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Jul 26 10 12:42 PM
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Jul 26 10 2:45 PM
IamMightySore wrote: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.
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Jul 28 10 9:28 AM
fubarthepanda wrote:Yeah, but that was years after they didn't pick up any traction in the direct market. Their initial strategy was based on the original Valiant model, but in 1998, after the market implosion, the direct market didn't have any appetite for a new super-hero universe (Marvel itself had entered bankruptcy). A short while after their launch, CrossGen had trouble cracking the top 100 list in the direct market and shifted gears to alternative distribution models, mostly trying to follow the new paths that the manga companies were trailblazing. Those didn't work for them, either. With 20/20 hindsight, had they concentrated on a small amount of non-related titles, they probably would have had more long-term success. But Alessi didn't want to be another Dark Horse -- he was more interested in being a latter day Stan Lee, bullpen and all, which was far too ambitious for an industry that had just entered a major recession.
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Jul 28 10 10:14 AM
IamMightySore wrote: fubarthepanda wrote: Yeah, but that was years after they didn't pick up any traction in the direct market. Their initial strategy was based on the original Valiant model, but in 1998, after the market implosion, the direct market didn't have any appetite for a new super-hero universe (Marvel itself had entered bankruptcy). A short while after their launch, CrossGen had trouble cracking the top 100 list in the direct market and shifted gears to alternative distribution models, mostly trying to follow the new paths that the manga companies were trailblazing. Those didn't work for them, either. With 20/20 hindsight, had they concentrated on a small amount of non-related titles, they probably would have had more long-term success. But Alessi didn't want to be another Dark Horse -- he was more interested in being a latter day Stan Lee, bullpen and all, which was far too ambitious for an industry that had just entered a major recession.I think the flaw in this is viewing CrossGen as a comic book company.The comic book side of the endeavor was always considered a loss leader.Alessi's business model (tho ultimately flawed) was somewhat forward-looking and reflective, I think, of Disney's attitude now towards Marvel. The four color direct market was never meant to be the revenue generator, merely the "ideas factory". The plan was to use the material coming out of the comic side to then explode onto the secondary market in a variety of formats, varied digital formats, numerous dress trades, and of course, the hoped for penetration into animation and feature films and the resultant ancillary licensing.CrossGen's make or break point was in the initial breakthrough into the trade paperback market, which is why he was willing to make such risky agreements with the bookstore chains. This failed and Alessi had not properly financed the company for such a failure.
fubarthepanda wrote: Yeah, but that was years after they didn't pick up any traction in the direct market. Their initial strategy was based on the original Valiant model, but in 1998, after the market implosion, the direct market didn't have any appetite for a new super-hero universe (Marvel itself had entered bankruptcy). A short while after their launch, CrossGen had trouble cracking the top 100 list in the direct market and shifted gears to alternative distribution models, mostly trying to follow the new paths that the manga companies were trailblazing. Those didn't work for them, either. With 20/20 hindsight, had they concentrated on a small amount of non-related titles, they probably would have had more long-term success. But Alessi didn't want to be another Dark Horse -- he was more interested in being a latter day Stan Lee, bullpen and all, which was far too ambitious for an industry that had just entered a major recession.
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Jul 28 10 11:37 AM
Jul 28 10 11:43 AM
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Jul 29 10 4:28 AM
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Aug 7 10 12:14 PM
“I was startled, but not surprised,” Kesel, writer of Meridian and Sigil said via e-mail of Marvel’s Comic-Con teaser. “I've been predicting that somebody at Disney would notice that they'd purchased some comic book IP and now have a comic book company in their basket.”
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Waid wrote via e-mail of his reaction. “There's some gold in them thar hills, provided Marvel plays up what works (the individual concepts) and ignores what doesn't (the forced shared-universe nonsense). But they've got the best roster of work-for-hire talent available to them in comics today, and I'm eager to see this work!”
"Working on Negation will always be one of the highlights of my career," Pelletier told Newsarama via e-mail. "The idea of working with Tony Bedard and Dave Meikis on this book brings a smile to my face. But would I give up penciling The Incredible Hulk to work on Negation again? I don't think so!"
Oct 9 10 4:25 PM
Quesada started out by showing some images from the upcoming relaunch of the CrossGen line, including a red-haired woman wearing a Sigil and what appeared to be a new picture of the detective Ruse. Brevoort said, "I have one creator name for you: Mark Waid."
