Last week we reviewed the first issue of THEORY OF EVERYTHING, the latest Pilot Season comic from Top Cow. With tons of Sci-fi, fantasy and suspense; THEORY OF EVERYTHING has all the proper ingredients that make this an interesting and unique book -- and it's one we certainly hope to see more of. The thing is, it ultimately isn't up to us; it's up to you.

If you're unfamiliar with Pilot Season, here's how it works: Top Cow releases the first issue of various new books. Of these new titles books, fans get to choose which they want to see more of by voting for their favorite title on the Top Cow homepage. You can check out the titles for this year's Pilot Season located on the left hand side of the homepage, here.

Earlier today Top Cow revealed that voting for all seven of their Pilot Season books is officially open to the public. Oh, and you can also vote for as many titles as you want! The cool thing about Pilot Season is that it puts control directly into the hands of the readers. If you like a book, you can vote for it to ensure that you'll continue to see more of the story in the coming year. It's a great way to directly interact with a comic publisher, too, so what's not to love?

All of the titles have been officially released by Top Cow, so if you're still looking to read them you can request whichever sounds the most interesting to you at your local comic book shop. Check out a list of all the Pilot Season titles for 2011 here with accompanying descriptions and let us know which sounds the most interesting to you. This season the stories range from sci-fi to suspense to post apocalyptic; so there's something for everyone. If you want to check out the preview of a title before you actually purchase it, check out the previews to each of the seven titles on the Top Cow homepage. Which one will you vote for? If you like any of the titles, be sure to cast your vote on the official Top Cow website before December 18th, 2011!

I'm actually very excited for this!

This is bad. Go and vote for something that, I'm pretty sure, 50% of the public will not buy.

This actually is an idea that would suit the big two if you ask me, but I know it will never go down that way. Its a good idea...but gosh, why does just Top Cow have to institute it? Maybe this is the day in which the comic market needs to get a little more democratic in its wish to cater to demand and supply. Nice concept though.

I haven't read all of the titles yet, but from the descriptions of them, I'm very excited to check out City of Refuge and Fleshdigger, and you've got me hyped up for Theory of Everything too. This is definitely a good pilot season. Can't wait to get reading.

@RedheadedAtrocitus said:

This actually is an idea that would suit the big two if you ask me, but I know it will never go down that way. Its a good idea...but gosh, why does just Top Cow have to institute it? Maybe this is the day in which the comic market needs to get a little more democratic in its wish to cater to demand and supply. Nice concept though.

It'd be a great idea for not only the big two, but all comic companies if you ask me. The fact that Top Cow does it, and has consistently been doing it for years is just one of the many reasons I prefer them over Marvel and DC. And the fact that pretty much all their stories have always been good enough to look into makes this even better. Top Cow knows they're not the biggest company on the market, but they definitely know how to please the fans they have and keep them fans for a long time. More people need to give 'em a try.

@cacarl said:

This is bad. Go and vote for something that, I'm pretty sure, 50% of the public will not buy.

50% of the public isn't really buying, reading, or voting so there's really nothing bad about it. This is, and always has been, Top Cow liking their fans enough to give 'em a say in what the next mini-series they put out will be, and the fans have always enjoyed being a part of it.

I know what I'm voting for. The Test by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rahsan Ekedal is the one for me. :)

Is it bad i didnt look at these?? I feel like i might of missed out on something here, bummer.

@NexusOfLight:

@cacarl: @RedheadedAtrocitus:

The biggest problem is that it's easy to vote in an online poll, but how many would be willing to actually buy, the most important vote. Much in the same way people will vote for American Idol, but do they actually buy the albums of that person they voted for?

The vote on a comic is almost always in the hands of the reader. You either buy or you don't. Though with Marvel, they will cancel a book only to replace it with a different version of several other comics they are already printing. (Avengers, X-Men, Spider-man, etc.)

@FoxxFireArt said:

The biggest problem is that it's easy to vote in an online poll, but how many would be willing to actually buy, the most important vote. Much in the same way people will vote for American Idol, but do they actually buy the albums of that person they voted for?

