CG-USA News

[Gater]

Was, Andrea Di Vito bleibt nicht bei "The First"?----ist ja eigentlich ziemlich schade, denn seine Zeichnungen bei "The First" sind schon eine Augenweide...
Na ja, dann bin ich ja mal auf Andy Smith gespannt...wenn ich mich nicht irre, hat er doch Band 6 von Negation gezeichnet, oder?!?
Welche anderen CG Titel oder Serien hat Andy Smith denn bisher noch gezeichnet?

Cu Quaid

[Ralph Kruhm]

Andy hat sich ja vor allem als Inker von Barts Zeichnungen bei The First einen Namen gemacht. Selbst gezeichnet hat er u.a. die First-Kurzgeschichte "Mentor´s Councel" in First #12 & 13, sowie die Fill-Ins Crux #11, Meridian #22, und, in der Tat, Negation #6.

[Ralph Kruhm]

Zitate von Newsarama:

"CrossGen held their Wizardworld: Chicago panel during Saturday’s Day 2 of the con, with company founder/head Mark Alessi the main guest…

Among the topics discussed:

Next month’s Comicon International: San Diego will serve to debut a new wrinkle to CrossGen’s ‘Comics on the Web’ (COW) program.
Alessi reported for the last few months they’ve had actors recording spoken dialogue from the online issues of Meridian, Sojourn and Ruse, and that soundtrack music and sound effects are also being prepared.

This new option is also one small aspect of an educational initiative the publisher is working on.

CrossGen is designing education curriculum around those three titles (with Meridian geared toward grade school kids, Sojourn toward middle school and Ruse high school) so they can be streamed into classrooms to help students to learn to read.

“It will be the perfect bridge between the eye candy world kid’s live in and reading books,” said Alessi.

Also at San Diego Alessi said they’ll be announcing three to five new movie deals, and that one is currently signed and three to four are in final negations,

Finally, Alessi said bookstore retail giant Barnes & Noble has declared August their “CrossGen Month”, and that Walden Books will hold a CrossGen month in September as well.
The promotions will reportedly include special in-store promotions highlighting CrossGen’s trade paperback library."

Interessant sind aber auch die Dinge, die hinter verschlossenen Türen ablaufen:

"One of the more interesting elements of major comics conventions for pros and those covering the cons is the lively rumor mill the con floor inevitably turns into. Rumors are used as currency between pros during the shows, with many industry insiders trading info and hearsay in order to try to keep track of the major goings-ons.
Because of CrossGen’s prominent presence at the show and their announcement of CrossGen Entertainment and Code 6 Comics a couple of weeks ago, the Tampa publisher was the rumor mill ‘It Girl’ for most of the Wizardworld: Chicago weekend.

The weekend began with the hot rumor that CrossGen and Top Cow were possibly talking to one another, with wild speculation of possible scenarios involving the two publishers bandied about.

The rumors climaxed on late Saturday on the con floor and in the aftershow pro hangouts as the con’s worst kept secret was Mark Alessi and reps for Top Cow, including President Matt Hawkins were having dinner together that night. But less than 24 hours later, that rumor quickly petered out and the 180 degree Sunday buzz was any possible deals between CrossGen and Top Cow were highly unlikely.

Other CrossGen rumors ranged from the fairly conservative (prominent creators doing work for Code 6, stemming from creators like Mike Mignola being seen visiting the Cross booth) to the ‘How the hell did that get started’ variety (CrossGen buying Image Comics whole-cloth, setting up an alternate distribution system to compete with Diamond…)

The one rumor that seemed to have some legs, however, and gained prominence towards the close of the show (though hardly confirmed), was possible talks between CrossGen Entertainment and Brian Pulido’s Chaos! Comics.

Though a seemingly very odd fit on the surface, Pulido and Alessi reportedly have expressed mutual respect for one another in the past, and the two publishers could have something to offer one another - CrossGen all the publishing tools like foreign distribution, the Comics on the Web program and a shot in the arm profile-wise for Chaos!, and Chaos! a few hard-to-come-by points of market share and their own base readership for CrossGen.

Neither Brian Pulido nor representatives for CrossGen commented on the rumors Sunday afternoon, however."

Beide Artikel stammen von Newsarama.

