Portacio Revealed As Artifacts’ Second Artist

[ENGLISH] Top Cow tells us: LOS ANGELES, Calif., September 29, 2010 – Top Cow Productions, Inc. is proud to announce Whilce Portacio as the new artist for the second ARTIFACTS story arc. Portacio is best known for his work on The Punisher and Uncanny X-Men, helping co-found Image Comics and creating Wetworks.  Most recently, he’s been attached to Uncanny X-Men for Marvel Comics. ARTIFACTS recently made news as the publisher’s first title to ever sell out at the distributor level and go back for a third printing to meet demand.  The limited series weaves together story lines from a number of Top Cow titles, including Witchblade, The Darkness, Angelus and Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box.  The first arc, written by writer Ron Marz (Witchblade) and art by Michael Broussard (The Darkness, Unholy Union), kicked off with a mysterious figure seeking to put Armageddon into motion by bringing together all 13 artifacts.

ARTIFACTS will segue into the next four-issue arc with Portacio joining Marz on the project.  The first chapter of Artifacts will conclude with a shocking cliffhanger and the second chapter shows no sign of letting up.  With all of the players on the board, the antagonist manipulating the bearers of the artifacts moves to complete his plan for utter annihilation of the world.  But how do the members of Cyberforce fit into the machinations of the supernatural?

Artifacts #5, a 32-page full color comic book, will be in stores December 29.

ART ATTACHED:  Artifacts #5 Cover A by Nic Klein (Viking) and Artifacts #5 Cover B by John Tyler Christopher (Witchblade)

About Top Cow Productions Inc.

Top Cow Productions, Inc. (www.topcow.com), a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, was founded in December of 1992 by artist Marc Silvestri, who also co-founded Image Comics earlier that same year. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise, WITCHBLADE, was TNT’s #1 original film of 2000 and the subsequent TV series was released on DVD on July 29, 2008.  WITCHBLADE is also the first American property to be fully adapted in Japan as an original anime and manga by Studio GONZO in 2006. Top Cow’s other flagship property, THE DARKNESS, was developed into a major next-generation video game release by Starbreeze and 2K Games and achieved platinum sales status. WANTED, an Eisner-nominated miniseries published by Top Cow from 2003-2005, is now a major motion picture from Universal Pictures starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. Virtually all of Top Cow’s other properties are in development as feature films, live-action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die-cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games and roleplaying games.