Fluit Notes

Memories of Comic-Con

Nine years ago this week, I attended my first and only San Diego Comic-Con.

I had a one-year internship on the West Coast (just outside of San Francisco) and my wife Anacoqui and I decided to take the trip down to San Diego. We didn’t know if we’d ever get another chance to go (and so far, we haven’t). We had a great time. Comic-Con was everything I wanted it to be. It was one of the best vacations of my life. I have fond memories of the CrossGen booth. This was 2001 and CrossGen was still on the rise. They had a wide open pavilion and fans could walk right in. We stopped by a couple of times during the week. On the Wednesday preview night, we talked to several of the CrossGen luminaries. We met Tony Bedard, who had just been added to the writing staff. We talked to Mark Alessi (though he was kind of over-bearing). I fulfilled a lifelong dream in meeting George Perez. I also inadvertently insulted him- I made him feel old by telling him that my mom used to buy New Teen Titans comics for me. We came back throughout the week for autograph sessions. We scored small posters for every CrossGen title and Anacoqui won a drawing for a large Scion poster signed by Ron Marz and Jimmy Cheung. It was great. The CrossGen people made us feel like family more than fans. It helped that Anacoqui was seven months pregnant. We were pretty recognizable.

I have fond memories of several panels. One of the best panels that I attended was with Mark Waid. It was a fairly small crowd and Mark simply took questions. He was very open and honest with us, and even cried a couple of times. He cried once when we asked him about his favorite story that he had written. He mentioned Flash #0 when Wally West is displaced in time and gives advice to his younger self. That was a very personal
story for Mark. We also dragged up some painful memories by asking about the fallout he had with an editors that led to his early departure from one of his dream projects: the Legion of Super-Heroes.

We also attended a JLA/Avengers panel with Kurt Busiek and George Perez as they teased the upcoming project. We attended a women-in-comics panel that included Amanda Conner. I remember Amanda specifically because one of the other women who was working in independent comics made a disparaging comment about “who wants to draw superheroes beating up on each other” and Amanda raised her hand to say “I do.” We attended a Farscape panel with Anthony Simcoe (D’argo) and series creator Rockne O’Bannon. Anthony was hilarious. It was especially funny to hear D’argo’s deep voice coming from this blond Australian.

And we unintentionally attended a Battlestar Galactica panel. We were trying to get early seats for another TV/movie panel (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, I think) and caught the end of BSG. This was 2001, however, well before the second series hit the air. Instead, the actor who played Apollo was pitching his idea for a new BSG project. He complained that someone else was sitting on the rights and asked fans to support him
instead. He showed us his ideas for the series. Honestly, it didn’t look very good. But it all worked out in the end. The rights holders ended up putting a very good project together. And Apollo made peace with them, even showing up in a recurring role as a revolutionary.

I also have fond memories of walking the floor. I was overwhelmed at first. Everything I ever wanted was for sale. I contented myself by buying several Silver Age Teen Titans, including a few that had been part of the infamous IRS collection, and finishing my collection of George Perez’s Wonder Woman.

Yet Comic-Con wasn’t the only highlight of our stay in San Diego. I took Anacoqui to the world famous zoo. We had a great day, though we spent the afternoon on the double decker tour bus because there’s only so much walking a seven-month pregnant woman can do. We bought tickets to a Padres game and lucked into a double-header when the previous night’s game was canceled due to lightning. We got two games for the price of one. We watched Randy Johnson set a record for most strikeouts in a relief appearance (the first game technically picked up in the second inning) and Trevor Hoffman close out the second game with a save. And we discovered quite a few great restaurants in the downtown area including an Italian cafe, an English pub, a pizza place and a seafood joint.

Yeah, it was a great time. Someday, I’ll maybe even get to go back.

Where Are They Now: CrossGen, Part II

CrossGen launched its comic book line in the summer of 2000 with four titles: Meridian, Mystic, Scion and Sigil.  That initial success demonstrated that they were a legitimate, viable comic book company and it allowed them to attract even more big-name creators.  In that first year of publishing, CrossGen added veteran artists Butch Guice and Bart Sears and popular writer Mark Waid.  However, their biggest splash came when they announced that they had signed superstar artist George Perez.  With these new additions, CrossGen was able to introduce some of their most successful titles in 2001.   

Mark Waid:  Mark Waid was one of the biggest writers in the comic book industry before coming to CrossGen, with Captain America, the Flash, JLA and Kingdom Come to his credit.  At CrossGen, he co-created Crux with artist Steve Epting and wrote one of CrossGen’s most successful titles, the detective comic, Ruse. He also took over Sigil from Barbara Kesel and co-created Negation before handing it off to Tony Bedard.  Waid was also one of the first high-profile departures from the company.  He had one of his greatest successes after CrossGen, as the writer on Fantastic Four with artist Mike Wieringo.  Mark Waid is now the editor-in-chief at Boom Studios where he also writes their superhero/supervillain titles Irredeemable and Incorruptible.   

Tony Bedard:  Bedard was relatively unknown in comics even though he had been working in the industry for almost a decade- interning, editing and writing for companies such as Valiant, Crusade and Malibu.  CrossGen became his coming out party.  He took over Mystic from Ron Marz, co-created Negation with Mark Waid and wrote Route 666 with artist Karl Moline.  After CrossGen, Bedard became a regular presence as a free-lance writer at both Marvel and DC.  He wrote an acclaimed run on Exiles and was part of the rotation of writers on Countdown.  Bedard is currently the writer of REBELS and will take over as the writer of Green Lantern Corps next month.   

Bart Sears: A graduate of the famous Joe Kubert School of Art, Sears worked on a number of high-profile comics in the ‘90s, including Justice League Europe and X-O Manowar.  His first CrossGen assignment was the melodramatic The First, featuring that universe’s pantheon of gods.  Sears then moved on to the samurai epic, The Path, becoming the first CrossGen artist to put his artistic stamp on two different titles.  After CrossGen, Sears returned to superhero work, with stints on Captain America and the Falcon and Weapon X, before diving into more fantasy-related titles again with DC’s Warlord and Dark Horse’s The Helm.  He has been working for the video game company, Heatwave Interactive, since 2008. 

Andrea DiVito: DiVito was part of the contingent of Italian artists who gained a foothold in North America through CrossGen.  He started at CrossGen as an associate penciller doing fill-in work before becoming the regular penciller on The First.  He then became the first penciller on Brath.  Since CrossGen, DiVito has kept busy at Marvel working on Thor: Disassembled, the Thing, Annihilation and World War Hulk.  His most recent work is on the cosmic hero Nova.  

Andy Smith: Andy Smith started out at CrossGen as an inker, working on Bart Sears’ pencils on The First.  He switched to pencils and after a couple of fill-in issues on other series, eventually became the third regular penciler on that title.  Smith found occasional work in comics after CrossGen, providing freelance work on Marvel’s Weapon X, DC’s Green Lantern, Atom and Superman: Confidential.  He is now mostly a corporate artist, having worked for companies such as Bally’s Total Fitness and Fidelity Investments.  

Steve Epting: Few artists improved their standing as much as Steve Epting.  Before joining the company, he was considered a stalwart but not a standout, putting in long runs on Marvel comics such as The Avengers and X-Factor.  At CrossGen, he opened a lot of eyes, first co-creating Crux with Mark Waid and then co-creating El Cazador with Chuck Dixon.  He is now the critically acclaimed artist on Captain America with writer Ed Brubaker though he most recently spent time with the same writer on a side project: The Marvels Project.   

Paul Ryan: Ryan had one of the longest-resumes in comics before coming to CrossGen.  He had co-created DP7 as part of Marvel’s New Universe and paired with Tom DeFalco on that company’s flagship title, Fantastic Four.  Ryan first worked for CrossGen as a freelance artist doing single issue fill-ins.  However, he was eventually offered the job of taking over as the regular penciler on Crux after Steve Epting started work on El Cazador.  Ryan has been working on The Phantom newspaper comic strip since 2005.   

Sergio Cariello: He’s the Ted McGinley of CrossGen comics (from the pop culture book, Jumping the Shark).  Sergio Cariello worked on the final issues of Crux, Scion and Sojourn as each of those titles came to an end.  Cariello actually had a productive career in comics before coming to CrossGen, working on Daredevil, Deathstroke and Azrael among other titles.  He’s kept active since the company folded as well with his most recent work appearing in Dynamite’s The Lone Ranger series.   

Greg Land: Greg Land came to CrossGen off of two very successful runs on DC’s Batman family of titles, Birds of Prey and Nightwing.  At CrossGen, he was assigned to the traditional fantasy epic, Sojourn, with writer Ron Marz.  His gorgeous art quickly won Land (and CrossGen) popular acclaim though his increasing use of photo references also won him critical scorn.  Undeterred, Land landed at Marvel where he provided numerous covers as well as the interior art for titles such as Phoenix: Endsong.  He is currently one of the regular artists on Uncanny X-Men.  

Butch Guice: Guice had been working in comics for about 15 years before coming to CrossGen.  He was most famous for being one of the Superman artists during “The Death of Superman” storyline and had most recently worked on DC’s Birds of Prey.  At CrossGen, he was the regular penciler on the mystery title, Ruse.  Guice seemed to take some time re-establishing himself after CrossGen.  He worked for the French company Humanoids and put in a short run on Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis.  More recently, he worked on Marvel’s Ultimate Origins and Captain America Reborn.      

George Perez: One of the biggest names in the history of comics, the signing of George Perez was one of CrossGen’s greatest coups.  Perez had worked on almost every superhero for the Big Two companies of Marvel and DC: Fantastic Four, Avengers, Justice League of America, New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Incredible Hulk and Avengers again.  CrossGen first assigned Perez to their anthology title, CrossGen Chronicles, so that he could play in every one of their worlds.  After a break to work on JLA/Avengers, Perez returned to CrossGen with Solus.  Perez has continued to be one of the masters of comics since CrossGen closed down, working on Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds.  He is reportedly finishing work on the oft-delayed Titans graphic novel “Games.”   

That covers another third including some of the biggest names to come to and come out of CrossGen comics.  Come back one more week for the final installment of “Where Are They Now?—CrossGen.”  

Where Are They Now: CrossGen

In the year 2000, a new comic book company entered the scene.  They would eschew the superhero fare that was typical of most comic books and concentrate on underrepresented genres such as science-fiction and fantasy.  They would borrow corporate techniques, developing an in-house art studio and attracting veteran comic book creators with benefits and health plans.  They garnered a very loyal audience of fans and grew quickly- briefly passing Dark Horse and Image as the third largest publisher.  And then it all fell apart.  Their expenses mounted too quickly and they fell behind on payments to creators and other companies.  This led to public spats with freelance artists such as Robin Riggs and their printer, Quebecor.  The company slashed its titles, but even the leaner line couldn’t survive.  They filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and closed up shop soon after.  That company was CrossGen comics. 

 

During their brief heyday, CrossGen was also notorious for getting into public feuds. Marvel-publisher-at-the-time Bill Jemas made multiple disparaging comments about the little-company-that-could and even insulted the talent of their creators as not being good enough to work at Marvel.  Even Marvel writer Mark Millar got into the act, publicly criticizing CrossGen for not working enough with freelance creators.  Yet despite the insults lobbied at both the company and its creators, when CrossGen finally folded, most of their talent found work at other companies, including Marvel.  That’s not entirely surprising as many of the creators were comic book veterans with well-established careers before CrossGen.  Yet many of the creators left CrossGen with higher profiles and moved on to major projects.  Of course, working at CrossGen wasn’t a boon to every career.  A few prominent names failed to re-surface in prominent roles after the company collapsed. 

 

Barbara Kesel:  Best-known as a writer for her work on DC’s Hawk and Dove with Rob Liefeld, Kesel was the first writer hired by CrossGen.  She worked on one of their most-lauded titles, Meridian starring the adolescent Sephie, and one of their most-lambasted, The First.  Kesel was one of the few creators to go down with the CrossGen ship.  She is now part of a comic book packaging company called The Pack with former DC editor Brian Augustyn.

 

Ron Marz:  Ron was the writer of Silver Surfer, X-O Manowar and the controversial Green Lantern story that turned Hal Jordan evil and replaced him with Kyle Rayner.  Despite all of that experience on galactic superheroes, Marz found his niche at CrossGen working on fantasy titles such as Mystic, Scion and Sojourn.  He is now the top creative force for Top Cow, writing Witchblade and Magdalena.

 

Joshua Middleton: Josh was one of the first young creators discovered by CrossGen.  He had a brief run as the first artist on Meridian.  He re-surfaced at Marvel as the artist on X-Men Unlimited and NYX.  Recently, Middleton specialized as a cover artist.  However, he just completed his run as the cover artist for Supergirl, which he claimed on his blog is his last mainstream work for a while.

