booth at the 2012
New York Comic Con.
1990s Marc Silvestri was one of the original seven founders of
Image Comics, along with
Erik Larsen,
Rob Liefeld,
Jim Lee,
Todd McFarlane,
Jim Valentino, and
Whilce Portacio. When Image Comics first launched in 1992, Silvestri was still part of the Homage Studios group which at the time he co-owned with Lee, Joe Chiodo, Portacio, and Scott Williams. Silvestri's first title for Image Comics was
Cyberforce. By the time the second issue was released in March 1993 Silvestri was publishing under the Top Cow Productions name. Silvestri says that naming his company "Top Cow" was a drunken decision. He was about to change the name to "Ballistic Studios," but changed his mind when he saw the Top Cow logo. He left Homage Studios in 1994 to move to Los Angeles to be closer to Hollywood and to better distinguish his publishing efforts from Lee's. Following the move, Top Cow expanded its line of titles and its pool of talent.
Chris Claremont wrote
Cyberforce issues 9 through 11, published between December 1994 and April 1995. Also in 1995, Top Cow published a
Velocity mini-series written by
Kurt Busiek, a
Weapon Zero mini-series written by
Walt Simonson, and
Steve Gerber took over writing chores on
Codename: Strykeforce starting with issue 10. Top Cow published the first issue of
Witchblade, written by
David Wohl,
Brian Haberlin, and
Christina Z, with art by
Michael Turner, in 1995. The character first appeared in the
Cyblade/Shi The Battle for Independents one-shot, a crossover between a character from
Cyberforce and
Billy Tucci's creator owned series
Shi.
Witchblade was co-created by Silvestri, Wohl, Haberlin, Z, and Turner in part as a response to the success of
Shi other series with strong women lead characters. The series would later spawn a live action television series in 2001 and an animated series in 2006 (See Media adaptations below). A
Witchblade spin-off series,
The Darkness, followed in 1996, written by
Garth Ennis with art by
David Finch. The new title's sales started strong and only grew stronger, despite the comics market downturn, with its eleventh issue becoming the top selling comic book of 1997. In 1996, Top Cow briefly parted ways with Image during a dispute with Image associate
Rob Liefeld. Liefeld left the company shortly after Top Cow's departure, and Top Cow returned to the partnership. The first issue of Turner's creator owned series
Fathom became the top selling comic book of 1998.
J. Michael Straczynski, best known then for his television series
Babylon 5 brought his creator-owned comic book series
Rising Stars to Top Cow in 1999, The comic was adapted into a
film of the same name in 2008.
Ron Marz began writing
Witchblade with issue 80 in 2004.
Stjepan Šejić joined the series as regular artist with issue 116 in 2008 and Top Cow announced that the pair would be the creative team through issue 150, published in 2011. Hawkins described Top Cow's refocusing on company-owned characters around this time as the beginning of the company's fourth era. In 2006, Top Cow made a business agreement with Marvel Comics to publish crossovers such as
Darkness/Wolverine and
Witchblade/Punisher. As part of this agreement, several Top Cow artists also provided art chores on various Marvel series. Tyler Kirkham worked on
Phoenix: Warsong and
New Avengers/Transformers;
Mike Choi worked on
X-23: Target X; and Silvestri himself worked on
X-Men: Messiah Complex. At the 2007
San Diego Comic-Con, an announcement was made by Marvel Comics extending the deal into 2008. Top Cow's "
Pilot Season" initiative began in 2007. Readers were able to vote on the future of six
one-shot pilot comics released throughout the year. At the 2007
New York Comic Con Top Cow announced that they would be one of the first major comics publishers to offer online distribution, through a partnership with
IGN. The initial titles offered included
Tomb Raider,
The Darkness, and
Witchblade, at $1.99 per issue. They also announced a deal with Zannel to license their comics as
mobile comics.
2010s In an effort to make their titles more accessible to new readers, Top Cow rebooted the continuity of its comic book line in 2012 in an event called "Rebirth." The company's flagship titles,
The Darkness and
Witchblade, relaunched with new creative teams as part of the reboot. Top Cow held its first annual talent hunt in 2012. The program seeks to recruit artists and writers who have never been published by a major comics publisher before. Past winners and runners-up include
Isaac Goodhart,
Tini Howard, and
Stephanie Phillips. Top Cow published the first collection of Šejić's romance/erotica webcomic
Sunstone in 2014. The title's success led Top Cow to publish more erotica, romance, and slice of life comics, including
Swing, written by Matt Hawkins and Jenni Cheung with art by
Linda Šejić, and
Sugar, written by Hawkins and Cheung with art by
Yishan Li. The original
Witchblade series ended with issue 185 in 2015. The series was relaunched in December 2017, written by Caitlin Kittredge with art by Roberta Ingranata. It was the first time
Witchblade was both written and drawn by women. The series was followed a new
Cyber Force series in March, 2018 and the
Aphrodite V series in July 2018. A new
The Darkness series was also announced for 2019, but never published.
2020s In 2022, Top Cow Productions reprinted the early issues of
Cyberforce for the first time since 1994 in a 30th anniversary commemorative hardcover edition funded through Kickstarter and exclusively available through the platform. Later in the same year the book was reprinted in a trade paperback with the same contents. In 2024, the company began publishing a new
Witchblade series written by
Marguerite Bennett and drawn by
Giuseppe Cafaro. ==Titles==