There are thirteen Artifacts of indescribable power within the Top Cow Universe. When brought together, these Artifacts will destroy the world. Naturally, that's exactly what writer Ron Marz plans to do in the pages of "Artifacts," a thirteen-issue series set to launch from Top Cow this July. Marz and Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik describe "Artifacts" as both a payoff for longtime Top Cow readers and a ground floor for new fans, with the story following Witchblade-bearer Sara Pezzini and Darkness host Jackie Estacado as they search for Hope, their missing daughter.
While the seeds for "Artifacts" have been planted in several other titles including "Angelus" and "Broken Trinity: Pandora's Box," Top Cow's first official installment in the event hits stands on Free Comic Book Day with "Artifacts" #0, a prologue chapter designed to familiarize readers with the core premise of the thirteen Artifacts. The story unfolds as Aphrodite IV, a green-haired cybernetic assassin, meets an unseen narrator with intimate knowledge of the Top Cow Universe's thirteen Artifacts — a collection of deadly items that this antagonist wants to bring together for currently unknown reasons.
CBR News caught up with Marz and Sablik to discuss their goals in designing "Artifacts" #0 for Free Comic Book Day, the specific plot threads of the issue, and the event's core focus on two parents desperate to find their child.
CBR: While Top Cow has been building up to "Artifacts" for quite a while, this Free Comic Book Day issue is the first official entry into the proper "Artifacts" story. Given that, what were some of your goals going into "Artifacts" #0?
RON MARZ: If it's a zero issue, to me, it should be an absolute ground floor here's-everything-you-need-to-know issue. I know that sometimes zero issues come out and they aren't quite that, but for my purposes, I wanted this to appeal to our current readers in that we're continuing the story of Aphrodite IV in "Artifacts" #0, so we see what's happened to her after her current appearance in "Witchblade."
But more than that, the concern was to really explain what the whole Artifacts concept is to everybody else that might not be reading "Witchblade," "Darkness" or "Magdalena." I tried to come up with a story that integrated that information, hopefully somewhat gracefully, into a story rather than just presenting this stuff as encyclopedia entries.
Read the full interview here.
Source: CBR
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