As usual my introduction for my spotlight on Paul Pelletier's NEGATION book has become longer than anticipated - since it is too seldom that I get to write about the comicbook revolution that was CrossGen Comics.
So I have decided to do this second part because otherwise the post would be too long. The best part about this - besides being able to give my faithful followers two cult siren / pop culture trivia sections for the price of one - is that we already covered all the important trivia in the first part which means that we can jump right away to the good stuff.
While I am still working on my second post on Alan Davis x - cellent run on EXCALIBUR - as well as on my unfinished posts - I wanted to start at least two posts this month and since we have already covered DC Comics and Marvel Comics series in our last posts it's once again time for that independent comicbook series in - between. And this time I chose one of my all time favourite science fiction series : CrossGen's THE NEGATION written by Tony Bedard and MarkWaid and illustrated by Paul Pelletier .
Now it's been one year and five months since I did the first part of the FLASH : CHAIN LIGHTNING saga and I thought that by now my next Paul Pelletier post would be a spotlight post on his run on THE TITANS but as always life likes to throw you a fast curveball when you least expect it.
So before we come to the art I selected for this post ( normally these posts start with the original art pages that I find online but this time I only found one this being a comicbook series that was not published by the big two comicbook publishing companies ) I guess I have to explain a few things. My faithful followers are already in the know but for recent comicbook converts - or those who never venture from the main comic publishers - I probably have to wax philosophic about THE NEGATION and what the heck a CrossGen is since I never made a proper spotlight on it.
I bet if you mention CrossGen Comics to comicbook readers from my generation the first thing you will hear is a sigh because of its untimely demise. But I am getting ahead of myself here. It was the year 2000 and things were not as promised in all those science fiction novels, tv series and movies. The comicbook market was still dominated by DC Comics and Marvel Comics but the implosion from the comicbook boom in the 90s had left its mark and comic book stores were going out of business.
DC Comics had become so desperate that they tried to sell all of their characters to Marvel Comics a few years prior and the only reason why they did not buy them was that they didn't think they could have sold that shit. Marvel Comics had to file for bankruptcy and things got so bad that they agreed to do the mega crossover DC vs MARVEL ( or MARVEL vs DC depending on who you prefer ) just to keep their companies afloat.
Besides the big two companies there were a lot more smaller comicbook companies with iMAGE Comics coming in at third place followed by long running companies like Dark Horse or Archie Comics or new publishers like Valiant Comics who shuffled the cards for a completely new game.
And onto this then came CrossGen. As frequent visitors of the blog know I am not a big comic historian and prefer to give my own take on things since you can get some facts wrong but you can always rely on your own experiences. The first time I heard of CrossGen was in the comicbook shop - probably like everybody else - with an ad about a new publisher who was trying to take on the big boys. The pitch was that it would start with five new series - each one arriving in comicbook shops at a different week so that you would have them spread out through the entire month - and if you subscribed to all four you'd get a money back guarantee.
Meaning that if you bought the comics and didn't like them you could just send them back and would get your money back no questions asked.
The five titles they started with were MERIDIAN, a folklore fantasy book written by Barbara Kesel and illustrated by Joshua Middleton and Steve McNiven, SIGIL, a military science fiction space opera written by Barbara Kesel, MarkWaid and Chuck Dixon and drawn by Ben Lai, MYSTIC, magic fantasy by Ron Marz and Tony Bedard and drawn by Brandon Peterson, SCION, a King Arthur - esque fantasy book written by Ron Marz with art by Jim Cheung and last but definitely the CROSSGEN CHRONICLES. It was written by Barbara Kesel, Ron Marz and MarkWaid and unlike the other titles it was coming out every three months because it was illustrated by none other than the man, the myth, the legend GeorgePerez himself.
Which for me was the dealbreaker. Because I was not so sure if I really wanted to start with another comicbook company since I already had a lot of books on my pull list. But they got GeorgePerez. Plus at that time comics were not coming out on such a regular basis and while titles like DANGER GIRLS and BATTLE CHASERS were big hits with the comicbook fans the wait between issues could be anything from a few months to years so there was enough of a time gap to give something new a try.
Because that was another big thing with CrossGen Comics, one of the promises that they made was that all the books would be on time all the time. And as far as I know there was only one time where they could not deliver the books on time and that was due to the printers screwing up.
At first the whole deal with CrossGen Comics seemed to be too good to be true and as most of us who have fought in the comicbook trenches had to learn at great personal cost in most cases that is because it is not. CrossGen proved to be one of the lucky exceptions to that rule.