 

Steve McNiven: A school teacher in Toronto before being accepted into CrossGen’s associate artist program, McNiven became the second regular penciller on Meridian.  He found a new home at Marvel, working on Ultimate titles and New Avengers before working on the biggest story of the decade, Civil War.  Since then, McNiven has re-teamed with Civil War writer Mark Millar on the recently concluded Wolverine story “Old Man Logan” and the upcoming Marvel Icon comic Nemesis.    

 

Brandon Peterson: Peterson was a bench player at the X-office, filling in for other artists and pitching in on mini-series such as the second Astonishing X-Men, before coming to CrossGen.  For CrossGen, he launched Mystic, became the company’s art director and created Chimera.  He went back to Marvel and worked on titles such as Ultimate X-Men.  More recently, he’s contributed covers to the X-Men’s Divided We Stand, War of Kings and Deathlok. 

 

Fabrizio Fiorentino: One of several Italian artists hired by CrossGen, Fiorentino became the second regular penciler on Mystic and the second regular penciler on the company’s version of Lady Death.  He’s kept active in the US market, drawing Doc Samson for Marvel and Countdown to Adventure for DC.  His latest job is working on DC’s Titans: Villains for Hire special.

 

Aaron Lopresti: Lopresti made his debut for Malibu’s Ultraverse line when he worked on Steve Gerber’s Sludge.  However, he was still relatively unknown in the comics field when he was hired by CrossGen and made the third regular penciler on Mystic.  Lopresti went from CrossGen to Marvel, where he was the regular penciler on a new Excalibur series from Chris Claremont.  He then went from Marvel to DC where he was the regular penciler on Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman for a time.  He is currently working on Justice League: Generations Lost.

 

Jimmy Cheung: Jimmy had worked at Marvel’s X-office before coming to CrossGen, launching a Maverick ongoing series and contributing a vastly underrated run on X-Force.  At CrossGen, he was the other half of the long-running Scion team with writer Ron Marz.  He also contributed a few issues of Lady Death in the company’s waning days.  Since then, he’s been a major presence at Marvel Comics.  He was the co-creator of Young Avengers with writer Allen Heinberg, and contributed covers to both Avengers: Initiative and Secret Warriors.  A new Young Avengers story, Avengers: Children’s Crusade, by Heinberg and Cheung is scheduled to debut this summer.

 

Luke Ross: Ross was associated with CrossGen for only a short period of time.  He did some fill-in work on Sojourn and some of the final issues of Scion.  Before that, he had done work with Innovation, Malibu and Valiant in the US and other companies in his native Brazil (his real name is Luciano Quieroz).  Since then, he has become the highly-acclaimed artist of DC’s Jonah Hex. 

 

Ben and Ray Lai: The Lai brothers were some of CrossGen’s young discoveries.  They were the original artist team on Sigil.  However, their tenure with the company didn’t last very long.  They showed up again at Marvel in 2003 as the artists on Dan Jurgens’ Thor.  Despite the occasional issue or pin-up after that, the Lai brothers do not appear to be currently active in comics. 

 

Scot Eaton: Scot took over for the Lai brothers as the regular artist on Sigil and became the longest-serving artist on that title.  However, Eaton wasn’t new to comics when he came to CrossGen having previously worked on titles such as Marvel’s Silver Surfer.  After CrossGen, Eaton went back to Marvel.  This time around, he was handed bigger properties, following the Lai brothers again by working on Thor with Dan Jurgens and contributing art to the X-Men’s Messiah CompleX crossover.  Currently, he’s working on the Black Panther mini-series, DoomWar. 

 

Dale Eaglesham: The third of the Sigil artists, Eaglesham came to CrossGen after approximately 15 years in the comic book business.  Some of his earlier work includes issues of Eternal Warrior for Valiant and Conan the King.  Dale’s career has been pretty steady since his CrossGen days.  He was the artist on Villains United for DC and on the re-launch of Justice Society of America.  Most recently, Eaglesham signed an exclusive contract with Marvel and was assigned to the Fantastic Four.

 

That’s a look at a dozen former CrossGen creators, which is by no means an exhaustive list.  Some of the artists are currently working on Justice League: Generation Lost, Titans: Villains for Hire, Avengers: Children’s Crusade, DoomWar, Fantastic Four and Nemesis.  And an original CrossGen writer is currently the top scribe at Top Cow. 

Mark Waid’s Ten Best Books

Last week, I wrote about one of my favorite comic book writers, Kurt Busiek.  This week, I’m going to write about another favorite, Mark Waid.  Waid has been every bit as important to me as Busiek.  The two of them are like twins in my mind- drawing me into comics in the mid-‘90s and giving me endless hours of enjoyment in the time since.  So, once again, here’s a happily random celebration of Mark Waid, in order of appreciation.  

 

10. JLA: Year One

 

Mark Waid is insulted by his detractors for being too much of a fan.  He knows the ins and outs of comic book history as well as anyone.  However, that doesn’t have to be an impediment.  And it can be an asset.  In Year One, Waid wrote a new origin for the Justice League.  After all, their history was no longer coherent due to the many revisions that had taken place over the years.  But this was no mere exercise in history.  Waid gave interesting personalities to his key characters.  Aquaman was truly a fish out of water.  Black Canary was competent and charming.  Martian Manhunter was humble and secretive.  And the Green Lantern and the Flash became fast friends.  Waid wove known events and new ones into one coherent narrative, showing the foundation and formation of the greatest team of superheroes ever assembled.  Plus, he and artist Barry Kitson brought in the guest stars by the bushel full.

 

9. Crux

 

Mark Waid took a short sojourn as a staff writer for CrossGen and while he may want to forget his experiences there, his books are unforgettable.  Crux was the closest CrossGen had to a superhero team yet they were also something incredibly different.  The cast was made up of Atlanteans who each had special powers, such as shape-shifting or speed.  But they were no team.  They were thrown together by fate, wondering why they were the last survivors of their people and trying to figure out what went wrong.  The real draw, however, was the interaction between the characters.  There was a sibling rivalry and a love triangle.  There was friction with the youngest- and smartest- of the group.  And, as the series progressed, there were plenty of difficulties and shifting allegiances with new characters.

 

8. Ka-Zar

 

Ka-Zar is an underappreciated classic.  Mark Waid teamed with Andy Kubert on this short-lived title.  Waid came up with the brilliant idea of reversing the standard Ka-Zar story.  Usually, Ka-Zar stories are about Ka-Zar or other heroes travelling to the Savage Land and experiencing the jungle in its full force.  But for this series, Waid brought Ka-Zar and the Savage Land to a very different jungle: New York.  We saw how Kevin Plunder (Ka-Zar) and Shanna dealt with the modern world in different ways.  And we got to experience the thrill of watching sabretooth tigers and tyrannosaurus rexes run around the streets of Manhattan.

 

7. 52

 

It’s hard to know how much credit to give to Mark Waid as this title was written by four writers working in conjunction.  But it would be an even bigger mistake to leave 52 off of the list.  With Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns and Greg Rucka, Waid helped put together one of the comics’ great epics.  52 featured interweaving stories focusing on some of DC’s lesser known characters like the Elongated Man, the Question, Will Magnus, Steel and Starfire.  It had plenty of classic moments, like “the rain of the supermen” and featured the full range of superhero comics.  It was simply a great read. 

 

6. Captain America

 

Captain America was one of the first ongoing titles to really be associated with Mark Waid.  He had two tenures on the title.  The first was with Ron Garney.  It had critical acclaim and growing sales as Waid re-examined what it meant to be a patriotic hero while also taking Cap’s powers away.  Unfortunately, the title was canceled to make room for Marvel’s Heroes Reborn launch.  When that was done, Mark Waid came back for a second stint and showed that you can go home again.  He matched Captain America up with classic villains like the Red Skull and the Skrulls and gave Cap fans something to cheer about.  He even made me, who wasn’t a Cap fan at the time, a reason to pay attention.   

 

5. Flash

 

This is the other ongoing title that really raised Mark Waid’s profile.  Waid identified with Wally West and poured himself into the title.  It was as if Waid was writing himself and the readers responded.  Wally West soon became the most popular Flash, winning fan polls as the best Flash ever ahead of his mentor Barry Allen.  Waid built a huge supporting cast of fellow speedsters: Jessie Quick, Max Mercury (who used to be Quality Comics’ Quicksilver) and his own creation Impulse.  He brought in guest stars and friends like Nightwing.  And he gave Wally a significant love interest, Linda Park.  Waid would leave Flash and come back for a second run that wasn’t as well-received as his first.  But that initial run made stars out of both Mark Waid and Wally West.

 

4. Ruse

 

Mark Waid has a reputation as a superhero writer.  But, like Kurt Busiek in last week’s list, Mark Waid has shown that he’s a great writer even when he switches genres.  One of Waid’s best books is the mystery title, Ruse.  Mark Waid introduced detective Simon Archard and his plucky assistant, Emma Bishop.  Their interaction was brilliant.  Simon was caustic and sarcastic.  Emma was hopeful and bright.  Together, they solved crimes that had mystical trappings but usually turned out to be surprisingly mundane.  Emma developed a rivalry with the baroness Miranda Cross, Simon relied on a rogue’s gallery of unlikely assistants and they both matched wits with Simon’s mentor turned villain Simon Lightbourne.  Ruse was a consistently entertaining and excellent book. 

 

3. JLA

 

Mark Waid followed Grant Morrison on JLA.  Morrison’s run was great and is rightly lauded, but Waid’s run is also great and is criminally ignored.  He started with an over-sized special, Heaven’s Ladder, with artist Bryan Hitch before taking over the regular title.  Mark Waid pulled from his interest in modern science, telling stories of time and space and atoms.  He pulled from his interest in fable and mythology, introducing the Queen of Fables as a new villain and Santa Claus as a new teammate.  He broke the team apart and put them back together again.  He exposed their weaknesses in order to showcase their strengths.  It was a tight, action-packed and often intense superhero story. 

 

2. Kingdom Come

 

Kingdom Come is one of the greatest stories in comic books.  Artist Alex Ross had the initial idea and Mark Waid developed it into a classic.  It’s a glimpse of a possible future in which the good heroes have given way to anarchy.  It’s the call of hope as the classic heroes come back to save the world they once abandoned.  It’s the clash of ideas as some who claim to be humanity’s saviors jealously protect their world from this superhuman help.  It’s a literary masterpiece, with Biblical allusions and prophetic foreshadowing, but also a comic book extravaganza with hundreds of heroes both new and old.  It’s a story that I re-read almost every year.  Thanks, Alex and Mark.

 

1. Fantastic Four

 

This is the book Mark Waid was born to write.  He poured himself into Reed Richards the way he once poured himself into Wally West.  He understood Reed better than any other writer, including his creators Stan and Jack.  He gave Reed a credible motive.  He gave the team a new modus operandi as imaginauts, adventurers of the imagination.  He took them to space, microspace, Heaven and Hell.  He wrote the greatest Dr. Doom story I’ve ever read in “Unthinkable.”  He had Johnny Storm grow up, while staying youthful.  He wrote a masterful tribute to Ben Grimm, and to Ben Grimm’s creator Jack Kirby.  He wrote one of the best comics ever.  Period. 

 

And that’s my list of the best Mark Waid books.  Of course, half the fun of writing a top ten list is finding out where others differ.  So go ahead and tell me what you think I got right and what books you think I should have included.

