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Jump onboard
with THIS issue...
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Once again, the people at CrossGen have taken a step to prove
they really, really want you to read their books. Along with
this move, CrossGen has just landed higher status with Diamond
Distributing, and will be heavily involved in "Teen Read Week"
in conjunction with several libraries across the U.S. Clearly,
the time is right for the "Key Issue Program." As much as I
love CrossGen's books, I readily admit that I need help figuring
out The First. And hey, they're providing it!
Here's the news from CrossGen itself, direct from Tampa,
Florida:
In December, direct market comic shop
customers will begin to see a new look popping up with certain issues of
every CrossGen Universe title. These new logos and trade dresses are the
banner for CrossGen's new Key Issue Program, aimed at helping new readers
jump on-board CrossGen's existing monthly titles.
Each Key Issue will contain a complete story that fits into the current
longer-term storyline, but with certain key elements and characters featured
in such a way that new readers can come on-board easily without having to
have read any previous issue of that title. The current plan is to have one
Key Issue every month, and one Key Issue per year for each title. The
scheduling may work out differently in the long run, as the Key Issues will
also feature that title's regular art teams and not relief artists, so there
may be slight variations as time goes by. The logos of the books will change
for that issue only, and the style of that logo will be consistent for every
title published in the Key Issue Program. In addition, the issues will have
a Key Issue banner running across the top of the book, and a miniature
sigil-key near the artists' signatures. The first three CrossGen Key Issues
will be:
THE FIRST #25 (November 6)
Writer: Barbara Kesel
Penciler: Andy Smith
Inker: Bobby C
Colorist: Sumi Pak
This issue features the debut of some new and old faces
in new roles in the art team for this title. Andy Smith, formerly
Bart Sears' inker during his run as penciler on The First,
debuts as regular penciler on The First with this issue. Inker
Rob Hunter, who is being identified as Bobby C in the issue
credits, stays in the role he has had on this title since
issue #15. He changed his credit because, "Bobby C is what
everyone calls me." The "C" is his middle initial, but Hunter
declined to say what it stood for. The new colorist for The
First, Sumi Pak, is a relative newcomer to the industry.
She recently worked as a staff colorist at Wildstorm, where
she worked on titles such as Birds of Prey, Codename: Knockout
and several of DC's Batman titles. Pak's background prior
to comics included four years at the Disney-supported Cal-Arts
animation school, and prior to that, she attended the Rhode
Island School of Design. Her first work for CrossGen was as
a relief colorist for Meridian #27.
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...oh,
all right...jump onboard with THIS issue...
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MYSTIC #31 (December 4)
Writer: Tony Bedard
Penciler: Aaron Lopresti
Inker: Matt Ryan
Colorist: Wil Quintana
CRUX #22 (January 15)
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Penciler: Steve Epting
Inker: Rick Magyar
Colorist: Frank D'Armata
"This whole idea started at an after-hours bull session
with a couple creators and executives here talking about the
fact that there is still a public perception about the CrossGen
Universe that the train has left the station, and there is
no way to get on it now," said Tony Panaccio, Vice President
of Product Development for CrossGen. "It's a complete fallacy,
because we try very hard to make each title stand alone and
each issue new reader friendly. For the uninitiated, we need
to reiterate that every CrossGen title can stand on its own
as a story without readers needing to follow every other CrossGen
title and we don't do company-wide crossover events. So, the
Key Issue Program is simply an extension of that overall philosophy."
The challenge in executing this type of program fell to the creators, who
saw the need to create stories that regular fans would enjoy, but that new
fans could easily grasp without having background knowledge of all the
characters before picking up that issue.
"What we didn't want to do in the Key Issues was write stories that rehashed
everything, and provided no value for our existing fan-base," said Barbara
Kesel, CrossGen's Head Writer. "We needed to provide complete stories that
moved the overall stories along, while at the same time, introducing the
basic concepts and characters of the ongoing epic of each title. With each
new issue, we're finding that we're more and more up to that challenge, and
we couldn't be more pleased with the stories our teams have cooked up."
For retailers, the Key Issue Program offers a low-cost point of entry for
existing customers looking for something different, and something new every
single month that can be used as a point of entry for the CrossGen line.
"As CrossGen continues to grow and expand, we continue to learn new things
about the ways aggressive retailers are marketing our titles," Panaccio
said. "When we start a new title with a #1, it's easy for retailers to point
those issues out as a great jumping-on point, but the ongoing titles get
left out of that equation. So, we wanted to provide retailers a tool that
enabled them to sell our existing titles to new readers in a way that was
simple, easy and truthful."