The vote on a comic is almost always in the hands of the reader. You either buy or you don't. Though with Marvel, they will cancel a book only to replace it with a different version of several other comics they are already printing. (Avengers, X-Men, Spider-man, etc.)

Keep in mind, this isn't them asking people to vote on the next ongoing Top Cow puts out. All of these stories have an end in sight from its inception. The voting done here is done to see which of these stories the fans find interesting enough to buy so they don't have to waste resources putting out all the stories and then canceling the ones that don't stick. It's win-win on both sides because buyers are getting a mini-series that for the most part they want, and the company's getting the most money they could possibly make because that's the one that generated the most interest. Putting it online as a poll makes that overall process easier and yields generally favorable results because the main people voting in the poll are the people legitimately wanting to give the mini-series a try. Most of the rest of the people voting just to vote most likely go to the site once, put something there and never think about it again, while those serious about it keep voting and voting and voting because they really want their series to win. Non-buyers can do the same thing and keep voting over and over again, but in all likelihood they won't because as a non-buyer, they're most likely lacking the interest to do so. That's what Top Cow's counting on, and that's been the way it's been working.

the only bad thing about the Pilot Season concept is Top Cow's indifference towards doing anything with the winner's past the initial contest issue....Velocity won back in 2007 and the winning series didn't start until June of 2010 and only had 4 issues released between then and April of 2011 and then nothing since

Alright!

I'm really interessted by the test and the beauty, i hope one the two will be in the top. City of refuge could be nice too.

Don't know much about top cow but with their previous pilot season did they prind new issue of the winner soon after the vote or will we wait 6 month to see a title ?

The only two titles I liked were Seraph and Fleshdigger.

Of the few that I've read I like Beauty and City of Refuge. Misdirection was alright. The Test was just too short in story to get a good idea of how it'll play out. Haven't read the rest yet.

I will vote for Theory of Nothing. :P

My Vote is for Brahma get it Brahma Brahma Bull aka Top Cow. What happened to Cyberforce and Ripclaw. I allways liked Ripclaw better than Wolverine maybe they can get them into THENEW52 at DC.

@danhimself said:

the only bad thing about the Pilot Season concept is Top Cow's indifference towards doing anything with the winner's past the initial contest issue....Velocity won back in 2007 and the winning series didn't start until June of 2010 and only had 4 issues released between then and April of 2011 and then nothing since

This. When I first heard of Pilot Season, I was hugely excited, only to see that basically nothing came from it. They just dangle the carrot of a great first issue (often with huge cliffhangers) in front of you and never give anything, even if the title wins the poll. I would love to find out what is behind The Test, for example, but judging from the past, even if it wins, I never will. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the Pilot Season to begin with.

I read them all and my favorites were The Test, The Beauty, City of Refuge, and Seraph. My top pick right now is The Test. However, the most original is probably The Beauty. The Test is like a post apocalyptic Truman Show, City of Refuge is like Equilibrium, and Seraph is like a holy version of Ghost Rider. But The Beauty, the beauty introduces a whole new concept; a disease (STD, mind you) people actually WANT to get that turns those inoculated into physically perfect versions of themselves. The Beauty, The Test, and City of Refuge all read like movies to me, and that's how I like my comics. They were surprisingly good.

Top Cow has definitely created a lot of attention for themselves. I tried to link to the website to talk about voting for multiple comics since they say they will only continue the highest ranked comic. I really like several of their stories, especially seraph & theory of everything, and I'd like to see several of them continued. I got a 509 error though "customer has reached their bandwidth limit". I'm pretty sure I've never gotten that response for anything before. Nice job topcow. Hopefully they can sell enough of these comics to afford improvements to the website because I want to get my vote(s) in.

I would rank them as follows (from favorite, to least favorite): City of Refuge, The Test, Theory of Everything, The Beauty, Misdirection, Seraph, Anonymous, Fleshdigger.