 

Way of the Rat Review

Written by Chris Fluit

Friday, 21 September 2007

A young thief, Boon Sai Hong, is sent to steal some priceless artifacts from an elderly scholar.  He succeeds.  Mostly.  He ends up taking a ring and a scroll of immense power.  The ring gives him great ability whenever he holds a staff in his hands.  The scroll is a doorway to a hell filled with hungry dragons.  But that’s just the beginning of the story.  A heroine wants to reclaim what’s been taken.  The city’s wicked ruler wants to steal what’s been stolen.  And before the first arc is through, Boon finds himself running from and fighting off everyone and everybody.   Issues 1-6: The Walls of Zhumar                                         Boon is an unlikely protagonist and an even unlikelier hero.  Yet Chuck Dixon makes him a very sympathetic character.  Despite his bumbling ways and occasional bad intentions, we can’t help but root for Boon to succeed.  Or at least to get out of his current predicament with his life.  Credit should also go to penciller Jeff Johnson.  He draws Boon as a good-looking fellow with a charming smile.  We can’t help but like him.  Dixon also pairs Boon with one of the best sidekicks in any media.  All of the CrossGen heroes have been given mentors to guide them on their way.  Boon is paired with a talking monkey named PoPo who is pompous, insulting- especially to Boon- and downright hilarious.  Boon may be the hero but PoPo is the star of the book.  In fact, PoPo is so popular that they use his voice for the letter column.  Again, Jeff Johnson deserves his full half of the credit.  Johnson manages to make the monkey as expressive as his human counterpart.   Around this central pair, Dixon arrays a wonderful cast of colorful characters.  There’s the princess and the old scholar’s daughter.  There’s the heroine, the Silken Ghost, who may or may not be one of these women.  There’s the wicked ruler, Judge X’ain.  There are Boon’s fellow thieves, a pair of clumsy men who would be right at home in a Kurosawa film.   Way of the Rat is a fast-paced action story with some great martial arts scenes and big beautiful battles.  Jeff Johnson is himself a martial artist.  His expertise and passion inform the pages, giving them a life found in very few comics.  I’m especially fond of his sequences of after-images showing the intricate ways in which the characters leap and bound from one place to another.  Yet the fights are not interruptions in the story.  Rather they are the story, forcing Boon and the reader to feel like a feather tossed on the waves.  It’s a wild, fun ride.    Then there’s the twist.  While everyone is caught up chasing Boon and trying to retrieve the ring, the city is attacked from outside.  The attackers are facsimiles of the Mongolian horde and they’ve found a pseudo-Russian ally who’s an expert in cannons.  Boon finds himself fighting off an invading army while trying to escape his own city guard.  Almost in spite of himself, he becomes a folk hero in his own hometown.  I know that some readers didn’t care for the fictional setting of the book.  They didn’t want a Shinecea instead of China.  They didn’t want a pseudo-Russia instead of the real thing.  I understand the complaint to some degree.  Some of my favorite novels are historical fiction set in the real world.  And it can be difficult to keep track of all of these names.  Yet I don’t quite agree with the complaint.  In this case, I like that this doesn’t have to be our world.  I like that Dixon and company can take inspiration from our own history while also having the artistic license to fashion a world of their own.  The reader doesn’t have to worry himself about anachronisms.  It’s okay that in this world, the Russians introduce the cannon to the Chinese instead of the other way around.  The fictional world allows the book to create its own setting.  And with a book this good, I can’t complain about that.   Issues 7-12: The Hell of Hungry Dragons             This is easily my favorite arc in the entire series.  The first one is pretty good, but it has to spend time setting everything in place.  For this one, everything is already in place and the story can jump straight into the action. Which it does.   Boon likes having the Ring of Staffs.  Who wouldn’t want a ring that makes you a master of weapons?  But he has no desire to hang onto the dangerous scroll of the Hell of Hungry Dragons.  He thinks that he smartly tricks the Judge into taking it off of his hands.  His mentor, the monkey PoPo, knows that you don’t give a dangerous artifact to a dangerous man and berates him heavily for it.  The monkey is right.  The Judge uses the scroll to torture a man who defied him.  The plan goes awry.  The dragons escape.  The town is overrun with giant dragons.  And Boon must once again save the day.  As I said, this is my favorite arc.  It keeps up all of the action of the first.  Boon is still on the run and trying to fight pretty much everybody.  But the relationships are deeper.  Boon and the Judge now know each other.  And Boon has learned that the Judge is not a man to be trusted.  Boon and the Silken Ghost now know each other as well.  The Ghost knows that she has to occasionally ally herself with Boon but that doesn’t mean that she likes it, or him.  Boon’s friends are shown to have played a larger role than anticipated.  While Boon was stealing the two artifacts, the two friends had made off with another great treasure: the Phoenix Heart.  There are shifting loyalties and allegiances.  And, of course, all of this is happening while everybody is either fighting off or running from giant, hungry dragons.  Fast action, complications and huge, hungry dragons: how can you go wrong?   Plus, Jeff Johnson just keeps getting better.  In the first arc, he did a great job of depicting the fluidity of battle.  Now, he gets to draw dragons.  They’re fiercesome, yet beautiful at the same time.  They’re as powerful as the Silken Ghost is graceful.  You find yourself smiling at the art.  It’s just that nice to look at, and it perfectly compliments the light-hearted action of the story.  Issues 13-18: The Phoenix Heart  This third arc is another good one, even if it’s not quite as incredible as “The Hell of Hungry Dragons.”  At the end of that story, Judge X’ain had been killed.  Which is good.  However, the princess had been swept up into the scroll of the Hell of Hungry Dragons.  Which is bad.  Boon and the grandmother of thieves conspire to free the princess from the scroll without releasing the dragons again.  But, unsurprisingly, the plan goes awry.  They unleash a legion of ghosts and the city of Zhumar is overwhelmed once more.  Dixon does a great job of complicating the current character’s relationships while also introducing new ones.  Judge X’ain is one of the many ghosts to go free and he goes right back to trying to run his town.  But this time, he’s a ghost which makes him even more ruthless with the added ability of possessing anybody he wants to.  Meanwhile, the Emperor has sent his own operatives to Zhumar.  One is an assassin, tasked with killing Boon Sai Hong and retrieving the artifacts for the Emperor.  The other is a new governor for the city.  X’ain is dead after all.  Yet even as Dixon complicates the action, he gives us answers to earlier mysteries.  In the first issue, Boon had attempted to steal three artifacts of great power- the Ring of Staffs, the scroll of the Hell of Hungry Dragons and the Phoenix Heart.  The first arc showed us the power of the Ring of Staffs.  The second arc showed us the danger of the scroll of the Hell of Hungry Dragons.  And this third arc shows us what the Phoenix Heart can do.  Questions answered.  Mysteries solved.  Dixon doesn’t string the audience along any longer than he has to.  Plus, in this arc, he finally resolves the mystery of the Silken Ghost.  By this time, Boon is pretty sure that the princess is the heroine.  However, the old scholar from the first issue is one of the many ghosts released by the Phoenix Heart.  The ghost goes to his daughter who we now discover is the Silken Ghost.  Again, Dixon teased us with a mystery and gave us the answer before we tired of it.  Jeff Johnson does an admirable job of illustrating a wide variety of ghosts.  However, you can’t fight ghosts with a staff and a sword.  So the action scenes aren’t quite as spectacular as we’re used to seeing.    For that reason, among others, I think that this third arc isn’t quite as excellent as the second.  It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination.  It’s even the equal of the first.  It’s just that the second arc is that outstanding.  Issues 19-24: The Wishing Doll  After a year and a half of excellent issues, Way of the Rat begins to stumble at this point.   The big disappointment is the departure of penciller Jeff Johnson.  It’s understandable as CrossGen was beginning to have financial troubles at this point and Johnson wisely left the company before things got really bad.  But it certainly had a negative impact on this book.  This arc is drawn by three different artists: Mike Perkins, Luke Ross and Rod Whigham.  Both Ross and Whigham had done scheduled fill-ins for the series before.  Perkins had been Steve Epting’s inker on Crux before trying his own hand at pencils.  Unfortunately, Perkins’ style doesn’t really work here.  Epting has a more realistic style and Perkins does a great job of following that.  It works on El Cazador and Captain America, but not on Way of the Rat.  This is a fun kung fu movie and Perkins’ more realistic take removes a lot of the whimsy.  Luke Ross does a much better job with his two issues.  He manages to capture the beauty and the whimsy of the title.  He’s a much better fit here than he had been on Sojourn.  Even at the time, I could see him taking over Way of the Rat on a permanent basis.  However, he didn’t have Johnson’s flair for the fight scenes.  He didn’t draw the after-images as Johnson did on this title or as Scott McDaniel had done on Nightwing.  The Perkins issue had action without whimsy.  The Ross issues seemed to have whimsy without action.   Unfortunately, the final three issues were drawn by Rod Whigham.  I don’t remember being particularly upset by his earlier fill-in issues but his work here just isn’t up to the earlier standards of the title.  He doesn’t have either the action or the whimsy down.  PoPo just doesn’t seem as amusing.  Plus, he’s supposed to draw an especially sultry sultan’s daughter.  This new character is set up as a romantic interest for Boon, further complicating his relationships with the princess and the Silken Ghost.  But the sultan’s daughter, as drawn by Whigham, isn’t pretty at all.  These issues illustrate how much the penciller contributes towards making characters likable.  Unfortunately, it illustrates the point negatively.  The story itself isn’t that bad.  Dixon has introduced yet another mystical artifact: a wishing doll.  Boon’s friends accidentally wish themselves to a grand treasure room that’s also home to a vicious monster.  Boon dumbly wishes himself there as well.  The rest of the arc follows Boon and his friends as they run around the treasure room trying to avoid the monster and escape.  PoPo is eventually sent out for help and he’s the one who finds the sultan’s daughter.  Meanwhile, the grandmother of the thieves works on a wish that will bring everyone home without complication.   And yet another complication arrives in the city of Zhumar.  Ever since the first arc, the citizens of Zhumar have incorrectly been calling Boon “Poon.”  Now, the real Poon has come to Zhumar to reclaim his name.  And Poon is the bearer of the Ring of Fists.  There’s a pretty cool fight scene between Poon with his Ring of Fists and the Silken Ghost who acquired the Ring of Blades earlier in the series.  It’s a nice confrontation and a nice way to keep the Silken Ghost involved in the series while Boon is banished from Zhumar.  It continues Dixon’s mode of introducing new complications through interesting new characters.   It could have been a good story.  But with the constantly changing and often sub-standard art, it just doesn’t hold up.  Instead, it becomes obvious that Johnson had contributed greatly to the tone, the action and the like-ability of the series.  There was the possibility that the series could have recovered, especially if Luke Ross took over.  He seemed capable of capturing the action and has done a great job with other martial arts series like Dark Horse’s Samurai: Heaven and Earth.  It was not to be.  Despite relatively strong sales, Way of the Rat was one of the many titles canceled because of CrossGen’s mounting financial difficulties.  The end result is that the title went out with a whimper instead of a bang.  But for 18 issues, the Way of the Rat was a fast slam-bang action fest.  And that’s always fun.  The End.

Last Updated ( Monday, 10 September 2007 )

A Sojourn Review, Part Two

In part one, I looked at some of the reasons why Sojourn was CrossGen’s most successful title and then reviewed the prequel and the first 18 issues. By the end of the 18^th issue, Arwyn had successfully retrieved two of the five arrow fragments that she needed to complete her quest. However, in gaining the second fragment, she had lost her comrade-in-arms Gareth who had been thrown off of a cliff by the orc captain Bohr.

Issues 19-24: The Desert Spiders of Oudubai

Ron Marz likes to break up his longer story arcs with done-in-one tales. He did this most effectively in issues 12 and 13 with a confrontation between Arwyn and Neven and then a spotlight story on Bohr. Now, he does it again. Issue 19 takes us back in time telling us the tale of how Arwyn first fell in love with Darian. It’s a touching tale, made more poignant because Darian and their daughter died in the opening sequence of issue 1.

Following that excellent solo story, Arwyn continues her journey south from the cliffs of Ankhara, passing through some scrubland on her way to the desert country of Oudubai. She meets some highway robbers and manages to defeat them, but it still seems like her quest is becoming more and more dangerous.

Then, Sojourn makes its first major mis-step. When Arwyn arrives at the border town of Aldinal Gareth is there waiting for her. This is the same Gareth whom we and Arwyn saw thrown to his death at the end of issue 17. Gareth’s death had been a significant moment for this series. Arwyn’s quest had already proven dangerous with the death of the dragon in the second arc. But that death hadn’t affected her- or us- as personally as the death of Gareth. His death brought an emotional impact to the series that hadn’t been there before. Yet here he was, sitting and drinking a beer as if nothing had happened.

This non-death was bad enough for the individual title of Sojourn. It was also bad for the larger company. CrossGen had never promised that everybody who died would stay dead. The sigil-bearers were powerful beings who would often escape death. Sojourn itself opened with the resurrection of Mordath. But there was an initial sense that most of the characters who died would stay dead. Scion’s Ethan lost a brother. Meridian’s Sephie lost a father. That sense was irrevocably removed at this time. It wasn’t just Gareth’s survival. Characters in several other books died at this time only to come back a couple of issues later such as Javi in Negation and Thraxis in Crux. And for some characters, especially Thraxis and Gareth, the explanations were weak and improbable.

I had liked Gareth and was saddened by his death. His improbable return disappointed me so much that it took me a little bit to get into the next story. However, subsequent readings showed me that this story wasn’t as bad as I had initially thought. Furthermore, it’s Gareth’s return that makes this particular story so much fun. For the first three arcs, Gareth flirted with Arwyn, pursued her and seemed to be falling in love. Arwyn didn’t reciprocate his feelings at all. She rebuffed him and called him names. But with Gareth’s apparent death, Arwyn realized that she had been developing feelings for him. Arwyn’s anger at his return was anger that he had put her through so much emotional distress. Yet despite their reunion, Ron Marz contrived a way to keep the two characters apart. Marz introduced Cassidy, a thief and a former lover of Gareth’s. Suddenly, the roles are switched. Cassidy is openly flirting with Gareth while he tries to keep her at arm’s length so as to not offend Arwyn. And Arwyn is angrily jealous even though she can’t openly admit that she even likes Gareth. This particular love triangle is so much fun that I have to forgive Marz for bringing Gareth back from the dead. I just wish that he hadn’t handled it so improbably.
 

