Recently, a comic book company called Crossgen announced the cancellation of many of its titles and the delay of the rest. Prior to that, there had been reports that some of its artists were having trouble getting paid. I think it's fair to assume that the company is in some amount of financial trouble and that this flows from insufficient sales.
Yesterday, an e-mail from a reader of this site asked me for my view as to why their books haven't sold better. I'm afraid I can't advance any sort of theory. You see, despite the fact that I am an active participant in the comic book community, including going to conventions and comic book shops, I have never seen a Crossgen comic book. I couldn't name a Crossgen comic if you pointed a howitzer at my vitals and I only know the names of four people who have worked for them…
I know Barbara Kesel was involved in some sort of editorial capacity. I know this because at some convention a few years back, Barbara handed me her business card and it said "Crossgen" on it.
I know Mark Waid wrote some scripts for them. I know this because Mark told me this over lunch one day.
I know George Perez drew something for them. I know this because I ran into George the last time I was in New York and when I asked him what he was up to, he said he was drawing something for Crossgen.
And I know Robin Riggs was inking for them. I know this because several Internet message boards erupted with tales of Robin allegedly not being paid, or not being paid on time or something of the sort.
That is everything I know about Crossgen. I couldn't tell you what comics those folks, fine talents all, did for them. Couldn't tell you who else worked for the firm, and obviously I wouldn't even know that the four above-named people had worked for them if I had not spoken personally with the first three and if Robin had been been paid on time. I know absolutely nothing about Crossgen via the usual means by which potential customers hear about a comic book company and its wares. When I've gone into a comic shop the last few years, there may have been Crossgen books available there but if so, they were not prominent enough for me to notice. When I've received fanzines and read comic news websites, I've seen the name of Crossgen whiz past but never in a context that caused me to actually read the item. If any of my friends have read Crossgen books the last year or three, or however long the company's been around, no one has mentioned them to me.
Now, I'm sure this bespeaks volumes about my naivete. Perhaps I had to walk through cons with blinders on not to be overtaken by the Crossgen Age of Comics. But it must also say at least a little something about the importance of another comic book company that published whatever it is they published, which I'm guessing were books designed to appeal to the superhero and s-f crowd.
I am absolutely not putting down the creative content of those comics. Since I haven't seen them, I have no opinion of how good they were. There have been plenty of wonderful comics done that I've never read and maybe these books should go on that list. But given their reported problems, I'm obviously not the only person out there who wasn't paying attention. That might be a function of insufficient promotion. It might be a function of the quality of the books. Or it might be that they were offering a product for which there simply was no demand, or a demand that has already been quite satiated. Sight unseen, I'm guessing the last of these.