[comicfreak]

Wesentlich interessanter finde ich den Artikel auf www.comicon.com/splash wo Alessi sich und seinen Verlag bald als Nr.1 des Comicgeschäfts anssieht.
Ich meine, nichts gegen ein gesundes Selbstvertrauen, aber das ist mir doch zu weit hergeholt!

(Anm. d. Mod.: Habe nur das Komma im Link weggenommen, damit er auch funktioniert )

[Ralph Kruhm]

Heftiger Artikel!

Tja, also, man bemerkt eine eindeutige Tendenz bei Mark, mit all den Idioten abrechnen zu wollen, die das ganze CG-Projekt während der vergangenen zwei Jahre lächerlich gemacht haben. Um ehrlich zu sein, da sehe ich gerne aus erster Reihe zu, denn verdient haben sie es alle. Ob das guter Stil ist, sei dahingestellt, ich persönlich kann ihm nur zustimmen.

Die Sache mit der Nummer Eins halte ich selbst auch etwas für zu heftig, werde aber den Teufel tun und behaupten, daß es nicht klappen wird. Wovon ich ganz fest ausgehe, ist hingegen Nummer Vier bis 2003, und Nummer Drei bis 2005. Was danach kommt, hängt m.E. von der Qualität der Filme und TV-Serien ab.

[comicfreak]

Ich persönlich lese das ganze mit gemischten Gefühlen. Es liest sich für mich wie eine Kriegserklärung. Crossgen gegen den Rest der Welt! (Ich weiß, ich übertreibe)
Klar bringt Crossgen gute Serien raus. Aber hat der Verlag wirklich das Potential dazu, sich lange im Geschäft zu halten?
Auf dem Comicbookresourcesmessageboard hat ein User Crossgen mit Verlagen wie Acclaim verglichen. Guter Start, aber nach einiger Zeit wieder weg vom Fenster.
Ich selber glaube das nicht, aber ebensowenig glaube ich, das Crossgen im nächsten Jahr die Nummer 1 sein wird. Dafür verkaufen sie IMHO noch zu wenig Blockbustertitel. Die meisten Serien rangieren ja noch außerhalb der Top 100. (Jetzt kriege ich einen auf den Deckel!)
Was Crossgen fehlt? Nichts! Das ist ja das paradoxe! Es ist ein guter Verlag, mit guten Titeln, und jeder Menge Potential. Nur sollte Mark Alessi darauf achten, das Crossgen nicht noch schneller expandiert!
Nur meine 0,02€.

[Ralph Kruhm]

Das mit den Top 100 ist ja nur deshalb, weil Marvel keine Reorders mehr zuläßt. Also ordern die Shops immer Berge von dem Zeug im voraus, was deren Titel natürlich in die Höhe schnellen läßt. Und Reorders erscheinen in de Top 100 generell nicht, und gerade da hat CG einen Bombenerfolg...

[Ralph Kruhm]

"I brought down eight boxes of books on the Roman Empire. These are books I've been buying for years in the vain hope that I might do a comic on this subject someday. That day is now. Brath is really two stories; the fall and rise of Brath's clan and the intrigues in "Rome" of the line of Quintillius, our fictional emperor. It's the story of two families. We'll see lots of both. I just completed scripting #6 which takes place entirely in an arena during a bloody gladiator fight.
Andrea is especially pumped for this. He's FROM Rome and grew up on even more of the old sword and sandal epics than I did. We're assembling mountains of reference. I just bought a collection of Look and Learn weeklies from the UK which had HUNDREDS of fantastic illos of Roman life. I even found some great trireme ref in an old men's magazine today.
This book is gonna cross the Rubicon in style, citizen."

William Wallace im Intrigendschungel Roms; Braveheart meets Gladiator...

Ist das cool, oder was...?

[Obregon Kaine]

Original geschrieben von Ralph Kruhm
William Wallace im Intrigendschungel Roms; Braveheart meets Gladiator...

...das kann ja nur ein Hit werden !!!

Wann soll die Serie doch noch gleich starten???

[Arabrax]

Anfang nächsten Jahres, laut Wizard.

[Ralph Kruhm]

Im Fanbereich von www.crossgen.com sind die neuen Cover online.

www.milehighcomics.com ist inzwischen zuverlässiger Lieferant für die First Looks, also Previews der jeweils ersten vier-fünf Seiten aller Hefte.