The company was founded by Mark Alessi, a guy who had made a fortune selling his software startup and wanted to make comics. But unlike most comicbook publishers at that time he hired artists and writers full time, paying them a salary, health insurance, dental and benefits. For that they had to relocate to Tampa, Florida where they would all work in the same building much like the bullpen in the early days of Marvel Comics.
Another thing that made CrossGen different was that they had a lot of female protagonists which at that time sadly still wasn't commonplace and what got them a lot of backlash from more conservative comicbook readers which still blows my mind. I thought that since the days of ChrisClaremont's UNCANNYX - MEN comicbook readers had gotten more used to having independent women in more prominent roles than just the damsel in distress but maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part.
As for the comics themselves, after the first wave there was a second wave of titles and a third wave and every new title was better than the one before. Besides the regular issues CrossGen also reprinted the books in two formats : regular trade paperbacks that collected singular titles ( and which took up more and more space in my comicbook collection ) and two sampler paperbacks that collected all the different titles from one month. Especially the last one was very popular for those who tried to check out the books since they were cheaper than buying floppies.
One thing that united the series was that in each title was a character that had a sigil mark on his body that granted him powers. Each issue was self contained but also part of a longer ongoing saga and while you got a distinctive world in each title they all were part of an universe.
Like I said, at first the whole money - back guarantee and shipping on time seemed like a gimmick but as time went on CrossGen not only delivered on their promises but because of the quality of the books, the ready availability of the trades and a program where you could get the entire catalogue online for a very small price they quickly rose to a big player alongside iMAGE or Dark Horse Comics and became a welcome alternative to Marvel and DC's male dominated constantly late books.
So right now you are probably wondering if they were so fantastic what happened to them ? Pacing. While most of their books were at a top level where writing and art were concerned they simply grew too big too fast. For three years CrossGen Comics experienced a time of unheard of prosperity but things quickly took a downward spiral when an investor backed out and Mark Alessi found himself without the necessary funds.
To make matters worse Mark Alessi did not communicate these problems with their fans nor business partners and started not paying freelancers.
Soon they went belly up' and while some of the stories were wrapped up - a lot of them by lesser talent - a lot of them were left open ended.
After some time Marvel Comics bought the rights to all their characters but the main reason for that was to get their hands on ABADAZAD written by J. M. DeMatteis with art by Mike Ploog as there were a lot of people interested to convert the intellectual property into children's books.
With all that said CrossGen Comics are still a worthy read since they were not only top notch but also a welcome alternative to super hero comics as they proved that comics about fantasy, science fiction, swords and sorcery, magic, pirates, detectives, horror stories and anything in - between were viable options that could easily find broad mass appeal.
They also furthered the idea of having female protagonists and many artists like Paul Pelletier, SteveEpting, Jim Cheung, Butch Guice or Steve McNiven made a huge leap in their artistic development while working at CrossGen Comics so they were quickly snatched up by the Marvel Comics bosses once CrossGen Comics folded and went on to fortune and fame.
But I think that the two things I personally am most grateful for in connection with CrossGen Comics have to do with GeorgePerez. The first one is CROSSGEN CHRONICLES in which George got to visit all the different realms of the CrossGen universe and although he did not get to do a lot of issues all of them are double - sized masterworks. And the second thing is JLA / AVENGERS. I know what some of you are saying : it is not a comicbook published by CrossGen Comics. But the thing is if not for Mark Alessi that book would not have happened. Because GeorgePerez was still under contract with CrossGen Comics when plans to do that comic began to manifest and if Mark Alessi had not put a clause into GeorgePerez contract that allowed him to do JLA / AVENGERS aside of his contractual obligations to CrossGen it would not have happened.
Okay, I think that was enough of a history lesson - I can just picture a part of my audience snoring from boredom - so let's get to the topic of Today's post : THE NEGATION. This came out as part of the second wave of CrossGen titles and starts off as Star Trek : Deep Space 9 meets Prison Break and then becomes so much better and so much more important.
Strangely enough it is one of the easiest series to get you into the CrossGen universe as it contains characters from a lot of other series ( more from the world of these books than characters who have appeared in them ) while at the same time being one of the most complicated. But maybe that is a sign of superb writing. The art in most of the run is by Paul Pelletier so there are no complaints in that department and there are so many twists and turns that the reader doesn't see coming that it is an ultimate joy to experience. I think the only negative thing I can say is that it ended too soon and thus left NEGATION WAR with a cliffhanger.
Speaking of cliffhangers, attentive blog followers may have noticed that we are already over our usual 23 pictures per post quota but don't worry, we'll get to more Paul Pelletier NEGATION goodness than you can shake an almost omnipotent lawbringer at in part two of this . Scout's honor.
