PDA

Archiv verlassen und diese Seite im Standarddesign anzeigen : News: The Crossovers



Ralph Kruhm
30.09.2002, 07:07
Frisch von newsarama:

CrossGen’s new non-‘CGU’/shared-ownership imprint Code 6 now has its second title, joining the imprint’s debut series, R.A. Salvatore’s Demon Wars, which premieres in December.
The Crossovers is a new monthly color series by writer Robert Rodi, best known these days as creator of Vertigo’s Codename Knockout. The new series will be penciled by Mauricet - a Belgian cartoonist whose work on American shores include a few pages in Adventures of Superman #598 and Tellos: Sons & Moons - and inked by industry vet Ernie Colon, who Rodi describes as a “looongtime pro who I'm thrilled to have on board.”

"I'd been looking for a new series - preferably an all-ages concept to balance Codename: Knockout,” explained Rodi, “but I couldn't really get excited about any of the genres that already saturated the market: superheroes, supernatural, sword & sorcery, science-fiction … Then I recalled Astro City, where Kurt Busiek got some extra juice out of all those genres by placing them shoulder-to-shoulder in a single city. And I thought, why I don't be even more reductive..? Set them all in a single nuclear family?

"I started giggling right away, so I knew I was on to something.”

Rodi provided the resulting brief overview of the series’ premise.


"Meet the Crossovers: Carter, an exec at a biotech firm. Calista, his wife, a home hospice worker. Their children, Cristina, 15, and Clifford, 10.
Just your average 21st Century family.

Except … Carter’s secretly the godlike super-hero known as Archetype.

Calista’s the last of a dynasty of vampire slayers.

Cris regularly slips into another dimension where she becomes Eradika, warrior princess.

And Cliff’s a UFO abductee who’s now a key player in an alien invasion of Earth.

None of the Crossovers is aware of the others’ secret lives. But that may soon change, as their separate subplots start spilling into each other, resulting in a wild and woolly genre free-for-all.”

"The book is definitely a satire, but we're playing it largely straight,” Rodi continued. “The humor's going to come from the bizarre juxtaposition of all these well-worn genre conventions; it'll be more situational than slapstick. More Frank Capra than Harvey Kurtzman.”

As to how the writer hooked up with CrossGen and Code 6, Rodi explained the concept was first pitched to Vertigo back when a name familiar to CrossGen readers was Rodi’s Vertigo Editor – Tony Bedard.

"It didn't work out there, but Tony later moved to CrossGen,” he said. “When the Code 6 line was proposed, Tony remembered The Crossovers and brought it up as a potential property. Everyone was jazzed by the idea, so next thing I knew Ian Feller [Code 6’s Director of Business Development] was calling me. One of those rare, happy occasions for a writer when a publisher comes to you instead of the opposite.

"I met with Ian at San Diego this year and everything I heard and learned about Code 6 just blew me away. They've also proven to be real go-getters; the first issue's already coming together, and we're hoping to solicit for very early 2003 - possibly even January.”

Ralph Kruhm
02.10.2002, 08:13
das erste Cover gibt´s hier: http://www.newsarama.com/CrossGen/01CVofc.jpg

Northstar
02.10.2002, 12:02
Hier noch was man zu den Crossovers heute bei www.comicscontinuum.com findet:

"Code 6 Comics is launching the new monthly comedy adventure series The Crossovers, by veteran comics writer and novelist Robert Rodi and artist Mauricet, in January.

The Crossovers is the second scheduled title from CrossGen's new Code 6 line, following the December release of the fantasy series R.A. Salvatore's DemonWars.

Here is how Code 6 describes the book:

"The Crossovers is the story of what appears on the outside to be a normal, suburban family, but on the inside is something completely different. Set in a world reminiscent of a TV sit-com, the Crossovers family is made up of father Carter, mother Calista, daughter Cristina, and son Clifford. All appears normal with them until they each head off on their own and the real action begins. Carter's secret identity is that of Archetype, his city's costumed defender. Calista goes from soccer mom to slayer of vampires. Cris travels through a dimensional portal that transfers her onto the field of battle as Eradika the warrior woman. And conspiracy theories and aliens follow Clifford wherever he goes.

"This book is going to be a blast," said Ian M. Feller, Director of Business Development for Code 6 Comics. "From the moment I read that the concept was a satiric spoof of all genre entertainment, including superheroes, I knew this one was a winner. Then when Rob Rodi began sending in his plots and Mauricet began sending in his character designs, it sealed it for me. The Crossovers has everything readers want from a comic: action, adventure, intrigue and it's darn funny."

Rodi sold his first comics story to Marvel's Epic Illustrated in 1982. It was 18 years before he sold the next one. In between he wrote criticism for The Comics Journal and published six novels, including What They Did To Princess Paragon, a satire of the comics industry, and the Hollywood farce Bitch Goddess. He has written the mini-series Four Horsemen and currently writes Codename: Knockout for Vertigo.

