Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Comic universes no longer active, Bravura, Continuity, CrossGen, Future, Malibu, Ultraverse... and others that are 'no longer with us' today (or only recently brought back).

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Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by buff-beardo »

http://www.thedollarbin.net/shows/2016/3/9/episode-355" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For all those Crossgen fans still out there! I found this podcast interview so interesting and felt other Crossgen fans may appreciate finally hearing Mark Alessi's point of view. The interview runs a bit over an hour and was released on 3/9/16. Thank you so much Joel Mangrum, Adam Daughhetee, and Mark Alessi for your effort and time!
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Elveen »

I will for sure listen. I loved crossgen. Loved it.

So bummed there was no closure.

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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Elveen »

I've Listened to the first half.

Wow. That's some straight talk right there.

Dude is throwing junk all over the place. The hosts seem kind of shelled shocked.

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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by paradise »

Elveen wrote:I've Listened to the first half.

Wow. That's some straight talk right there.

Dude is throwing junk all over the place. The hosts seem kind of shelled shocked.
I would not put 100 percent trust into that guy. I know at least three of the people he shat at personally and he is dead wrong about them.
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Elveen »

Can't wait to listen to the second half.

There's some vitriol right there right there.

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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by buff-beardo »

paradise wrote:
Elveen wrote:I've Listened to the first half.

Wow. That's some straight talk right there.

Dude is throwing junk all over the place. The hosts seem kind of shelled shocked.
I would not put 100 percent trust into that guy. I know at least three of the people he shat at personally and he is dead wrong about them.
I agree. I wouldn't place 100% faith in everything Alessi states during the interview as fact nor do I in regards to the statements made by former Crossgen creators over the years. As a fan, I don't personally know Alessi or any of the Crossgen creators. I assume the truth is somewhere in the middle. I guess I find myself captivated by this interview because I finally get to hear what happened to Crossgen from the owner's perspective, not to mention the intensity/passion/anger Alessi obviously still harbors as well.
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Elveen »

This interview was bonkers! Madness.

A MUST listen. wow

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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by StarBrand »

Since Elveen said it's a must listen, I listened to maybe the first 15 minutes so far. Alessi is bitter, but I've no idea what these creators have been saying about him.
I wonder what would have happened with Crosshen if he hadn't lost that $27 million in stock.
I didn't realize he discovered McNiven...
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Elveen »

StarBrand wrote:Since Elveen said it's a must listen, I listened to maybe the first 15 minutes so far. Alessi is bitter, but I've no idea what these creators have been saying about him.
I wonder what would have happened with Crosshen if he hadn't lost that $27 million in stock.
I didn't realize he discovered McNiven...

I loved Crossgen. 90% of their books were very good to great. I was really invested in the stories.

That dude was dropping TRASH on everyone. Crazy.

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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by StarBrand »

Very crazy. He went from having a net worth of maybe $30 million to something far closer to zero.
Not many of us know what that's like. I wonder if that interview is a reflection of how that's affected him. Just speculating...
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Cyberstrike »

His comments on Mark Waid is not surprising because others have said Waid can be very hard to work with. I've read that Alex Ross and Waid had a falling out shortly after Kingdom Come came out and writer Steven T. Seagal really hate him.
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by iggy101us »

Just finished listening to this and thought it's great. I wasn't reading Crossgen as the issues were coming out but I ended up getting all the issues and reading them. What a great universe and wish there's a true revival and not just the brief relaunch by Marvel.

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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Phantom »

WOW.
Great thanks for sharing.
Interesting this only comes out as he is in a new venture.

I have seen it at my wifes company, investing in people ~ only for them to move on. Financially this can be crippling for a company, new contracts prevented it from happening again.

I know it sounds bad, but maybe to generous to employees along with the fact he was trying to change the lifestyle of the 'artist'. But if you are being paid for a page a day on salary ~ I would expect a page a day. Maybe this is not conducive to the artist he employed.

Thank you so much for sharing .
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by SwiftMann »

Not sure how I missed this for a month, but thanks for sharing!

I can't wait to check this out. I was buying a lot of CrossGen as it came out (LOVED Scion and Negation, dug several others) and remember the implosion and accusations well.

I've since gone back and picked up every issue (of the shared universe) they published with the expectation of the Chimera Sketchbook, First #33, and Ruse #19 & 24. Need to remedy those last three soon.
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by SwiftMann »

I'm about 20-25 minutes into this. Holy *SQUEE* is it fascinating. Most of the time it's like watching a slow motion trainwreck, but it is fascinating. Alessi is bitter and angry and condescending as all hell. Sounds like he'd be a nightmare to work for (now or then).
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by SwiftMann »

The second half is just as fascinating.

1) His story about a lunatic Mark Waid sounds true.

2) His denial of being a bully by saying, "If I were a bully, he'd still be recovering from the beating I would have given him" is right out of the Donald Trump Bullying Handbook. Hell, Alessi has been bullying these hosts since the first word.

3) He's so wrong about so much.
- He keeps calling Steve McNiven Scott.
- He tears into Spielberg mentioning Spielberg's wife "Kim Catrall" Or, Kate Capshaw, whichever. And then goes off about how Spielberg wants to do "Concentration camp movies instead of [Way of the Rat]." Except, Schindler's List was 10 years prior.
- He pimps the hell out of Brandon Peterson's Solus, except Brando never had anything to do with that book. I assume he means Chimera.
- He claimed CrossGen "never" had ads. But they did. Especially memorable was the Coke ads at the back the character from Sojourn was holding. He pounds on Marvel for having in-house ads, but so did they.
- He praises himself for being ahead of the times with Forge and Edge (collections of various titles) and says that's what companies are doing now with omnibuses. Uhm... No.

He's not wrong about the business side of stuff and he's brutally honest, but he's completely off his rocker with everything else.
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Re: Crossgen's Mark Alessi finally speaks!

Post by Psiot X »

1) I am a bit different in my take. I think this man was a good business leader and investor that tried to transition the principles of success from one industry into another with mixed success.

2) I question if some of you know what a bully is. NOTHING this man did here showed bullying. You would have to be a sissy to think so or some one who has never had to deal with anything approaching military grade or pro business discipline and a time table. To me he was direct and firm. I'd have loved working for him but I see where some one who is not, particularly being a creative sort used to mom's basement rules, would have faltered. Dude, they actually installed showers for people which tells me all kinds of things...

He did nothing like Trump did to Megan Kelly. That's pulpit bullying. He did nothing like the kid who thinks they are better than you at school.

3) Waid has some mental issues he needs help with. I would have had the police dealing with him as soon as he busted the walls and checked if the insurance covered therapy. He would not have gotten away with this in any other business. I am amazed at the tolerance shown. I'd have punched him... Then again over the wreath.

4) Those were some interesting, honestly bad, comments about Bart Sears and it makes me wonder about Ominous Studios.

I am about thirty minutes in but need to break for a while. Right now? I am really sad they failed to make it.

Edit: I have finished.

Now that I have heard the whole thing. It kills me that they were so close to breaking the bubble and becoming an new kind of comic book company that would have changed the way things are today. He should have taken the stock insurance at 1.5 million. I understand what he was thinking but security is always key with me for investments and that is an overriding concern. If he had we would still have cross gen.

I was actually about to buy into their comic online vault when they went belly up. We have ComiXology now but smaller publishers could benefit from this idea.


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