Issues 25-30: On Land and Sea

 

Issue 25 marks the debut of a new writer, Ian Edginton. Ron Marz’s duties at CrossGen had been expanding and after two years on the title, this was the assignment that he chose to give up. However, Marz left Edginton a nice little spider-web to unravel. At the end of the Oudubai arc, Bohr had finally captured Arwyn and was leading her back to Mordath’s fortress. Meanwhile, Cassidy had apparently betrayed Arwyn and stolen the arrow fragments- now numbering three- for herself. Edginton treats the conundrum as an opportunity. He opens with a solo story in which Bohr tells Arwyn about Mordath’s history from the orc’s point-of-view. Then, Bohr’s platoon is beset by vicious desert lizards. The orcs are devastated. Bohr and Arwyn are the lone survivors. Through the battle, they gain a begrudging respect for each other and Bohr agrees to let Arwyn go.

 

After that opening one-shot salvo, Edginton began to put his own stamp on the title. Overall, it was a move sideways as some of the changes worked well while others didn’t. One move that worked was Edginton’s decision to give Mordath a more active role. Throughout Marz’s run, Mordath was confined to his central fortress while his orc minions did the dirty work. Edginton creates a coup against Mordath. The coup fails, but it spurs Mordath into leaving the fortress and taking the fight to his enemies. It was a good move. However, it was accompanied by two bad ones. The big Mordath moment came in issue 26 and it wasn’t a good idea to follow the new reader friendly highly promoted and discounted issue 25 with an issue that focused on the villain instead of the hero. It’s understandable in that issue 26 was a scheduled artistic fill-in, but it still undercut some of the momentum that the previous issue had created. The other mis-step was more significant. Edginton introduced a pair of sorcerers who were setting themselves up as rivals to Mordath’s rule. The idea is interesting. It gave us a villain meddling in Arwyn’s life as a counterpoint to Neven. And it added an extra threat to Mordath. Unfortunately, the two sorcerers debated and acted from afar, undoing the energy that had been gained from putting Mordath in motion.

 

Edginton’s arrival did bring another positive change in terms of pace. Sojourn, like most of CrossGen’s books, was accused of moving too slowly. I always thought that the complaint was unfair as more real change tended to happen in a CrossGen series than in one from another publisher. Yet that didn’t stop Edginton from proving me wrong and picking up the pace. His first story arc had Arwyn, Gareth and Cassidy hiring a boat to take them from Oudubai in the south to Skarnhime in the north.  In the space of four issues, he included a pirate attack, a shipwreck, a mad scientist, a living island, a second shipwreck and an island full of beautiful women who happened to be dragons. It still makes for a trade-friendly six-issue travel arc, but it seems like more than that.

 

Meanwhile, Greg Land continues to shine as the series artist. The introduction of Cassidy had given him two beautiful women to draw on a regular basis. And with these last two arcs, Land was given a chance to delve into exotic locations as well. First, he drew an enchanting desert and then, he drew an exciting sea. And of course, it didn’t hurt that the new writer had him draw his second harem of the series.

Issues 31-34: The Cold Wastes of Skarnhime

 

This is the end of Sojourn, though not the end of the story. With this arc, Arwyn and her allies reach the cold north of Skarnhime. It’s home to the fourth fragment of Ayden’s arrow (though we’ve been to all five lands as readers thanks to Bohr and Mordath’s journeys to the forests of Grimbor) and a race of trolls that are cousins to the orcs.

 

By this time, Ian Edginton has shifted the focus a little. The big complications no longer center on the relationships. Arwyn has her quest, while Gareth and Cassidy have each other. I like this resolution. Sojourn could have dragged the romantic triangle on for a long time, but didn’t. Instead, they played with it for an arc or two, then resolved it and moved on to new complications. The new complications, however, are not of the romantic sort. Rather, they’re political. The new sorcerers reach out to Arwyn as an ally against Mordath. Meanwhile, Mordath re-enlists an orcish witch who had helped him three hundred years earlier. And the trolls of Skarnhime seem as ready to oppose Mordath’s rule as the winged Nubians of Ankhara. The political landscape seems to shift every couple of issues as characters find new allies in unlikely places and these are the complications that keep the story moving forward.

 

Unfortunately, that forward movement is cut short. CrossGen filed for bankruptcy and Sojourn ended on a cliffhanger. Arwyn defeated an abominable snowman at the end of issue 33 but apparently blew herself up in the process. Issue 34 focused on Mordath’s movements and on the surviving couple of Gareth and Cassidy. The series ends, not only with Arwyn’s quest unfinished but with the heroine of the story supposedly deceased.

 

There are a couple of ways to look at this ending. The obvious one is disappointment. Though Sojourn was never the most innovative of fantasy tales, it was still a great driving epic story. It’s disappointing that the story didn’t end, that Mordath was never defeated let alone confronted. It’s disappointing that things just sort of stopped. But there’s also a sense of relief. Some of the other CrossGen titles had more warning of their end. Most of those titles rushed to unsatisfactory ending and didn’t finish well. Perhaps it was better for Sojourn to be cut off abruptly then to try and wrap a three-year epic up in a single issue. At least our imaginations can finish the tale. 

 

Anyway, Sojourn was easily CrossGen’s most successful title. It was the company’s best-seller for years and even experienced a successful transition between writers. Plus, it was a good, fun read that was simply gorgeous to look at. There’s nothing wrong with that.

 

The End.

  Originally Published at CaptainComics.us, on June 15, 2007

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A Sojourn Review, Part One

From 2000-2003, CrossGen was the most exciting publisher in the field of comic books. By the end of their first year, CrossGen had leaped over scores of independent companies to become the fifth largest publisher in the country. By their third year, they had passed Image and were challenging Dark Horse for number three. And then it all fell apart and the company folded in 2004. But for a while, CrossGen was the company with the bulk of the buzz. They were trying new things that are now taken for granted- like a comprehensive trade paperback collection. And they were jumping into new genres with titles like Sojourn, the fantasy epic that also happened to be CrossGen’s best-selling title.

 

What made Sojourn so successful? Two things: filling the right niche, and Greg Land. To understand the first, you need to know a little bit about comic book theory. In his pivotal book “Understanding Comics,” Scott McCloud spent some time explaining the issue of genres in the marketplace. At one point, comic books encompassed all of the genres, which he represented with the letters A through Z. However, some of those genres were more successful than others so the publishers and the retailers began to concentrate on the most successful ones. That meant that the other genres, D through Z, fell to the wayside. Readers of those other genres- though not as numerous as fans of genres A through C- were abandoned by the market. Eventually the comic book marketplace had evolved until it was only catering fans of one genre, A. The publishers knew that they needed to reach out to fans of other genres, but the question remained how to reach out to fans of genre B when your audience is comprised entirely of fans of genre A. Scott McCloud posited that the solution was to make books that were AB, crosses between the successful genre and the outreach genre. And that’s exactly what CrossGen was trying to do. They entered into fantasy and sci-fi, mystery and kung fu, but always with enough of the trappings of superheroes that it would still appeal to the audience that already existed.

Sojourn was one of the most successful books of this type. It was positioned as a bridge book. It served to introduce comic book fans to fantasy and fantasy fans to comic books. That did mean that it wasn’t the most original or innovative fantasy epic on the market. Hardcore fantasy fans dismissed it as derivative. And it was- Sojourn was the typical fantasy epic, with species straight out of the Lord of the Rings- but it was supposed to be. It was the introductory fantasy epic, not the masters-level opus. And while it may not have been the most original fantasy epic when compared to novels, it was also the only fantasy epic in comics. Sojourn was similarly dismissed by hardcore comic book fans. After all, Sojourn wasn’t exactly at the cutting edge of comics. But it wasn’t supposed to be. Sojourn was going off in a different direction, trying to attract fantasy fans to a new medium. And in that, it was successful. Sojourn wasn’t a book for everyone. But it perfectly filled the niche that it was designed to fill, bridging the gap between comic books and fantasy.

Of course, the plan is only part of Sojourn’s success. The other part is obvious even to the untrained eye. It’s artist Greg Land. Land had built up a small fan following while working on Birds of Prey and Nightwing for DC. Indeed, I was already aware of him and excited that he had signed at CrossGen. But his work on Sojourn catapulted Greg Land to the top of the class. His women were breathtakingly beautiful. His orcs had all the texture of real beings and his dragons looked like living, breathing creatures. And did I mention that his women were breathtakingly beautiful?  Sojourn may have been the right genre at the right time, but Greg Land’s art was the real star of the show.

 

Prequel and Issues 1-6

 

The Prequel is a great set-up for the rest of the story. It gives us the historical situation that makes an epic fantasy epic in the first place. It tells the story of Mordath, a human who allied with the orcs of Grimbor to conquer all of the five lands. It tells the story of the other races who banded together to oppose Mordath, and of Ayden the hero who finally defeated him. It ends three hundred years later as two mysterious strangers resurrect the tyrant. It was a great issue, especially for those who were already fans of CrossGen’s universe. We knew of one villain who had a sigil, the CrossGen symbol of power- Uncle Ilahn in Meridian but he was opposed by his own niece, Sephie, who was becoming a powerful hero. This would be the first title in which the sigil would be entirely on the side of evil. That would make the odds overwhelmingly against the hero of the tale.

 

We meet that hero in the first arc. Her name is Arwyn. She used to be a member of royal archers. But in the first issue, Mordath’s armies destroy her hometown and her family, wiping out what they think is the last resistance to Mordath’s rule. However, that very act causes Arwyn to vow vengeance. In the first story, she picks up two unlikely allies. The first is Neven, a mystical stranger who offers her the use of Ayden’s bow for her quest. The other is Gareth, a rogue she meets while trying to escape from Mordath’s dungeon.

 

Looking back, the first story isn’t that special. It is a fairly standard by-the-numbers fantasy epic. We have a hero. She’s given a quest, a sidekick and a mystical adviser. But what makes it work is that we know the impossibility of the task. The real question isn’t whether or not Arwyn can complete her quest. The real question is whether or not she can defeat the undefeatable.

 

Issues 7-12: A Dragon’s Tale
 

With the second story, Arwyn and Gareth begin to pursue her quest. At Neven’s insistence, Arwyn is tasked with gathering the five fragments of the arrow that Ayden used to defeat Mordath three hundred years earlier. These five fragments have been scattered to the five lands and reuniting them is supposedly the only way to defeat the resurrected Mordath. Arwyn and Gareth set out to find the closest fragment in Middelyn.
 

Along the way, they’re waylaid by a pretty woman who happens to be a dragon. This is the point for me at which the story begins to get good. Arwyn doesn’t simply fight the dragon for the fragment and then move on to the next stage of her quest, as we might expect. No, Arwyn tries to circumvent the quest. She makes a deal with the dragon. She’ll give the dragon Ayden’s bow, a very valuable treasure and currently the key to her quest, if the dragon will defeat Mordath for her. With that deal, writer Ron Marz shows us that Sojourn isn’t going to be the straightforward fantasy epic that we’d been expecting. He also gives Greg Land the opportunity to draw a gorgeous battle in which the dragon attacks Mordath’s fortress.
 

The new plan doesn’t actually work. Mordath defeats the dragon. Chastened, Arwyn and Gareth retrieve the first fragment from the dragon’s horde and resume the quest but not before getting a scolding from Neven in issue 12.

 

Issues 13-18: The Winged Cliffs of Ankhara

 

The second arc ended with a done-in-one issue in which Neven confronted Arwyn concerning her resolve for the quest. This third arc opens with another done-in-one issue. However, this issue doesn’t focus on Arwyn. Rather, it focuses on Bohr, the orc captain who has been given the task of recapturing Arwyn. Bohr takes a break from his pursuit in order to go home for the death of his mother. This is the second time that Ron Marz has shown us that he’s not going to play be all of the rules. Bohr becomes a sympathetic character, even as he resumes his pursuit of our hero.
 

The bulk of the third arc takes place in the land of Ankhara.. This land is populated by a race of winged Nubians.  The Ankharans are fiercely independent and have been resisting Mordath’s rule. Arwyn and Gareth find themselves caught up in the resistance. At first, Arwyn resists joining the resistance. She wants to find the fragment and get on with her quest. She’s done denying her destiny, especially after Neven’s lecture in issue 12. But Gareth reminds her that her destiny is in opposing Mordath, not just in completing the quest. They determine to further the rebellion, which leads to a pair of unexpected outcomes. One, Arwyn’s role in the rebellion leads her to discovering the second fragment of Ayden’s arrow, which is good for her. Two, Gareth is captured by Bohr and thrown off of a cliff, which is bad for him.

 

Sojourn seems to be getting better and better. This third arc is even better than the second, which was in turn even better than the first. Greg Land’s art is getting better as well. His orcs are developing even greater individuality and emotion. Plus, with this arc, he gets to draw a host of muscular men and beautiful women as the story includes both Ankharan warriors and a royal harem. As for the story, Gareth’s apparent death gives it a gravitas that we hadn’t felt before.

  Originally Published at CaptainComics.us on June 8, 2007

Crossgen Analysis: Conclusions

WHY DID CROSSGEN FAIL?

