Crossgen questions

[tikiman]

Hi Tony - I appreciate the fact that you actively participate here. I am a big fan of Negation. (When I got married, I gave my groomsmen 4 examples of what I though was great sequential art - Maus, JLA Year One, Ultimate Spider-Man Book 1, and BOHICA). I even got the Negation DVD on e-bay, which they did a pretty good job on.

So, my question is, what would have happened had Crossgen not gone under? Was Negation War issue 3 ever scripted? Where titles like Ruse, Chimera, and your Route 666 going to factor into things? Ok, so that is several questions.

Also, is any original artwork for sale, or was that all owned by Crossgen and now Disney?

Thank you for your time

--Ben Kennedy

[Allen Klingelhoets]

I miss Crossgen. I was very active on CG boards and even had letters published in there comic books.

[Tony Bedard]

Oh, shit! Did I never respond to the original post on this?


Bad, BAD Tony!

Tikiman, the truth is I don't remember exactly what was going to happen in NEGATION WAR. I think issue #3 was written and maybe even drawn. I know we were going to kill off a bunch of characters and boil it down to a confrontation between Kane, Charon and Danik in Perdition. Appolyon's secret weapon was going to go off, turning Charon and Danik back into normal people, and then Kane was going to beat them both seneless with a toilet. Yeah, I forgot most of the details, but I always remember the toilet.

I'm sure there's original art floating around out there, but I wouldn't know where to direct you. Does anyone else have a suggestion? And i don't think Disney's subsidiary, Hyperion Books, actually kept the original art. I think it was returned, but again I'm not completely sure.

Tony B

[Red Jack]

So, no luck on reigniting Disney's interest in the project as a comic book?

That breaks my heart.

[Allen Klingelhoets]

My favorite Crossgen comics were Meridian, Negation and Sojourn. My all time favorite though was first eight issues of Brath.

[Trem]

I was also a big Fan of the whole Crossgen Concept. I Loved The First (which remind me of a book called brother to demons brother to gods) Negation, Scion, Ruse, Mystic....... It's sad that Crossgen ended the way it did.

Termall

[Ullar]

whast is the crossgen concept?

[Tony Bedard]

The concept was that a bunch of people on different worlds were given a mark of power called the Sigil. It manifested different super-powers, usually related to the personality of the person who got it. We later find out that the godlike being who gave out the sigils was called Solusandra and she was manipulated into doing it by another godlike being called Danik. It was basically an excuse to do stories set on very different worlds in different genres, but tied together by the Sigil and its backstory.

Some people felt it was too tightly connected, and the more of the backstory that was revealed, the more complicated it got, but we did end up telling quite a few good stories at CrossGen.

[THUNDERCRAB]

"Appolyon's secret weapon was going to go off, turning Charon and Danik back into normal people, and then Kane was going to beat them both seneless with a toilet. Yeah, I forgot most of the details, but I always remember the toilet."

Hi Tony, I realise you may be tired of treading over this old ground, but with my experience of the Crossgen universe being limited to a few titles, this has been niggling me. Wasn't Danik one of the good guys, responsible for amassing the Sigil-bearers to defend their universe? Why does he end up being de-powered, beaten up with a toilet and given over to Komptin?
Also, I don't even know if you guys had decided this yet, but what about the Lawbringers? If any of them survived the war, I can't imagine them fitting in with Apollyon's new order. Or would Charon's demise mean their end as well?

[Tony Bedard]

I honestly don't remember if any of the Lawbringers were going to survive. I think I might've wiped them all out except for QZTR.

Danik was a deceitful, manipulative busybody who acted for the greater good but wasn't above sacrificing a pawn here or there. Even if that makes him a good guy, he screwed with enough people's lives and played God enough to have some payback coming to him. I always saw him as more of a puppetmaster than a "good guy."

So there. ;)

[THUNDERCRAB]

Fair enough. I only read a few Crossgen titles in addition to Negation, including a few issues of Crux, so all I really knew about Danik was that he was this mysterious character who was responsible for gathering the Sigil bearers together.
Presumably Zamida and the other "aspects" of Danik would die when he did(?).

