Shelf Life - Nov 23, 2012

[CBR News]

Ron takes advantage of the holiday season to look back on Thanksgivings spent with CrossGen Comics, leading him to recall other stories of the defunt company including a prank he played on then-rookie Steve McNiven.


Full article here.

[Hybrid2]

I miss Crossgen.
They where great comics.Mostly.
It's a shame Disney and Marvel never did anything to bring it back.

The Marvel mini series dont count...

[JaggedFel]

I am still annoyed they never finished their event.

Those marvel minis were a travesty.

[C. Earl]

I honestly don't know what Marvel was thinking when they tried to "revive" CrossGen. It was as if they were running those select titles through a Disney filter or something--perhaps trying to make them appealing to people other than the original CrossGen fans, I dunno, but it just didn't work either way.

During the original CrossGen, I had more of their titles than Marvel and DC combined and it was perhaps the most fun and stable period in my 30-odd years of comic book collecting & reading. Say what you will about how CrossGen imploded (I'll likely agree with you), but it sure was a nice ride while it lasted. I still ache over Negation War--heck, I still ache over Negation period--easily one of my favorite books of all time.

[Jmuell2952]

Ron, your a class act and it shows. Thanks for sharing your experiences and I hope you and your family had a great thanksgiving.

[Thennary Nak]

I loved the Crossgen titles, especially Mystic. In fact they kept me in comics long after I gave up on the super hero books and when they went out of business was when I stopped collecting comics until getting back in about a year ago. I really wish Marvel would try to integrate some of the series into their universe, I think it could work with the more cosmic level/space series and it would give them a bunch of characters that have an existing (even if perhaps small) fanbase to use.

That said I love hearing about behind the scenes information so I loved this article and cannot wait to read more of them.

[ILoveComics]

Hi, I just wanted to say thanks to you Ron.. for all of your comics work.. and i also would like to thank any of the Crossgen alumni that dazzled me for far too few years.. it was amazing in the early 2000's discovering crossgen (reading about half of what crossgen published monthly at the time) and just being blown away by originality and non superhero adventure. When crossgen books stopping coming out then .. it seemed like there was a gaping hole in my weekly comics reading experience. At the time i was buying 10 books on average a week so i didnt notice that crossgen had stopped publishing for a few months.. all i knew was that comics started sucking all of a sudden. I swear that i literally thought "why am i bored all of sudden with comics" and then i realized months after crossgen had collapsed... "its crossgen.. something happened to crossgen". I subsequently discovered crossgen's financial woes and likely permanent demise. Ive read the new books from disney/marvel.. i hope they continue but they pale in comparison to the originals (all of which ive since tracked down and read). Hey Ron.. if you happen to run into Tony Bedard any time in the future can you tell him that theres someone out in the internet ether that thinks negation was brilliant. One unrelated comment .. please bring back Samurai: Heaven and Earth... its great. Thanks again and cheers.

[Captain Jim]

Thanks for this, Ron. It seemed like you were tired of talking about CrossGen for a while there. I'm glad enough time has passed for you to be able to look back objectively and recognize the positive elements. There certainly was some amazing work produced back then, some of it still unmatched, IMO. I'm glad I was around to experience it and am still sad for what might have been. Best wishes always.

[UnravThreads]

Did he really just say Greg Land is a good artist? Really?

But yeah, CrossGen were amongst the first comics I ever really got. I have a bunch of their Forge and Edge collections in my cupboard, too. Despite Greg Land's art and Chuck Dixon being on it (neither of whom I support willingly now), I quite enjoyed Sojourn. And Brath looked promising.

[DaronK]

Great article, Ron. I definitely miss Crossgen - some amazing talent doing some amazing things.

I'm curious about your take on the current Valiant line? The majority of their titles are better than anything the big 2 are putting out (similar to Crossgen in its heyday), but I've been feeling like they're headed down the same road as Crossgen: too many titles too quickly. How many titles do you think Crossgen could have supported long term?

[DonC]

It's too bad McNiven didn't draw those Mystic pages.

[DonC]

Those marvel minis were a travesty.

Disagree. At least with regards to Ruse. Mark Waid picked up like he never left and delivered an outstanding story. Is it a travesty that it didn't sell? Yes, but that's all.

[IAMFeAR7]

Then Greg Land got a hold of that lesbian sex script and his style was altered forever.

[UnravThreads]

Then Greg Land got a hold of that lesbian sex script and his style was altered forever.

Greg Land's art has barely changed from his CrossGen days. It's probably worse than it was, but looking back you can definitely see that he hasn't changed his approach (or references) one iota.

[Ron Marz]

Thanks for all the comments. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Part 2 of this column should run on 11/29.