Artist Mauricet, or Momo, is a Belgian artist that has worked extensively in Europe. His work has appeared in numerous advertising as well as the weekly children's magazine Spirou. Casterman in Brussels currently publishes his horror series for kids, Mort de Trouille. He also drew a 46-page superhero parody hardback album for Semic in France titled Cosmic Patrouille. In 1998 Momo received his first work in the U.S. when he was asked to draw 32 Batman illustrations for DC Licensing for a children's activity book. He has also drawn a story in the soon-to-be released Tales of Tellos #4 and six pages in Adventures of Superman #598."

Northy

Northstar
13.10.2002, 23:13
The Crossovers hat jetzt auf dem US Board ein Forum bekommen in dem auch schon Robert Rodi & Mauricet (ich liebe den Namen!;)) unterwegs sind. Rein schauen lohnt also! ;)

Maurice

Ralph Kruhm
19.11.2002, 08:48
CrossOvers #1 wird mit Geld-zurück-Garantie verkauft!

http://www.crossgen.com/sframe.asp?f=http://www.crossgen.com/keyissues/moneyback.asp

The Hypnotoad
19.11.2002, 09:39
Hört sich zwar witzig an, aber leider auch etwas überfrachtet. Wollen wir mal hoffen, dass es keine gequälte Gag-Gurke á la "Marville" wird...

Northstar
19.11.2002, 10:45
Nee, ich rechne eher mit etwas in der Art von Noble Causes gepaart mit dem Humor aus Rodi'sCodename: Knockout. Leider kann er bei CG sicherlich nicht so viele üble Sachen bringen wie unter dem Vertigo Label. Das wird alles etwas familienfreundlicher denke ich. Was ich aber cool finde, ist das man mit Momo einen Belgier an den Zeichnestift lässt. Hmm. Idee für die CA 03: Momo nach Essen karren! ;)
Ooops. Ähhm. Dann müssten CGD allerdings auch die Crossovers bringen. Naja, warten wir mal ab...

Northy

Ralph Kruhm
28.11.2002, 08:30
Fettes Interview by The Pulse:

BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Robert Rodi was looking for another story to tell, he had many thoughts. He didn't want to retread the same tales and ideas others were presenting. Rodi wanted to be different. Influenced a little by Astro City and its combination of eclectic people and situations into one city, Rodi decided to take a nod from Busiek and instead of setting the book in a single city, have everything occur in a single household. The result is the CrossGen's new Code 6 series, The Crossovers.

THE PULSE: How long have you been reading comics? Which ones are favorites?

ROBERT RODI: I spent my childhood devouring comics and only gradually tapered off in adulthood. As I kid I loved everything uncritically, but now I tend to follow creators more so than titles. I love Alan Moore, whether it's FROM HELL or TOM STRONG . . . I love the Hernandez Brothers. Neil Gaiman. Jim Woodring. Donna Barr. Eddie Campbell.

THE PULSE: What made you want to create comics?

RODI: It's human nature, isn't it, when you love something, to want to be part of it? As it happens, I'm a writer, so I was able to act on that desire.

THE PULSE: Who are some of the people who have inspired or influenced you and helped shape the type of story teller you are?

RODI: Well, I write mainstream comics, so I'm inspired mainly by people who have taken the hoary old narrative genres and done something stylistically different or inherently personal with them. Howard Chaykin comes to mind. Mike Mignola, Paul Chadwick. They're not just connecting the dots, they're working their own mojos, and it keeps the whole thing fresh.

THE PULSE: What inspired you to create The Crossovers?

RODI: I wanted a second book -- another notch in my handle -- something as different from CODENAME: KNOCKOUT as possible. I also wanted a big hit. But I wasn't interested in doing just another superhero book ... ditto supernatural, SF, sword & sorcery. I had no new ideas for any of those genres, but alas, they seem to be the only things that sell these days. Then I hit on the idea of doing them all at once. Sort of like ASTRO CITY, only even more reductive ... instead of setting the book in a single city, I'd set it in a single household. Once I got that far, the opportunities for satire just started cascading down.

THE PULSE: What does it mean to "crossover?"

RODI: Crossing over from one realm to another. In comics it usually means something like Daredevil appearing in Iron Man's comic. But in the larger culture it can also mean, say, Luciana Pavarotti singing with the Spice Girls. There's the risk that the juxtaposition will be ridiculous, which is part of what I'll be exploring in this series.

THE PULSE: What made you want to do an all-ages series?

RODI: I have school-age nieces and nephews who are into comics now, and they're curious about my work. I can't really give them CODENAME: KNOCKOUT without causing a stir, so I decided my next series would have to be accessible to them. This isn't selflessness or anything ... I just want to be their hero.

