I enjoyed CrossGen and I'd hesitate to call it a failure.

The 6 year run produced some fine product that managed to stray from the spandex super-hero comics that dominate the market. The genres included Victorian Detective stories, Space Opera, fantasy stories aimed at pre-teen girls, wuxia comedies, samurai/ninja stories, etc etc.

The company's bane was indeed financial mismanagement. The company aggressively tried to expand the market by cutting the turn-over time from comic book to secondary markets, mostly digital (on-line and DVD) and various trades. It was really the later that the killed the company, IMO.

CrossGen had deals with Barnes & Noble and Borders to carry their trades with terms of returns very much in the booksellers favor. As CrossGen expanded the number of comic book titles and increased the variety of trade dresses, they literally overwhelmed the book market with more product than it was able to handle. In 2003, both book chains were displeased with the volume of sells and began to take advantage of the liberal return policy and deluged CrossGen with requests for refunds. CrossGen unwisely had not set aside funds to cover these requests and scrambled to meet their obligations. One of the first victims of this cash-flow crisis were the creators, who began to go months between paychecks. Naturally, many were unwilling to work for nothing or promissory notes and many of the best and brightest began seeking work elsewhere. The quality of the monthly comic books began to noticeably suffer and there was fan back-lash when many creators went public with their grievances.

Finally, in 2004, CrossGen filed for bankruptcy. They had advanced proposed story-lines by several months or years to try to wrap things up, but most comics ended mid-story.

I feel like giving up the rat race and just becoming a handsome millionaire.                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Last Edited By: IamMightySore Jul 26 10 5:07 AM. Edited 1 times.