 

They failed to reckon with industry realities like:

• the uphill climb against fan indifference, reluctance and hostility
• opposition from major publishers which were threatened by a new way of doing business
• the extra financial pressures created by generous salaries and benefits
• “the slow bleed” in which titles lose readership more easily than they gain it

The books themselves weren’t accepted widely enough in part because:

• they weren’t enough like superheroes to appeal to comics core audience, but too much like superheroes to appeal to outside audiences; they were caught in the middle
• they moved too slowly for many readers
• the interlocking continuity was at first a barrier and later a deterrent

They invested heavily in industry innovations, many of which did not prove to be profitable

They broke promises of respect to both creators and fans thereby alienating their work force and their audience

Crossgen Analysis: BROKEN PROMISES

I’ve raised up some reasons as underreported and dismissed others as false. But I think that the single biggest reason CrossGen failed is its broken promises. The company could have struggled through the industry realities. The fans would have forgiven some of the failed business innovations. But nothing soured working professionals, aspiring professionals or fans more than Mark Alessi’s lies.

Before I go any further, I want clarify what I’m talking about. Just as you can’t publish a book that will please everyone (even the number one seller has its detractors), you can’t run a company and please everyone. Every company has a few artists mad at its editors and threatening never to work there again. And every company will have aspiring professionals resent them for not giving them the break they feel they deserve. Not everyone who has become angry with CrossGen does so with the same righteous indignation.

But even as I give myself that out, CrossGen broke promises that it made to its employees and to its fans. And those broken promises doomed that company.

CrossGen had promised to respect its creators and it failed. CrossGen offered many lures to entice artists to move to Tampa. Some of those lures turned out to be illusions. Because CrossGen never officially turned a profit, the employees never received the promised benefit of profit sharing. Drew Geraci has reported that he still receives royalties from DC for his work on JLA and Nightwing, but nothing from CrossGen despite working on Sojourn, their best-selling book. Whatever profits the comics may have created were immediately redirected into the other risky business ventures. Another lure that turned out to be false was the promise of a retirement plan. The plan was never created and the employees feel rightly cheated out of another one of their benefits.

Even outside of these financial concerns, creators felt they weren’t receiving the respect they were promised. Mark Waid had been promised flexible hours and the privilege of working at home where there would be fewer distractions. Those perks were reneged shortly after Waid joined the company. As the result of those and other instances, Mark Waid described his tenure at CrossGen as “like being punched in the gut everyday.” Other creators describe favoritism and browbeating that made them feel less important than the furniture instead of the cream of the business as Mark Alessi would brag to outsiders.

It’s not easy to document or prove favoritism, but it is clear that CrossGen had a double standard when it came to paid staff and freelancers. It’s hard to fault a company for siding with their own, but this double standard would come back to haunt them. The two most documented cases involve Mark Waid and Robin Riggs. Although Mark Waid had left the company’s staff, he stayed on as a freelance writer for the mystery title Ruse. After several months, Waid abruptly quit that title as well. There was much speculation about a falling-out between the two Marks and little information because of the non-compete clause. But months later, the truth leaked out. Mark Waid was upset because penciller Butch Guice was changing his plots, including those that were supposed to be forwarded to guest penciller Paul Ryan. Waid wouldn’t stand for the interference. Alessi chose to stand with his own. Fans chose to stand with Mark Waid. Even though it was a creator-vs.-creator issue and not a creator-vs.-publisher issue, CrossGen’s reputation as the creator friendly company was damaged.

The next major incident involved freelance inker Robin Riggs. Andy Smith, who had previously been the inker on The First had been promoted to that series penciller. CrossGen didn’t have a staff inker ready to replace Smith so they contracted Riggs to ink that particular title. After inking only a couple of pages, Riggs was abruptly fired. He was given no reason. Apparently, Andy Smith didn’t like Riggs’ inks. Again, CrossGen understandably sided with their own, but this time the fallout was much worse.

The incident with Robin Riggs occurred in the spring of 2003. That was the same time that CrossGen first failed to pay some of its contributors- including Riggs. Since Riggs already felt mistreated, he began to contact other inkers to warn them of CrossGen’s non-payment. Riggs has said that he was only trying to protect others but whatever his intentions the warnings became public. Riggs found himself at the center of a firestorm.

Despite the horrible things that have been said and written about Riggs, it turns out that he was right. CrossGen had expanded too rapidly and among other things, had tied up too much money in their failed trade paperback venture. They were woefully short on cash. Their non-payment of Robin Riggs was only the tip of the iceberg. By the end of the summer, CrossGen admitted that they owed money to more than 60 different creators. And some of those creators were freelancers who had signed contracts months after CrossGen had failed to pay Riggs.

At this point, it’s appropriate to look back at CrossGen’s financial situation. It has now been established that CrossGen missed payments as early as March of 2003. In order for them to have sunk to that point, they had to have been losing money for several months before that. Since CrossGen had debuted its key issue program only five months earlier, it is reasonable to speculate that the key issues were begun in response to either actual losses or foreseen losses. In other words, CrossGen had known for months that they were running out of money. And rather than cut titles and stem those losses, CrossGen tried to bolster their lowest selling titles with key issues. Instead, CrossGen carried on with business as usual until they finally missed a payment to someone with more clout than an inker: the company that printed their comics, Quebecor.

I didn’t mean to digress into such a history lesson. But I think that the series of events most clearly establishes that CrossGen broke its promise of respecting creators. Since fans tend to side with the creators in any creator-company controversy that broken promise led directly to a loss in sales and yes, profits.

CrossGen had also promised that it would respect its fans. And indeed, the company delivered on that promise in some very visible ways. CrossGen sent sizable delegations to all of the major conventions. And CrossGen prided itself on its accessibility at those conventions. Indeed, fans used to compare stories about meeting CrossGen staff. CrossGen also maintained a company message board in which fans and creators alike could converse.

But the promise to respect the fans was broken just as irreparably as the promise to respect creators. When CrossGen experienced its financial crisis, fans were not only left out of the loop, they were outright lied to. When Quebecor stopped printing CrossGen comics because of money owed, CrossGen told fans that the delay was due to a computer glitch. Some fans felt jilted by a company that was open and honest only when things were going well.

The lies however didn’t stop even after the immediate crisis was averted. Sojourn wasn’t cancelled because of low sales; it was still CrossGen’s highest selling title. Sojourn was cancelled because the title didn’t have a writer after both Ian Edginton and Bill Rosemann left the company. Fans quickly recognized that “on hiatus” meant “cancelled.” And fans quickly grew tired of the lies.

Even at the end of last summer, this tragedy could have been averted with fan support. The fans have shown that, despite their brand loyalty, they do want every company to succeed. In the last couple of years, fans have helped Fantagraphics and other companies stay in business. Fantagraphics for example had told fans that it needed $10,000 to meet bills that had come due. Their online store did over $20,000 in sales within two weeks.

Fans were ready to lend similar support to CrossGen but CrossGen never asked. Some of those who had previously been hostile to the company had softened now that the company was humbled. And even if CrossGen wouldn’t ask for help, their fans would again lead the charge. Many fans encouraged others to buy CrossGen products. I know of several stores that restocked CrossGen trades and travelers at that time. And the numbers show that CrossGen’s prospects increased despite missing an entire month.

After missing a month, sales went up on Meridian, Negation, Sojourn and Lady Death. Sojourn increased its sales for three consecutive months, gaining 900 issues over its earlier numbers. Other titles, like Mystic and The First experienced their smallest decreases since their key issues. The rate of decline for most issues was halved. And the month after their financial setbacks were made public, CrossGen experienced their greatest success. Reorders pushed the sales on El Cazador #1 past 25,000 making it CrossGen’s second highest debut. And unlike their previous record-maker, El Cazador was well-received and lost only 5% of its sales by the third issue.

All of these numbers show that the fans weren’t ready to abandon CrossGen in September and October of 2003. But all of this good will evaporated. When CrossGen finally admitted that they were experiencing a financial bind, Mark Alessi promised that all creators would receive full payment by an October 1st deadline. Although the promise was met with some skepticism, most fans were willing to believe and to do their part to make sure these creators got their due.

CrossGen missed the deadline. A deadline they had created. And it’s my opinion that once they missed that deadline, CrossGen was no longer viable as an entertainment company. We didn’t necessarily know it at the time, but it is now obvious that the missed deadline was their last mistake. They could make no more reassurances that would be believed. And when the missed deadline became public, fans withdrew their support. El Cazador experienced a sharp decline beginning in November. Over the next four months, Sojourn lost all of its gains and more. CrossGen’s new titles received critical success but that was about it. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Abadazad were CrossGen’s third and fourth lowest selling debuts (beating out only DemonWars and CrossOvers). A new number one for Lady Death gained only 1500 readers which left it well shy of its October numbers. Negation may have brought good news when its restart as Negation War gave it a 5000 reader boost, but that still left the total below both Lady Death and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

It should now be obvious that CrossGen just doesn’t have the fan support to be a profitable publishing company. If they were fighting an uphill battle when they first set out, they are now trying to climb a mountain. And they have disillusioned and disappointed too many to rebuild their company with the same word-of-mouth support that had them nipping at the heels of Dark Horse and Image. CrossGen lost money when they over-committed to new publishing models, but they lost their fan base when they repeatedly broke their promises to creators and to the fans.

I’ve tried to be as comprehensive as I can, but I still feel like there are things I barely touched upon or only alluded to. Some of those things have been described by others-like the role chasing after Premier Retailer status played in CrossGen’s over-expansion, or moving two of their most-established artists into predominantly administrative roles- but the rest will have to go unsaid for now. I’ve said my piece.

Crossgen Analysis: INNOVATIONS THAT BACKFIRED

One of the reasons that so many in the industry embraced CrossGen was its innovations. CrossGen tried new things. Industry pundits had been prophesying the need for experimentation and CrossGen fit the bill. Unfortunately, almost all of those innovations backfired.

The biggest disaster can be attributed directly to CrossGen’s vision. Early on, Mark Alessi said that CrossGen was going to make their books available in a wide variety of formats. He compared comics to Coca-Cola. Coke is available in bottles, cans, two-liters and fountain dispensers. If you want your Coke a certain way, they’ll sell it to you that way. CrossGen was going to do for comics what Coke had done for soft drinks.

CrossGen published monthly comics. They were the first to introduce a total trade-paperback program, collecting every issue of every series. They re-introduced the anthology to the North American market. It was a widely successful format in Japan and many were clamoring for its inclusion over here. CrossGen also introduced Comics on the Web. Up to that point, there were print publishers and web publishers, but the two were never the same. And before too long, CrossGen began working on the technology needed to create comics on DVD or CD-Rom.

The plan sounded beautiful. It is certainly one of the reasons that so many others attached themselves to the company. But the plan was missing one key component. Coke didn’t start by selling their product in a dozen different manners. They started selling it one way. When that way proved to be successful (by which I mean profitable), Coke expanded to another method. CrossGen didn’t wait for its profits to catch up to its plans. Instead, each new initiative was launched before the results of the previous could be determined. The result is that CrossGen always had a lot of money tied up in their next scheme. If any scheme didn’t pan out, the company would suffer. If none of the schemes panned out, well, you know what happened.

The monthly comics were profitable. Not hugely profitable, and maybe not enough to offset the huge salary expenditures but they all started by making money. The same can not be said for CrossGen’s other ventures.

We’ll start with the trade paperback program. The trade program was a great way to augment the sales of the monthly titles and defray the creative costs. There is a reason why more and more titles are being collected as trade paperbacks. But CrossGen looked at its trade program as more than a secondary source of income. For several years, industry observers had been pointing to the bookstore market as the new place to sell comics. The comics specialty store was a dying breed (which was true, the number of comics stores halved between 1995 and 2000). For the industry to survive, it would have to reach a new audience and that new audience could be found in bookstores. Mark Alessi made CrossGen the first company to pursue that bookstore market. What the industry observers hadn’t said was that the bookstore market of the 2000s carried the same risks as the newsstand market of the 1970s.

Comics specialty stores had been appealing to comics publishers because it was a direct market. The stores bought the comics directly from the publisher and then tried to sell them to the customer. Whether the books were sold or not, the publisher got the money. That wasn’t true of the newsstand. Those outlets had returnable arrangements with comics publishers. If a newsstand couldn’t sell a comic, it could return it and get back its money. Since comics had a small profit margin for newsstands compared to magazines like Time, newsstands paid little attention to comic books. People who were in the industry in the ‘70s can tell of horror stories of unsold boxes being returned to publishers and crates of unopened comics sitting on loading docks. The direct market was a safe harbor in a harsh world.

