So the deal is this, at the beginning of each month I’m gonna throw something at ya. OK, well now it’s your chance to voice your views. All you have to do is drop me an e-mail. And for the rest of the month we’ll be having a nice little discussion. You wont be edited, it’s all you, but play nice!

Chapter 1.2

Easy Cats

Firstly I gotta thank Hervé for bailing me out. Who would of thought you could get arrested for jus telling someone they should read your column and send you an e-mail…….yeah I was holding the guy by the throat (all in jest) and had a bat in my hand, but come on, who hasn't done the same thing!?!

Anyway, anyway, I'm getting off the point and that is WE MADE IT TO WEEK TWO BABY!!!

As I said last week, the whole deal with this column is to create a discussion on things that cats may feel passionate about. And trust me, you'll feel passionate bout a discussion on paint drying, even if I have to come round and visit you, y'dig :)

So lets get this column popping right now. I asked this last week;

Let me know your views on the CrossGens Sigil and if you think it's a barrier to entry!?! Or let me know if you think it's something else that is holding CrossGen back!?!

Things started slowly but replies did come in.

GodofMotion said;

I actually DO think that the sigil is a major factor in how popular - or rather, unpopular - the Crossgen books are. It's a major barrier to people picking up an issue and understanding just what's going on.

It isn't just the sigil though. It's the inter-connectedness. I loved it, when I first started reading the books, that they were all connected somehow - through the sigil, through a shared universe, etc - but I can understand that to a new reader, it would be a bit daunting. They do a fine job keeping the books as separate as possible, and when they are shared, they do a good job of it, but it's still a bit daunting.

I guess the big difference between a sigl and mutant abilities is that the sigil has been granted by something resembling a God, who has this immense back-story all her own, with many little tangents firing off from her - atlanteans, the first, altwaal, the seven weapons, the negation universe, Charon, etc. Mutants, on the other hand, have a base and simple explanation that was given years and years and years and years ago, and doesn't have a heck of a lot of back-story TO it.

Stinkfist said;

About the sigils being removed. I think it's a smart plan to get rid of them. They made a big web of intrigue that could have been very fun, but it seemed overwhelming. If a new reader came on, he'd most likely feel like he's missing something, as there's always some information about the sigils that we don't get. So even though they were cool and they glowed, it's a good plan to get rid of them. They just make the reader feel uneasy.

Both of these cats make some good points.

In trying to create a vast interspersed tapestry, where the one connecting factor is this Sigil. To a lot of fans they just created a convoluted Universe that was a daunting barrier to them getting into the books.

One cat though had a completely different view of the situation.

Zhen Dil Oloth said;

I have tried the frist few issues of many Crossgen comics, and although I did not have a clue as to what the whole Sigil thing was, it is not why I did not become a Crossgen fan.

Mostly I did not like the story, and it suffered from not going anywhere. I guess they took too long to try to introduce the setting of each series to the readers.

I know that many like this decompressed storytelling device, but I am not amongst one of them.

Although from reading the Sojourn TPB, it seems that these books were written with the "lets pace them for the TPB" mentality which I think is what hurts the books ultimately.

My favourite book must have been the Crossgen Chronicles illustrated by George Perez. They were self contained stories, and it did not matter if you were following the series that was feature in one issue since all you needed to know was in the tale you were reading.

I guess I got tired of companies taking 6 issues to tell a story that could be told in 2 issues, and Crossgen ended up suffering for it although they aren't the only ones who are guilty of doing such a thing.

If they had more content in each books and were not afraid to do single issue stories or 2 parters, it would have been a huge improvement compared to the current pacing of their various books.

Marvel might be able to get away with such bad pacing for their books since some people will keep on buying Spider-man or X-men no matter how bad the book gets. But Crossgen does not have such luxury. People have not been following their characters for many a decade, so they can easily walk away from the books if they think the story is going nowhere.

Hopefully, the cancellation of half of their books will allow them to focus more on the serioes they have left, and they will be able to learn from this and produce some better work.

We shall see.

So, Zhen thinks its bad storytelling. Hhhmmm, I'm not sure on this one. I mean, I don't think they would of survived this long or attacked all the creators they have if all their books were bad.

An interesting viewpoint though.

If you read the last paragraph of Zhens mail an thought what, I have to ask where the hell have you been.

CrossGen have just announced that 9 of their books are getting cut.

After three years of planted clues, mounting tension, and escalating skirmishes, the saga of the Sigil Bearers vs. the Negation Empire is hurtling towards its explosive climax. As events build toward THE WAR, the following titles -- which all have ties to the Negation conflict -- will reach their series finales with the following issues:

CRUX #33

THE FIRST #37

MERIDIAN #44

MYSTIC #43

THE PATH #23

RUSE #26

SCION #44

SIGIL #43

SOLUS #8

This leaves CrossGen publishing:

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Way of the Rat

Brath

Negation

Lady Death

El Cazador

Route 666

Sojourn

Abadazad

So it would seem that maybe CrossGen themselves felt that they had "created a convoluted Universe that was a daunting barrier to them getting into the books."

If you look, out of the 9 remaining titles only 2 now feature Sigils. And neither of these books were (Negation & Sojourn) really geared or focused around the Sigil.

So now CrossGen have dropped this bomb and messed up my column (damn haters). I need to ask a new damn question.

So, what do you think of this new direction CrossGen have decided to take and from the first two issues of El Cazador and the previews of Abadazad & Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, do you think it will work?

And Now!
The floors yours people, what are your views!?!

Let me know by sending me an e-mail.

I'll probably give this next week and then we'll start a new topic. So if you want a say, deal with the matter and hit me.

Koncise an out :)

Whatever your views are though, drop me a mail at; koncise@comicbookbin.com