[Balu]

Original geschrieben von comicfreak
Auf dem Comicbookresourcesmessageboard hat ein User Crossgen mit Verlagen wie Acclaim verglichen. Guter Start, aber nach einiger Zeit wieder weg vom Fenster.

Ich glaub nicht dass Crossgen so schnell wieder verschwindet, schon allein weil Alessi wohl 'nen größeren Finanzpuffer hat als Acclaim und Konsorten aufweisen konnten!
Klar wird Alessi nicht unendlich viel Geld reinstecken wenn nichts dabei rauskommt, aber sollte 'ne kleinere Durststrecke kommen kann Crossgen doch erstmal weitermachen wo anderen "klein"Verlagen schon die Finanzmittel ausgehen!
Würd ich mal raten

greetz,
Steven

[Ralph Kruhm]

Frisch von Newsarama:

Adding to its line-up, and continuing to collect publishers that were caught in the LPC bankruptcy, CDS today announced that it has signed an agreement with CrossGen to distribute its graphic novels and other books to the book trade. This agreement will allow CDS to exclusively represent CrossGen to the bookstore, library, warehouse club, and mass merchandiser markets.
“We were impressed by CDS’ commitment to growing the graphic novel category within bookstores and mass merchants. They have a great vision for the future, and the experience and resources to realize it,” said Chris Oarr, Director of Marketing and Sales for CrossGen Comics in a CDS release.

Michael Murphy, who will join CDS from LPC to help head up the new graphic novel publishing group, states, "CrossGen's signing is particularly meaningful as CDS enters the business of representing graphic novels to the book trade. After a rapid rise in the Direct Market over the last few years, CrossGen started shipping to bookstore accounts just two months ago. We have already shipped over 70,000 CrossGen books, making theirs one of the strongest launches ever into the book trade for any graphic novel publisher. At the same time we were introducing titles to the trade, the wealth of creative partnerships CrossGen has forged from power agent, Michael Uslan, to Lycos, YOUtopia, and comics-on-the-web through Mercury Media, insures CrossGen will become one of the most powerful players in this expanding category."

[Northstar]

Frisch von "Pulse" & der SDCC:

"The much rumored news of comics to film involving CrossGen has broke at San Diego ComiCon. Today the sophomore company announced six media deals with some of the top names in television and feature films. Chuck Russell, best-known for his work on The Scorpion King, Mask, and Eraser, will be producing a film based on Scion. Scion is a fantasy adventure series featuring a young prince - Ethan of the Heron Kingdom - gifted with exceptional powers. After he accidentally injures and scars a rival prince - Bron of the Raven Kingdom - during ceremonial combat, he finds his country at war with theirs.

Russell is also working with Frank Darabont, who is famous for his work on The Majestic, Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile. The duo worked together on the remake of The Blob and the third installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street saga. Russell, already familiar with working in foreign locals, is teaming with Darabont to work on CrossGen's Eastern tale, Way of the Rat. Way of the Rat is CrossGen's Kung-Fu action series chronicling the misadventures of a young thief. Boon Sai Hong has been hired by gangsters to retrieve two items. Once the bandit finds the pieces, he unknowingly makes himself an enemy of almost everyone in the countryside. Now his only ally is a talking monkey named Po-Po, and Boon has to discover just why an encrusted scroll and ring are so valuable before they fall into the wrong hands - if there are really any right ones.

Robert Zemeckis made a name for himself when he stunned audiences with his psychological thriller What Lies Beneath and then impressed those same people with his range by the award-winning Tom Hanks film Cast Away. Zemeckis has signed on to work on CrossGen's first foray into the horror field, Route 666. Route 666 is the story of Cassie, a young woman who sees dead people ... No, really! Ever since she was little, she has had special, imaginary friends. But they aren't imaginary - they're spirits that haven't yet crossed over. Now, besides seeing the dead, she's begun seeing invaders from a realm that's after souls and, perhaps, something else. With Zemeckis' range and ability to shock, he's the perfect choice to bring this unpredictable series to the Silver Screen.