The bookstore, like the newsstand, was a returnable market. If the store didn’t sell the material, it could send it back. Furthermore, the bookstore had no vested interest in the survival of the comics industry. The stores were naturally concerned only with their own profits. CrossGen printed thousands of trade paperbacks for bookstores. They tried to partner with major chains like Barnes and Noble. They created “cascades” in order to better display their product. But it didn’t work. The sad truth about the bookstore market is that it is not receptive to comic books. Only six properties sell in bookstores: Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Star Wars and manga. CrossGen didn’t fit any of those categories. There are horror stories of entire shipments being returned. There are much documented examples of bookstores offering the trades at 2 for 1 or worse. CrossGen took a bath in the bookstores. They tied up thousands of dollars of capital in something they couldn’t sell.

To be fair, CrossGen was not the only victim of the bookstore enthusiasm. Marvel had also turned to bookstores as the way of the future. Marvel did happen to have two of the sellable properties so they weren’t hit as hard, and as a major corporation, Marvel was in a better position to absorb the losses, but make no mistake about it, Marvel’s bookstore failure was one the chief reasons Bill Jemas lost his job. Oh, and also to be fair, many within the industry are ignoring the tremendous setbacks for both CrossGen and Marvel and still proclaim the bookstore as the future of comics.

The other format innovations make for less spectacular stories but were equally unprofitable. CrossGen tried to make a go of their two anthologies, and at one point they announced a third, but the sales were so low that CG was losing $40,000 per issue. Comics on the Web was probably too ambitious. The monthly titles needed all of the sales help they could get. If only a couple thousand people chose to spend $1 to read the comics on the internet instead of from a hard copy, the monthly titles would drop into unprofitabitilty. The low profit margin of Comics on the Web couldn’t offset those other gains. This is one venture that other publishers have learned from. There’s no good reason to offer all of your comics online. Instead it’s wiser to offer some of the comics online for free in order to entice people to buy the product. Marvel now does this with 8-page previews. Image offers the entire first issue of most series. CrossGen would have been better served by offering only the first issues of series or story arcs and not the entire library.

And finally, there just wasn’t the market for comics on DVD. Again, Marvel tried to follow CrossGen into these uncharted waters (as a sidenote, I find it amusing that the company that was so publicly hostile to CrossGen was the one that also imitated many of their innovations) but again the sales weren’t there. As had happened with their trade paperbacks, stores were eventually offering the DVDs at half price.

The dream sounded good, but rather than expanding their market and increasing their profits, almost every venture ended up costing CrossGen money. Even if the monthly titles were profitable (which has been debated), it would be next to impossible for them to offset losses in so many categories. And just as the phrase “too much too fast” has been used to describe the number of CrossGen titles, the same phrase could apply equally to the number of CrossGen formats. That latter reason for CrossGen’s failure is rarely forwarded. Too many people liked the idea of the anthology and the DVD even if they didn’t buy them. And many still refuse to admit that these innovations contributed to CrossGen’s demise when they were predicted to save the industry.

That’s the big innovation, but it’s not the only one. And many of the others didn’t backfire. CrossGen astutely copied their Italian license-holder by introducing a smaller trade paperback. CrossGen called them travelers. The smaller edition meant that CrossGen laid out less money upfront. It also meant they cost less in the stores which enticed more readers to buy them. The travelers were a profitable idea. And the idea was again copied. Marvel used a traveler-sized trade for their Tsunami titles. Dark Horse has now used it for SpyBoy and other independents like About Comics have used it to resurrect older titles like The Liberty Project. Unfortunately for CrossGen, the profitable travelers couldn’t offset so many other losses.

Despite its many failings, CrossGen does deserve credit for its innovations. One of the most-widely discussed innovation was the reintroduction of the studio system.

Earlier, in the section on Industry Realities, we looked at many of the benefits that CrossGen offered to their employees. We didn’t however look at the requirements. Some of those requirements have been ridiculed, like the personal hygiene clause, and some have been scorned, like the non-compete and non-disclosure clauses. But one requirement would generate more discussion, both pro and con, than any other.

CrossGen required all of its employees to move to the Tampa Bay area and work in one big studio (sometimes called the compound). Critics derided the requirement. They claimed that CrossGen was unnecessarily restricting its talent pool. One of the most vocal critics was Mark Millar, who was then writing comics for Marvel as well as an online column. Millar interviewed Mark Alessi and attacked him for not providing a forum for freelancers like himself. Alessi defended CrossGen by describing their creator-owned imprint Code 6 but Millar didn’t let up.

But despite the criticisms, CrossGen’s studio system was remarkably successful. The artists who worked at CrossGen made tremendous improvements in their art. That last statement deserves some explanation because it is a bone of contention. There are a few who preferred a given artists’ work prior to his participation at CrossGen. And so there are a few who would argue that point. However, the evidence and the majority opinion would support it. Yet some of those who debate this point deserve to be heard: the artists themselves. Some of the artists felt that the studio was getting the credit for their work. The studio didn’t draw those pages. The building didn’t put ink to paper. Scot Eaton, an artist who left CrossGen before the company’s financial collapse, is one to argue this point. According to Eaton, the credit to the company overwhelmed the credit to the artists, the ones who earned it.

The artists do deserve the credit. They do deserve the fan following they now have. And the effect of the studio may have been overstated. But it did exist. The artists did improve, and again there are multiple reasons. One reason that many of the artists cite is that they worked hard at improving. Along with the self-motivation, another reason may have been the company-provided motivation of profit sharing. The artists had a reason to work harder. They had a reason to want to see the company succeed. Another reason may have been the stability that the company provided. Quite a few of the artists hadn’t been able to find consistent work. CrossGen gave some of those artists the opportunity to work regularly, and their work improved as a natural result.

And one reason was indeed the studio system. Eaton has complained that neither Andrew Hennessy nor Andrew Crossley, his inker and colorist on Sigil, needed him looking over their shoulder. And there were some definite drawbacks. But others who worked at CrossGen said that the feedback from the different members of the art team had a tremendous effect on their art. And many of the artists claim that they were helped by the presence of others in their field. During CrossGen’s heyday, the artists would hang their finished work on the outside of their cubicles for others to admire. It wasn’t long before the artists were competing with one another: no one wanted to hang up substandard art. I’ve heard this process described as insidious and if it was a company mandate I may have agreed. But it was initiated by the artists themselves and a little bit of healthy competition isn’t a bad thing. It most likely helped Bernie Wrightson and Mike Kaluta to be a part of “The Studio” in the 1970s. And it’s beneficial to artists like Adam Hughes and Drew Johnson to work in studios now (or so they claim).

I think that’s enough on the studio. This is after all, an article on what went wrong not on what went right. However, this discussion of the studio system and particularly the antipathy that some artists now show towards it leads us right into our final category.

Crossgen Analysis: INDUSTRY REALITIES

I think that Mark Alessi underestimated the amount of resistance that a new company would face in the comic book market. It was definitely an uphill climb. One of the factors working against the company was the reluctance of comic book fans to try new products in the current marketplace. That reluctance is not unique to CrossGen. New companies and new lines are not given much of a chance. In the last four years, Image has faced the same difficulty when trying to launch a new superhero line; Dark Horse ran into it when trying to launch the sci-fi line Rocket Comics; not even DC’s Focus line and Marvel’s MAX, Tsunami and Epic imprints have been able to reverse this industry reality. It’s a conservative marketplace. The fans have seen too many titles cancelled, too many companies eliminated, too many stores closed. They aren’t looking to take chances.

CrossGen as a company ran headfirst into this reluctance. Many potential readers refused to even try the products. I recall dozens of fans writing that they’d “already been through that with Valiant” or Milestone or Eclipse. They weren’t willing to give another company a chance. That means that CrossGen, as a new company, had a reduced pool of potential readers. They had to prove themselves before many fans would embrace them.

The resistance to CrossGen however involved more than simple reluctance. From a number of corners, CrossGen faced outright hostility. The issue of reluctance was out of their control, but in many ways the hostility was of their own doing. Just as many fans didn’t want to take a chance, others were put off by what they perceived as Marvel-bashing by publisher Mark Alessi. Indeed, before his company had published a single book, Alessi had insulted Marvel and DC as being old and tired. The statements backfired. Just as Alessi underestimated the resistance, I think he underestimated the brand loyalty that exists in comics.

One of Alessi’s frequent proclamations was that one day CrossGen would be the number one publisher in the US. I found the bravado amusing. To me, it was like Peter Laviolette taking over as coach of the New York Islanders or Dusty Baker taking over as manager of the Chicago Cubs. Of course, they promise that the team isn’t playing “just to make the playoffs” or “just to finish .500.” Of course they promise that their goal is a championship. To me it was therefore natural that Alessi would proclaim that his company was setting out to be number one, and not just number five. But many fans didn’t consider these to be innocuous statements. They took them seriously. And comics fans can be as loyal to their particular company as sports fans to their teams. Because of his declarations, Alessi alienated many Marvel zombies. Again, CrossGen’s pool of potential readers was reduced, but this time in reaction to the publisher’s own comments.

That problem is compounded by the size of the industry. Comics aren’t a very big industry. Therefore, there isn’t a lot of room for professional industry pundits and journalists. The comics press is mostly fan press. And many fans who felt that their favorite companies were threatened used their press positions to actively agitate against the company. Let me be clear about this: I am not including all fan journalists or internet sites. I am also not including rumors columns which specialize in controversy and can’t be expected to leave any particular company alone. But there are clear examples in which internet news sites wrote misleading articles.

I’ll share two. The first example is the reporting of sales figures for Solus #1. Solus #1 debuted at 77 on the Diamond top 300, selling an estimated 27,008 copies (these figures are available at icv2.com). The reporting centered on the negative speculation that this may have been the lowest-selling George Perez debut ever. That is possible, but I’d want to know the sales figures on some of Perez’s 1990s independent ventures like “The Dark” before including that in a “news” article. What didn’t go reported was that Solus #1 was CrossGen’s highest selling book ever. Lady Death had the honor of a higher ranking but it did so while selling 3,000 less copies, and even El Cazador fell 1,500 short of Solus’ mark. Solus may not have been a critical or creative success (and I’ll cover that) but it was a commercial success despite reports to the contrary.

The other example is a comprehensive article written by someone at Newsarama. The article was written after CrossGen’s financial failures were made public, and the article appropriately detailed the company’s failures. However, the article went beyond the straightforward reporting of facts. The article made a point of highlighting Mark Alessi’s predictions that CrossGen would be number one in five years. Rather than noting that this prophecy would not come true, the article repeatedly attacked the boast and spent more time illustrating the impossibility of that claim than reporting the more serious issue of non-payment of employees. Apparently, it was more important to establish that Marvel was and would remain number one. To me, it was a clear example that CrossGen’s alienation of fans loyal to other companies had resulted in a similar negative backlash within the fan press.

As if CrossGen wasn’t already facing an uphill battle trying to win over reluctant and sometimes hostile fans, CrossGen also had to deal with serious opposition from other publishers. A couple of side-points need to be established before we proceed. One, we live in a capitalist society so it is not up to either Marvel or DC to insure that CrossGen succeeds. In fact, the opposite is true. Marvel and DC should do what they can to protect and increase their own profits. If it’s fair for CrossGen to hire former DC staffers like Butch Guice, it’s just as fair for Marvel to woo Steve McNiven with “an offer he couldn’t refuse.” Two, the opposition that “The Big Two” brought to bear against CrossGen can be exaggerated. For example, the idea that these two companies vetoed CrossGen’s entry as a premier retailer cannot be confirmed. Again, the opposite seems more likely. Both DC and Diamond flatly deny that such a veto exists. And although Marvel doesn’t deny it, possibly because they enjoy the illusion of power, they also haven’t confirmed it. “The Big Two” may have done everything they could to prevent CrossGen from reaching the 5% goal, but they did so legitimately.

However, I can’t say that DC and Marvel did so indiscriminately. Both companies were quite discriminate in their opposition to CrossGen. If a freelancer left for Image or Dark Horse, it was shrugged off as the way of the industry. If a freelancer left for CrossGen, it was treated as a betrayal. There are unconfirmed stories of DC cutting artists out of a contract after they’d learned that the artist had signed with CrossGen. Reportedy, completed issues were discarded and artists were not paid for the finished work. While the controversy concerning Mark Waid’s non-compete clause was boiling over, Mark Alessi told reporters that he had paid more money to people who were still on staff at DC than the other way around. On that point at least, he wasn’t lying. Marvel was more direct. Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas inflamed the hostility towards CrossGen. They treated the company as an interloper and encouraged their fans to do the same.

Why would other publishers display such hostility towards a new company? How could their 30% market shares be threatened by someone struggling to reach 5? The answer lies in CrossGen’s treatment of their creative staff. If CrossGen succeeded, the other companies faced the possibility of offering similar terms. They may have had to pony up for paid vacations and health care and other benefits. CrossGen may not have been a threat to their sales but CrossGen was definitely a threat to their way of doing business. These companies responded to CrossGen as they would to any threat: by making it harder for them to do business and by actively trying to undermine the company. And it some ways, CrossGen did affect their way of doing business. DC and Marvel are both more likely to offer exclusive contracts which include such benefits as health care. And DC and Marvel have both increased the royalties they pay over the last five years. CrossGen may not be directly responsible, and they certainly aren’t the only factor, but indirectly they cost both DC and Marvel money.

