Broken Frontier

Troy Hickman (Common Grounds) has been selected by Top Cow Productions to write the next story arc of City of Heroes, the comic book co-venture with NCsoft and Cryptic Studios based on the massive online multi-player computer game.  Hickman’s run starts with City of Heroes #4 in August, following Mark Waid’s three part story arc.

“Troy’s Common Grounds stories took the superhero genre into new directions. His City of Heroes pitch was amazing, and added incredible humanity and depth to our characters,” says Jack Emmert, creative director of Cryptic Studios and lead designer on City of Heroes.

“I’ve been playing the City of Heroes online game for a while now,” said Hickman. “And it’s absolutely addictive! It allows me to do one of the things I enjoy in comics: finding a new way to bring out the nuances of a character and really delve into their humanity. I think that’s what is at the heart of my Common Grounds stuff, and hopefully I’ll be bringing the same sensibilities to City of Heroes.”

Hickman and Common Grounds were also nominated for two 2005 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and the acknowledgment for Hickman’s story-telling gives Top Cow, NCsoft and Cryptic great confidence for the future of City of Heroes in the comic book form.

Common Grounds was collected in trade paperback form in December 2004 by Top Cow Productions. Common Grounds is written by Hickman and boasts artistic talents of industry greats including: Chris Bachalo, Dan Jurgens, George Perez, and Ethan Van Sciver, to name a few.  “It’s really gratifying to see the kind of life these stories have had, going from my obscure photocopied mini-comics to being drawn by the biggest names in comicdom, to being nominated for a couple of Eisners,” says Hickman.