Another match is Larry Kasanoff of Threshold Entertainment and CrossGen's ex-intergalactic soldier with an attitude series, Sigil. Kasanoff kicked butt, literally, with his take on popular video game Mortal Kombat. He's not just a one-trick pony, though; the creator also got accolades for his comedy spy drama True Lies. Sigil is the story Samandahl Rey, an ex-soldier who didn't want to get out of the intergalactic war but wasn't given any choice in the matter when his commanders relieve him of duty. He and his best friend, Roiya, try leading a normal life, but they find themselves mixed up in the war again when she's mortally wounded and he's gifted with a sigil granting him great powers. Roiya finds new life as a part of their space ship, The Bitterluck, and Sam finds himself smack-dab in the middle of the fight. He quickly makes allies and enemies as his actions become legendary across this Universe and beyond. This space-faring epic is the perfect CrossGen series to become a weekly TV offering, and Kasanoff is well-suited to spearhead the project.

Bringing Meridian, CrossGen's fairy tale to life in a mix of animated and computer generated images, is Larry Whitaker of Cornerstone Animation. Whitaker's works include The Iron Giant, The Tigger Movie, and Mighty Joe Young. He's proven himself as someone who can take a young adult concept and make it accessible to people of all ages. Meridian is the story of Sephie, 16-year-old ruler of the floating city of Meridian. She struggles against her uncle Ilahn, the evil minister of Cacador who tries to use Sephie's powers towards his own nefarious ends. A fantastic coming-of-age tale, Meridian has the heart and emotion to appeal to a wide variety of entertainment connoisseurs.

Finally, CrossGen was pleased to announce that Wes Craven, creator of modern horror classics such as Nightmare on Elm Street and The People Under the Stairs, will be working on the movie adaptation of Mystic. Mystic is a world of magic where having powers and knowing how to perform spells and glamours is as common as breathing air. Giselle comes from a long line of powerful mystics, but she has no desire to follow in the family tradition. She'd rather be partying all the time. But when she's marked with power and absorbs the essences of the world's Guild Leaders, she becomes involved in a struggle she never asked for and, even with her newfound abilities, might not be able to overcome. Craven, used to pitting a character against overwhelming odds and making viewers believe in the impossible, is ideal to bring this story of improbabilities to life.

For all CrossGen projects, the Hollywood teams are working closely with the comics teams. As the ink is still wet on some of these deals, only Russell has been down to Oldsmarr, but he praised the experience, noting that he would "Rather spend time with the colorist on Scion than with some of the other people in Hollywood." Russell is a long-time comics reader who once considered a career as a cartoonist.

Kasanoff noted "Hollywood needs to be fed new ideas, and you're sitting right in the middle of them at this convention.""


Wow, stellenweise richtig große Hollywood-Namen, die hier auf tauchen. Man darf gespannt sein....

Northy

[Ralph Kruhm]

Mit dem breitmöglichsten Grinsen seht Ihr mich zufrieden in den Sessel zurücksinken. It´s a good day to be a CrossGen Fan!

[Northstar]

Weitere News aus San Diego:

"Code Six comics announced today via a press release that is has signed an agreement with R.A. Salvatore to bring his fantasy series, Demon Wars to comic book form. The original Demon Wars series told the story of Elbryan Wyndon, an elven-trained Ranger and his band of friends as they face off against the demon, Dactyl, an embodiment of evil.
Salvatore has begun writing a second series of Demon Wars novels, with the first two, Ascendance and Transcendence already out in paperback, and it is those that the comics will be based upon. The author himself will not write the comics, but hois editorial presence will be felt throughout the process. Writer Scott Ciencin, a New York Times best-selling author of adults and children’s fiction. Both Salvatore and Ciencin have written novels for the Forgotten Realms series of novels.

Artist Ron Wagner has been tapped to be among the first artists to work on the book.

“Our mission at CrossGen has always been to bring new readers to comics – and to do it by raising the bar on quality as much as possible,” said Ian Feller, Director of Business Development of Code Six Comics, in a release. “This is one of those deals that delivers on both of those promises with a powerful punch. Bob Salvatore is one of the most-read fantasy writers in the world, and we’ll be betting that we’ll all be able to bring some of his millions of readers into comics with this series.

Said Salvatore in the same release: “I’m really excited about this, because I come from a ‘shared world’ universe with Demon Wars. I’m looking at what CrossGen was doing, and I see an absolute parallel to what I was doing. I wanted to take Demon Wars to a new audience, and Code Six wants to take comics to a new audience, so this is a perfect first step for both of us. This is going to be a lot of fun.”