At this point, I know that some readers are wondering if CrossGen did anything wrong at all. I’ve pointed the finger at the fans, the press and the other publishers. Don’t worry; I’ll get around to CrossGen’s failures and they are plenty. I just wanted to establish the odds against them as a new company. Admittedly, some of CrossGen’s actions and Mark Alessi’s statements increased those odds, but it is difficult for any comics company to survive. It is an uphill battle.

There are, of course, some industry realities that CrossGen didn’t reckon with, underestimated or chose to ignore. One of those was the cost of those extras that they used to woo so many creators to their company. Health benefits aren’t cheap. As a result, CrossGen was paying more for their creators than other companies. On top of that, CrossGen’s vacation plan meant that they were paying artists for 10 books instead of 12. This again increased their cost per issue. On top of that, Mark Alessi’s generosity with people who had signed with the company but who hadn’t yet begun working for the company cost money. And on top of that, the thousands of dollars in relocation payments cost money.

Let’s look at some numbers. For the sake of argument, let’s say that CrossGen paid everyone on its creative staff a salary of $50,000 per year (that’s a safe number; pencillers were most likely paid more and colorists less). Since each title requires a penciller, an inker and a colorist, CrossGen had to relocate three people and their families for each title (a writer works on multiple titles so their cost is spread out). CrossGen also had to pay at least three months salary to each person before their first issue was printed. Three months of $50,000 is just over $12,000. Relocation costs are in the 3 to 5 thousand dollar range. Health benefits can be as much as 10,000 per year, or 3,000 for the 3 month period we’re describing. Mark Alessi was paying at least $20,000 for each penciller, inker and colorist before a single book was sold. If you factor in another $7000 for a writer who is working on three titles, CrossGen had spent almost $70,000 per title on creative staff alone. That’s a huge upfront cost and one that was much higher than that of other publishers.

Those salary costs meant that CrossGen’s comics needed to be profitable. And each month was costing each CrossGen title up to $20,000 more in creative staff alone. Even a successful book would take months to recoup that kind of investment with that kind of overhead (and we haven’t even discussed the printing or administrative figures).

Mark Alessi claimed that CrossGen had enough financing to survive five years without making a profit. Considering that the company is almost out of business before its fourth year is finished and that the real financial crunch happened during the third year, I would say that Alessi’s claim was overly optimistic. He either overestimated his potential income, or underestimated his net profits. Most likely, he did both.

There’s one last industry reality that we should look at before we move on to the books themselves. Comic books are a collectible industry. As such, it is always difficult to attract new readers once a book has been launched. Plus, fans drop out as they tire of a particular title or of the hobby itself. Those two factors combine to result in the “slow bleed” that almost every title experiences. Every title loses readers more quickly than it gains them. Successful books only lose readers at a rate of 100 per month. The more poorly received titles can lose readers by the thousands every month. This is true of the entire industry and there are very few ways to reverse that trend.

One of the most successful ways of reversing that trend is to cancel a title and relaunch with a new number one. Although this method receives a negative backlash, the results are self-evident: sales go up. One of the ways of avoiding the backlash is by releasing a title as a series of mini-series. Crusade, Event, Image and Dark Horse have all had success with this method. CrossGen originally spurned this method of gaining sales for its core titles although the company would later relaunch second series of Code 6 titles DemonWars and Lady Death.

Another way of increasing sales on an existing title is to change creative teams. A well-publicized transition can increase sales by tens of thousands (recent successes include Birds of Prey, Superman and the X-Men Reload). Although CrossGen didn’t publicly scorn this method as they did the relaunch, they did choose not to rely on it. Although there are a few exceptions, CrossGen generally handed titles over to less-experienced and lesser-known creative teams. Whether it was Fabrizio Fiorentino on Mystic or Scott Beatty on Ruse, CrossGen rarely received a sales boost from new creative teams. Their inability to reverse the slow bleed on their core titles, even with new creators, was one of the biggest factors in CrossGen’s fall, yet it remains one of the least publicized.

The previous two methods are proven to be the most successful in today’s industry, but they’re not the only methods that exist.

When a new creative team isn’t possible, a new story arc can sometimes be advertised as an opportunity for new readers to come aboard. CrossGen was obviously aware of the constant decline in readership and although they shunned other methods, they did try this one. Late in 2002, CrossGen introduced the Key Issue program. Each key issue was designed to be friendly to new readers. The campaign was moderately successful. Although the Key Issues didn’t completely offset the slow bleed, they did delay it. Each title experienced sales increases of 500 to 1,000 for a Key Issue. This extended the profitability/life of each title by 2-3 months. For example, if Title X had a Key Issue in February, its February sales would increase over its January sales. The slow bleed would mean that the March or April sales would be back to January levels. However, the overall result was that Title X retained its numbers over a three month period rather than experience the normal decline.

You can see that the Key Issue program was a success. But it was a bandaid measure not a repair. Eventually, the books were still going to lose money. And eventually the title had to be cancelled rather than drag the company into the red. CrossGen did not deal with this reality. There was no contingency plan in place in case the Key Issue program didn’t work. The first key issue was published in November 2002 for “The First.” Obviously, “The First” was one of the titles most in need of a boost and quickly reaching, if not passing, unprofitability. And yet, despite the fact that the Key Issue should’ve granted “The First” only a two-month reprieve, that particular title wasn’t cancelled for another nine months and was published for twelve more issues. Despite its promises to its fans, CrossGen needed to pull the plug on titles that were losing money.

There is one last way to reverse the trend of the slow bleed: positive word of mouth. There are always a few titles that buck the trend without gimmicks, based solely on the quality of the product and the enthusiasm of fans and journalists. DC has seen word of mouth bring significant boosts to Vertigo titles like Fables and Y: The Last Man. Marvel has experienced recent success with Fantastic Four. So what about CrossGen?

My study of the numbers has shown me that CrossGen experienced the benefit of word-of-mouth increases more than any other company over the past few years. Their fans had spread the word, overcoming the understandable hesitancy of fandom and even, on occasion, the hostility of brand loyalists. Sojourn was one of CrossGen’s greatest successes. In its heyday, Sojourn was selling 2000 copies per month more than its debut issue. Even at its end, Sojourn’s last issue sold only 500 issues less than its first. Sojourn was by no means CrossGen’s only success. Ruse was so successful that its twelfth issue sold within 1000 copies of its debut. The third and fourth issues of The Path outsold the second. The fourth and fifth issues of Way of the Rat could make the same claim. And Scion had perhaps the most impressive growth of all. Scion increased sales in 6 of 12 months from May 2001 (issue 12) to May 2002 (issue 24) with the result that this particular title lost less than 1000 readers in 13 months.

In 2001 and 2002, CrossGen experienced positive word of mouth growth of 5 of its 12 core titles. The four other major publishers would be lucky to claim 5 of 100 during that time span. Yet CrossGen was unable to capitalize on its success. Rather than promote the titles that were being embraced by fans, CrossGen stubbornly remained loyal to all of its titles. That loyalty wasn’t entirely unreasonable as other core titles like Mystic, Sigil and Meridian experienced smaller gains, particularly in November 2001 and March/April 2002. It was reasonable to believe that each title was capable of receiving similar word-of-mouth attention. But it was unreasonable to believe that every title would receive such benefits. The slow bleed would catch the majority of CrossGen titles if not all of them. And CrossGen had no real plan to counteract that industry reality or to cancel unprofitable titles.

At this point, I should address the most common reason given for CrossGen’s failure: too many titles too soon. For months, I admit that I dismissed this claim. Each title represented a different genre and should have appealed to a different set of fans. I thought they weren’t directly competing with each other. In this case, the prevailing wisdom was right and I was wrong. The numbers do not lie. CrossGen launched their eleventh and twelfth titles in May and June of 2002 (Way of the Rat and Route 666). It is significant to note that several word-of-mouth titles stopped making gains at that time (The Path and Scion). It is also significant to note that the monthly bleed increased, doubled and sometimes tripled for the majority of the CrossGen titles in late spring and summer of 2002. Way of the Rat may have been experiencing success but it was coming on the backs of the earlier titles. Only two series continued to make gains at this time- Sojourn and Ruse- and even they began to lose sales during the winter of ‘02/’03 when CrossGen launched seven new titles (the three Code 6 titles, two mini-series, Brath and Solus). Obviously, CrossGen had saturated its market and at that point, it was beginning to cannibalize its own sales.

The smart move would’ve been to cancel the weaker titles during that winter and concentrate on their current and potential future successes.

Cross Gen Analysis: THE BOOKS THEMSELVES

When trying to place blame, I think nothing is less agreed upon than the books themselves. The books still have their fans. They are still defended as the best-written, best-drawn, best-colored books in the industry. Even bitter former employees wax nostalgic over the production values, and their control over that aspect. And the books are still attacked as boring and exclusive. So where does the truth lie? As always, somewhere in the middle.

At the same time, I think most of the false theories of failure originate in this area. In one respect, that’s understandable. For one thing, no book is able to appeal to every segment of the population. For people in those segments left out, they naturally generalize from their own experiences, not realizing that the very thing that turned them away is the same thing that brought others in.

One of the theories often forwarded is that the books weren’t edgy enough. Not true. Or at least, that wasn’t a problem. First of all, not everyone is looking for edgy. The company’s name proclaimed that they weren’t edgy. They were the company for all generations. And in some ways, they were successful. CrossGen could never have sold their Bridges program to schools and PTAs if they were edgy. By all accounts, their Bridges program is the most successful branch of the company. Furthermore, edgy isn’t in itself a guarantee of success. Marvel’s edgy MAX line brought about very few successes. DC’s edgier fare like Wildstorm and Vertigo sold roughly the same numbers as CrossGen. Looking at the numbers from July 2003 (the month before CrossGen’s big financial setback), we see that Solus outsold WildCats, Way of the Rat outsold the vampire tale Blood and Water, The First outsold Sleeper and even DemonWars outsold 21 Down. I share these examples not to show disdain for either Vertigo or Wildstorm, but simply to prove that edgy and sales do not go hand in hand.

Another theory is that the books were too slow. This is a theory I tried to contradict every chance I got, but the theory is so widely cited that I’m left to wonder if there isn’t some truth to it. In one way, CrossGen books weren’t slow. More real change happened in one year at CrossGen than in most other titles. But CrossGen also disdained the “fight of the month.” While most titles were showcasing a fight in every issue, CrossGen was building up to one every 6-7 months. For some of us, this was a plus. But that wasn’t true for enough of us. CrossGen’s slowness was such a factor that some readers believed CrossGen used less pages than other publishers. That wasn’t true: CrossGen used the same 22 as Dark Horse, DC, Image and Marvel. But we believe what we perceive and one of the reasons why CrossGen lost so many readers was that many of its titles moved at a glacial pace.

This accusation is one that is also forwarded by some of the writers. Ron Marz has been vocal in this complaint. He occasionally felt held back. He has said that he wasn’t allowed to move a particular title forward because other titles weren’t ready. Mark Waid has been less obvious but his remarks lead one to believe that he felt the same constraints. When two of your writers are among those who complain that the books are too slow, the accusation obviously has some merit.

And yet, I think that the accusation of slowness pales in comparison to two other problems with the books themselves. The first could be considered as much an industry problem as a book problem and indeed, I debated the proper placement. But whatever the cause, CrossGen was a company caught in the middle.

In one of his excellent industry books (I think it’s Reinventing Comics, but it could be Understanding Comics), Scott McCloud describes the current superhero-dominated comics industry. At one point, the industry offered every genre imaginable from A to Z. But A sold better. The publishers realized this and started producing more of A. The retailers realized this and started promoting more of A. The result was that other genres were discarded and ignored. As these other genres disappeared, the industry focused more and more on genre A. Now the industry is wedded to one genre. McCloud wondered about the future of other genres. It seems impossible to introduce genre B into a marketplace that serves only A. Those who would be interested in B wouldn’t know to find it and those who would know to find it are only interested in A. McCloud theorized that in order to introduce other genres like B, one would first have to try an AB hybrid. The hybrid would appeal to existing customers while potentially drawing in new customers who would be interested in B. The theory has some merit. The most successful crime book in comics is Powers, a superhero crime book. I don’t remember if McCloud dealt with this or not but despite the occasional success, it’s also possible that neither those who like A or B would care for AB.

That was one of CrossGen’s major problems. They tried to introduce multiple genres into a one-genre industry. In order to succeed, they borrowed many of the standards of the superhero genre like interlocking continuity and godlike powers. Yet those standards designed to appeal to existing readers alienated other readers they were trying to court.

Sometimes, CrossGen was very successful. There are hundreds of people who claim that CrossGen either introduced them to comics or brought them back. But CrossGen couldn’t fully free itself from this dilemma of being caught in the middle. There are also dozens of fantasy fans who complain that CrossGen’s comics were derivative and unworthy. And there are thousands of superhero fans who found nothing of interest in the new company.

