The properties are owned by Disney now, right?
The properties are owned by Disney now, right?
I think restorative nostalgia is the number one issue with comic book fans.
A fine distinction between two types of Nostalgia:
Reflective Nostalgia allows us to savor our memories but accepts that they are in the past
Restorative Nostalgia pushes back against the here and now, keeping us stuck trying to relive our glory days.
I notice owner/founder Mark Alessi died last year.
Back in 2016, the Hollywood Reporter wrote a piece about it's collapse. Alessi was a basically a comic book fan that wanted to create his own comic book company to rival the big two. He was succeeding until his his financial situation took a major hit. A lot of his funding came from his investment in Ross Perot's company Perot Systems. When that company got into trouble, Alessi's money source dried up.
Last edited by Iron Maiden; 07-03-2020 at 03:22 PM.
CrossGen and Valiant have put out great material but comics is a nostalgia driven market (I'm reading Batman/Marvel stuff since childhood) and CrossGen/Valiant doesn't have the numbers to sustain itself through its readers. DC and Marvel do thrive through that nostalgia but seemingly can't get new characters off the ground
With no one continuing to publish or write them, aren't they in danger of becoming public domain characters?
CrossGen... I seem to remember some books from a while back, oh it had to be more than 10, even 15... They were rather unique and interesting.
One was some sort of stage magician and the woman partner had some secret but limited ability. Oh bother, can't remember the name of that or the other interesting ones. Maybe I have the wrong company?
"Ruse" is the one I remembered. I looked it up. That was awhile ago. People are still hoping they come back?
Ruse was about a Sherlock Holmes type detective and his female associate/partner who could stop time but kept the ability hidden from Simon Archard due to some agreement with an unknown entity involving a wager. Marvel did do a mini-series of Ruse after they acquired Crossgen.
Is the line still owned by Marvel?
I think maybe it could succeed in the current market as a series of OGNs geared towards new audiences and sold on bookstores.
No, the characters and the copyrighted stories won't become public domain until 95 years after creation as they were work-for-hire assignments.
However, the trademarks on the titles likely have lapsed since they haven't been published in about a decade.
So, you might be able to publish a comic book titled "Sojourn," but you can't use the characters or the story concepts from the CrossGen series.
This is similar to what happened with Marvel's "Champions" trademark. They canceled the comic in the 1970s, so in the 1980s, Hero Comics came out with their own "Champions" comic, but it had original characters and stories.
Of course, it's the reason why Marvel was able to title a comic book "Captain Marvel," in the 1960s, but couldn't also use the Fawcett-Shazam characters.
I think Disney wanted to do that or they actually did it with one of the series. The comics would have to be refashioned as YA titles in order for them to succeed in the bookstore market, but it could be done.
I think the CrossGen series that feature magical girls as their main characters such as Mystic (featuring sisters Genevieve and Giselle) and Meridian (featuring the teenage Sephie) would be good places to start.
It is owned by Disney and Marvel put out a few mini series some years back with Ruse, Mystic and Sigil were published but fairly well altered from it's original intent and as such werent very well received so subsequently announced titles (Route 666 and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) were never published.
CrossGen as a comics line didnt do badly and wasnt unsuccessful, it was Alessi's trying to do too much and spreading money too thinly. Disney looked to license some of the characters but instead put out enough money the shareholders sold the store.
The rumor is that Disney bought CrossGen to get the rights for Abadazad. It's a shame that the company folded, I can't think any title from the Sigilverse that sucked.