THE PULSE: Why a nuclear family? What does this add to the dynamics of the story?

RODI: Quite simply, the nuclear family is another genre in itself. Turn on TV at any time of the day, and you'll find what I call "couch shows." A living room set with a couch in the middle, and a nuclear family acting out around it. I'm drawing on that familiarity; the way I'm handling THE CROSSOVERS is to throw the reader right into all these genres without any backstory. Because they don't need it. You don't need to see Carter Crossover actually become a superhero, or his wife actually become a vampire hunter. You've seen enough movies and TV shows to know almost instinctively what the backstory must be. Same with the nuclear family. You see a mom, dad, son and daughter around a breakfast table, you instantly know what to expect from them.

THE PULSE: Who makes up this family?

RODI: Carter is the head of the household. He's an executive at a biotech firm. But he's also the superhero called Archetype; he flies, he's super-strong, he can see through walls, etc.

His wife, Calista, is a former Goth clubber from the Eighties who comes from a long line of vampire slayers. She abandoned that world when she got married, but as we find out, it hasn't abandoned her.

Cristina Crossover is their 15-year-old daughter, a bookwormish loner. But she's found, in the basement of the house, a portal to another dimension where she becomes Eradika, warrior princess.

And Clifford is the 10-year-old son, a former UFO abductee who is now conspiring with an alien race called the U for the invasion and enslavement of Earth.

THE PULSE: How can the whole family have lived together for such a long time and not have a clue what each does in "secret?"

RODI: If you've lived in a big family, you see this all the time. People who lived in close quarters stop really looking at each other. They take it for granted that they're who they always were. Suddenly everyone's shocked to find out Mom's an alcoholic or Dad's having an affair or Junior is gay. That said, no secret keeps forever in any family, and in our first story arc, the walls separating the Crossovers' secret lives begin to collapse in on each other.

THE PULSE: What inspired the backgrounds of your nuclear family?

RODI: They have to be believable as characters; they can't just be parodies of genre types. Our kind of satire will be more Frank Capra than Harvey Kurtzman. So the family's backgrounds have to have some kind of resonance with the real world. (Which is one of the areas where they depart from the average sitcom clan.)

THE PULSE: This series sounds like it has lots of potential to spawn other limited series just featuring the past adventures of Archetype, the history of Calista Vampire Slayer, the world where Eradika's a warrior princess, and the alien races who abducted Cliff. Is this something you'd like to explore in another context, or will you be touching upon all of this within The Crossovers?

RODI: At least initially, it'll be all within the pages of THE CROSSOVERS. I admire the way Kurt Busiek has kept his own little cosmos tidy in that manner.

THE PULSE: How did Mauricet become involved with this project? How did you become aware of his work?

RODI: CGE recruited Maruicet for the project. I wasn't aware of his work at the time, but I'm looking forward to getting a bunch of his European albums and playing catch-up.

THE PULSE: Is Mauricet a good match for The Crossovers?

RODI: First of all, he "gets" the premise and he's delivering the precise tone that it needs: a kind of subversive sweetness. Just as importantly, he seems equally adept at portraying every one of the genres we're dealing with, which is really saying something.

THE PULSE: Why didn't Vertigo want to publish this series?

RODI: Their main problem was the character of Archetype. There's a real aversion to superheroes at Vertigo. I tried to explain that he's not so much a superhero as a "superhero" ... still, in the long run, I have to agree that it's not really their kind of book. And the way things have worked out with Code 6, I couldn't be happier. It's almost like destiny.

THE PULSE: How did CrossGen enter The Crossovers picture?

RODI: Tony Bedard was my editor at Vertigo when I pitched THE CROSSOVERS there. (In fact, the title of the series was Tony's stroke of genius.) He left Vertigo to be a writer for CrossGen; and when Code 6 was being set up, Tony remembered THE CROSSOVERS and mentioned it as the kind of thing they should be doing. Next thing I knew, Ian Feller was calling me.

THE PULSE: What makes this work with Code 6?

RODI: I presume it's because it's an original vision. A kind of genre fusion, in a way that no one's done it before. And it has "legs" ... one of the points I made, in my pitch, is that the four members of the Crossovers' nuclear family aren't the only Crossovers we'll ever meet. We'll eventually encounter the film-noir uncle ... the time-traveling cousin ... the western-hero brother-in-law ... and so on.

THE PULSE: What are the pros to working with the Code 6 imprint?

RODI: The shared-ownership agreement is outstanding ... simple, straightforward, comprehensive, and a great incentive to do your best work ever. Also CGE is more sophisticated about marketing than anyone I've yet encountered in this industry. And they're ambitious, as well. I have every confidence in their ability to make this book a success.

THE PULSE: What can you tell us about the first few issues of The Crossovers?