And just as CrossGen compounded some of its fan-related problems, CG expanded this problem as well. Instead of trying to specialize in one genre, CrossGen tried to enter all of them. Newer companies are now trying a safer route. IDW is specializing in crime and horror books. Devil’s Due/Dabel Brothers is concentrating on fantasy. In one regard, CrossGen had to build its audience from scratch for each new title. Considering the uphill climb they faced as a company, it was almost foolhardy to recreate that climb for each new title.

The way that CrossGen tried to avoid reestablishing themselves with each new title was by having an interlocking continuity. Each title, whether it was fantasy, mystery or martial arts was part of one universe and one overall picture. This set-up did much to create a hard-core fan-base of approximately 10,000 people (you can count me among that number). But that same set-up proved to be an obstacle to everyone else in the comics hobby and many of the millions outside of it.

The four launch titles had remarkably similar situations. This wasn’t a deterrent to me, but that was partly because of the way in which I experienced the books. I was in the process of a cross-country move during the summer of 2000 when CrossGen launched their first titles. Due to those circumstances, I was buying few titles and certainly no new ones. When I was finally settled in my new home, I became aware of the positive reviews surrounding this new company. I also became aware of the three-issue money-back guarantee. I bought the first three issues of each of the first four titles. That means I was able to read all three issues at once. The similarities among the books which were pronounced in the first issue had become minimal by the third. Although I didn’t agree, I could understand the complaints of those who thought all of the books were the same.

The launch books led many readers to believe that if you’d tried one CrossGen book, you’d tried them all. Those who had disliked any one title were therefore hesitant to try another. CrossGen did a good job of varying up its formula in its later titles but it took awhile for those titles to overcome the earlier stigma. Instead, CrossGen was forced to rely more on more on its set of hardcore fans. Indeed, their expanding line debuted with almost identical numbers (Crux, Sojourn, Ruse, The Path and Way of the Rat all had debuts within a thousand units of each other). That means that each new title spread thin their fanbase rather than reaching out to new readers. The fanbase eventually felt squeezed for more money, and as was noted earlier, new titles cannibalized the old ones.

At the same time, the word was getting out that CrossGen was more than a one formula establishment. In 2001 and 2002, CrossGen was slowly building its fanbase and diversifying its readership. But in early 2003, CrossGen confirmed the old beliefs. They spun a barbarian title Brath out of their sci-fi title Sigil. Unfortunately for CrossGen, their thirteenth ongoing title featured many of the same details as the first four. Brath was the lowest selling debut for an ongoing core CrossGen title (by 1000 issues!) and it should’ve been a sign that the company had maxed out.
The next title had an even more negative effect on the company. In March of 2003, CrossGen debuted a new George Perez monthly called Solus. Earlier, I described Solus #1 as a commercial success. That’s true of the first issue. Not the series. Solus was neither a critical nor creative success. The book was supposed to be a gift to the hardcore fanbase. It specialized in the Big Picture that tied the various titles together. And as it was more about continuity than either plot or character, it was widely panned. Solus was a flop. It lost 7000 readers between its first and second issues. By the sixth issue, it was selling half of its debut. If it hadn’t been cancelled, Solus would’ve been reduced to that core base of 10,000 in only one year.

Ron Marz has remarked that George Perez “was the biggest bullet in the CrossGen gun and we shot ourselves in the foot with it.” Both Marz and Bedard have said that they argued against putting Perez on Solus. Their cries apparently fell on deaf ears. Perez’ first issue should have been the boost the company needed. After nearly a year of declining sales on individual titles, Perez’ involvement could have guaranteed a second major hit. Indeed, the debut sales show that a Perez title could’ve exceeded Sojourn, Ruse and Lady Death as CrossGen’s best seller. The profits could’ve offset losses in other books and other areas. But that didn’t happen. Instead, Solus confirmed many of the accusations directed at CrossGen. Their books were insular. You had to read every title to make sense of any of them. Solus could have buoyed the company. Instead it damaged it. Solus actually hurt the sales on other titles. As the belief that you had to buy every title was confirmed, readers began to drop not just Solus but other CrossGen books as well. Way of the Rat, The Path, Ruse, The First: all of these titles either began slipping or lost readers at a more rapid rate shortly after Solus’ debut.

The catastrophe that was Solus leads us directly into the biggest problem that faced the books themselves: “The Big Picture.” As noted earlier, all of the CrossGen titles were part of an interlocking continuity. They were all part of the same story that was commonly referred to as “The Big Picture.” This interlocking continuity receives the most blame for CrossGen’s failure, second only to “too many books too fast.” There’s some truth to that, but there are some nuances that also need to be addressed.

First of all, there is a big difference between saying “The Big Picture was the problem” and “The execution of The Big Picture was the problem.” For some, simply having a big picture was indeed a problem. But this gets us back to some of the stylistic complaints discussed earlier. The very thing that detracted for some, attracted others. It is obvious that the comic book industry of 2004 is no longer appreciative of an interlocking continuity. That worked against Image’s superhero line in 2003. But it is not as obvious that an interlocking continuity worked against CrossGen when it first launched in 2000. The similarity of the launch books, yes. The overarching story, no.

Initially, CrossGen was helped by the big picture. It helped develop the hardcore fan base. That fan base supported every title and guaranteed that books would launch in Diamond’s top 100 with at least 20,000 in sales (only Route 666, written by then-unknown Tony Bedard failed to reach these markers). And that fan base was responsible for the positive word of mouth that helped up to half of CrossGen’s titles make sales gains. On the other hand, that hard core fan base was also one of the causes behind the insults that CrossGen was a koolaid-drinking cult. Those accusations are representative of the hostility discussed earlier. The big picture helped create both a minimum threshold and a maximum ceiling for CrossGen titles.

I would like to theorize that CrossGen was not hurt by the big picture itself as much as the execution of the big picture. That isn’t to say that CrossGen should have made every book a part of the big picture. Two of their most successful launches, Lady Death and El Cazador, stood apart from the big picture. And their most successful books were only loosely tied to the interlocking continuity. Obviously, their titles didn’t need the overarching story to find its audience. But that claim isn’t necessarily the same as saying the overarching story lost its audience. Yet that is just what happened.

So what were the problems with the execution of the big picture? The reasons are many, but I’ll quickly describe five.

One, the crossovers were poorly executed. CrossGen claimed that it was doing away with many of the industry crutches like relaunches and company-wide crossovers, but that didn’t prevent them from using guest appearances. At the same time, CrossGen was trying to keep a promise that you wouldn’t need to buy every book to enjoy any one of them. The guest appearances put a lie to that statement. Instead of being forced to buy two titles, fans were treated to the same scene twice. For example, Sam from Sigil visited Sephie from Meridian. The same scene was shown in both titles from the perspective of the different characters. It may have been an interesting exercise, but it left many readers feeling as if they’d paid twice for the same story.

Two, the crossovers didn’t always make sense. It is possible that CrossGen listened to complaints about the earlier guest appearances. The later ones certainly felt different. Unfortunately, they didn’t feel better. Characters would again make guest appearances, but rather than reading the same scene twice, the guest wouldn’t make sense within the context of the title. This was particularly true of Solusandra. Her appearance in Mystic had little to do with what had come before or after (the same can be said of Ingra’s earlier appearance). If somebody was reading Mystic but not Solus, the issue just wouldn’t make sense.

These failed crossovers and guest appearances meant that the big picture began to feel like the big intrusion. Fans of a particular series were put off by appearances of The First or other characters from outside of their specific title. And even fans who bought everything (like me) occasionally resented the impact that the big picture had on an individual title. One example is the removal of Capricia from the cast of Crux in order to export her to Sigil. This lessened Crux as that particular title lost one of its more popular characters. This lessened Sigil as it intruded on the popular romantic liaisons between Sam and Zanni and took scenes away from the main plot of that title. And it disappointed fans of the big picture because we felt Capricia was wasted as she barely appeared in Sigil. Even worse, Capricia’s Crux farewell happened to be the key issue that was supposed to bring new readers aboard.

Four, the big picture was not as interesting as the little pictures. Okay, I admit it. It turned out to be boring. The titles most closely connected to the big picture were always the least interesting. I know that The First has its fans, but The First experienced the sharpest decline of the core CrossGen titles and quickly passed the other books to become the company’s worst seller. The only title to beat The First’s rate of decline was Solus, a big picture title whose faults have already been discussed. As Crux become more associated with the big picture, its sales also experienced a sharp decline. So sharp that Crux became CrossGen’s second worst seller next to The First. Inker Drew Geraci is particularly critical of Crux. As the title that featured Mark Waid, Steve Epting and Chuck Dixon Crux should have experienced the same word-of-mouth gains as other books. But it didn’t, and its close association to the big picture seems to be the likely culprit.

Fifth, and finally for our purposes, the key characters in the big picture were unlikable. How many readers liked Danik in Crux? Yet he turned out to be one of the key players. How many readers like Solusandra of Solus? Yet she turned out to be the other key player. It was hard to want to follow the big picture when we as readers had so little reason to like, sympathize or cheer for the main characters. I have to confess that when Negation War: Part Two teased that the villainous Lawbringers were about to attack The First, I was cheering for the villains to win.

CrossGen: Analysis of a Collapse

Okay, some might say I was commissioned. Others might say I offered. But here are my thoughts concering what went on at CrossGen and why the company ultimately failed.

Before I begin, however, I’d like to address a couple of preliminary matters. First, it seems like everyone is looking for that one single answer as to why CrossGen failed. The truth is very rarely that simple. The story behind CrossGen’s collapse reveals multiple answers and multiple reasons. I’ve seen dozens of theories forwarded as to why CrossGen failed and although none of those reasons is sufficient on its own, many of those reasons combine to play a part. That doesn’t mean that every theory I’ve read is accurate, but I’ll address those inaccuracies as I go along.

The second preliminary item I’d like to address is who I am, or rather who I’m not. I am no expert. I am no professional. Not in comics. Not in business. I have no inside information. So if you want to dismiss what I write as the ignorant ravings of a madman, I have no objection. What I have tried to do is to be aware of and study the facts as they are available. I have done my best to filter through the words of those who are professionals and who do possess inside information. That means that many of the theories and reasons you read here are not my own. I have been as much a compiler of the thoughts of others as a conjurer of theories of my own. It also means that if I have misreported any facts, I apologize. I have done my best with what was available.

So why did CrossGen fail? This company started with so much promise. In one year, CrossGen became the fifth largest comic book publisher in North America. After three years, it had progressed to fourth. And in the fourth year, the company collapsed. It’s still limping along and may survive a month or two into its fifth year but for all intents and purposes the dream and publishing company that was CrossGen is over.

Now that it’s over, many observers are belittling CrossGen as if it never had any promise. That’s not true. It may be true that the signs of trouble were evident much earlier than we had suspected. And it is definitely true that CrossGen was never as perfect as it claimed to be or as its supporters wanted to believe. But the promise was there. One only has to look at the list of those who chose to associate with it.

Mark Waid left JLA when it was DC’s highest profile book to join the staff at CrossGen. Even at the time, Waid admitted that he was taking a pay cut but he said he did so willingly because he believed in what the company was doing. George Perez followed up his highly successful run on Avengers, a top ten book while he was its penciller, to move to CrossGen. Perez could have had his pick of almost any job in the industry, but he chose CrossGen. Other creators may have joined the company because it was their best or even only opportunity. But some creators, particularly the two I mentioned, didn’t need CrossGen. For a time, they believed in it.

Those aren’t the only examples I can cite. Archangel Studios, the creators of “The Red Star,” joined the CrossGen fold. MV Studios, the license-holders to “Masters of the Universe” jumped off of Image and onto CrossGen. Bob Gale of “Back to the Future” and Chuck Russell of “The Mummy” became associated with CrossGen. They worked on developing CrossGen projects for film and agreed to provide new concepts for the comics themselves (one title was tentatively called “Illustrated Warriors”). WizKids games signed CrossGen as part of their Indy Clix expansion for their HeroClix game. CrossGen was the youngest company included and they represented the newest characters. Fast Forward games worked with CrossGen to create a role-playing game and a collectible card game. Those products haven’t and may never make it to market, but it does show that yet another company wanted to work with CrossGen comics.

None of these associations would have developed if CrossGen hadn’t shown promise. There are those who claim that the company was doomed from the beginning, but all of these associations demonstrate the opposite. People wanted to be a part of CrossGen.
The promise was there.

Today, the very promise that attracted so many to CrossGen in the first place works against the company. The greater the promise, the greater the tragedy. And what happened to this company, and to many of the people who were associated with it, is tragic.

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So why did CrossGen fail?

I’d like to break my analysis down into four major categories: Industry Realities, Problems with the Books Themselves, Innovations that Backfired, and Broken Promises.

and finally the conclusion: Why did Crossgen Fail?

 

Thanks to the amazing folks at archive.org for rescuing this post after it went down with the ship that was the old captaincomic.us site!