Press Release
Marvel is proud to announce the all-new Crossgen imprint, launching in March 2011 with two series—Ruse and Sigil. Featuring some of today’s most acclaimed talents and crossing all genres, Crossgen brings Marvel’s incomparable storytelling sensibilities to new characters, new concepts and new audiences.
In the war for forever, time is only a small obstacle as the greatest warriors jump from century to century to ensure victory! Enter Samantha Rey, a 16 year old girl from present-day South Carolina who discovers a mysterious symbol on her chest granting her the power to turn the tide of this war. But will she save us or damn all of creation? New York Times best-selling scribe Mike Carey (Age of X, The Unwritten) and Leonard Kirk (New Mutants) begin the next great comic epic in Sigil #1.
Legendary scribe Mark Waid (Amazing Spider-Man) and rising star artist Mirco Pierfederici (Tron: Original Movie Adaptation) present Ruse #1, the mystery series that’ll leave you breathless! Simon Archard is the world’s greatest detective, but when he crosses paths with the enigmatic Emma Bishop, the smartest man may have met his equal…and find himself embroiled in the greatest mystery of his career!
“Crossgen is one of the biggest comic book imprint launches this century,” said David Gabriel, SVP of Sales & Circulation. “You’ve seen Marvel redefine super heroes and now we’re taking on every popular genre you can imagine, with some of the most unique and compelling new series you’ll find in 2011, each priced at only $2.99 per issue. You’ve never read Marvel comics like these!”
SIGIL #1 (of 4)
Written by MIKE CAREY
Penciled by LEONARD KIRK
Cover by JELENA KEVIC-DJURJEVIC
Variant Cover by ED McGUINNESS
Rated T+ …$2.99
ON SALE IN MARCH
RUSE #1 (of 4)
Written by MARK WAID
Art by MIRCO PIERFEDERICI
Cover by BUTCH GUICE & MIKE PERKINS
Variant Cover by MITCH BREITWEISER
Rated T+ …$2.99
ON SALE IN MARCH
11 Comments
This might be interesting. I was never big into Crossgen but I did like a couple of the characters and concepts.
this is way cool. best news from the comic industry that i actually care about.
That press release uses the word “scribe” a lot. Also, I’m tired of seeing “the world’s greatest detective” I want to watch the world’s most mediocre detective bumble about for a while instead. Oooo, yeah, BBC is making Dirk Gently…
I hope they bring back “Brath”. That was pretty damn fun.
Is it a requirement that the titles have to be short?
I will be picking up RUSE, and I hope the pirate series El Cazador comes from this, I wanted to read it, but not as a incomplete story.
It would be great if this leads to Meridian returning. And I’d love to see Jim Cheung draw some Scion again.
Gosh, WHERE have I heard THIS before? Image? Epic? Ultimate? Vertigo? Launching a “new” imprint to tell “new” stories to “new” audiences is old hat, and it’s never worked. Mostly because the only place that sells the “new” imprints for however few short months they last are the comic book specialty stores, and the only people who go there are the same old geeks and nerds who already buy the drek that the comic book companies are sludging out onto the shelves. Also because, to Marvel, “new” means either “not having Wolverine on the cover of this book” or “putting a different color costume on Wolverine for the cover”. Admittedly, these “new” imprints usually give their artists and writers a free hand for a while, but then either the creative team suffers a burnout and the quality and frequency of the books fall off or the bean-counters get involved and declare that since the book isn’t selling as many copies as “Ultimate Wolverine Meets the Incredible See-Through Costume Girl” the new imprint shall get the axe. Before you engage your enthusiasm, ask yourself whatever happened to “StarStruck” and all the other “new” imprint titles that Marvel sprung on us in the 80s. Been there. Done that. Not Impressed. Hey, here’s a new and bizarre concept! How about, instead, just telling better stories and better art in your regular books? Wouldn’t that be lovely?
Thing is, this isn’t a new imprint in the sense you are ranting about. This is Marvel’s version of the Crossgen universe from the 90’s (which I guess they purchased the rights to).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossGen
I wondered where this all ended up. They had some interesting ideas and I’m glad to see that they are being brought back in a, mostly, intact way.
I also wondered what happened after the bankruptcy. I think it was Sojourn that I really liked, the rest I either hadn’t really tried out or they just didn’t suit my tastes, but I still had hoped they weren’t gone for good.
I’m pretty excited by this news, I actually really dug Crossgen back during my first big run with comics. I had a bunch of the titles, but for whatever reason I really took to Mystic. I have all the issues from that series before it ended and a bunch of the other books too, and this was during a time when I never had two sequential comics of the same title, Ever. The only thing about this that I don’t particularly care for is the logo, I don’t know why, but I think I prefered the original Crossgen logo. If you can’t make it better, don’t change it.