Cleverly Titled Blog
Monday, September 15, 2003
 

Special Occasions


It's a little past midnight, and thus a little belated, but a reciprocal post is in order:

Happy Anniversary, Baby. Thanks for five great years. I can't think of a better way to spend them than with you.

I love you, always and forever...
Monday, September 08, 2003
 

CrossGen Anti-Defamation League


So the trolls are smelling blood in the water, and attacking CrossGen at every turn. Admittedly, Mark Alessi brought some of this on himself with his typically unvarnished comments about the company's short-term cash crisis and the resultant slowdown/stoppage of payments to the company's freelancers (as has been detailed ad nauseum all over the comics Web sites.

Making it worse, The Pulse has decided to take the opportunity to show the world, "hey, look, we don't really kiss CrossGen butt." The site was repeatedly accused of giving CrossGen unfairly favorable treatment in coverage because the company is a major sponsor of the site. But when the news broke, The Pulse chose to report it in a way that could almost seem vindictive, including Heidi McDonald adding a preface to a statement from CrossGen Director of Marketing & Communications Bill Rosemann that made it appear as though Rosemann's statement was singling out three particular freelancers.

Worse, now the infamous Jess Lemon, The Pulse's fabricated, faux-"everygirl" reviewer/intern, has gotten into the act with a scathing review of the already-cancelled The First. I hesitate to link to it, as it's "Lemon's" usual hack-job, but it took "real guts" (read that with sarcasm) to attack a title that's already been cancelled and that had already been widely criticised even by CrossGen fans as near-impenetrable. Couple that with the fact that they avoided reviewing a CrossGen book until it went public that the company was having financial trouble, and it all becomes a little suspicious.

Pulse's sudden show of independence makes me wonder whether CrossGen got behind on paying them, too.

Meanwhile, the usual message-board trolls are crowing with glee and cheering for the company to fail.

Why?

If you don't like their books, fine. Don't buy 'em. But why begrudge the folks that do? Why root for a company to fail, putting dozens of people out of work, and taking dollars away from comics as a whole?

It's easy to assume that CrossGen fans will just start spending their money on other publishers' comics, but that's not necessarily so. There are lots of folks that aren't interested in the standard fare of other publishers (and contrary to what Jess would have you believe, and what The Comics Journal's "Journalista," Dirk Deppey snidely seconds in the feedback to the hack-job review, CrossGen doesn't publish standard superheroics -- if the average CrossGen protagonist is a superhero, then so are Gandalf, Luke Skywalker, and Carrie White; all folks with extranormal powers that don't use codenames, wear tights, or "fight crime"), but enjoy the various genres that CrossGen publishes.

My local comics shop manager tells me that CrossGen has become a significant part of their business, and that they have many customers that only buy CrossGen books. If CrossGen were to shutter their doors, it would damage their business significantly.

I just don't understand all the "haters."

Luckily, I think CrossGen is going to end up bouncing back from this stronger than ever, with a lean, mean line-up of strong titles and sounder financial footing, and with all the freelancers paid up (and that's another thing, haters: if CrossGen goes belly-up, do you believe those unpaid freelancers will ever see the monies owed them?). I believe they'll have the last laugh, and their fans will reap the benefits.

I still believe that most of the "haters" haven't bothered to check out the books. Tony Bedard's stuff, in particular (Negation, Route 666) never fails to entertain. I buy about half the line and enjoy it greatly; I'd buy more if I had the money to do so, and if I could get caught up on the early titles.

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