2K
Games, Top Cow Productions, Inc., and the Free Comic Book Day Committee
announced today that they have teamed up to produce The Darkness II: Confession,
an exclusive comic tie-in for The Darkness™ II video game, for Free Comic Book
Day. The 32-page, full-color comic will be a prequel to 2K Games’ upcoming
video game, The Darkness II. Produced by Top Cow’s lead artists and writers
in partnership with 2K Games, The Darkness II: Confession will be
distributed by Diamond Comic Distributors
to thousands of independent comic book stores worldwide on May 7, 2011.
“Top Cow has always supported Free Comic Book
Day and this year we’ve created our best offering yet with The Darkness
II: Confession, a prequel to the upcoming video game The Darkness
II by 2K Games,” said self-proclaimed hardcore gamer and president of
Top Cow, Matt Hawkins. “In working closely with 2K Games on the comic, we’ve
ensured that everything fits into The Darkness’ canon for
long-time and new fans of Jackie Estacado. This free comic is a perfect primer
for the game.”
Since its inception in 2002, the Free Comic
Book Day event has celebrated the original American comic book art form by
supplying thousands of participating independent comic book specialty shops
around the world with free comic books for fans. Top Cow has participated as a publisher since
the beginning and has given out over half a million free comics through the
event, including The Darkness which has appeared in a number of previous Free
Comic Book Day offerings such as Artifacts #0, Broken Trinity #0 and First
Born: Conception. This year, Top Cow is a Silver Sponsor of Free Comic
Book Day 2011, The Darkness II: Confession will be based on a story created by
Top Cow's Matt Hawkins and Filip Sablik, written by Filip Sablik (Pilot
Season: Alibi, Last Mortal), feature art by Artifacts team
Michael Broussard and Sunny Gho, and a cover by Matt Timson (Impaler, The
Darkness).
The
Darkness II: Confession introduces comic
fans, video game fans, and new readers to Jackie Estacado, the bearer of The
Darkness, an ancient primal force which acts a blessing and a curse for its
bearer, allowing him access to an otherworldly dimension and control over the
demons that dwell there. The Darkness II: Confession takes
readers from Jackie’s origins in the first video game, through his rise to
power, and the events leading up to The Darkness II.The
Darkness II video
game breaks out of the sea of conventional first-person shooters with its fervid
Quad-Wielding gameplay, which will allow players to slash, grab, and throw objects and enemies with
their Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons. The game is
layered with the use of dark versus light, steeped in deep and twisted
storytelling, and engulfed in stylistic violence that is
visualized through a hand-painted graphic noir technique that stays true to its
comic book origins.
The Darkness II: Confession and The
Darkness II video game are based on the supernatural horror comic book
series created by Top Cow. The Darkness II video game will be
coming to the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment
system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows
PC in fall 2011. The Darkness II is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more
information on The Darkness II, please visit www.embracethedarkness.com. For more
information on Free Comic Book Day, please visit: www.freecomicbookday.com. To find out more
about Top Cow, please visit: www.topcow.com.