[Tony Bedard]

Interesting point. I didn't intend that either Danik or Charon got killed -- only de-powered and beaten.

I had planned to have Zamida mortally wounded, whereupon she split back into the mother Zaida and the baby Memi. Zaida would retain the injuries and die, while baby Memi would be entrusted to Kane and live on.

I guess I also figured that when Danik was depowered, his various "aspects" would live on as ordinary beings.

But that's all water under the bridge now. Alas, poor Crossgen, we hardly knew ya!

[Red Jack]

Interesting point. I didn't intend that either Danik or Charon got killed -- only de-powered and beaten.

I had planned to have Zamida mortally wounded, whereupon she split back into the mother Zaida and the baby Memi. Zaida would retain the injuries and die, while baby Memi would be entrusted to Kane and live on.

I guess I also figured that when Danik was depowered, his various "aspects" would live on as ordinary beings.

But that's all water under the bridge now. Alas, poor Crossgen, we hardly knew ya!


Damn.

That's brutal.

Kane and Memi. Lone Wolf and Uber Cub.

[THUNDERCRAB]

But that's all water under the bridge now. Alas, poor Crossgen, we hardly knew ya!

My main upset over the passing of Crossgen is that we never got to see a spin-off series from Negation starring Monchito. Never mind Lawbringer or Mark of Charon - what I really wanted to see was my favourite dreadlocked alien battling against all the characters in the Crossgen universe.
For example, issue one: Monchito is transported to Brath's world. Brath chases him around with his axe. Monchito gets scared, grows really big, squashes Brath. Then he shrinks and spends the rest of the issue unconcious.
Issue two: Monchito is transported to Quin, and runs into a pack of trolls. The trolls attack. Monchito gets scared, grows really big, squashes the trolls. Then he shrinks and spends the rest of the issue unconcious.
You get the idea.

[Tony Bedard]

For the sharp-eyed, Monchito makes a guest-appearance in EXILES #69.

He was named after a kid I met who lived across from my aunts in Puerto Rico. A LOT of Negation characters got their names from the PR side of my family.

[Joe Acro]

Which one was Monchito? I'm having trouble visualizing him, and, thus, won't be able to find him in the Exiles issue.

[THUNDERCRAB]

"Which one was Monchito? I'm having trouble visualizing him, and, thus, won't be able to find him in the Exiles issue."

He was a grey-green, reptilian-looking creature with an elongated head with tentacles growing out of it.

"He was named after a kid I met who lived across from my aunts in Puerto Rico. A LOT of Negation characters got their names from the PR side of my family."

See, that wouldn't work with my family. I'd end up with a sci-fi comic filled with characters called Martin, Matthew and Audrey.

[Tony Bedard]

"Audrey Thundercrab, Scourge of the Stars"


See, it works!

[Joe Acro]

He was a grey-green, reptilian-looking creature with an elongated head with tentacles growing out of it.

Oh, the evil little guy that was working for Charon. Okay.

[miracle.eli]

Oh, the evil little guy that was working for Charon. Okay.


Actually, that was KOMPTIN. Monchito is very similar in design, but was a prisoner of the Negation and escaped with Kaine. He's usually in the background, except for one issue where Tony shows us where all the food he eats goes...

[THUNDERCRAB]

"Audrey Thundercrab, Scourge of the Stars"


See, it works!

My grandma would be VERY unhappy if she knew you'd spilled her secret identity like that.

[Ullar]

The concept was that a bunch of people on different worlds were given a mark of power called the Sigil. It manifested different super-powers, usually related to the personality of the person who got it. We later find out that the godlike being who gave out the sigils was called Solusandra and she was manipulated into doing it by another godlike being called Danik. It was basically an excuse to do stories set on very different worlds in different genres, but tied together by the Sigil and its backstory.

Some people felt it was too tightly connected, and the more of the backstory that was revealed, the more complicated it got, but we did end up telling quite a few good stories at CrossGen.
thnxs man filler filler stupid filelr