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Post by G on Jan 26, 2008 11:40:26 GMT -5
I came upon Crossgen a bit late. Well, actually after they were done. Their heyday probably took place while I was away from comics. When I came back in 2002, they were around but I wasnt paying any attention to them. I was still catching up and learning what else was out there.
About the time I starting noticing them, they were done. I read online that they had went out of business. I seen an outpouring of cries of what a shame it was. At 1st glance to me, they looked like a more modern, a bit more mature....Image. So, that may have been why I never took a chance on them. But, once I started seeing them in the dumpsters, I started picking them up. Once I started doing that, I must say that it does appear it was a shame this company folded. While I dont think they were quite as good as other companies and universes out there, I do think they had a contending product with high production values. I actually started collecting them after that. Im not sure exactly how many issues they have out there, but I believe there run in comics is shorter than Valiant and therefore within reach of completing. I dont have a lot at this point, but I do plan on continuing to buy when I see cheap. Its not a favorite or a high priority quest. But I do think its something I want to continue working on. I also think it was a shame they didnt live on.
How about you?
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Post by cfs on Jan 26, 2008 12:27:19 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of fantasy so much. The more a work leans that direction, the less I enjoy it. I do like science fiction and when fantasy leans towards science, I appreciate it a lot more. Ironically, the first Crossgen comic I bought was Abadazad. It's ironic because that is was Disney has developed. Just found this.... www.abadazad.com/Later I thought about buying up in bulk from stores at 10 cents a piece and opted against it. I did buy a few Sojourn TPB's cheap and I have another "chronicles" or something else that I got cheap. I plan on buying no more. dp |
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Post by G on Jan 26, 2008 13:50:11 GMT -5
Yeah, they did have a lot of fantasy stuff and I dont really enjoy a lot of that either. A small percentage is okay, but not a dominant role like they sometimes had here. They really werent the superhero type of company which is even more of a shame. I think they had the goods and the ability to maybe pull it off. They seemed rather successful in a lot of peoples eyes, but somehow the money well dried up. Mismanagement?  |
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Post by cyberstrike on Jul 23, 2008 8:09:59 GMT -5
Pretty much major mismanagement is what brought them down. That and a universe that even though the micro bits of the continuity were self contained in each of the titles the macro storyline made it hard for a lot of new readers to get a handle on the Crossgen Universe and the guy running it was a bit of a tyrant.
I generally find fantasy kind of annoying I'm more of science fiction kind of guy. I can take fantasy in small doses but the really weird thing was that I found Crossgen's sci-fi titles Sigil and Negation no where as interesting as Meridian, Scion, and Sojourn were.
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Post by leonmallett on Apr 12, 2009 13:49:04 GMT -5
I only recently got into Crossgen like our esteeemd host, and I must say I wish I had tried them out whilst they were publishing.
There is some really good work there and when I think of my increasing disatisfaction with the big two (especially DC) and their seemingly perpetual cycle of 'events', then I am more sorry that a publisher with a range of books like CrossGen isn't around today. It is more of a shame that Disney bought them up with no intention to utilise the properties in any active manner.
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Post by leonmallett on Apr 14, 2009 2:19:33 GMT -5
I have started by reading most of Ruse: the Waid issues are truly excellent and Jackson Guice has crafted an incredibly drawn book - from the layouts across double pages all the way through the books to the precision of his pencils, and so highly recommend this title.
I have read all bar one issue of Negation and again can't recommend it highly enough. If you can pick up these or other CrossGen books at reasonable prices, then you may find some real gems.
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Post by G on Apr 14, 2009 21:55:28 GMT -5
I really would like to get a lot more of these as time goes by. I wouldn't mind owning the entire library. I doubt it made it to 300 comics. If so, it didn't go by it by much. They DO have high production values. Some of them have fantastic art. In fact a lot of them do. I wonder if this will be a gem in years to come and eventually sought after. Even though they are found everywhere in dumpsters today, I kind of see them as a comic company that will be looked backed upon as a bright spot on the comics radar and eventually will have people once again scurrying to fill in their collections? Oh, I do think that is about 15 years off. But I do think there is going to be a turning point one year where its suddenly going to be IN to hunt these down and I think their values will start increasing. That is one reason I don't mind picking them up in dumpsters today. There is a lot worse I could be picking up out there for more than that in terms of cost.
My only wish is that they had some more tradition type super-heroes. If they could have produced comics like that with those production values, who knows how well liked they could have been?
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Post by leonmallett on Apr 16, 2009 2:43:55 GMT -5
I believe the exact number of issues is 467. Really. I don't know if that included variants (there are very few, and the ones that exist are actually preview issues rather than standard cover variants).
Adding up the number of discrete Sigilverse issues I make the number to be 462 excluding variants, but that includes Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and El Cazador, neither of which featured a Sigil-bearer.
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Post by G on Apr 16, 2009 8:40:32 GMT -5
I believe the exact number of issues is 467. Really. I don't know if that included variants (there are very few, and the ones that exist are actually preview issues rather than standard cover variants). Adding up the number of discrete Sigilverse issues I make the number to be 462 excluding variants, but that includes Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and El Cazador, neither of which featured a Sigil-bearer. That's great info leon! You don't happen to have a link to a checklist do you? I also wonder if there is a Holy Grail to Crossgen? Like what is their rarest, most valuable issue? Their potential CEAR, if you know what I mean? Out of those 467 issues, there has to be at least one that is hard to come by. I probably only have about 60 Crossgen comics at this point but Ive never looked at one and thought this is a piece of shit. I think it really is a shame they went under. I think they were what original Image wasn't. I think if they could have gotten their act together and maybe had evolved into a few superhero lines, they could have been a real contender. I still think eventually history will look back on this company and eventually one day a long, long time into the future, these may eventually be sought after. Just my hunch. Hey leon, as a side note, how about showing some of that personality and getting an avatar on that profile? I always find it is easier to relate to someone on a messageboard when they have some kind of picture image. It just adds to their persona to me.  |
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Post by leonmallett on Apr 20, 2009 3:31:10 GMT -5
That's great info leon! You don't happen to have a link to a checklist do you? I also wonder if there is a Holy Grail to Crossgen? Like what is their rarest, most valuable issue? Their potential CEAR, if you know what I mean? Out of those 467 issues, there has to be at least one that is hard to come by. I probably only have about 60 Crossgen comics at this point but Ive never looked at one and thought this is a piece of shit. Even the 'average' stuff they produced seems to have really high standards. I recently read all of Ruse and would put in my top 5 runs to read of all time. The Beatty stuff was not as sharp in terms of dialogue as the work by Waid, but the Jackson guice art was simply amazing - he used double page spreads all through the book from beginning to end, which meant those who did fill-in art had to follow, and so gave the book a real cinematic feel. I'd love to see a nice landscape hardcover album collection of the title. I think they could have fit a super-themed world into the Sigilverse without major problem, and this was alluded to in Negation War I believe. Given that one world had three books set on it (Brath, the Path and Way of the Rat are all set on the same world I undertsand: I have yet to tackle these as I am reading whole runs where possible), something similar with superheroes could have worked well within the mythology. I'll see what i can do.  |
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