LAS VEGAS — “Witchblade is obviously our flagship title,” Top Cow’s Filip Sablik, vice president of marketing and sales for the publisher, told the assembled retailers at the annual ComicsPRO meeting. “We’ve got two things that we’ve done recently that we think have panned out pretty well for you guys, and they’ve done very well for us.”
The first is the recent $4.99 collection of the first Ron Marz arc in “Witchblade” was exclusively for direct-market comic-book retailers, and had been selling very well. It collects six issues at the same quality level of all Top Cow collections.
The second is a promotion for comic stores to increase their orders on the recently shipped issue No. 116 of “Witchblade.” That issue introduces a new artist, Stjepan Sejic. He and Marz have signed onto “Witchblade” for the long haul, Sablik said.
“This creative team is going to be on the book until issue 150,” Sablik said. “We’ve heard that you want consistent shipping, you want a creative team you can rely on, you want a book that can turn, and make money for you month in and month out. We’re going to do that for you with ‘Witchblade.’”
In issue 116, Sara Pezzini and Dani Baptiste begin a new chapter as joint bearers of the Witchblade. “Witchblade” mixes police action and fantasy adventure. The Witchblade is an ancient mystical weapon of great power.
Sablik lined out four goals for the company across the board in 2008:
1. Timely shipping of product
2. Comic Shop Locator information in all trade paperbacks and hardcovers
3. Labeling variants in ordering material consistent with the ComicsPRO position paper on variant covers
4. Providing a trailer loop of professional trailers to retail stores promoting Top Cow products
– Matt Price