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

Contents

Overview

In 1998, Tampa, Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi founded a comic book publishing company named CrossGen Comics, inc. based not on the prevailing superhero trend but on a variety of genres, with characters nonetheless inhabiting a single shared universe. Mark Alessi and Gina M. Villa had written a history of the entire CrossGen universe well before CrossGen Comics had even published its first page. It spanned tens of thousands of years detailing the more significant events of the universe that would come to be popularly known as the Sigilverse. Mark Alessi and the head creative team which consisted of Barbara Kesel, Mark Waid and Ron Marz, contended that although the CrossGen titles inhabited a shared universe each title was of a unique genre and could be read by itself.

Debut

In January of 2000 the CrossGen Comics, inc. debuted with CrossGenesis, which was a sneak-peak at the Sigilverse. It gave an outline of the universe, worlds and characters of CrossGen’s flagship tiles that would soon be released 6 months later. The titles were; Mystic, Sigil, Scion, Meridian and Chronicles. The protagonists of the first wave of CrossGen comics were linked in commonality by the Sigil each character had received. It was a branding on their body, a marking that granted them unusual powers. The Sigil and the story of the Sigil-Bearers was a prominent aspect of the Sigilverse narrative but the various CrossGen titles were not limited by its outlines.

First Wave

The first wave of CrossGen titles included;

Following Titles

Shortly after in November of 2000 Homeric myth The First was released and steadily over the next three years CrossGen would release many more titles. Crux, based on the Atlantean Myth, Sojourn, a Tolkienesque fantasy, Ruse, Victorian detective fiction and a key title Negation were released in 2001.The following year horror fiction Route 666, wuxia comedy Way of the Rat and samurai drama The Path would be released. 2003 saw the release of numerous titles that would expand the Sigilverse in the build up to the Negation War. The sword and sorcery epic Brath, Chimera, a limited series about a Sigil-bearer on the far reaches of the Universe, the pirate adventure El Cazador and two key titles that would address the growing issue of who created the Sigil-bearers, Solus and The Mark of Charon.

Titles such as 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 but was never concluded.

Company Structure

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.

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, Jeff Johnson 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

Letterers

Dave Lanphear and Troy Peteri with designers Randy Martin, Erin Flanagan and Ron Domingue.

Later creators such as J.M. DeMatteis worked freelance, with CrossGen publishing finished properties.

CrossGen Entertainment, Inc. (CGE)

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In 2003 CrossGen Comics, inc. changed their name to CrossGen Entertainment, Inc. (CGE) and formed 11 wholly owned subsidiary companies, which represent its broad-based entertainment products and offerings. These companies were to act independently of CGE, functioning as interroir business units while all working towards CGE's overall goals. With this arrangement, all current and future projects would be managed and guided by Crossgen’s founding principals.

They consisted of: 


Of the eleven, three of the subsidiaries would have an impact on the industry more obvious than most. They were; CrossGen Comics who would continue to publish the current Sigilverse titles; Code6 comics which would publish material created by others outside the Sigilverse and COW or Comics on the Web who would establish CrossGen as a front runner of internet comic book subscriptions. 



CrossGen Comics Entertainment, Inc. (CGE)

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CrossGen Comics Entertainment, Inc. (CGE) was set up to take over the publishing of the current Sigilverse titles and any other non-Sigilverse title. Its logo would appear on anything that would come from CrossGen. It acted as a publisher for affiliated companies where the affiliated companies would retain full ownership and control of their property and would reap the benefits of joining with a larger company.



Code6


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Code6 was another imprint of CrossGen Entertianment created to publish titles set outside of the Sigilverse, such as The Red Star, Demonwars and The Crossovers.  All titles published with the Code6 logo would be owned by both the creator and CrossGen Entertainment, Inc. with the majority of ownership going to CrossGen Entertainment, Inc. CrossGen would pay an upfront page rate and then split all rights and revenues 75%-25%.


Code6 is the Florida Police signal code for an escaped prisoner. It was used to describe the attitude of the creators working at Code6.



Comics on the Web (COW)


One of Crossgen's innovative ideas was selling subscriptions to its comics delivered via the Internet rather than on paper.  People could purchase a subscription at reasonable cost to view all of Crossgen's titles.  Crossgen's technology was used to scan the comic book art,  the result was aesthetically pleasing, reproducing the fine color of the original, but the lettering was not quite legible; this was solved by adding client side browser code so that hovering over the word or thought bubble caused it to enlarge to a readable size.


For the subscription price of only $1 per month to start, users were able to access Web comics in an easy to read format accessible in seconds from even the slowest dial-up connection. They read just like a printed comic, but with a rich set of features developed in Flash by one of the medium's most renowned programmers, Gabo Mendoza of Gabocorp Studios. Initially launched with more than 50 CrossGen issues available, accounting for more than 1,100 pages, the library was estimated to grow to more than 160 issues and 4,400 pages by the end of 2002, rising at a steady pace to nearly 20,000 pages and more than 800 issues by 2005. The number of issues available, when calculated against the $1 per month base, brings the cost per comic down to about 3 cents at launch time, and reduces it to about half a penny by the end of 2002.  The aim of CrossGen Comics on the Web was to create a low-cost point of entry for new readers in places already populated by those potential new readers. 


CrossGen Comics on the Web were designed to be read simply and easily by even the most novice of Web surfers or comic readers. The Flash-enhancements allowed for quick download times even on the slowest of connections. CrossGen was among the first comics companies to publish online.



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.



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.





























































































TitlePrequelIssue #1Final Issue #Final Issue
CrossGenesis-Jan 20001Jan 2000
CrossGen Chronicles-June 20008July 2002
Mystic-July 200043Jan 2004
Sigil-July 200042Dec 2003
    Feb 20022March 
2002
Scion-July 200043April 2004
Meridian-July 200044April 2004
The First-Nov 200037Dec 2003
Crux-May 200133Feb 2004
SojournJuly 2001Aug 200134May 2004
Ruse-Nov 200126Jan 2004
    Archard's Agents: A Most Convenient Murder-Jan 20031Jan 2003
    Archard's Agents: The Case of the Puzzled Pugilist-Nov 
20031Nov 2003
    Archard's Agents: Deadly Dare-April 20041April 
2004
NegationDec 2001Jan 200227March 2004
    -Nov 20021Nov 
2002
    Mark of Charon-April 20035Aug 2003
    Negation War-
April 20042June 2004
The PathMarch 2002April 200223April 
2004
Way of the Rat-June 200224June 2004
    The Silken Ghost-June 20035Oct 2003
Route 666-July 200222June 2004
BrathFeb 2003March 200314June 2004
Chimera-March 20034July 2003
Solus-April 20038Dec 2003
El Cazador-Oct 20036June 2004
    -April 
20041April 2004
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang-Feb 20045June 2004


CrossGen collected several of the above titles in trade paperback format.


Compendia


CrossGen published two monthly anthologies, referred to as compendia, that reprinted several titles from the main shared continuity.  Each issue contained between 6 and 11 issues.

After 12 issues, Edge was renamed to Vector due to a trademark concflict with another company.  A third compendium called Caravan was never released.


Roughly halfway through the run of the compendia, their format changed from standard comic size to a half-page sized digest format, usually with a higher page count.  CrossGen later used this compendium format to collect runs of single titles, such as Meridian and The Path, to reported success.


Promotional and related titles:


Additional Titles


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





External links















 





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