Top Cow’s Pilot Season 2009

Below is the press release, (and Marc Silvestri designs) about the latest Pilot Season special from Top Cow. Pilot Season is a grand idea – the Cow give readers a few different one-shots, fans vote and the most popular one gets its own mini-series.

FROM THE TOP SECRET FILES OF ROBERT KIRKMAN AND MARC SILVESTRI PILOT SEASON: DECLASSIFIED ONLY $1

Top Cow Productions, Inc. proudly announced today that the 2009 year of Pilot Season will kick off with Pilot Season: Declassified. The 32-page full color preview book is expected to be available in stores on October 14th, 2009 and will retail for one dollar.

Five brand new comic book properties born out of the collaboration between Image partners Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible) and Marc Silvestri (Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, The Darkness) will compete against each other to win the votes of the fans who will determine the winning property that will be rewarded with its own full series. This highly anticipated year of Pilot Season begins in November, but fans will get a first look at all five of the new properties this October in the $1 Pilot Season: Declassified. The secrets behind the inception of each property will be revealed in trailer pages, secret documents, and design sketches ripped from the pages of Marc Silvestri’s sketchbook.

For only $1, Pilot Season: Declassified continues Top Cow’s recently established annual tradition that gives fan the final say in what comic books they want to read. Since 2007, Top Cow has given fans the power to choose a Top Cow series based on a selection of one-shot Pilot Season “pilot” issues through online voting. The inaugural Pilot Season initiative garnered more than four million votes from fans across the globe.

“Pilot Season is something I look forward to each year and a unique event for the comic industry,” commented Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik, “With two creative masterminds like Robert and Marc at the helm, I have no doubt we’ll get some of the most unique and stunning creations we’ve seen in the competition to date.”

Pilot Season 2009 Sketch 1

Pilot Season 2009 Sketch 2

Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Out November 3

I really enjoyed Watchmen. I saw it once at the cinema, twice on DVD, and also liked the Motion Comic and Tales of the Black Freighter. Now the whole mammoth experience is coming together in the ultimate edition. All the details below.

The limited quantity multi-disc set includes a whole new movie: Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut, which weaves Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter into Zack Snyder’s Director’s Cut.

Be the first to own the must-have collectible for Watchmen fans when Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on November 3 from Warner Home Video. From director Zack Snyder, this new and complete version of the action-packed blockbuster weaves Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter, the animated story-within-a-story into the Director’s Cut of the film, creating a true ultimate version of the critically acclaimed story.

image001Available in a limited quantity of 70,000, Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut also features new commentary by Dave Gibbons and Zack Snyder along with almost 3 hours of extras, including Hollis Mason’s animated tell-all, Under the Hood. Also included is Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic. Overseen by “Watchmen” illustrator Dave Gibbons and produced by Snyder, Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic contains all 12 chapters of “Watchmen,” the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, adding motion, voice and sound to the book’s strikingly drawn panels, spanning everything from the mysterious demise of the Comedian to the crisscrossed destinies of loosely allied superheroes to their fateful impact on the world.

From Director, Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead) Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut stars Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, Semi-Pro), Malin Akerman (27 Dresses, The Heartbreak Kid), Billy Crudup (Mission Impossible III, Almost Famous), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural), Patrick Wilson (Lakeview Terrace, Little Children), and Carla Gugino (Race to Witch Mountain, Night at the Museum).

SYNOPSIS

Someone’s killing our super heroes. The year is 1985 and super heroes have banded together to respond to the murder of one of their own. They soon uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger. The super heroes fight to stop the impending doom only to find themselves a target for annihilation. But, if our super heroes are gone, who will save us?

Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut will be available on Blu-ray (4 discs) for $59.99, and DVD (5 discs) for $43.87.

BLU-RAY and DVD ELEMENTS

· Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut film

· Audio Commentary with Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons

· The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics (RT: 28:50) – Learn how the subversive, thematically complex, award winning comic that changed literature, inspired analytical debate, and won countless fans, was created.

· Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes (RT: 27:28) – Explores the fascination and psychology behind real-world vigilantes and where that behavior crosses over into actually donning the hood and behaving as superheroes.

· Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World (RT: 16:46) – The creators of Watchmen had a great understanding of engineering and science, allowing for plausible mechanics in their characters tools and the world itself. This featurette will guide the viewer through the filmmakers process of turning these technologies into cinematic reality.

· Watchmen: Video Journals

· My Chemical Romance video Desolation Row (RT: 3:16)

· Under The Hood (RT: 36:00) – A retrospective look on the biography by Hollis Mason – the original Nite Owl – and the world of those who stood for hooded justice.

· Story Within A Story: The Books of Watchmen (RT: 26:00) – Weave through the nuanced layers of detail to see how a comic-within-a comic acts as parallel commentary to the acclaimed work of Literature, Watchmen.

· Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version

· Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics

BASICS

PRODUCT SRP

4-Disc Blu-ray set $ 59.99

5-disc DVD set $ 43.87

Drawn And Quarterly Sale

For all you penny pinchers out there (which I assume is all of us these days) diverse indie publisher Drawn and Quarterly is having a sale. The guys are cleaning out their warehouse and so a lot of stuff is discounted by 30-50%. It’s an online sale only and you can check out their impressive catalogue right here.

Drawn and Quarterly Web Sale