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Top Cow Productions reveals the 2026 Top Cow Talent Hunt Winner

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Top Cow Productions has announced artist Zul Fadhli Kamarrudin as the winner of the 2026 Top Cow Talent Hunt, selected from more than 1,200 entries from around the world.

After Top Cow reviewed the submissions and narrowed the field, Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri personally selected Kamarrudin as the 2026 winner.

The 2026 Talent Hunt challenged previously unpublished artists to demonstrate their sequential storytelling skills using scripts featuring the current incarnations of Witchblade and The Darkness. The competition was designed to find one artist ready to make the leap into professional comics and give them their first opportunity to produce published work for Top Cow.

Kamarrudin was selected for his dynamic sequential storytelling and ability to balance large-scale action with character, pacing, composition, and clear visual storytelling. His submission demonstrated an ability to handle everything from complex action sequences and environments to quieter character moments, the skills required to tell a complete story rather than simply produce striking individual images.

As winner of the 2026 Talent Hunt, Kamarrudin will receive a paid assignment to illustrate a 20-page Top Cow story, marking his professional debut with the publisher. The Talent Hunt rules provide the winner with a paid assignment, which Top Cow will select.

Top Cow announces its Talent Hunt: Cyberforce Winners

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Top Cow Talent Hunt Cyber Force Winners

The 7th Top Cow Talent Hunt finally reached its end in December 2022. However, due to a record-breaking number of submissions (almost 4,000—that is almost a 700% increase from their 2019 contest). Only now is the publisher ready to officially introduce the two winners to the comic book world: artist winner Bruno Abdias and writer winner William ‘Billy’ Muggleberg III. 

Abdias and Muggleberg III join the long line of Top Cow Talent Hunt winners turned sequential storytelling superstars like Tini Howard, Issac Goodhart, Phillip Sevy, Ryan Cady, Cecilia Lo Valvo, and Stephanie Williams. 

Top Cow Productions, Inc., the company behind The Darkness and Witchblade, has a long history of discovering new talent. Every other year, the independent publisher launches a worldwide search for new talent and gives aspiring creators a chance to show off their talent and a jumpstart into a professional career in comics. 

This year’s winners will receive $1,000 each from Top Cow, as well as guaranteed paid published work with the company afterward.

Even prior to Top Cow’s first talent hunt in 2012, the publisher has given breaks to many notable creators in the industry including Bryan Edward Hill, Michael Turner, Kenneth Rocafort, Mike Choi, and David Finch.

Be sure to stay tuned for Abdias’ and Muggleberg III’s work to show up at your local comics shop and details on the next talent hunt.

Top Cow talent hunt winners unleashed on Ares IX: Darkness one-shot this December

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Writer Brendan Hodgdon, artist Balazs Valyogos, and cover artist Sara Knaepen—all Top Cow Talent Hunt winners—will release Ares IX: Darkness, an all-new one-shot, this December.

In Ares IX: Darkness, readers will witness the untold chapter of a demigod’s story. After the Ascension of the IXs, Ares finds himself drawn to a mysterious catacomb. What he finds there will redefine his past, his future, and the entire IXth Generation.

Ares IX: Darkness (Diamond code: OCT180046) hits comic book stores on Wednesday, December 12th. The final order cutoff deadline for comics retailers is Monday, November 19th.