We’re all about the emerging talent here at Broken Frontier so a quick follow-up to a story we ran earlier this year about the Top Cow Talent Hunt for 2026. Congratulations to winner Zul Fadhli Kamarrudin!
TOP COW PRODUCTIONS NAMES ZUL FADHLI KAMARRUDIN WINNER OF 2026 TOP COW TALENT HUNT
Marc Silvestri selects Zul Fadhli Kamarrudin from more than 1,200 entries in Top Cow’s worldwide search for the next generation of comic book talent
Top Cow Productions is proud to announce 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The 2026 Talent Hunt challenged previously unpublished artists to demonstrate their sequential storytelling skills using scripts featuring the current incarnations of Witchblade and The Darkness.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.
“I started this journey with nothing more than a pencil, a lot of doubt, and the hope that one day I could find my place in comics,” said Kamarrudin. “This news makes all those years of grinding through previous Talent Hunts feel worthwhile. I still have so much to learn, and this is truly a deeply humbling experience. I’m incredibly grateful to the entire Top Cow team for this opportunity.”
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.
“Breaking into comics is brutally difficult because you can’t get professional experience until somebody is willing to give you that first professional opportunity,” said Top Cow President and COO Matt Hawkins. “That’s one of the reasons we keep doing the Talent Hunt. We had more than 1,200 entries this year, and after we worked through all of them and narrowed down the field, Marc made the final call. Zul didn’t win because we wanted to encourage him; he won because his storytelling earned it. He showed us he could handle characters, action, pacing, and the demands of sequential storytelling. Now he gets the opportunity to prove what he can do on a professional assignment.”
A PROVEN PATH INTO PROFESSIONAL COMICS
For more than a decade, the Top Cow Talent Hunt has been built around a simple idea: find talented creators who haven’t yet had the opportunity to work professionally in comics and give them one.
Past Talent Hunt winners and alumni include Tini Howard, Isaac Goodhart, Phillip Sevy, Ryan Cady, Cecilia Lo Valvo, Stephanie Phillips and Bruno Abdias, among others, many of whom have gone on to build careers at Top Cow and throughout the comic book industry.
The program has given creators early professional opportunities to work on major characters and titles across the industry while also developing their own creator-owned work. The Talent Hunt remains part of Top Cow’s ongoing commitment to finding new voices and talent outside the traditional paths into professional comics.
The 2026 competition focused exclusively on artists and was open to international participants. Entrants had to be previously unpublished under the competition’s eligibility requirements and were given two eight-page scripts featuring modern versions of Witchblade and The Darkness, with artists permitted to illustrate either or both.
Artists could submit pencils, finished pencil-and-ink artwork, digital painting, or other artwork appropriate for publication.
Kamarrudin will now work with Top Cow on his first professional assignment; project details will be announced later.
For more information, visit TopCow.com or follow Top Cow on Instagram, Facebook, X and Bluesky.
About Top Cow Productions
Top Cow Productions, Inc., a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, was founded in December 1992 by artist Marc Silvestri, who also co-founded Image Comics earlier that same year. For more than three decades, Top Cow has built a diverse library of original comic book properties, including Witchblade, The Darkness, Cyber Force, Aphrodite IX, The Magdalena, Sunstone, and Postal.
Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in more than 55 countries. Its properties have expanded beyond comics into television, film, animation, video games, collectibles, and other media. The company continues to develop new creator-driven properties while publishing new stories featuring its established characters and franchises.
