Top Cow’s scribe-in-chief Ron Marz, who’s been shaping the direction of Top Cow’s top titles, has written a 13-issue series, Artifacts, which will shake the very foundations of the Top Cow Universe.  Marz’ saga involves the thirteen artifacts (including the Witchblade and the Darkness) that guide the fate of the Top Cow Universe, and which if they fall into the hands of a single entity, would herald the destruction of mankind.  In Artifacts #1, which ships in July, the kidnapping of Hope, the daughter of Sara Pezzini and Jackie Estacado, initiates a plot that could create Armageddon and which lays bare the underpinnings of the Top Cow world in ways that make it easy for new readers to understand and jump in.

Michael Broussard is providing the interior art for the 13-issue Artifacts series, and he also participated in a jam cover for the first issue along with Marc Silvestri, Stjepan Sejic, Sheldon Mitchell and Nelson Blake II.  Variant covers will be provided by John Tyler, who has created a design featuring all 13 of Artifact bearers, and by Dale Keown (The Darkness/Pitt).  In addition to the standard 32-page, full color edition, which carries a $3.99 cover price, Top Cow has created a limited edition of 2000 featuring a gold foil-stamped Top Cow Jam Cover ($10), as well as a signed (by the entire Top Cow Studio) and numbered edition limited to just 100 copies ($29.99).  Top Cow is also releasing the jam cover as a 24” x 36” poster ($7.99).

In addition to writing the Artifacts series, Marz has also created a series of origin stories for the Top Cow characters, which will run as backup stories throughout the Artifacts series.  These origin stories should also help make the series accessible to readers unfamiliar with the Top Cow Universe.  The Artifacts #1 backup is Marz’ tale of the origin of Witchblade illustrated by Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri.