#CrossGen Comic Books

[trnsocial]

The WIZARD Files: Bart Sears

We talk to prolific Wizard magazine cover artist and Brutes & Babes drawing tutorial creator, Bart Sears about his career in comics from the 80’s to the modern day, his many unpublished Wizard covers, launching his own comic book company and so much more. If you’re a fan of Brutes & Babes, you can now get 2 volumes of How To Draw Powerful Heroes containing those lessons through Bart’s Kickstarter…

[balu8]

Mystic #1

by Ron Marz, Brandon Peterson, John Dell, Andrew Crossley and  Dave Lanphear

CrossGen

[mediaomnivore]

Marvel recently put up a bunch of the early Mystic issues from CrossGen in 2000. I remember seeing these and liking the art so it's fun to see them again.

[ginge1962]

Crossgen Chronicles #8 - July 2002, cover by Esteban Maroto.

[patatedestenebres]

The First

[cryptocollectibles]

CrossGenesis #1 Signed by Barbara Kesel, Ron Marz, and Michael Atiyeh (March 2000) by CrossGen Comics

Written and drawn by various, cover by Brandon Peterson and Dexter Vines.

[rantelisaliveandwell]

Sigil #1

(July 2000)

Written by Barbara Randall Kesel

Pencils by Ben Lai

Inks by Ray Lai

Colours by Wil Quintana

Letters by Dave Lanphear

(Note: the writer of this comic was born Barbara Randall, and after her marriage to Karl Kesel used the professional name Barbara Kesel, which is how she is credited in this comic and, I believe, everything published by CrossGen. However, she has since gotten divorced, and last I saw was using Barbara Randall Kesel as her professional name, so that is what I will be calling her.)

So here we are at the launch of CrossGen's second series, Sigil. I'm not sure why they decided to call it that, as Sigils are a major part of all of their books, not just this one. Oh well.

This one is intriguing right off the bat, as it takes place in a sci-fi corner of the universe, with interstellar travel and multiple races and such. (I'm curious to see whether future issues explain how this relates to the non-spacefaring planets of the CrossGen universe. Do they have some kind of Prime Directive that keeps them from contacting them? Or are they just geographically isolated in their own section of space or something?)

So it appears that there is a union of human worlds, and a rival faction of reptiloids known as Saurians. We are informed early on that the two powers are on the brink of war. This issue is set on Tanipal, a waystation frequented by members of both species, which seems to give off a vibe of Mos Eisley: The Planet.

Our protagonists are Samandahl Rey ("Sam") and Roiya, two... freighters? Mercenaries? Honestly, it's not super clear WHAT they do, other than that they are "between jobs" at the moment.

Sam makes some money by playing Pseudosaurs, wherein people take psychic control of lower-order dino-things and make them gruesomely fight to the death. Pro tip: if you want the audience to like your protagonist, don't have them participating in bloodsports literally one page after their introduction. I get that they're trying to present him as rogueish, rough-around-the-edges type, but this is a bit much. Not really the kind of thing I can see, like, Han Solo doing.

While Sam does that, Roiya flirts with a dude and makes a dinner date with him.

Scene then shifts to the palace of Sultan Rotolo, ruler of Talipan.

He once had some sort of exclusive trade deal with the human planets, which has since lapsed, and they've sent a rep to convince him to renew it. The Sultan is reluctant, as he enjoys the freedom of being able to trade with both sides. However, this negotiation is cut short when the Sultan notices that one of his harem has gone missing.

Coincidentally, just at that moment Sam has bumped into a mysterious, beautiful woman who appears to be in disguise.

Before he can say more than a few words to her, the authorities bust in, announcing that Zanniati, one of the Sultan's wives, has been kidnapped, and the spaceport is now on high alert.

And THEN, if that's not enough, a group of Saurians burst upon the scene and declare their intent to kill Sam, saying they have been sent by someone named Tchlusarud, who Sam has history with. Presumably we will learn this story in future issues. (Roiya complains about Sam getting "all the credit," insisting she is just as deserving of Tchlusarud's wrath.)

A buncha things happen very quickly: Zanniati gets her hands on a big fuckin gun and joins the fight, Sam is pulled aside by a mysterious figure who imprints him with the titular Sigil (right across his chest!), and Roiya is impaled by one the Saurians, who is promptly blown away by Zanniati.

Roiya is alive, but gravely injured. Sam needs to get her back to their ship's medical facilities in order to have any hope of saving her life. The guy she was supposed to have a date with (who still hasn't been named, unless I'm missing something) reappears seemingly out of nowhere, revealing himself to be a local security officer ("Although I'm in the process of executing my sudden resignation.") who uses his security ID to bypass all the lockdowns and get them back to the ship.

After that... it's not super clear what happens? Roiya appears to die on the operating table, Sam's new Sigil-powers cause some sort of an explosion... and then the issue just kind of ends.

I get that it's supposed to be a cliffhanger, but I feel like it would be more effective if the audience had a clearer idea of what was happening. And I feel like that sums up a lot of what I think is wrong with this comic.

Pros always tell aspiring comic artists: focus on drawing SEQUENCES, not just pin-ups. Because being able to draw good is only half the battle in comics. You've also got to be able to clearly convey story and action from panel to panel. And I feel like the storytelling in this comic is just not up to snuff. Lai's compositions are often overly crowded, his panel-to-panel continuity of frequently unclear, and Quintana's muted coloring doesn't help matters. And maybe this is just a nitpick, but Sam and Roiya's nameless (?) date look way too similar to each other. In short, there several points in this comic where I had a bit of trouble following what was going on.

I didn't talk much about the art in Mystic in my last post, but you can really see the difference. Brandon Peterson had been drawing comics professionally for years, and his storytelling is miles clearer than that of the Lai brothers, who were promising newbies that CrossGen snapped up. Their heavily anime-influence style may be pretty to look at, but their storytelling needs practice. I'll be interested to see if I notice improvement over the course of this series (although I'm actually not sure how long they stick around for.)

It's a shame, because I think the writing is better on this one than it was on Mystic. We get several shorter sequences rather than just the two longish ones, more characters are introduced, there is more action throughout. Like Mystic, we don't really KNOW any of the characters particularly well yet, but it's only been twenty-odd pages. I'm interested to learn more (and find out what the hell is going on!)

[smashpages]

Out this week: CrossGen Tales #1 (Marvel, $8.99):

Hey, remember CrossGen? The comic company bought by Disney that wasn’t MArvel? Marvel revives several CrossGen titles in this reprint of material from Ruse, Mystic, Sigil and Sojourn. Is this a copyright renewal thing, or should we be expecting a revival soon (or a Disney+ show)? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. 

See what else is arriving in comic shops this week.

[robotsvsprincesses]

Robots vs. Princesses is a Graphic Novel! You can now Pre-Order Robots vs. Princesses by printing this coupon and bringing it to your…

[resurrectionsadamwarlock]

George Perez Week Strikes Back!

[trnsocial]

WIZARDS The Podcast Guide To Comics | Episode 102

We discuss all the drama behind the Superman revamp at DC Comics, the launch of CrossGen, Joe Simon suing Marvel for the rights to Captain America, Rob Liefeld and so much more. Issue 102 of Wizard was crammed full of fascinating stories from the year 2000, so listen now! You could be listening to this episode in a longer, UNCUT format a week early, receive a PDF scan of the issue, have access…

[balu8]

Mystic #1

by Ron Marz, Brandon Peterson, John Dell, Andrew Crossley and  Dave Lanphear

CrossGen

[soleminisanction]

Chuck Dixon and the Rawhide Kid - How a Famous Batman Writer Fell From Grace

Context: I originally wrote this post for r/hobbydrama over on Reddit but figured I'd go ahead and archive it here, too, since I'm gradually waking my blog back up. If you've seen it before, that's probably why.

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This is an old drama that I stumbled on while doing research for something else. I’m mostly typing this up ‘cause it’s at the risk of being lost to digital decay, and I think it’s a story worth preserving.

For those who don’t know, Charles “Chuck” Dixon was rather the Batman comics writer of the 90s. After establishing himself with smaller publishers and finding critical success working for Marvel on Moon Knight and The Punisher, Dixon joined DC Comics as the writer for the first Robin miniseries, a book successful enough that it led into two more miniseries and an ongoing monthly. The monthly series went on to run for 15 years and almost 200 issues, 100 of which Dixon wrote himself. He was also given runs on Detective Comics, where he helped create the characters of Bane and Spoiler, as well as on Nightwing, Batigrl, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, and Green Arrow. He was also one of the primary orchestrators of the various big “Bat-family” crossovers that happened during that time, like the Knightfall, Contagion, and No Man’s Land storylines. To this day, his social media pages tout him as "the most prolific writer of American comics ever."

Then, in the early 2000s, he left the company. The official reason, the reason that’s on his Wikipedia page, is that he wanted to focus his attention on CrossGen, a smaller publisher that was struggling at the time and would eventually go bankrupt. However, in the years that followed, Dixon would go on to claim that he had, in fact, been “blacklisted” from DC for his, quote, “conservative beliefs,” specifically citing a certain incident involving the Marvel cowboy character the Rawhide Kid.

See, the Kid—a character originally from the 1950s and apparently a favorite of Dixon’s as a child—had either recently been or was about to be the subject of a controversial five-issue miniseries from Marvel’s mature-audiences MAX line, in which he was re-imagined as being gay. Not in the sense that he ever gets to kiss a man, but in the sense that he is just flaming. For god’s sake, they called it The Rawhide Kid: Slaps Leather and released it with covers like this.

