CrossGen: Encyclopedia - CrossGen

CrossGen

Cross Generation Entertainment, or CrossGen, was an American comic book publisher.

CrossGen - Overview

In 1998, Tampa, Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi founded a comic book publishing company based not on the prevailing superhero trend but on a variety of genres, with characters nonetheless sharing a single fictional universe. Most of the titles in the CrossGen Universe, or Sigilverse, involved characters who had mysteriously gained a sigil marking on their body, granting them unusual powers.

The various CrossGen series included space opera (Sigil); magical fantasy fiction (Mystic); folklore-esque fantasy (Meridian); Homeric myth (The First); a Tolkienesque fantasy (Sojourn); samurai drama (The Path); horror fiction (Route 666); Victorian detective fiction (Ruse); wuxia comedy (Way of the Rat); pirate adventure (El Cazador); and sword and sorcery (Brath). Comics such as Scion, Negation, and Crux blended genres. Although most CrossGen titles shared common elements, such as a sigil, the presence of a Mentor and a member of the god-like First, the titles rarely crossed over with each other. There was one company-crossover event, the Negation War.

Unlike other comics companies such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics, which rely on freelance writers and artists, most CrossGen talent were salaried employees of the company and worked out of its headquarters in Tampa. Among the creators to work at CrossGen were writers Barbara Kesel, Ron Marz, Mark Waid, Chuck Dixon, Tony Bedard and Scott Beatty; pencillers Scot Eaton, Brandon Peterson, Dale Eaglesham,Steve McNiven, Joshua Middleton, Jim Cheung, Butch Guice, Bart Sears, Greg Land, Paul Pelletier, Steven Epting and George Perez; inkers Drew Geraci, Don Hillsman III, Rick Magyar, John Dell, Matt Ryan, Andy Smith and Mike Perkins; colorists Caesar Rodriguez, Andrew Hennessy and Laura Martin; and letterers Dave Lanphear and Troy Peteri. Later creators such as J.M. DeMatteis worked freelance, with CrossGen publishing finished properties.

CrossGen was among the first comics companies to publish online.

CrossGen - Bankruptcy

In 2003, CrossGen found itself in a scandal over freelancer payments, exposing systemic financial problems. As this news reached notoriously fickle comics fans, sales were affected and creative staff began abandoning the company. The root cause for CrossGen's financial collapse has never been publicly disclosed, but some industry observers have noted its difficulties became apparent shortly after the Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstore chains discontinued stocking CrossGen's trade paperback collections and returned huge numbers of unsold books for credit/refund, more than wiping out the publisher's optimistically low reserves against returns.

CrossGen filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and ceased publishing, leaving such series as Sojourn, Negation War, and some others cancelled in mid-story.

In July 2004, Disney Publishing had been interested in licensing CrossGen content, but upon discovering the bankruptcy began seeking to acquire its assets instead. On November 15, 2004, Disney announced it had purchased CrossGen's assets for $1 million with plans to publish four prose hardcover novels based on writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Mike Ploog's Abadazad.

CrossGen - Web presence

One innovative CrossGen ideas was selling subscriptions to comics delivered via the Internet rather than on paper. Yet while the digital comic book art reproduced the fine color of the original, the lettering was not quite legible; this was solved by adding client side browser code so that hovering over the word balloon or thought bubble would enlarge it to a readable size.

CrossGen - Titles

The majority of CrossGen's titles took place within a shared universe, informally dubbed the Sigilverse by CrossGen fans. CrossGen published the following titles in the Sigilverse. Most titles are listed in order of appearances. Miniseries and one-shots associated with an ongoing title are listed thereunder.

• CrossGenesis (one-shot)
• CrossGen Chronicles (8 issues)
• Mystic (43 issues)
• Sigil (42 issues)
  • Saurians: Unnatural Selection (2-issue miniseries)
• Scion (43 issues)
• Meridian (44 issues)
• The First (37 issues)
• Crux (33 issues)
• Sojourn (35 issues including the Sojourn Prequel)
• Ruse (26 issues)
  • Archard's Agents: A Most Convenient Murder (one-shot)
  • Archard's Agents: The Case of the Puzzled Pugilist (one-shot)
  • Archard's Agents: Deadly Dare (one-shot)
• Negation (28 issues including the Negation Prequel)
  • Negation: Lawbringer (one-shot)
  • Mark of Charon (five-issue miniseries)
  • Negation War (planned as a six-issue miniseries, two issues published)
• The Path (24 issues including The Path Prequel)
• Way of the Rat (24 issues)
  • The Silken Ghost (five-issue miniseries)
• Route 666 (22 issues)
• Brath (15 issues including the Brath Prequel)
• Chimera (four-issue miniseries)
• Solus (eight issues)

Promotional and related titles:

• CrossGen Sampler (a free promotional comic which included several pages from each of CrossGen's first five titles)
• CrossGen Primer (a promotional comic bundled with an issue of Wizard Magazine)
• Wizard CrossGen Special (a later promotional comic bundled with Wizard Magazine)
• CrossGen Illustrated (softcover book with art and information on several Sigilverse titles)

In addition to its Sigilverse comics, CrossGen published a number of additional titles:

• Abadazad
• R.A. Salvatore's Demon Wars
• The Crossovers
• El Cazador (six issues)
  • El Cazador: The Bloody Ballad of Blackjack Tom (one-shot)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (5 issues)
• Lady Death: A Medieval Tale
• Lady Death: The Wild Hunt

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "CrossGen", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki