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ive read the trades from my public library never heard of them before that but i did enjoy the ones i read (scion ,meridian,negation)

Those were great and they were beginning to cross over with each other towards the end.

I think Disney owns them now.

I wonder if Disney will try to do anything with them.

I did some minor research: I was incorrect in my assement of them having been gone for 10 years. However they did start 10 years ago (ran from 98 to 04). So yes, only gone for 4 years.

"Meridian" had the most published issues with 44.

Total Crossgen output if you include all trades, collections, and issues, is over 600.

Disney purchased Crossgen for 1 million dollars, but they only optioned "Abadazad". I know Checker Books was wanting to publish little take-along books of Crossgen material but I don't know if they and Disney came to any agreements.

I really liked Way of the Rat and I'm disappointed I missed out on Sojourn. One of these days I may try to track it down.

The best thing about Crossgen books now, is that you can find them in the $.50 and $1.00 boxes. A lot of good reads, cheap.

I really wish that whoever owns it would try publishing it again.

Just bumping this back up since I just saw it and don't post too much. I was going through some more of my comic boxes and came across some of my Crossgen stuff and it reminded me how much I enjoyed the various series and like many have said, wish the characters were still around with new stories to boot.

Tim

I am actively closing the gaps in my CG collection. I intend to reread the entire group of CrossGen Universe books in order of publication, again, soon. And when I do, I plan on updating the bios on the entire line. Probably get into it in earnest after the holidays.

Love those books and characters! (I do have a fanboy tale to tell, as well! To be revealed at a later date... )

I'm looking forward to hearing about the fanboy tale in the future. Are you going to post in this thread or create a new one?

Tim

Thanks, Tim! I think this thread is pretty appropriate!

I've never even heard of Crossgender comics.

Out here in the Bay area of California, we know all about 'em!!!!

I was also a fan of Sojourn. Got Greg Land a little face time and the story was great.

... too bad we'll never know what happens.

If Disney owns the rights now then they should do something with it.

Either make the comic books or sell the rights to someone who will make the comic books.

My monthly orders have been getting smaller lately, so I've been going through my backlog of books I haven't read. The last month has been some of the CrossGen stuff I didn't read when it originally came out.

When it was publishing, I read (alphabetically)...

Abadazad, CrossGen Chronicles, Crux, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Mark of Charon, Negation, Route 666, Scion, and Sojourn and dabbled with the first couple issues of The First, Meridian, Mystic, The Path, Ruse, Sigil.

I bailed on the whole line shortly before the bankruptcy, so now I have picked up every issue published and started cranking through what I missed back in the day.

End of Scion - This was the fantasy book of the original four titles. Jimmy Cheung's art on this was phenomenal and I enjoyed Ron Marz's stories as it originally came out. I got tired of the Jim Fern (whose art I hate) fill-ins, so missed the finale of Marz/Cheung. Those issues were glorious. There was a brief four(?) issue continuation before the book was cancelled for Negation War, but it should be dismissed completely as it misses the tone of the rest of the series.

End of Crux - This book was the one set on Earth and there were Atlantians that were revived long after all the humans left. It was heavily tied into CrossGen continuity and the original run started really well with Mark Waid, but when Chuck Dixon came on after the first year, I tapped out. Trying to jump into this towards the end was difficult without all the context of the set-up and all the machinations of the connected universe.

End of Sojourn - I switched from single issues to trades on these not long before CrossGen folded. Oops. While Greg Land's photoshopped/lightboxed art is noticeable, it's nowhere near as annoying as it becomes later in his career. At times it's downright pretty and shows he does have some layout skills (despite everything his X-Men run indicates). This series was one of the main victims of the bankruptcy as it wasn't going into Negation War and the final issue ends with about three cliffhangers.

El Cazador - This was the Chuck Dixon/Steve Epting pirate book that only made it to six issues and a one-shot. It doesn't seem to be connected to the larger CrossGen universe or if it was supposed to, it never got there. I remember it getting crazy praise when it originally came out. I found it tedious. There's an entire issue of Danish pirate gibberish as dialogue.

Sigil - This was the sci-fi book of the four original series. Barbara Kesel and the Lai brothers (remember the five minutes they were famous) launched the series and I could immediately see why I didn't care. Both art and story were boring. By #6 there was new artists. By #10 Mark Waid came on for a short run. It helped slightly. But, really, it was basically making the Kirk/Gorn episode of TOS into a season-long plot. The Negation finally show up in #36 and the book gets good, but only lasts another six issues before rolling into Negation War.

Mystic - This was the magic book of the four original series. Again, I can see why I bailed on it after just three issues at the time. Now I'm far more interested in the story even though the lead character is a bit too boyfriend-chasing and Brandon Peterson's artwork has moments of 90s cheesecake for no reason. I'm only halfway through the run, but it's enjoyable. Like all of these titles, it's an incredibly slow burn with CrossGen. The whole line seemed to be steeped in decompressed storytelling. I've cranked through somewhere around 95 issues in the last month with little effort. There's just shy of 500 connected universe issues. Ah, the early aughts, when decompression was the biggest fanboy complaint.

I haven't read a lot of those, certainly not enough to have gotten a perspective on the grand scheme of things. I thought they looked nice for the most part and were entertaining enough but I guess I gave it up because I didn't really grasp what was going on.

The El Cazador Danish Pirate issue was just plain weird.

While I think they touted the ability to read each series on their own, which you could, you almost had to read several, if not all, of the launch titles to pick up on what they were doing. It's over three years of orange-eyed helper/sidekick characters that go nowhere and (apparently because I stumbled onto this online last week) all of them are aspects of one guy from another book. And a bunch of people are The First but use other appearances and names.

There was definitely an impressive idea and big picture driving everything, but (based on what I've read so far) in more than three years they never realized any of it in a rewarding way. These books were a super slow burn and only dropped hints at the bigger picture every 6-10 issues or so before realizing the mistake and fast-tracking some reveals and setting up the Negation War.

They had good to great art throughout with average to good storytelling to go along. There just needed to be way more universe-building payoff in the first year or two.

Yes. Disney owns the IP for Crossgen, including two properties that I have registered trademarks and copyrights, that Crossgen tried to steal.

Imagine my surprise to see two of my properties on the list of IP to be sold at the bankruptcy auction. That's how I learned that Crossgen had tried to steal them...

Crossgen screwed LOTS of people over. I know inkers who were evicted because they couldn't pay their rent because they had been working for Crossgen UNPAID for 6+ months.

I'm sorry the stories ended, and its a shame a new major company didn't rise to challenge Marvel and DC, but I'm 100% glad that the business is gone. If you knew all the shady stuff that was going on with the business, you would be glad it was gone too!

I bought many pieces of art to help some of the freelancers who were financially troubled by Crossgen's shady dealings. I finally framed two pieces to remind me of those days.

A Sigil piece by Andy Smith/Brad Vancata that sort of represents everything Crossgen (yin/yang, good/bad of which Crossgen had plenty of both).

And a Transformers piece inked by Chuck Gibson, who Crossgen screwed over for thousands of dollars in unpaid work. I don't think he got paid for any of SIlken Ghost, plus several other fill-in jobs that he did.