What, CrossGen Worry?
While reports of CrossGen's demise now seem premature—
they're
still publishing comics, and
the
Bullpen remains in place (even if it's a bit smaller than it used
to be)—they still appear to be having trouble resolving some of the
problems that got them into such hot water with the fan and pro
communities:
Elayne
Riggs has just written today that her husband Robin
still hasn't
been paid for the fill-in work he did for CrossGen. And to add
insult to injury, CrossGen returned some of Robin's original artwork
with the stamp "
Art and text Copyright CrossGen" across the
back [emphasis Elayne's]. As Elayne points out, the art is
not
the property of CrossGen, because Robin never signed a contract
waiving his rights—mainly because he never received a contract in the
first place.
Come on, CrossGen: Get your act together and pay the freelancers
you owe money. I hate to kick a company when it's down, but it
grates on my nerves to see CrossGen out
pimping
its upcoming books when the creators on old ones still haven't been
reimbursed yet. Besides, the sooner you clear up this mess, the
sooner you start building back some of the trust and goodwill you've
eroded in your fans.
UPDATE: Well, who knows how all this will affect freelancers
ever getting paid, but CrossGen has just announced
the
cancellation of nine more titles (THE FIRST was recently cancelled
with issue #37).
The
Pulse's version of this story also has this to add about the
freelancer situation: "THE PULSE has emailed several freelancers asking
if payment was received October 1st, and have been told that they still
have not been paid or given any information from CrossGen about when to
expect payment." No details about which freelancers were
contacted or who responded.
