CrossGen's Creator Owned Line Was A Sucker's Bet

Over on Ron Marz's forum at Broken Frontier, was a topic asking why CrossGen's Code 6 creator owned line didn't bring in already established CO work.

Ron had an interesting answer:

without giving away too many confidences, I can tell you that some avenues you mention were explored. I can tell you this -- I'm a HUGE Nexus fan; one of my favorite series ever. I was a pretty big Sable fan, too, as well as stuff like Dreadstar and American Flagg, both of which are now surfacing at Dynamic Forces.

Unfortunately, none of them worked out, often because of ownership rights. The typical Code 6 deal was 75% ownership to CG, 25% to the creator. Whether that's a great deal is another discussion ... but the point is, no one with an existing propety was going to come in and give up 75% of something they already own. And unfortunately, CG management was fairly intractable in such cases.

Also to be considered is the kind of sales numbers -- or lack of them -- that CG was pulling. Those low numbers translated into whatever CG published, whether it was was sigilverse title or not. Projections on most Code 6 titles were money losers.

I had high hopes as well, and was disappointed in the outcome. I wish a wider range of tastes was considered when material was chosen. But not everything is a democracy.

CrossGen wanted 75% ownership? Were they freaking nuts? Well okay, maybe other behavior by them already proves that to be the case. Yet the sheer stupidity I see from the company never ceases to amaze me at times, or the way they seem to try their best to screw folks over.