Top Cow’s Artifacts involves Witchblade, Darkness, more in yearlong event

From Friday’s The Oklahoman:

WORD BALLOONS

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A yearlong event involving all the supernatural characters of the Top Cow universe is the company’s big comic-book event for 2010, Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik said at the ComicsPRO annual members’ meeting in Memphis.

The series will kick off with an issue on Free Comic Book Day, set for May 1.

“Our goal here is to make this a completely accessible series,” Sablik said.

“Artifacts” will bring together the 13 mystical artifacts that guide the fate of mankind in the Top Cow Universe.

And when those are brought together, “something really, really bad happens,” Sablik said.

The 13-issue series written by Ron Marz “is by far the most ambitious thing I’ve ever attempted on the publishing end,” Sablik said.

It will reveal how various pieces of the Top Cow universe fit together and should be appealing to Top Cow’s long-term fans, Sablik said. But the company also is making it new-reader friendly, with the Free Comic Book Day book aimed at introducing the characters of the Top Cow universe. The No. 1 issue of the series will follow in July.