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Oct 10 10 5:58 AM
leveret1 wrote:? It'll be interesting if they plan to keep the Sigils because there were many readers who hated that aspect of Crossgen and their attempt to tie everything together.
Oct 10 10 6:48 PM
bomaya wrote:leveret1 wrote:? It'll be interesting if they plan to keep the Sigils because there were many readers who hated that aspect of Crossgen and their attempt to tie everything together. And there were some readers for whom that was their favourite element of the whole Crossgen line.
Oct 29 10 7:05 PM
Brevoort: I think the one thing worth stating is that what we're doing with these CrossGen properties isn’t just picking up where they left off and continuing them. If nothing else, it's been four or five years since any of those series were in print. So this is effectively a new start, wherein those properties will be reimagined (some more so and some less.) Yet all of them will be recognizable in their connection to the original material. But it's not like all of the sudden we're going to release "Sojourn" #40. They're all going to start fresh, and none of the titles that we’re planning at the outset will be set within the Marvel Universe proper. They'll be of their own place and time. What we're looking at this as is a place where we can potentially tell some more genre-related stories than we typically do in the Marvel Universe. One of the things that CrossGen was excellent about was that they didn't do any real super hero books. They did Victorian crime fiction and pirates and space marines and sword and sorcery and '50s weird horror and '60s kitsch super-spy stuff. So getting to play in all those genres in a way that also hopefully gives us a bit of a built-in fanbase to launch the line off of is an interesting, compelling challenge we'll be moving to meet. I don't think we're ready yet to talk about specific titles. And beyond what we showed at the panel, I don't think we're ready to talk specific creators. I think we can say that the initial books we're launching will hit in March, so within the next four to six weeks you'll be seeing some further announcements. And we're going to be rolling these out slowly. We understand the way the market is right now and that nobody can absorb eight new titles into their buying habits. We're going to start out with a smaller number and then roll into some new series out as the months roll on. Alonso: The game plan for CrossGen is “slow and sure.” I'm extremely excited this initiative since it allows us to do a wide span of delicious genre material. And the talent involved – writers and artists – are bringing their A-game, each motivated by very…personal things. [Brevoort Laughs] I think this is a great opportunity to build something new at Marvel.
Brevoort: I think the one thing worth stating is that what we're doing with these CrossGen properties isn’t just picking up where they left off and continuing them. If nothing else, it's been four or five years since any of those series were in print. So this is effectively a new start, wherein those properties will be reimagined (some more so and some less.) Yet all of them will be recognizable in their connection to the original material. But it's not like all of the sudden we're going to release "Sojourn" #40. They're all going to start fresh, and none of the titles that we’re planning at the outset will be set within the Marvel Universe proper. They'll be of their own place and time. What we're looking at this as is a place where we can potentially tell some more genre-related stories than we typically do in the Marvel Universe. One of the things that CrossGen was excellent about was that they didn't do any real super hero books. They did Victorian crime fiction and pirates and space marines and sword and sorcery and '50s weird horror and '60s kitsch super-spy stuff. So getting to play in all those genres in a way that also hopefully gives us a bit of a built-in fanbase to launch the line off of is an interesting, compelling challenge we'll be moving to meet.
I don't think we're ready yet to talk about specific titles. And beyond what we showed at the panel, I don't think we're ready to talk specific creators. I think we can say that the initial books we're launching will hit in March, so within the next four to six weeks you'll be seeing some further announcements. And we're going to be rolling these out slowly. We understand the way the market is right now and that nobody can absorb eight new titles into their buying habits. We're going to start out with a smaller number and then roll into some new series out as the months roll on.
Alonso: The game plan for CrossGen is “slow and sure.” I'm extremely excited this initiative since it allows us to do a wide span of delicious genre material. And the talent involved – writers and artists – are bringing their A-game, each motivated by very…personal things. [Brevoort Laughs] I think this is a great opportunity to build something new at Marvel.
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Oct 29 10 10:08 PM
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Oct 30 10 4:20 AM
Oct 30 10 8:26 AM
Leocomix wrote:"One of the things that CrossGen was excellent about was that they didn't do any real super hero books. They did Victorian crime fiction and pirates and space marines and sword and sorcery and '50s weird horror and '60s kitsch super-spy stuff. " What were the Crossgen titles he refers to? I only know of Ruse, victorian crime fiction.
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