Gorbie: Avenger of the Night

Some of our best material comes out of spur of the moment, off the cuff comments that keep us laughing so hard that we know we have to use them somewhere. Unfortunately, we rarely remember to write these down to remember them and they get lost forever. Sometimes the joke works its way so deep into our comedic psyche that it rises up from that fertile ephemera to cause us to erupt in mirth once again. Gorbie is one such creation, and I think he’ll be around for a while.

We don’t read a lot lot of Top Cow comics, so I don’t think we’ve ever talked about them on the site before. When Image Comics initially formed in the 1990’s, its intent was (and still is) that all content would be creator-owned. As such, several artists created their own studios which then worked in collaboration with Image, becoming their own imprints under the Image banner. One of the most successful of these was Marc Silvestri’s Top Cow Productions, which originally started with Silvestri’s Cyberforce team of cybernetically modified mutant superheroes. Later, Top Cow moved away from super hero comics into what could best be described as urban mystical fantasy with series like Witchblade (probably the creation Top Cow is most known for) and The Darkness.

Back in 2007, Top Cow started an event they called Pilot Seasons where they release the first issue of a handful of new series. Once all the comic “pilots” have been released, readers can vote on what series they’d like to see made into a story. It’s a really interesting idea and a great way for creative teams to experiment with new story concepts. Kris has been picking up the issues of Velocity, the 2007 Pilot Season winner, and has been really enjoying it. The 2009 Pilot Season ran long and just recently wrapped up, just in time for the 2010 Pilot Season to start. We’ve already checked out Asset #1 and really enjoyed this take on female spies. We’d highly recommend checking out the rest of the 2010 Pilot Season as they come out later this month.