Top Cow has announced the winners of its 2008 pilot season, Twilight Guardian written by Troy Hickman with art by Reza, and Genius written by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman with art by Afua Richardson.  For the second year in a row Top Cow has uploaded the first issue of six different comic series to its Website, emulating the TV networks that greenlight a number of different TV series pilots—with the big difference being that the decisions on which “pilots” to pick up for a full season (or in the case of Top Cow, to publish) are made in Top Cow’s case by fans who vote on which of the six comic book pilots they would like to see become regular series, whereas in the world of TV it’s the network executives who get to decide, not the general public.

 

Twilight Guardian is the nocturnal saga of ordinary woman afflicted with an obsessive-compulsive disorder that manifests itself in her need to patrol a nine-block section of her neighborhood every night.  The other winning pilot, Genius, also boasts a female protagonist—a 17-year-old girl who grew up in an urban war zone and just happens to have the greatest military mind of our times, a veritable Napoleon in low rise jeans.

 

The creative teams on the two books will now start working with Top Cow’s editorial department to plan their series, which will debut in traditional comic book form from Top Cow in 2009.