ICv2 News – CrossGen Restructures

I appreciate ICv2’s fair and business-like news reporting. It’s truly a rarity in comic book news, where spin, rumor and colorful statements abound.

While some say “the knives are out for CrossGen”, it truly is news when a publisher that prided itself on on-time printing, a unique studio system and impressive employee packages has a quarter of missed ship dates, a switch to freelancing and unpaid disgruntled employees. It’s a total change in the business model and it is news.

Is this a circling of the drain? I don’t think so. That’s far too dramatic.

My hope is that perhaps this gives CrossGen an excuse to bring to a close some low-performing books and put out a few new, better ones. The older books with unidentifiable names just don’t capture the imagination as instantly as Way of the Rat, Route 666 or El Cazador. Sojourn and Ruse are great books even if the titles are vague; I wonder if putting out these same books under new titles wouldn’t help them reach new readers.

With “El Cazador” already getting other-media interest from the “Pirates of the Caribbean”-rocked Hollywood (which, let’s face it, loves to produce more clones of whatever made money last year), perhaps new investors will be onboard at CrossGen soon enough.

And while I hope that CGE’s in-house teams approach isn’t truly dead, I must admit that being open to freelancers has its advantages too. I was less willing to send off any submissions if getting hired means moving to Florida. Perhaps other comic talents will feel the same.