Pilot Season 2010 - And The Winner Is ...

Over the past month or so I've been enjoying writing about Top's Cows Pilot Season 2010 - and after a remarkable period of voting the final result is now in.

This years winner is 39 Minutes from William Harms and Jerry Lando. 39 Minutes tells a heist story with a real difference as a group of former soldiers turn to robbing small town banks and leaving a path of death and destruction by killing everyone and anyone who gets in their way - and the only man who can stop them is locked up in prison and refuses to help.


A worthy winner from five very strong contenders each of which, I believe, would make for an enjoyable series. Here's the announcement in full ...

39 MINUTES WINS TOP COW’S PILOT SEASON 2010

LOS ANGELES, Calif., December 10, 2010 – As announced on MTV Geek, Top Cow Productions, Inc. is proud to announce that the winners of Pilot Season 2010 is William Harms and Jerry Lando’s 39 MINUTES.

39 MINUTES beat out ASSET by Top Cow publisher Filip Sablik and David Marquez, CROSSHAIR by Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri, Jeff Katz and Allan Jefferson, FOREVER by Brad Ingelsby and Thomas Nachlik and 7 DAYS FROM HELL by Bryan Edward Hill, Rob Levin and Phil Noto.

39 MINUTES turns a heist story on its head when a group of ex-soldiers turned bank robbers’ decide to hit up small towns leaving a path of destruction by killing everyone who gets in their way. As the clock’s ticking, the only man who can stop them just happens to be in prison and refuses to help.

“All of the books in this year’s competition are really good,” said Harms. “I’m excited and humbled that 39 MINUTES came out on top.”

Fans rushed to the web, even crashing the first poll, to vote for their favorite 2010 Pilot Season one-shots. Pilot Season is an annual initiative Top Cow began in 2007 that borrows its concept from the television industry: five ‘pilots’ are submitted for consideration to be ‘picked up for a season,’ except instead of TV executives decided their fates, it’s the fans!

Now that 39 MINUTES has been declared the winner, the creative team will work with Top Cow’s editorial department to start planning out their series, which will debut in 2011.

Previous winners of Pilot Season include: CYBLADE, VELOCITY, TWILIGHT GUARDIAN and GENIUS. VELOCITY can currently be found at your local comic book shop shelves, TWILIGHT GUARDIAN (NOV100495) is available for pre-order and, along with GENIUS, will be debuting in 2011.

Source: Top Cow Productions

Vote Now for 'Pilot Season 2010'

Voting is now underway for Top Cow's Pilot Season 2010 allowing readers to vote for their favourite title out of the five one-shots that were published this past month.

Pilot Season is the annual initiative Top Cow began in 2007 that borrows its concept from the television industry: 'Pilots' are submitted for consideration to be 'picked up for a season': and it’s the fans who decide by voting online.

Polling stations are now set up at the Top Cow website with additional polling stations appearing on various comics news sites, blogs and social media platforms - Escape from Tomorrow readers can click on the 'Vote Now' image below to cast their vote, and readers can vote multiple times a day up until the polls close on Tuesday 30 November 2010.


Here are the titles in contention this year along with a campaign plea from each book’s writer(s):

39 MINUTES by William Harms
Robbing a bank is easy – it's the getaway that's hard. So what's the solution? Kill everyone in town.
“By voting for 39 Minutes, you’ll give a voice to all of the poor downtrodden bank robbers of the world. If you don’t speak for them, who will?”

ASSET by Filip Sablik
Pat Benatar was wrong, love isn't a battlefield. Love is a weapon.
“Asset is about the dangerous side of love in the digital age. You meet that perfect person online thanks to next generation personality profiling and everything is hearts and flowers. Only they aren’t your perfect match, they’re an enemy spy and they’re going to get you killed. Vote for me, David Marquez and Bill Farmer if you’ve ever been punched in the jeans by love.”

FOREVER by Brad Ingelsby
Who can stop a biotech corporation that is stealing life from the less fortunate and giving it to those with means?
“I think we’ve created a world and a central mystery that people will want to return to. The history of Longevity and its miracle drug Forever is inextricably linked to Ryan’s personal history which should make for a thrilling journey, full of surprises.”

CROSSHAIR by Jeff Katz
I have 48 hours to kill the president of the United States. And the only man that can stop me – is me.
“Crosshair should win because it's classic action hero style wish fulfillment with a paranoid psychological thriller twist. Justin Weller is a true man of action who protects his family and his honor at all costs and is the type of hero our ever more dangerous world needs right now.”

7 DAYS FROM HELL by Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin
Redemption can take a lifetime. John Bishop only has 7 days from ending up in Hell.
“Phil Noto. ‘Nuff said.”

Previews for each book are available at the Top Cow website.