RODI: The first story arc is called "Cross Currents." In the first few issues, we'll see the characters pursuing their separate subplots; then the walls start coming down, and by the end of the arc it'll be a wild and woolly genre free-for-all.

The Hypnotoad
28.11.2002, 09:38
Okay, hört sich jedenfalls interessant an. Ich werde mal verfolgen, wie die Serie ankommt und auf TPBs hoffen...
Die Serie mit Astro City zu vergleichen, stellt sie natürlich auf ein hohes Podest, die Erwartungshaltungen sind dementsprechend hoch.
By the Way: Astro City kommt wieder! Juchuu! :springen:

Ralph Kruhm
17.01.2003, 08:53
Wie üblich gibt´s bei First Look auch diese Woche wieder Preview-Seiten für die CGE-Comics der nächsten Woche, und ich dachte, ich erwähne mal, daß Ihr da einen ersten Blick auf CrossOvers #1 werfen könnt... http://www.milehighcomics.com/mcgi-bin/firstlook.cgi?page=http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/012203/cross1one.html

Ralph Kruhm
27.05.2003, 08:43
http://vu.morrissey-solo.com/moz/perez/cg/images/030523.htm

Northstar
27.05.2003, 08:51
Was mich ja interessiert - erst Mauricet & dann Joe Staton: wechselt Crossovers nach jedem Arc den Zeichner? Weiß da wer genaueres? Ich würde Momo ja gerne wieder sehen...

Northstar
03.06.2003, 09:58
Jetzt ist es raus: Mauricet ist nach # 6 von den Crossovers abgezogen, regulärer Zeichner ist damit Joe Staton...

Ralph Kruhm
06.06.2003, 08:17
* The Crossovers creator/writer Robert Rodi said that The Crossovers television series, optioned by Davis Entertainment, could reach the airwaves as early as this fall.

"We had an option by the second issue because these CrossGen people take their media extensions seriously," Rodi said.

* Joe Staton is the new penciler with The Crossovers #7.

* The Crossovers Vol. 1 will be released as part of CrossGen's Traveler series. The first six issues will be collected in September.

* "Cross Your Heart" will be a three-issue arc.

"Then we will have an all-magic arc that will introduce the first of the extended Crossover clan," Rodi said. "Then there will be an origins arc. We have the first year-and-a-half all planned out."

* Rodi said to look for "the Mistress of the Mystic Arts" in The Crossovers #10.

Ralph Kruhm
13.06.2003, 08:45
Interview mit Robert Rodi:

http://www.orcafresh.net/interview/in061003.html

Ralph Kruhm
01.09.2003, 17:38
Interview mit Joe Staton:

http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/pulse.cgi?http%3A//www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi%3Fubb%3Dget_topic%26f%3D36%26t%3D00 1324

Northstar
18.09.2003, 19:59
Hab endlich die # 7 gelesen & den Unterschied zu Mauricet gar nicht so recht bemerkt, was ich irgendwo schade finde, aber dennoch ganz treffend für die Serie, denn so behält sie ihren Stil bei. Crossovers gefällt mir nach wie vor von den Code 6 Titeln bisher am besten...

Northstar
26.10.2003, 10:04
Code 6's The Crossovers wird nun leider mit der # 9 eingestellt.
Dies teilte sowohl Robert Rodi als auch CGE mit; Grund sind die mangelnden Verkaufszahlen die CGE auch zur Streichung diverser Sigil-Titel brachte.
Die bereits angekündigten Ausgaben des nächsten Arcs wird man so wohl nie zu Gesicht bekommen; auch ist es fraglich, ob man Crossovers bei einem anderen Verlag unterbringen kann, denn sowohl Rodi als auch CGE haben die Rechte an der Serie.
Kann man nur noch auf einer rasche TV-Adaption hoffen, die derzeit wohl in Planung ist...

Schade um eine tolle Serie. R.I.P..

Der Link dazu: http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/pulse.cgi?http%3A//www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi%3Fubb%3Dget_topic%26f%3D36%26t%3D00 1491

CGE Forum Thread: http://www.cgforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=46;t=000081

Northy

LeGuy
27.10.2003, 13:12
Ich trauere mit. Crossovers war die einzige Serie aus dem Hause CGE, die ich in meinem monatlichen Abo hatte (bei den CGU-Sachen sitze ich grade auch auf Kohlen, weil ich hier nach dem Compendia-Aus auf Travelers umgestigen bin) und ich mochte sie gerne.
Ich glaube nicht, dass das Konzept jahrelang gute Stories gebracht hätte, aber 9 Ausgaben ist trotzdem viel zu wenig. Überraschend kam's allerdings nicht, wenn man die Sales Charts ansieht :(
In jedem Fall werde ich weiter ein Auge auf Rodi haben (er hat ja wohl bei Marvel eion paar Eisen im Feuer).