It’s all played very much as a joke but not, in my opinion, a mean one. Like, the punchline is less “ha-ha funny gay man” than it is “ha-ha, that gay man just kicked your macho ass and it didn’t even mess up his hair.” It’s camp, is what I’m saying. Even with the constant asides about moisturizer and criticizing everyone’s fashion sense, the Kid still plays the role of an archetypal lone gunman riding into town to defend the innocent completely—for lack of a better word—straight. All of the expected emotional beats for such a story are represented and are reasonably well-executed, and overall it’s just a romp, it’s not anything serious.

Dixon, however, took it very seriously, apparently before it ever hit the newsstands. He gave an interview...somewhere, in which he complained about the inclusion of homosexual characters in comic books, comparing their presence to introducing children—specifically his children, a phrase he uses repeatedly—to the concept of STDs. He also made the completely baseless accusation that the book’s artist, John Severin, had been tricked into drawing it.

Quote:

“Am I to understand that John Powers Severin is drawing this wretched piece of expolitational (sic) trash? John objected to (but finally drew) a western story I wrote in which an unmarried couple were shown together in bed. Could he have willingly participated in this? I doubt it very strongly. I’ll bet he was handed a plot with no idea that the subject of the Rawhide Kid’s ‘secret’ would be revealed in the dialogue.”

Unfortunately, this interview has now been lost to digital decay—and, frankly, to Dixon trying to cover his own tracks—so I’ve had to piece a lot of this together from other people’s commentaries from around the same time. That quote comes second-hand, from the statement that Marvel’s then-Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada made in reaction. You will be unsurprised to learn that he was not well pleased that he and his senior editor were accused of taking advantage of an 82-year-old industry veteran, nor that said 82-year-old industry veteran was implied to be too stupid to know what he was drawing. Someone eventually just asked Severin himself, and he made it clear that he had known all along, worked from a full script, and thought the whole thing was funny.

It’s never been officially confirmed that this interview got Dixon blacklisted at Marvel, but it would make sense, as publishers tend to frown on working with freelancers who falsely accuse them of major ethics violations. That said, according to Dixon—and only Dixon, from what I’ve been able to find—there was also, apparently, a “certain editor” at DC Comics who happened to be gay and who took offense to his statements. This editor brought his complaints to the publisher, who demanded Dixon make an apology. Dixon refused and was, supposedly, "blacklisted."

Since then, Dixon has retold the story several times, each time removing a few more details to paint himself as a victim of “the Perpetually Offended.” It’s very clear that he thinks—or at least thought—that his politics, specifically his views on homosexuality, are what’s kept him from getting any work at the Big Two since about 2008. Whether or not that’s true—and, to be clear, I don’t think it is, I think he was just dropped for being grossly unprofessional—this opinion has, apparently, led him to spend his 2010s writing for infamous alt-right activist and ComicsGater Vox Day. Most infamously, this collaboration is responsible for producing two issues of a mini-series titled Alt Hero: Q, which, yes, is about that Q.

I’ve read it. It’s far more boring than you think.

Dixon’s online presence has diminished significantly in the decade since. Most notably, he pulled both the blog and the forum from his personal website, purging several re-tellings of the Rawhide Kid incident and other comments now preserved other people’s responses, including one where he confirms that he pushed Green Arrow II, Connor Hawke, into sleeping with a ghost-woman despite his monastic vows specifically to discourage the reading that he might be gay.

In August 2021, Tim Drake, the Robin character with whom Dixon originally built his reputation, was revealed by the comics to be some variety of not-straight and entered into a tentative romantic relationship with another boy. As of time of writing, Dixon’s mostly-inactive social media pages have no comment.

[genehq]

⌇  —  ᵒᵖᵉⁿⁱⁿᵍ  .  .  .  /   𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙾_𝙶𝙷𝚀.𝙴𝚇𝙴  ;

      ⌇  —  𝙃𝙀𝙇𝙇𝙊  𝙁𝙍𝙄𝙀𝙉𝘿𝙎  ! i  am  so  excited  to  bring genehq  to  you  .  .  ! we  are  a  brand  new  skeleton  discord  based  roleplay  based  around  cyberpunk  2077  .  our  story  concentrates  around  a  publishing  company  that  is  currently  writing  a  comic  book  called  CROSSGENE  .  though  ,  half  of  our  skeletons  are  the  characters  of  crossgene  while  the  others  are  the  writers  also  known  as  crossteam  .  .  .  please  come  check  us  out !  this  is  more  of  an  interest  check  ,  we  will  keep  our  submit  open  until  we  have  at  least  one  application  for  every  character  .  please  LIKE  if  this  interests  you  !  thanks  . —  athena  ,  ely  ,  &  dustin  .

[patatedestenebres]

Scion, heroic fantasy futuriste!

[cryptocollectibles]

The Path #1 & 2 (2002) by CrossGen Comics

By Ron Marz, Bart Sears, Mark Pennington, and Michael Atiyeh.