The particulars of the creative team, and the regularity of the title have yet to be determined, and the launch date of the first issue has not been set.

Ownership of the property is also slightly unclear, as one of the stipulations of Code Six comics requires that CrossGen own over 50% of the property. Look for an update soon regarding this new Code Six project at Newsarama.com.

Additionally, CrossGen has confirmed that Hurricane Entertainment’s John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles, will be published through CGE.

The series will premiere in 2003. For more details about the series, click here.

Hurricane’s other ongoing series, Violent Messiahs will continue to be published through Image."

Yeah, Snake unter CGE Banner!!!!!!!!!!!

Northy

[Ralph Kruhm]

Oh my God! Jetzt fehlt nur noch, daß Salvatore von dem Ergebnis so überzeugt ist, daß er WotC dazu bringen kann, seine Drizzt-Saga bei CG zu veröffentlichen, dann tapezier´ ich mein Haus rot/gelb!!!

[Greyfax]

Ja, und Salvatore soll noch viele Drizzt Geschichten schreiben, damit die Serie sehr, sehr lange wird. Ein geiler Gedanke.

@ Ralph
Hast du schon eine Adresse, wo man eine rot-gelbe Tapete herbekommt? Falls es notwendig wird.

[Ralph Kruhm]

Zur Not streich´ ich einfach mit Farbe...

Bist ein Drizzt-Fan, hm? Schon gehört, daß die DarkElf-Saga verfilmt werden soll? Zu den Forgotten Realms machen sie ohnehin eine TV-Serie (mit Salvatore als Story-Guru), aber die ganze DE-Sache soll ausgeklammert und als Film gedreht werden...

Jaja, was LOTR so ausgelöst hat...

[Ralph Kruhm]

Die Eisner Awards wurden verliehen...

...and the winner is...:

Best Coloring: Laura DePuy, Ruse

Schade, daß es nach den fünf Nominierungen nur ein Award geworden ist, aber immerhin!

[Northstar]

Wobei Laura den Award mehr als verdient hat! Glückwunsch!

[cocopops]

Drizzt Comics wären wirklich klasse, aber nur wenn Salvatore irgendwie mit einbezogen würde. Die würden dann aber wohl eher bei Kenzer erscheinen, wo ja momentan schon die normalen D&D Comics (und die Knights) erscheinen.

Original geschrieben von Ralph Kruhm
Schon gehört, daß die DarkElf-Saga verfilmt werden soll? Zu den Forgotten Realms machen sie ohnehin eine TV-Serie (mit Salvatore als Story-Guru), aber die ganze DE-Sache soll ausgeklammert und als Film gedreht werden...

Wo hast du das mit den Dunkelelfen-Filmen denn her? Das es eine TV-Serie geben soll, hab ich auch schon gelesen, aber Filme?!
Hoffentlich verhunzen sie die nicht (ich denke mit Schaudern an Sachen wie Xena, Hercules, Sindbad, Das 10.te Königreich, Die Unicorn und ähnliche "Fantasy"-TV Gruselgurken).

[Ralph Kruhm]

Bei Kenzer... hm, naja, nicht daß Drizzt irgendwann vor Artemis steht und sagt "I waste him with my crossbow..."

Das mit dem Film stand irgendwann mal auf der Eric Noah-Seite (anerkannter d20-Guru)...
...und ja, ich bete auch um Niveau...

[Ralph Kruhm]

Alles zum Thema Salvatore, Demon Wars, Snake, CrossGen Entertainment und Code 6 Comics findet Ihr ab sofort im Topic "CGE/C6C News".

[Ralph Kruhm]

Was ist Solus? Nun, Booster aus dem US-Forum meldet laut einem Original-Zitat von Barbara Kesel:

According to Beeber :
"My other formerly-secret-until-announced-at-San-Diego project is the development of CrossGen's next series, SOLUS, written by me with art by some guy named George. Perez, that is. If features the adventures of Andra Radiant, and that's about all we're going to tell you about it for now. Watch for the big announcement and first art..."

A while back, The Master spoke with George Perez who told him a few things about it.

1) It's kind of like CrossGen Chronicles in that he has access to many of the charcters in the CG Universe if he needs them.

2) It will feature an ongoing group of individuals that travel throughout the CG universe.