jason's video game work and I read his other comic series, The Iron Saint. Read more...

Tags Image Comics, Jason Rubin, Mysterious Ways, Top Cow

"Drinking and naming a company don't mix," Top Cow CEO Marc Silvestri cautions at the beginning of our studio tour with the publisher. All joking aside, as you'll see in the videos below, Top Cow has a very long and distinguished career in comics...virtually producing from their studio many of the hottest artists today. It all started in 1992 with the founding of Image Comics, when 7 talented comic book artists, including Silvestri, broke away from Marvel Comics and started their own company. Within Image each artist had their own company, and Silvestri's was Top Cow.

"To be polite, it was kind of an F-You to the status quo," Silvestri says in the 2-part video. "The status-quo back then was: we literally created all these characters for the two biggest publishers -- the pretty much 2 only publishers that mattered in comics back then, Marvel and DC. They had the biggest characters, they were the biggest gorillas, and you either worked with them or you didn't work in comics."

Now the highly-successful comics publisher of a number of high-profile titles like Witchblade and The Darkness, Top Cow has also seen their properties appear in everything from video games to TV shows and toys. Check out our studio tour below to learn about the inspiring story of Top Cow Publishing! Read more...

Tags Image Comics, MTV Geek Studio Tour, The Darkness, Top Cow, Witchblade

Top Cow and 2K Games are partnering up to present an exciting comic book based on their new video game The Darkness II. Called The Darkness II: Confession, the comic will be a prequel to the highly anticipated video game coming out in Fall 2011. Read below for more details!

Read more...

Tags Free Comic Book Day, The Darkness, The Darkness II, The Darkness II: Confession