Rich Johnston’s Lying in the gutters offers a number of rumored tidbits about CrossGen’s status. Bart Sears has apparently left and Ron Marz has been let go. The “Negation” team will be doing “The War,” which will bring Negation to a close as well with issue 26.

The team will then allegedly be offered the chance to do a sigil-less book after that. I’m guessing that it is dependent upon CGE’s situation by next summer, but I’m glad to hear that the company is still planning more books.

Dixon’s “Way of the Rat” has been a rocking good time ever since it started, and it is the series I recommend to everyone who asks, “I’ve heard about CrossGen. What books do they do?” It reads even better as a TPB, so I highly recommend those books for your Christmas shopping. El Cazador is nothing short of awesome, with a more serious tale of pirates set on the planet Earth. Both WOTR and El Caz are books that I handed to my old father to show him some artwork and found him reading the whole thing, asking to see the next one when they’re out. My dad does NOT read comics, folks!

Meanwhile, Brath, Route 666 and most certainly Sojourn continue to be superior books that deserve CGE’s continued publication, and the upcoming spy series (whatever its merits) is another try in a new sigil-less direction.

My point is that, all financial and personnel goings-on aside, as a CGE reader I think these are all good decisions. If we didn’t live in this Internet age where every business decision and legal document was public discussion, I would think that the company was doing better! All the odd-titled books that I didn’t buy and couldn’t get into are going away, and the (in my opinion) best books remain. Yet I fear that the worst is not over, because all of these good changes may be happening too late.

Well, I don’t care if it’s overtly-partisan of this news-oriented site. We’ve always allowed commentary, and my comment is this: I love CrossGen and want it to survive. The best way I can help is to direct you to CGE’s better products and urge you to throw some money CGE’s way this Christmas while giving some entertainment for your friends.

If I can find an online referral distributor for those CrossGen Digital Comic Books which are hard to find, I’ll surely post better links to them as well. For now, go visit Electronics Boutique to order some in time for the holidays.